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U.S. President Joe Biden has backtracked on his threat to refuse to sign a $ 1 million bipartisan infrastructure deal unless it is accompanied by a larger, broader spending package, in a sharp turn of the White House just two days after reaching the cross-party holiday reference.
Biden’s abrupt change came after Republicans on Thursday rejected the U.S. president’s insistence that the fate of the two pieces of legislation be tied. The incipient rebellion emerged as a serious threat to the agreement achieved just two days ago and celebrated by the White House as a significant step towards its implementation in its economic agenda.
“At a press conference after announcing the bipartisan agreement, I indicated that I would refuse to sign the infrastructure bill if it is sent to me without my family plan and other priorities, including clean energy,” he said. say Saturday Biden in a statement.
“That statement understandably annoyed some Republicans, who don’t see the two plans as related,” he added. “My comments also created the impression that he was threatening to veto the plan he had just accepted, which was certainly not my intention.”
Biden’s move to calm the rage highlights the complicated balancing act that the president, White House staff and Capitol Hill allies must make to approve the rest of his economic proposals, which are worth billions dollars in new investments and that are accompanied by tax increases for wealthy people and businesses.
Thursday’s comments also marked a significant misstep by a president who has highlighted his more than 40 years of legislative experience in Washington as one of his key qualities.
Hello, first attempt to link the enactment of the $ 1 billion infrastructure deal reached with Republicans with the approval of a broader spending bill backed only by Democrats – though a parliamentary process called “reconciliation” – had encouraged progressives. They feared that the political momentum of their priorities would fade once the bipartisan agreement was reached.
But Republicans, including some who had indicated they would support the infrastructure package, do not want to be associated with Biden’s larger spending plans and its planned tax increases.
“No deal for extortion!” Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, tweeted Saturday. “During these negotiations I was never suggested that President Biden be held hostage to the bipartisan infrastructure proposal unless a liberal reconciliation package was also passed.”
Although Biden – who spends the weekend at the Camp David retreat in Maryland – said the two bills would not match, he insisted he would continue to “work hard” to pass both.
“I led a winning campaign by the president that promised to fulfill both. No one should be surprised that this is exactly what I am doing, ”he said.
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