- Biden has revealed a great new aid plan, but it may have to be modified substantially to win Republican votes and faces a difficult road ahead.
- The president-elect is seeking the support of the Republican Party to get its bailout package approved more quickly and to fulfill its promise of bipartisanship.
- “I don’t see how it gets 10 Republican votes in the Senate in its current form,” said a conservative budget expert in an interview.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
President-elect Joe Biden launched a $ 1.9 trillion federal bailout package on Thursday, a move designed to help individuals, businesses and local governments withstand the economic shock of the pandemic.
It contains a series of relief provisions that Democrats have defended for months in previous proposals. They include a $ 1,400 increase in stimulus checks, $ 400 federal unemployment benefits per week, a large expansion of child tax credit, assistance to state and local governments and a $ 15 minimum wage.
It also reserves funds to increase food stamps, dramatically increase the distribution of vaccines and renew a paid leave program until September, among other measures. The package is twice the size of the stimulus law passed by President Barack Obama early in his 2009 term, reflecting a shift among Democrats in addressing emergency spending during a crisis.
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Biden wants to win 10 Republican votes for the plan and approve it through a “regular order”, the usual way for legislation. But it is already facing early Republican opposition, ranging from Congressman Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House’s Ways and Means Committee, to Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the Republican in the Senate Banking Committee ranking.
“Republicans have made it clear that they are not going to look for something this big,” Jim Manley, a former Democratic aide and now a political strategist, told Insider. “I can’t imagine Republicans looking for a package like this that includes a minimum wage.”
Democrats have a small majority in the House and Senate. The new government’s attempt to court the Senate Republicans may force them to discard essential parts of the plan or reduce their overall size to collect their votes. They could use a special budget process to approve it with Democratic votes only, but that creates another set of challenges.
“Either you have to sit down to negotiate a package with Senator McConnell or use reconciliation, which is feasible, but it would take a long time,” said Manley.
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Reconciliation may not allow for all Biden provisions because it is restricted to budget issues. Some experts let’s say the $ 15 minimum wage would be not be allowed under rules governed by Senate parliamentarians. It can also be a lengthy process at a time when the new government wants to act quickly to prevent ongoing job losses and prevent the coronavirus.
The Republican Party vehemently opposed a new round of federal spending for many months last year, citing the growing budget deficit after Congress approved $ 4 trillion in relief spending.
“I see no way to get 10 Republican votes in the Senate in its current form,” said Brian Riedl, a conservative-minded Manhattan Institute budget specialist in contact with Republican Party offices, in an interview. “There are a lot of poison pills.”
“The danger of being so great for Biden is that you can scare Republicans who can toughen up the opposition, instead of seeing it as a legitimate starting point,” said Riedl. He added a targeted package with new stimulus checks, vaccine funds and the reopening of schools could garner substantial support from Congress.
Republicans have long opposed a $ 15 minimum wage. In his aid plan, Biden did not set a timetable for how quickly the salary increase would be implemented. The federal minimum wage has not increased from $ 7.25 in more than a decade.
Biden’s advisers are expressing confidence that the president-elect can strike deals with Republicans on a series of difficult issues that have divided the two parties for years.
“I don’t want to suggest that Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell are going to agree on tax policy, health care reform or many other things,” said Ronald Klain, Biden’s new chief of staff, at a Washington Post Live event on Friday. “These are two men with very different philosophies, but I think there are areas where they can work together.”
Some Republicans have suggested that they would be willing to cooperate with Biden, such as Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. It remains to be seen whether other Republican lawmakers in Congress express a similar view.
“I’m looking forward to working with President Biden to get another COVID package. We need it,” Graham told reporters in South Carolina on Friday. “There are many things in this package that I can support. Some of which I cannot. We are not going to rescue a lot of badly managed blue states.”
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