On Monday, President Joe Biden is taking his first shot at bipartisan negotiations and is meeting with a group of 10 Senate Republicans to see if there is a deal to be made on the $ 1 Covid-19 aid plan, 9 trillion from the president.
The Biden White House has repeatedly said that making a bipartisan agreement is a priority. But prolonged negotiations with Republicans and an attempt to reach an acceptable compromise can complicate the speed and boldness of Biden’s first major legislative proposal.
There is a lot of daylight between Biden’s plan and the $ 618 billion Senate Republican proposal, led by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). The Republican Party’s proposal is less than half the price proposed by Biden and is reduced or does not include many Democratic priorities.
Still, the fact that there are 10 Republicans behind the plan is significant; with Democrats controlling a 50-50 split in the Senate, those 10 Republican votes could push the proposal over the 60-vote limit needed to bypass Senate obstruction in the unlikely situation where the entire Democratic caucus is also behind it .
There are two major issues here. One is whether this group of Republican senators sees its $ 618 billion worth as the starting point for negotiations with Biden and is willing to go further, or is where they plan to draw a red line. The other question is whether Biden will accept what they are proposing. So far, the White House indicates that the president is not very interested.
“Obviously, there is a big difference between $ 600 billion and $ 1.9 trillion,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday. “Clearly, he thinks that the size of the package needs to be closer to what he proposed than smaller.”
Biden and the Democrats do not need any Republican support to approve their package. Technically, they can do this only in the Senate through a process called budgetary reconciliation. As Biden prepared to meet the Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Monday that they had filed a joint budget resolution – essentially the first step in the process. reconciliation.
Biden made bipartisanship one of the hallmarks of his campaign and emphasized it again in his inaugural speech. Republicans argue that working with them on a stimulus package would be a good way to prove that Biden’s focus on bipartisanship was more than rhetoric.
“If they want this to happen quickly, work with us on a bipartisan solution,” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of 10 Republicans, told Vox in a recent interview. “And then use your political strength with reconciliation later, but at least show evidence of the value of working together.”
The White House, however, has repeatedly emphasized that its proposal has broad public support and has advocated swift approval of a bold relief bill – which could be delayed by prolonged negotiations.
Democratic congressmen believe Republicans are vastly underestimating the amount of money needed to guarantee a strong economic recovery – and they point out that the Republican Party has used the reconciliation process before to move forward quickly in its priorities, including an attempt to unravel the Bill of Rights. Affordable Care.
Who are the Republicans negotiating with Biden?
The group of 10 Republicans who submitted Covid-19’s $ 618 billion proposal is led by some moderates who seemed eager to negotiate with Biden. But the entire group of senators runs through an ideological range from moderate to conservative and includes:
- Susan Collins (R-ME)
- Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Mitt Romney (R-UT)
- Rob Portman (R-OH)
- Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
- Todd Young (R-IN)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Mike Rounds (R-SD)
- Thom Tillis (R-NC)
It is important to distinguish this group of Republicans from the bipartisan group of Republicans and Senate Democrats who worked together to propose the structure of a $ 900 billion Covid-19 relief bill passed in December. There is even a more recent iteration of this bipartisan group, with 16 senators, who met to talk about more relief for Covid-19. It is this bipartisan group of 16 senators who have received several calls from senior White House officials, but no face-to-face meetings with Biden himself.
Now, some of the Republican members of that group – namely, Collins, Murkowski, Romney and Cassidy – are making their own way. And while this new $ 618 billion Republican counter offer does not necessarily mean the end of the bipartisan working group in the Senate, it was entirely an effort led by the Republican Party, a Democratic Senate aide told Vox.
Psaki told reporters that Biden was pleased that there was a Republican group eager to meet with him, but reiterated that Biden would not make any final decisions on the proposal on Monday.
“It’s an exchange of ideas,” said Psaki. “This group sent a letter with some outlines and toplines with their concerns and priorities. What this meeting does is not a forum for the president to make or accept an offer ”.
What kind of coronavirus stimulus do the 10 GOP senators want?
The GOP proposal is mainly focused on accelerating the distribution of vaccines, allocating US $ 160 billion for this effort. This largely reflects Biden’s plan, although the president’s overall vaccination plan is close to $ 400 billion, including much more money for reopening schools and building a health workforce.
Things diverge even more from there.
The Republican plan would finance $ 300 weekly supplementary unemployment insurance through June (Biden’s plan includes $ 400 for weekly unemployment payments through September). The Republican plan has $ 1,000 stimulus checks, but only for people who earn a maximum of $ 50,000 a year as singles and $ 100,000 a year as a couple. (Biden’s plan would send $ 1,400 stimulus checks to everyone earning less than $ 75,000 on an individual level and $ 150,000 as a couple – Democrats, who campaigned for that amount, have been adamant that it should be included in any final bill).
Many Democrats are wondering whether these Republicans see their $ 618 billion figure as the floor or ceiling for negotiations with Biden. Vox contacted five Republican offices asking whether senators saw the number as a starting point in negotiations or whether they would stick to it. So far, no office had responded; in an interview on Friday with Vox, however, Murkowski seemed to suggest an opening to rise further.
“I want to find a way to be useful there,” Murkowski told Vox on Friday. “You have a lot of people who say it’s $ 1.9 trillion or nothing. Can we agree that 80 percent is better than 100 percent? For some it is not, and I think it is part of what we are seeing now. “
It is not yet clear to what extent Democrats are willing to accept 80 percent in the name of bipartisanship, when they could have 100 percent if they went it alone. But Democratic leaders will still have a chance to voice their opinion on the matter, the White House said.
Biden is meeting with this group of Republican senators at the White House before having a face-to-face meeting with senior Democratic members of Congress leadership like Pelosi and Schumer, although Psaki has noted that Biden is in regular communication with the two.
“They have been in direct contact with the president and senior team members,” Psaki told reporters. “There will definitely be Democrats who will be part of the talks here at the White House.”
The GOP is testing whether Biden wants bipartisanship more than a bold bill
President Biden may have his $ 1.9 trillion aid project approved in a party line vote, or he will have bipartisanship. He probably can’t have both.
The Biden White House has said repeatedly that it is open to having a “conversation” about its proposal and is willing to listen to “adjustments” and recommendations to improve the project. What is less clear is whether the president is willing to reduce the scope and ambition of his proposal – especially the $ 1.9 trillion price tag.
“I’m sure they would be very happy to work with us if we agree with everything they have proposed,” Senator Mitt Romney told Vox last week. “They are willing to work with us if we have ideas on how to take this apart and maybe have two pieces of legislation, or maybe adjust certain elements, is something they would have to respond to.”
The Biden White House has said unequivocally that it is not dividing Biden’s package into several parts. And while Biden may be open to reducing the overall number of his plan, Psaki poured cold water on the idea that he would bring it down to $ 600 billion – repeatedly saying that the president believes there is more danger in Congress doing little than too much of.
There may be room for Biden to meet the Republicans in the middle, but it remains to be seen whether the two sides are firm or ready to give and take. Republicans warned that if there is no room to compromise on Biden’s first legislative priority, it could spell trouble for future negotiations on the president’s recovery package – which is likely to contain an infrastructure component.
“If we move towards reconciliation next week, I wonder what signal this will send to those of us who want to try advanced solutions that may not be 100% solutions, but 80% solutions,” Murkowski told Vox.