Pivotal Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) appears to be on board with White House proposals for new taxes on billionaires and certain corporations to help pay for President Joe Biden’s scaled-back social services and climate change package. President Biden huddled with the West Virginia Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) at the president’s Delaware home Sunday morning as they work on resolving the disputes between centrists and progressives that have stalled the Democrats’ wide-ranging bill. Reports say that the senator is agreeable to the White House’s new approach on the tax proposals. What had been a sweeping $3.5 trillion plan is now being eyed as a $1.75 trillion package that’s within a range that could still climb considerably higher. Democrats are working intensely to try again to wrap up talks on the measure so the president can spotlight his administration’s achievements to world leaders at two overseas summits on the economy and climate change that get underway later this week. The White House is considering a tax on the investment incomes of billionaires, fewer than 1,000 of the wealthiest Americans with at least $1 billion in assets. It also has floated a 15% corporate minimum tax that is designed to ensure all companies pay what Biden calls their “fair share,” ending the practice of some firms paying no taxes. Manchin, whose state has a major coal industry, has opposed Biden’s initial climate change proposals, which involved a plan to penalize utilities that do not switch quickly to clean energy. Democrats are now also compiling other climate change strategies to meet Biden’s goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. But the process is slow, as the White House and Senate negotiators make deep cuts to the transformational proposals put forward by liberals in the House. The White House is apparently preparing to cut a proposed $332 billion plan to increase low-income housing aid in half, with most of the money that had been slated to fund 750,000 new rental vouchers removed from the package. And a number of transportation programs will lapse at the end of the month without congressional action on either a stopgap extension or passage of the infrastructure bill, leading to possible furloughs. Negotiators on Sunday were still haggling over a number of other outstanding pieces, including the details of a federal paid family and medical leave program — already cut to four weeks from 12 weeks — Medicaid expansion and a push to expand Medicare benefits to include dental, vision and hearing.
For today, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Jia M. Cobb to be United States District Judge for the District of Columbia as well as the nomination of Douglas L. Parker to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor, and Myrna Perez to be United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit.
The House will start the week by considering four bills under suspension of the Rules, including H.R. 5142 – To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal, in commemoration to the servicemembers who perished in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021, during the evacuation of citizens of the United States and Afghan allies at Hamid Karzai International Airport, and for other purposes.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
