“The House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week,” President Biden told lawmakers on Thursday.
President Biden was blunt. Democrats had to rally behind his $1.85 trillion economic and environmental spending bill, he told them on Thursday, because nothing less than his presidency was at stake. “I don’t think it’s hyperbole,” he said as he unveiled a revised proposal and pleaded with Democratic lawmakers to support it during a last-minute morning meeting at the Capitol, hours before he left for a six-day trip to Europe to meet with world leaders. “The House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week,” Mr. Biden told the lawmakers during the hourlong session, according to a person who was at the meeting. The president’s proposals, while about half as costly as his original plan, still amount to a transformative agenda that would touch the lives of millions of Americans and serve as the core of his party’s argument to stay in power through the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential contest. And even as party members have engaged in a fierce, ideological debate among themselves, the monthslong negotiation has thrown into stark relief the differences between Democrats and Republicans, almost all of whom have refused to back spending on child care, climate change, preschool, expanded Medicare services, free community college or higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Mr. Biden and his aides gambled on Thursday, effectively calling for a final decision on his economic and environmental agenda and daring holdout Democrats not to back it. Senior administration officials said that the decision to go all-in was a product of the president’s belief that he had exhausted all avenues in the talks and secured the best possible package he could — and, crucially, that the package could command support from all corners of a fickle Democratic caucus. But as he prepared to land in Rome, Mr. Biden’s bet had not yet paid off. He had not ended months of intraparty squabbling that has dragged down his poll ratings, jeopardized Democratic candidates and raised deep doubts among Americans that his presidency can deliver on the promises of a vast social and economic agenda. In the closed-door session on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democratic lawmakers that “when the president gets off that plane, we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress.” She urged them to vote on Thursday on a separate, bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure measure that progressives have seen as their best leverage to ensure passage of the rest of Mr. Biden’s agenda. Instead, for the second time in a month, Ms. Pelosi pulled back from plans on that vote after progressive Democrats objected again. They ignored the president’s entreaties, signaling their continued mistrust of moderate Democratic senators, whom they fear will not back Mr. Biden’s larger social spending bill when it finally comes to a vote.
