Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, center, along with other lawmakers, talks with reporters outside the West Wing of the Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021, following their meeting with President Joe Biden. Jayapal is joined by from left, Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-New York. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
After weeks of wrangling and division, Democrats may be coming together over Joe Biden’s partisan spending plan. On Tuesday, Biden met with progressive members of the House Democrat Caucus to discuss the scaled down reconciliation package.
Originally $3.5 trillion, Biden has been made to reduce it by nearly half to just about $2 trillion. Washington’s Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who leads the House progressives, said she wanted to spend more. However, she said she’s happy to accept a cut in cost to get the measure passed with the support of moderate senators.
“It’s not the number that we want, we have consistently tried to make it as high as possible,” Jayapal stated. “But at the end of the day, the idea that we can do these programs, a multitude of programs,o and actually get them going so that they deliver immediate transformational benefits to people is what we’re focused on.”
.@RepJayapal says the meetings have been “conversational,” adds that the meeting was 2 hours long pic.twitter.com/DqZp8BsQ1t
— AlexGangitano (@AlexGangitano) October 19, 2021
This is a serious backpedal from the original plan when House progressives were calling $3.5 trillion the floor for spending.
Source: One America News Network
