华盛顿-关键的民主党参议员乔·曼钦似乎同意白宫的新提案赋税亿万富翁和某些公司帮助支付总统乔·拜登美国缩减的社会服务和气候变化一揽子计划。
拜登周日在总统特拉华州的家中与保守派西弗吉尼亚州民主党人和参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)挤在一起，他们正在努力解决中间派和进步派之间的争端，这些争端阻碍了民主党的广泛法案。一位要求匿名讨论曼钦立场的人士告诉美联社，这位参议员同意白宫在税收提案上的新做法。
曾经的3.5万亿美元大规模计划现在被视为1.75万亿美元的一揽子计划。另一位不愿透露姓名的人士透露，这一范围仍可能大幅攀升。
众议院议长南希·佩洛西说，即使是最初提议的3.5万亿美元的“一半”，拜登标志性的国内倡议也将比任何其他在美国投资巨大的立法计划都要大卫生保健儿童保育和应对气候变化的策略。
佩洛西周日在美国有线电视新闻网的“国情咨文”中说:“这比最初预计的要少，但在满足美国工薪家庭的需求方面，这仍然比我们做过的任何事情都要大。”
民主党人正加紧努力，试图再次结束关于该措施的谈判，以便总统能够在本周举行的两次关于经济和气候变化的海外峰会上向世界领导人展示他的政府取得的成就。
在民主党人错过上周解决争端的最后期限后，拜登在威尔明顿的总统家中会见了曼钦和舒默。拜登表示，他希望看到一个2万亿美元的一揽子计划，他们正在努力在即将到来的一周再次达成协议。
据要求匿名讨论曼钦立场的人士透露，目前还不清楚曼钦会支持什么水平的新税，但他总体上支持白宫的提议。要求匿名的两个人都没有被授权公开讨论谈判。
白宫表示，早餐会是关于总统议程的“富有成效的讨论”。会谈似乎持续了几个小时，但没有宣布任何决定。白宫在会后声明中表示，民主党“继续取得进展”。
解决收入问题是关键，因为民主党人坚持认为新支出将由各种税收全额支付。
曼钦和另一名民主党人、亚利桑那州参议员基尔斯顿·西内马几乎独自阻止了拜登的提议。由于共和党的反对和参议院50-50的平均分裂，拜登没有多余的选票，两位民主党参议员坚持要缩小庞大的一揽子计划的规模，并敦促进行其他改革。
一个关键的辩论是关于支付该计划的收入，此前西内马拒绝了一项早些时候的计划，该计划旨在扭转共和党领导的2017年减税政策，并提高年收入超过500万美元的公司和年收入超过40万美元的美国富人(夫妇年收入超过45万美元)的税率。
相反，白宫正在考虑对亿万富翁的投资收入征税——不到1000名最富有的美国人至少拥有10亿美元的资产。它还提出了15%的公司最低税，旨在确保所有公司支付拜登所说的“公平份额”——结束了一些大牌公司不纳税的做法。
民主党人最初计划，拜登的一揽子计划将在10年内包含价值3.5万亿美元的支出和税收举措。但以曼钦和西内马为首的温和派要求控制成本，这意味着最终价格可能低于2万亿美元。
对深远投资的争议仍然存在，包括扩大老年医疗保险覆盖面的计划，为老年人提供牙科、视力和助听器福利;儿童保育援助;和免费的学前教育。
加州民主党人佩洛西(Pelosi)在美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)上表示，民主党人仍在努力保留四周带薪探亲假的规定，但他承认，其他提议，如扩大医疗保险以包括牙科保险，可能会因成本而更难节省。
佩洛西重申，大约90%已经结束，并表示她预计在本周结束前达成协议，为众议院在下周日(10月31日)之前就一项单独的1万亿美元两党基础设施法案进行投票铺平道路，届时一系列交通计划将失效。参议院在今年夏天批准了道路、宽带和其他公共工程项目的一揽子计划，但该措施在众议院审议更广泛的拜登法案时停滞不前。
曼钦所在的州有一个主要的煤炭行业，该州反对拜登最初的气候变化提议，该提议涉及一项惩罚没有迅速转向清洁能源的公用事业公司的计划。民主党人现在也在编制其他气候变化战略，以实现拜登提出的到2030年将美国温室气体排放量至少减少50%的目标。
民主党人希望拜登在罗马出席世界领导人峰会后，能在11月初出席苏格兰气候变化全球会议时列举主要成就。
缅因州独立参议员安格斯·金(Angus King)与民主党人举行了核心会议，他表示，支出法案中清洁能源条款的预期削减尤其令人失望。
金在美国全国广播公司(NBC)的《与媒体见面》(Meet the Press)节目中说:“如果我们要让世界其他国家采取严肃的措施来解决这个问题，我们必须自己动手。”
佩洛西坚称，民主党人已经在支出法案中拼凑出了其他可能减少排放的政策。她说:“我们将会有一些符合总统目标的东西。
民主党人还希望取得进展，这可能有助于民主党人特里·麦考利夫在11月2日弗吉尼亚州州长选举中旗鼓相当。
国会进步党团成员、众议员罗康娜(Ro Khanna)坚称，如果不能就更广泛的一揽子计划达成一致，他的党团将不会在10月31日之前就支持基础设施法案做出让步，该法案将根据所谓的预算和解规则获得通过。
“总统需要和解协议才能去格拉斯哥，”加州民主党人卡纳在“福克斯新闻频道周日”节目中说他补充说:“这就是应对气候变化的方法，这就是实现他到2030年减排50%的目标的方法。我有信心我们会达成协议。”
Biden, Schumer, Manchin huddle, but still no budget deal
WASHINGTON -- Pivotal Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin appears to be on board with White House proposals for newtaxeson billionaires and certain corporations to help pay for PresidentJoe Biden’s scaled-back social services and climate change package.
Biden huddled with the conservative West Virginia Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the president’s Delaware home Sunday as they work on resolving the disputes between centrists and progressives that have stalled the Democrats’ wide-ranging bill. A person who requested anonymity to discuss Manchin’s position told The Associated Press the senator is agreeable to the White House's new approach on the tax proposals.
What had been a sweeping $3.5 trillion plan is now being eyed as $1.75 trillion package. That’s within a range that could still climb considerably higher, according to a second person who requested anonymity to discuss the private talks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that even at “half” the original $3.5 trillion proposed, Biden’s signature domestic initiative would be larger than any other legislative package with big investments inhealth care, child care and strategies to tackle climate change.
“It is less than what was projected to begin with, but it’s still bigger than anything we have ever done in terms of addressing the needs of America’s working families,” Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union."
Democrats are working intensely to try again to wrap up talks on the measure so the president can spotlight his administration’s achievements to world leaders at two overseas summits on the economy and climate change that get underway this week.
Biden met with Manchin and Schumer, D-N.Y., at the president’s home in Wilmington after Democrats missed last week’s deadline to resolve disputes. Biden has said he'd like to see a $2 trillion package and they are trying again this upcoming week to reach agreement.
It’s unclear what level of the new taxes Manchin would support, but he generally backs the White House proposals, according to the person who requested anonymity to discuss Manchin's position. Neither person requesting anonymity was authorized to discuss the negotiations by name.
The White House said the breakfast meeting was a “productive discussion” about the president’s agenda. The talks appeared to last for hours, but no decisions were announced. The Democrats “continued to make progress,” the White House said in its post-meeting statement.
Resolving the revenue side is key as the Democrats insist the new spending will be fully paid for by the various taxes.
Manchin and another Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have almost on their own halted Biden’s proposal from advancing. With Republican opposition and an evenly split 50-50 Senate, Biden has no votes to spare and the two Democratic senators have insisted on reducing the size of the enormous package and pressed for other changes.
One key debate has been over the revenues to pay for the package, after Sinema rejected an earlier plan to reverse the Republican-led 2017 tax cuts and raise rates on corporations earning more than $5 million a year and wealthy Americans earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for couples.
Instead, the White House is considering a tax on the investment incomes of billionaires — fewer than 1,000 of the wealthiest Americans with at least $1 billion in assets. It also has floated a 15% corporate minimum tax that is designed to ensure all companies pay what Biden calls their “fair share” — ending the practice of some big-name firms paying no taxes.
Democrats initially planned that Biden's package would contain $3.5 trillion worth of spending and tax initiatives over 10 years. But demands by moderates led by Manchin and Sinema to contain costs mean its final price tag could well be less than $2 trillion.
Disputes remain over far-reaching investments, including plans to expand Medicare coverage with dental, vision and hearing aid benefits for seniors; child care assistance; and free pre-kindergarten.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said on CNN that Democrats were still working to keep in provisions for four weeks of paid family leave but acknowledged that other proposals such as expanding Medicare to include dental coverage could prove harder to save because of cost.
Pelosi reiterated that about 90% is wrapped up and said she expected an agreement by week’s end, paving the way for a House vote on a separate $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill before next Sunday, Oct. 31, when a series of transportation programs will lapse. The Senate approved over the summer the package of road, broadband and other public works projects, but the measure stalled in the House during deliberations on the broader Biden bill.
Manchin, whose state has a major coal industry, has opposed Biden's initial climate change proposals, which involved a plan to penalize utilities that do not switch quickly to clean energy. Democrats are now also compiling other climate change strategies to meet Biden’s goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030.
Democrats were hoping Biden could cite major accomplishments when he attends a global conference in Scotland on climate change in early November after attending a summit of world leaders in Rome.
Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the expected cuts to the clean energy provisions in the spending bill were especially disappointing.
“If we’re going to get the rest of the world to take serious steps to remedy this problem, we’ve got to do it ourselves,” King said on NBC’s “Meet the Press."
Pelosi insisted that Democrats had pieced together other policies in the spending bill that could reduce emissions. “We will have something that will meet the president’s goals,” she said.
Democrats also want to make progress that could help Democrat Terry McAuliffe win a neck-and-neck Nov. 2 gubernatorial election in Virginia.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, maintained that his caucus will not budge on supporting the infrastructure bill before Oct. 31 if there is no agreement on the broader package, which would be passed under so-called budget reconciliation rules.
“The president needs the reconciliation agreement to go to Glasgow,” Khanna, D-Calif., said on “Fox News Sunday.” He added: “That’s what is going to deal with climate change, that’s what’s going to hit his goals of 50% reduction by 2030. I’m confident we will have an agreement.”
