Biden Bypasses GOP Obstruction To Seal Historic $3.5T Budget Deal

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Getting the Democrats to agree to something within the party is not unlike herding cats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) works to include the progressive branch, then he must lean over backward before he loses the moderate side of the party. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is chair of the Budget Committee and pushing for a $6 trillion top-line. Senator Sanders’ plan expands Medicare to include dental, hearing, and vision benefits.  At the same time, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)  tugs that line down much lower. Is Schumer stuck?

Well, it appeared that President Joe Biden’s proposal would come right in the middle at $4.5 trillion, according to the Associated Press (AP). That is a stunning amount of money, but it takes a big cost to implement a big change in the financial structure of the nation. Many looked at the president’s plan as one to revive the economy after the coronavirus pandemic ravaged it. He wanted to include climate change, health care,  and family service programs, too. But President Biden’s plan would reach deeply into the middle and working poor classes and touch the very heart of the problem.

Starting in the 1980s, the nation’s very wealthy began sucking all of the money out of the middle-class until that well ran dry. They killed the middle-class. President Biden’s big idea is to resuscitate it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke to reporters:

‘We are very proud of this plan. We know we have a long road to go. We’re going to get this done for the sake of making average Americans’ lives a whole lot better.’

Schumer has been working in tandem with President Biden to prioritize the president’s priorities “in a robust way.”

 

Sanders said the agreement would end an era, reflected on the Senate Democrats‘ site.  He said rich people and big companies weren’t bearing enough of the burden of financing government programs:

‘Those days are gone. The wealthy and large corporations are going to start paying their fair share of taxes, so that we can protect the working families of this country.’

A leading moderate, Senator Warner worked with Schumer and Sanders to shape the final budget package. POTUS wanted to finance his plan by raising taxes on the richest Americans and national corporations. In addition, President Biden asked for a stronger IRS budget, allowing it to collect money from high-end tax cheaters.

However, the president insisted that no one earning under $400,000 a year and no small businesses would see a tax increase. Conversely, the GOP wanted to create a gas tax and other taxes upon that very same group.

The ever-truculent Senator Joe Manchin (D-KY) wanted to make sure the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score indicated:

‘[E]verything’s paid for. If not, we’ll have to make some adjustments.’

That was the Democratic side of the budget battle. Now that Schumer finalized his party’s needs and desires, he will have to face the Republican half of Congress. He will need a minimum of 10 senators from the GOP to pass his infrastructure bill/jobs. Those 10 plus the Democrat’s 50 would just barely reach the 60-vote goal of bypassing a filibuster from Senate Minority Leader Mitch “the Grim Reaper” McConnell (R-KY). As usual, the senator has vowed to kill any legislation from the Democrats.

The GOP did not even pause over the trillions gifted to the top one percent and big businesses. Yet, they screamed bloody murder over helping most Americans.

If the Democrats want to turn any of their bills into laws, they should end the filibuster. That way, McConnell could not swing them around by the tail, killing off precious first-year time. The Kentucky senator would only need 41 senators to knock the Democrats back. Many have been committed to bipartisanship. However, that has become more and more a pipe dream.

Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.