Biden offers to CUT his $3.5T budget to $2.3T to save his agenda: Joe tells AOC and progressives ‘if you don’t compromise, you get nothing’ and says there will be NO infrastructure vote until he gets his reconciliation package as his agenda stalls AGAIN.
- Joe Biden made a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Friday to try to save his multi-trillion economic agenda
- Warring progressives and centrists in his own party meant a Thursday infrastructure vote had to be shelved
- Biden spent less than an hour trying to persuade his own party to find a compromise to keep things moving
- ‘Even a smaller bill can make historic investments,’ he said, offering to cut his $3.5 trillion plan to $2.3 trillion
- After a late night of talks on Thursday, Friday brought fresh disarray for Democrats
- House progressives say they will tank the infrastructure bill unless Senate centrists back a $3.5T package
- But one of key players, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, left Washington D.C. for a medical appointment in Phoenix
- Her office said she was available by telephone and was ready to continue negotiations with the White House
- She and fellow holdout Joe Manchin spent Thursday huddled in talks with White House officials
- It meant a late night for Biden who stayed up working the phones in search of an eleventh-hour deal