Biden to Make Last-Ditch Effort to Get Manchin and Sinema on Board With $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan

With Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan on life support, he’s planning to meet with two moderate Democrats in the Senate in the hopes of saving it, reports the Washington Examiner.

Biden will have separate meetings with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to try to figure out what it will take to get them on board.

Democrat strategist Douglas Schoen thinks the fates of Biden’s presidency and the Democrats’ majority in Congress “hang in the balance” over their $3.5 trillion spending bill. But neither Manchin and Sinema is on board with the massive spending bill, and the only way it has a chance of advancing in the Senate is with their support. The bill includes massive expansions to social programs, “including free preschool, free community healthcare, expanded Medicaid and Medicare benefits, extended child tax credits, paid family and medical leave, and green energy policies.” Joe Biden was recently mocked for suggesting that the massive spending bill wouldn’t cost taxpayers any money because it’s already paid for, which it’s not. In fact, it doesn’t cost $3.5 trillion (with a “t”); it costs more than $5 trillion according to an independent analysis.

Joe Biden, who ran on a promise of unity, has made no effort to compromise on the spending plan with Republicans in order to achieve a bipartisan solution. Getting Manchin and Sinema on board would give Democrats the simple majority they need (with Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote) to advance the bill. A vote is planned for Thursday.