WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Joe Manchin said on Wednesday he believed Democratic lawmakers were getting close to agreeing on a top-line figure for spending legislation that contains some of President Joe Biden’s promised social programs.
Democratic lawmakers have been working to close a deal to pass an infrastructure measure and a social spending and climate change package – after weeks of intraparty bickering between progressives and moderates including Manchin – by carving out some long-pledged social programs to get a deal done.
“We’re looking at everything today and tomorrow and hopefully we can either have a framework: We agree or disagree and (it) is either irreconcilable or it is something we can work out,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I think we are getting close to arranging a top-line, yes.”
During a visit to his native Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday night, Biden, a Democrat, said the social spending legislation, plus a separate $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, would create 2 million jobs a year for 20 years and not raise deficit spending. How to pay for the bills remains up in the air, particularly after the White House told some Democrats https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-tells-democrats-corporate-tax-hike-unlikely-congressional-source-2021-10-20 this week that a plan to raise corporate taxes may be dead.
Manchin balked at the original $3.5 trillion price tag for the spending bill and has been pushing for cuts. Asked if he would accept the $1.9 trillion figure some progressive lawmakers have suggested, he said, “Negotiations are ongoing.”
Fellow Democratic Senator Jon Tester also said lawmakers were close to a top-line number, which he said was more important than a framework for the agreement.
“I think that’s what will allow us to move forward. You get the top-line number, we’re off and running,” Tester told reporters at the Capitol.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Tim Gardner; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
