Congressional Democrats Race Against the Clock to Pass Massive Expansion of Nation’s Social Safety Net
President Biden intends to meet with Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to persuade them to support his ambitious $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill. Source: CNBC
Racing towards a self-imposed September 27th deadline of passage, Democrats in Congress are fighting tooth and nail to pass the largest expansion of the United State’s social safety net since the New Deal. The bill, with a whopping $3.5 trillion price tag, has caused divisions within the Democratic Party and has staunch opposition from Republicans in Congress — meaning the reconciliation process is likely the only path forward.
The role of the social safety net has been an ongoing source of conflict between Republicans and Democrats since President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal. The social safety net includes the institutions and supports that help power the United States’ incredibly vast spectrum of workers. Without even realizing it, many Americans rely on the nation’s social safety net for survival. Whether it’s unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, retirement and health benefits, tax credits, paid family leave, or one of the many other programs in place, the social safety net is meant to provide a “fallback” for American workers and provide them protection. Republicans have historically opposed the expansion of the social safety net, while Democrats have consistently sought to expand the social safety net. This has become a major source of conflict, specifically with the Biden Administration, which is seeking to expand the safety net like no president since FDR.
President Biden has made infrastructure one of his top priorities during his first few months on the job, but the question as to how one broadly defines infrastructure has been intensely debated ever since the issue arose. Republicans and some conservative Democrats believe that infrastructure should be narrowly defined to include money exclusively for “traditional” infrastructure such as roads, bridges, air travel, internet, etc. On the other hand, progressive Democrats are looking to expand Americans’ understanding of infrastructure to include universal pre-K, federal health care and assistance programs, climate change measures, and housing, as well as traditional infrastructure.
These divisions, specifically among Democrats, make the bill seem almost impossible to pass, unless it is done through reconciliation. Reconciliation is a process that allows the Senate to bypass its 60 vote filibuster and allow senators to pass a bill with a 51 vote majority, as was done with the Covid relief bill passed earlier this year — which was also an extremely large source of support for struggling Americans.
President Biden has been pushing Congress to take action, endorsing the use of the reconciliation process and even expressing openness to using filibuster reform as a means to pass what could be his signature presidential policy. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, has committed to passing the reconciliation bill, even going as far as tying it to a cheaper, bipartisan infrastructure bill. The speaker’s strategy is to force moderates to support neither or both bills as a way to shore up support for the larger, more controversial proposal. Republicans are attempting to stop the bill by pressuring conservative Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in the Senate by running ad campaigns in their home states.
The true fate of the bill is up in the air as Senators Manchin and Sinema have expressed concern and even disdain at the size of the bill — Manchin has shown disapproval for the use of the reconciliation process due to his overarching commitment to bipartisanship. With the bill’s fate uncertain, President Biden is preparing for an intense battle over the bill’s passage as he hopes it can help shore up some of the support he has lost in recent weeks. According to a recent Zogby poll, over a fifth of Democrats regret voting for President Biden. A win on the infrastructure bill would likely help increase his levels of support as it would fulfill many top priorities for Democratic voters, which is why the battle over the largest expansion of the social safety net in history is far from over.