Biden and a group of Senate Republicans want two very different Covid-19 relief bills.
On Monday, President Joe Biden is getting his first crack at bipartisan negotiations, and is meeting with a group of 10 Senate Republicans to see if there is a compromise to be made on the president’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan. Biden’s White House has repeatedly said that getting a bipartisan deal done is a top priority. But prolonged negotiations with Republicans, and trying to get to an acceptable middle ground, could complicate both the speed and the boldness of Biden’s first big legislative proposal. There’s a lot of daylight between Biden’s plan and the $618 billion proposal from the Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). The GOP proposal is less than half of Biden’s proposed price tag, and pares down or doesn’t include many Democratic priorities. Still, the fact that there are 10 Republicans behind the plan is significant; with Democrats controlling a Senate split 50-50, these 10 Republican votes could get the proposal past the 60-vote threshold needed to skirt the Senate filibuster in the unlikely situation that the entire Democratic caucus also gets behind it. There are two big questions here. One is whether this group of Republican senators sees their $618 billion figure as the starting point for negotiations with Biden and are willing to go higher, or if it’s where they plan to draw a red line. The other question is whether Biden will bite on what they’re proposing. So far, the White House is indicating the president’s not terribly interested. “There’s obviously a big gap between $600 billion and $1.9 trillion,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday. “Clearly, he thinks the package size needs to be closer to what he proposed than smaller.” Biden and Democrats don’t actually need any Republican support to pass his package. They technically can get it through the Senate alone via a process called budget reconciliation. While Biden prepared to meet with the Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Monday they had filed a joint budget resolution — essentially the first step in the reconciliation process. Biden made bipartisanship one of the hallmarks of his campaign and emphasized it again in his inauguration speech. Republicans argue working with them on a stimulus package would be a good way to prove Biden’s focus on bipartisanship was more than rhetoric. “If they want to get it moving fast, work with us on a bipartisan solution,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the 10 Republicans, told Vox in a recent interview. “And then use your political muscle with reconciliation later on, but at least show evidence of the value of working together.” The White House, however, had repeatedly emphasized that their proposal has broad public support and argued for fast passage of a bold relief bill — which could be delayed by prolonged negotiations. Congressional Democrats believe Republicans are vastly underestimating the amount of money needed to ensure a strong economic recovery — and they point out the GOP has used the reconciliation process before to quickly advance its priorities, including attempting to unravel the Affordable Care Act.
