(JustPatriots.com)- Despite massive failures in getting all Democratic senators on board with his Build Back Better plan, President Joe Biden isn’t giving up on pushing for his massive social spending bill.
This week, Biden met with 10 CEOs of major corporations to promote the major benefits to businesses that would come if some version of his bill were to pass through Congress.
An official with the White House said the CEOs were all very supportive of the BBB plan originally, so it’s questionable why he would even need to meet with them at all. In all likelihood, it’s a ploy to try to get private corporate leaders to put pressure on legislators.
The White House official said the president was planning to tout how the plan could “make the U.S. economy more competitive, increase worker productivity and workforce participation, lower inflation over the long-term and strengthen business growth.”
In addition to the 10 CEOs, Cabinet members such as Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council for the White House, and Gina Raimondo, the secretary of Commerce, were also expected to be in attendance.
After initially proposing a social spending bill that totaled close to $3 trillion, the White House agreed to cut back some of the programs to get the total down to a “more agreeable” $1.7 trillion.
However, even that package failed to make its way through Congress. The House, where Democrats hold a slim majority, passed the bill. But, it stalled once it got over to the Senate.
In the upper chamber, Democrats need support of all 50 members of the party in order to pass the bill through budget reconciliation. That didn’t happen, though, as West Virginia moderate Senator Joe Manchin said he couldn’t support the package in its current form.
Manchin has signaled that he’s particularly concerned with how the spending package could potentially make inflation even worse than it is right now. That being said, he’s also made clear in public some of the changes to the package that might garner his support.
Biden administration officials haven’t met with Manchin yet in 2022 on the spending bill, but the White House still believes it will get large portions of the BBB passed after reaching a compromise with Manchin.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ron Klain, the chief of staff for the White House, said the Biden administration wants to work on approving the BBB plan as soon as possible.
He explained:
“One lesson we learned in the first year is, I think, the less we talk about our negotiations with specific senators and congressmen, the better we are. So, I’m going to say our talks with Senator Manchin will proceed directly and privately.”
For his part, Manchin previously indicated he’d approve a package of roughly $1.8 trillion. But, he also hasn’t said whether he’d support this particular package in any form — even if it were cut down.
