Bernie Sanders says spending bill's $3.5 trillion price tag likely to be lowered

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: ABC News

In order for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and larger social spending package to pass, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday the $3.5 trillion budget resolution price tag will likely be lowered.

"Three and a half trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that there's gonna have to be a give and take," Sanders told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

House progressives have warned leadership they will not vote on President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill until the larger human infrastructure bill is also ready for a vote. The budget resolution calls for investments in climate change policy, child care and other social programs, and is wider in scope than the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes measures to improve the nation’s physical infrastructure.

"Both these bills are going forward in tandem," Sanders said, reiterating the progressive call to hold out on passing infrastructure until the social spending bill is also passed.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bernie-sanders-says-spending-bills-2435-trillion-price-tag-likely-to-be-lowered/ar-AAP5L4R

---

[JohnSJ]

1. He sounds more flexible and pragmatic than some of the posts I read here.

[Scrivener7]

2. Did you really need to try to pick that fight? If so, to what purpose?

[SunImp]

10. He just wants to fit in with the anti progressive crowd

This forum is supposedly supposed to be a place for positive discussions, but it's filled with carefully worded jabs and pile on attacks by these kinds of people.

[Scrivener7]

11. Did YOU really need to try to pick that fight? If so, to what purpose?

[George II]

5. Bazinga!

[frazzled]

7. Late bloomer /nt

[Hortensis]

13. Well, that's understandable given Sanders' dramatic pivot to

team player and leadership position in the Democratic establishment. It's natural that some still believe in him but aren't willing to entirely abandon teachings that resonate so truly. For some must be like trying to follow him in a political double axel, ending with a glide backwards into the Democratic establishment.

But 2016's enormous national crash and burn is still ongoing. As we continue tumbling and sliding toward a RW fascistic abyss, I'm just enormously grateful that he pivoted to saving us from the abyss. And now it's comforting to know he's working with his usual determination to negotiate as much good change as possible.

(On the lighter side, I always wondered if he could bizarrely believe Democrats were just a slightly less harmful version of Republicans, but that at least is answered. Wherever he leads in future, I'll take a competent and sane Sanders over someone who could believe that any day.)

[Jon King]

3. Sounds like between $1.9-2.1 trillion will be where it lands.

It is what it is, pass both bills, take the partial win, and then hit the campaign trail and fight like hell for 2022....organize, GOTV, this is a huge midterm election.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. With employment and inflation recovering

I think the downside of the COVID era is more defined. So maybe we don't need the full stimulus aspects of this infrastructure bill. If it needs more in 2022 or later, we can pass it then.

[George II]

6. A week ago I predicted that about $2T was the "sweet spot". If this happens will the vilification...

....of Democratic Senator Manchin end? I think that's right around where he was aiming at anyway.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Even at $1.5 trillion, the total expenditures from Biden will be over $4.5 trillion

It you add the $1.9 trillion Cares Act with $1.2 trillion for Bipartisan infrastructure bill plus $1.5 trillion for BBB, you are are over $4.5 trillion That is a good number

Link to tweet

[Martin68]

9. Ya think?

[Scrivener7]

12. Right?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. Biden tells House progressives spending package needs to be between $1.9 trillion and $2.2 trillion

President Joe Biden said in a virtual meeting with a group of House progressives on Monday that the top line of the social safety net package needs to come down to somewhere between $1.9 trillion and $2.2 trillion, according to two sources familiar with the call.

Biden told the group, according to one of the sources, that was the range he felt Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would accept but did not specify further within that range.

The group reiterated to the President that they remain supportive of the "Build Back Better" plan and they expressed their desire to pass "as robust a plan as they can" through both houses of Congress, a source familiar with the call said. Another source told CNN that Democrats agreed they need to get consensus on a deal and that "something is better than nothing."

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal thanked Biden for "his leadership" in a statement following the meeting and reiterated that the economic spending package and the bipartisan infrastructure plan should move together.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-tells-house-progressives-spending-package-needs-to-be-between-dollar19-trillion-and-dollar22-trillion/ar-AAP8yEV