Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn says there is $2T worth of ‘negotiating room’ in Biden’s budget and insists the $3.5T is only the highest amount
- Clyburn floated the number after Sen. Joe Manchin called for a ‘pause’ in the $35 trillion budget plan
- He called the figure a ‘ceiling’ and said ‘there is a lot of room for people to sit down and negotiate’
- House Ways and Means Committee began marking up package including paid family and medical leave, Medicare expansion to include hearing and dental, and other provisions
- Top panel Republican accused Democrats of ‘ramming through trillions of wasteful spending and crippling tax hikes’
- They also used hearing to bash the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan
- Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) called it a ‘left wing spending orgy’ with a ‘cradle to grave entitlement system’
Amid a pronounced divide between liberal House Democrats and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin over the size of President Biden’s ‘reconciliation’ bill, House Majority Whip James C. Clyburn is calling $3.5 trillion a ‘ceiling’ with room for negotiation.
Clyburn, the number three party leader who was a key ally for Biden during the Democratic primaries, called the figure contained in the House and Senate-passed budget resolutions a ‘ceiling’ – a term that comports with how the budget process works.
The budget will only allow spending up to that amount to move in a special vehicle that gets protection from a Senate filibuster.
‘Even a $3.5 trillion. it’s just that – a ceiling,’ Clyburn told CNN.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) called the $3.5 trillion the budget provides for a reconciliation bill a ‘ceiling’ and noted that $2 trillion lies between the ceiling and the $1 trilliong to $1.5 trillion Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has called for
‘No one has ever said that that’s the exact number, or that’s a floor. It’s up to 3.5 trillion. Now I see that Joe Manchin has mentioned a $1.5 trillion number. Well somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5. There is $2 trillion,’ he said.
Manchin penned an op-ed where he called for a ‘strategic pause’ on the key legislation, which includes key Biden priorities including paid leave, extending an expanded child tax credit, expansion of Medicare benefits, and other sweeping measures.
His office indicated that he would accept a total price tag of between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion.
Progressive House Democrats had pushed for more spending in a package leaders are calling ‘transformative’ for the US economy. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had earlier pushed for a $6 trillion package.
Said Clyburn: ‘Those $2 trillion are there. And I think that there is a lot of room for people to sit down and negotiate. It may be. And you’re sitting around the table, you may not need 3.5 trillion to do what the president wants done and what the country needs done.’
Clyburn made his comments on CNN amid a Democratic clash over the size of a budget reconciliation package
Powerhouse Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voted for the budget resolution, but called for a ‘strategic pause’ over the $3.5 trillion package barreling through Congress
The Biden White House wants to bundle an array of top programs in the mammoth bill to get around Senate filibusters
Ways and Means chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) called new paid leave provisions ‘one of the most profoundly important pieces of this entire package’
Top Republican on the committee Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) used his opening remarks Thursday to complain that the ‘The mightiest nation on earth just surrendered to terrorists’ in Afghanistan
The after making his comments to CNN on the numbers, he said: ‘But let’s work on it and stay out of all of this negotiating in the media. That’s not the way to negotiate. Let’s keep this around the table and see what we can come up with.’
Clyburn’s comments came as the House Ways & Means Committee began marking up its version of the proposal, as part of the legislative process of designing of what ultimately heads to House floor.
Panel chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) began with the paid leave provisions. ‘This is one of the most profoundly important pieces of this entire package,’ he said. The bill provides for three months of parental leave, caregiving leave, or leave for a ‘serious medical condition.’
‘We will make historic investments in clean energy,’ he said, while promising, while extending the ‘tremendously impactful’ extension of the expanded child tax credit, a major feature of the previous $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Top Republican on the committee Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) used his opening remarks Thursday to complain that the ‘The mightiest nation on earth just surrendered to terrorists’ in Afghanistan.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) countered that it was former President Donald Trump who negotiated with the Taliban and consented to the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners.
Brady accused Democrats of ‘ramming through trillions of wasteful spending and crippling tax hikes,’ and said the bill would ‘put the IRS in charge of your sick leave.’
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) called it a ‘left wing spending orgy’ with a ‘cradle to grave entitlement system.’