Biden heads to hometown Scranton to push his troubled spending agenda
Biden hopes to make two large spending bills the centerpiece of his domestic record
President Joe Biden was headed Wednesday to his blue collar birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to make the case for ambitious infrastructure and social spending plans that feuding Democrats appear closer to approving, albeit in sharply reduced form.
A $1.2 trillion bill for improving creaking US bridges, roads and railways is in the balance, along with an even bigger splurge on childcare and other areas that Biden says will provide historic help to struggling ordinary Americans.
But with leftwing and more conservative Democrats unable to agree on price tags and threatening to torpedo both bills, Biden's whole presidency is at stake -- and time is running out.
The main bone of contention is the size of the second package, with an initial figure endorsed by Biden of $3.5 trillion clearly dead.
The White House is now indicating it would settle for something between $1.9 and $2.2 trillion, while a leading moderate Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin, still wants as little as $1.5 trillion.
Leaving behind the Washington hothouse, Biden was to give a speech in hardscrabble Scranton, the city where he spent part of his childhood and which has become the key to his political identity. Although he made Scranton a backdrop for his campaign against Donald Trump, this is his first visit as president.
"It's where my values -- of hard work and treating others with dignity -- were set. Those values are at the core of my agenda," Biden tweeted ahead of his trip.
That appeal to the traditional working and middle class was part of Biden's formula for unseating Trump, who came to power in 2016 with the startling promise that he, a billionaire New Yorker, would champion "forgotten" blue collar workers.
Biden's wooing of middle America is intended to remind Democratic lawmakers back in Washington that they risk failing key swing voters if they can't strike a deal.
- Inching forward -
There were growing signs of progress toward a Democratic truce, even if it results in a far smaller spending package than Biden originally wanted.
After back-to-back meetings at the White House with both progressive and moderate factions on Tuesday, Biden felt "more confident" on chances of uniting the party, his press secretary said.
"There was broad agreement that there is urgency in moving forward over the next several days and that the window for finalizing a package is closing," she added.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a leader of the progressive faction calling for higher spending in the House of Representatives, also sounded optimistic.
"We are feeling good," she said after her two-hour meeting with Biden.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters there was "universal agreement" on reaching a deal and it should be "this week."
US Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal speaks after meeting with President Joe Biden on his domestic spending plans
Democrats do agree broadly on making use of their rare, if vulnerable, control of both houses of Congress and the presidency to pass major legislation while they can.
Midterm legislative elections in just over a year could see them lose majorities in one or both chambers to the Republicans.
But with Manchin so far blocking the social spending bill, the progressive faction in the House of Representatives has responded by stopping passage of the smaller infrastructure bill. That leaves Biden and his party staring at the possibility of coming away with nothing.
