No ‘Messaging’
“I’m here to pass bills that will actually become law and help the American people,” Murphy said.
They’ll also need Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, a progressive member of the panel, who said: “The inequity of our tax system, exacerbated by the Trump tax cuts, needs to be corrected.”
Broader divisions among Democrats were on display this week as a small group of moderate lawmakers persuaded Pelosi to commit to a vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill by the end of September—a condition they required in order to vote for the resolution to start considering the Democrats-only reconciliation bill.
As part of that deal, those moderates also secured a pledge that Pelosi wouldn’t bring to the House floor a package that couldn’t pass the Senate.
That means the bill likely can’t include the full $3.5 trillion in spending that would be permitted under the budget agreement, because senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have both said that’s a red line—without suggesting a number of their own. Manchin has also said he would support raising the corporate tax rate to only 25%.
The package’s overall size is likely to be the subject of intense debate in the Senate. Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, who negotiated the $3.5 trillion level with Democratic leaders earlier this summer, said in an interview Wednesday with Politico that level is the minimum amount of spending needed and is already a compromise from his initial plan for $6 trillion.
Outside Pressure
Moderates are likely to face pressure from outside progressive organizations, who point to polling that shows higher taxes on the wealthy and large companies are politically popular. Tax March, which seeks to tax the rich and “close loopholes for the wealthy and big corporations,” is among groups planning to buy ads in coming months to try to sway lawmakers.
“The trick is going to be to make it so that the moderates in each chamber can coalesce around a certain set of options, rather than having them all object separately to separate options,” said Jesse Lee, a senior adviser at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
The lure of providing tax credits and keeping campaign promises may be enough to overcome divisions.
“I can’t imagine anyone saying ‘no’ to families having economic stability,” said Representative Ilhan Omar, a progressive Democrat from Minnesota. “When push comes to shove, people are going to be pushed by their constituents to support the priorities they ran on.”
—With assistance from Erik Wasson.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.