Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders is preparing a national campaign swing to drum up support for President Biden’s $3.5 trillion package of social welfare spending.
Mr. Sanders, a self-described socialist from Vermont, hopes to leverage his national political brand to sell the package to voters and vulnerable House Democrats alike.
The package, which is teed up to pass in party-line votes, already has hit resistance from some of the more moderate Democrats.
“Within the next several months, Congress will be voting on the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal of the 1930s,” said Mr. Sanders. “While it will have no Republican support in Washington, Democrats, independents and working-class Republicans all over the country support our plan to finally invest in the long-neglected needs of working families.”
Republicans say that Mr. Sanders actively pushing for the bill will do more harm than good. Many are already painting the $3.5 trillion package as “socialist” and appear eager to tie it to Mr. Sanders, whose two presidential campaigns made him a darling of the far-left but also a polarizing figure on the right.
Mr. Sanders is scheduled to host town halls in Iowa and Indiana next week, respectively, to kick off the tour. More destinations are expected to be added in early September as lawmakers begin to hammer out the $3.5 trillion package details.
Sources close to Mr. Sanders said he views the tour as an opportunity to connect with voters one-on-one and sell his vision for a greatly expanded federal government. Part of that plan entails engaging with blue-collar voters, who once supported Democrats exclusively, but have flocked to Republicans in recent years.
“He cares about the working-class and that’s not just because it’s politically popular,” said a Democratic aide familiar with the tour. “Part of him sees this as a moment to go into those old rust belt manufacturing towns and make the case for why Republicans don’t have their best interests at heart.”
Apart from pitching it to GOP voters, Mr. Sanders also aims to pressure moderate Democrats into supporting the $3.5 trillion package.
Democrats have dubbed the $3.5 trillion bill “human infrastructure” as a complement to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that focuses on road, bridges and airport projects. The bigger bill amounts to a wish list of liberal priorities — addressing such items as climate change, amnesty for illegal immigrants, tuition-free community college and expanded health care. It would be paid for with higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
Since the $3.5 trillion package is unlikely to garner Republican support, Democrats plan to pass it via budget reconciliation. The process allows some spending measures to avoid the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold and pass with a simple majority of 51 votes.
Likewise, in the face of solid GOP opposition, House Democrats can suffer no more than three defections if the legislation is to succeed.
At the moment, it remains unclear if Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has the votes. Nine moderate Democrats are threatening to oppose the bill, arguing it’s too broad in size and scope.
Instead, the moderates want Mrs. Pelosi to hold a stand-alone vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill the White House is backing.
“The House should vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill so it can be sent to the president asap,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a moderate Democrat from New Jersey. “Then, we should immediately begin considering budget reconciliation.”
Mr. Sanders‘ tour, in part, is meant to push back against such arguments.
“With our budget reconciliation legislation, we will make the largest investment in America’s working families in decades,” he said. “Let’s get it done.”
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