Biden’s budget bill is being worked on… Welfare budget processing time postponed again

Democracy to start with infrastructure budget… The key to persuasion of the centrists and progressives

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Ryu Ji-bok = The processing of the Ministry of Social Welfare budget, one of the pillars of the infrastructure budget that US President Joe Biden has been focusing on since the beginning of his inauguration, has been delayed again on the 5th (local time).

It is literally ‘a mountain beyond a mountain’, with some opposition from the Republican Party as well as from the Democrats, who have already spent several months reconciling it, but still have not been able to sort out the remaining issues.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, announced on the same day that the processing of the Ministry of Social Welfare budget was delayed until November 25, the day of Thanksgiving, and that another pillar, the infrastructure budget, would be put to a vote today.

The Democratic leadership originally planned to deal with both budgets that day. When the situation was unfavorable, a compromise was sought, but it is unclear whether the leadership’s will will work out.

President Biden’s budget was in a state of flux. He asked Congress earlier this year for an astronomical $4 trillion infrastructure budget. The budget for physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges was $1.7 trillion, and the budget for the Ministry of Social Welfare, which is called ‘human infrastructure’ such as education and medical care, was $2.3 trillion.

However, the infrastructure budget barely crossed the Senate gates in August after meeting strong Republican opposition, reducing the new budget to $550 billion ($1.2 trillion including existing projects) through a nonpartisan consensus. This budget is now in the House of Representatives.

President Biden transferred the budget that was not included in the infrastructure budget at the time to the Ministry of Social Welfare, and the size of the budget increased from $2.3 trillion to $3.5 trillion.

President Biden and the Democratic leadership decided that the Ministry of Social Welfare budget could be passed on its own by using the ‘budget adjustment’ procedure that could bypass it even if the Republicans objected.

But problems arose within the Democrats. That’s because centrist senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinemas opposed the rise in the national debt, expressing concerns and opposing it.

The number of seats between the ruling and opposition parties in the Senate is 50-50, and the Democratic Party has to use even the Vice President’s casting boat to barely pass the agenda. In this situation, if two lawmakers in the party oppose, it is impossible to process the budget.

In the end, President Biden cut the budget in half, down to $1.75 trillion, and reached an agreement with the centrists.

The party leadership, who judged that it was ready, set the D-day as the 5th, which is the marginal line for the House of Representatives vote on the two budget bills.

Since the infrastructure budget has already passed the Senate, only the President’s signature remains when it crosses the House of Representatives. The leadership thought that the Ministry of Social Welfare’s budget was well coordinated with the Senate centrists, so it wouldn’t be a problem to pass the Senate.

But this time, a variable arose in an unexpected place.

Five to six centrists in the House of Representatives have argued that they cannot vote in favor unless the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports on the issue of funding the Ministry of Social Welfare. The idea was that it was impossible to vote without even seeing the Congressional analysis of spending and tax revenues.

The Democratic Party has a small majority in the House of Representatives, so if they oppose it, it cannot be guaranteed. Some estimate it will take several weeks for the CBO report to come out.

In the midst of this, Pelosi eventually took a step back and proposed a compromise by delaying the processing of the Ministry of Social Welfare budget bill to before Thanksgiving Day.

Instead, he appealed to pass only two agenda items, the infrastructure budget bill that had already passed the Senate, and the regulations on the social welfare budget processing procedure.

It is unclear whether the will of Chairman Pelosi will be fulfilled.

This is because progressive lawmakers in the party, who paid great attention to the passage of the social welfare budget, have requested that the budget be processed on the same day as the infrastructure budget to ensure the passage of the budget.

Right now, progressive lawmakers responded that there was no change in their position on the simultaneous handling of the two budget bills.

How the party leadership persuades the progressives has emerged as the key to whether Chairman Pelosi can carry out his will.

jbryoo@yna.co.kr

<저작권자(c) 연합뉴스,
Unauthorized reproduction-redistribution prohibited>
2021/11/06 07:40 Send