At an economic ‘inflection point,’ Biden leans into expansive, populist agenda
 

9/16



President Biden leaned into the populist argument for his economic agenda Thursday, framing his expansive social spending program as an effort to reshape an unequal economy.




n a wide-ranging speech, Biden emphasized the country faced an “inflection point” to reorient the economy toward the middle class and working families.

“My plan benefits ordinary Americans, not those at the top, who don’t need the help,” Biden said from the East Room of the White House. “It’s a historic middle class tax cut, cutting taxes for over 50 million families. My Republican friends are making a different choice, though. They’d rather protect the tax breaks of those at the very top than give tax breaks to working families. It’s that simple.”

Biden’s pitch was part of a pivot away from the first chapter of his presidency, in which Washington and his administration were consumed by emergency funding measures to combat the pandemic. The president is now looking beyond that phase, attempting to dramatically expand the country’s social safety net. It’s a challenging proposition that’s exposing fissures in his own party over the scale and scope of the effort.

“The choice is this: Are we going to continue with an economy where the overwhelming share of the benefits go to big corporations and the very wealthy,” Biden said. “Or are we going to take this moment right now to set this country on a new path — one that invests in this nation, creates real sustained economic growth and that benefits everyone, including working people and middle class folks?”

The speech came a day after House Democrats completed a grueling week-long marathon to translate Biden’s economic agenda into a $3.5 trillion legislative text. The proposal calls for sweeping overhauls to federal education, health care, immigration, climate and tax laws, as Democrats pursue a package they have likened to the Great Society and New Deal initiatives of generations past.

Democrats produced a tax-and-spending measure on a tight time frame in the hopes of advancing it through the House as soon as this month and the Senate soon after. In the Senate, they plan to approve the bill using reconciliation, the procedure that allows them to sidestep a guaranteed Republican filibuster. They can only do that if Democrats can stay united in support of it.

But the party’s political factions have drifted further apart in recent days, torn over the price tag and policy scope of Biden’s plans. A growing roster of moderate Democrats led by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have sought to dial back the reconciliation bill to a smaller, still-undetermined amount. Their criticisms prompted Biden to meet with both of them on Tuesday, while sparking open warfare with liberal lawmakers in the Capitol, who contend that $3.5 trillion already amounts to a compromise from the more robust spending figure they initially sought.

Democrats also remain divided over the tax increases they have put forward to pay for the package as well as some of its policy components, including a plan to try to lower the costs of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate rates. A trio of House Democrats dealt an early blow to the drug pricing proposal on Tuesday, raising the specter that one of the party’s leading priorities may fall out of the final bill.

Republicans in Congress have been fully unified in their opposition to the bill bound for the reconciliation process, and this week their message will get a boost from a new group stacked with Trump administration alumni and backed by a host of conservative organizations. The “Save America Coalition” plans to pump millions into a campaign into attacking Biden’s economic agenda.

Brooke Rollins, who is among the leaders of the group, told The Post that Biden’s initiatives “threaten American prosperity, small businesses, the economic health of every American family, and our standing in the world.”

Jeff Stein contributed to this report.