House Democrats’ worries are spiraling, concerned that President Biden’s agenda is falling apart because of two Democratic Senators.
Both Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have said Biden’s $3.5 trillion plan to improve health care access, education programs, and climate change is too expensive, but neither have signaled what price tag is acceptable.
Kyrsten Sinema’s statements are even worse.
Many Democrats said they would settle for Manchin and Sinema announcing a price tag for the bill that they could swallow so negotiations could begin on what to include in the legislation and what to cast aside.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), a moderate Democrat who wants to pass the infrastructure bill regardless of the state of negotiations on the other package, said he has spoken to Manchin, who told him his top line number, but Cuellar would not say what it was. Manchin has floated that something in the range of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion could potentially work, but Sinema has not given any inclination of what she could support.
Washington Post, the Hill