随着共和党对他的1.9万亿美元新冠肺炎纾困计划的反对日益增加，总统乔·拜登周五，他对参议院民主党人使用快速预算工具表示了迄今为止最明确的支持，该工具将允许立法以简单多数通过。
当他离开白宫时，记者问他，“你支持通过预算调节来减轻COVID的负担吗？拜登回答说:“如果我们能获得共和党的支持，我支持通过COVID纾困。但是COVID救济必须通过。没有如果、和或但是。”
拜登一再强调并一再呼吁两党合作，越过过道试图争取支持，但遭到反对派的阻挠。一些共和党人表示愿意考虑一个小得多的“目标”方案，但没有人接近支持拜登和国会民主党人倡导的支出水平。
但拜登周五上午会见了新上任的财政部长珍妮特·耶伦(Janet Yellen)，他说，他专注于提供大多数共和党人无法忍受的更广泛的缓解。
“我们从过去的危机中吸取了教训；风险不是做得太多，风险是做得不够，”拜登说。
更多:拜登的新冠纾困计划是对他交易技巧的第一次考验
本周早些时候，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)暗示，民主党正准备推进预算和解:这是一个复杂的快速过程，只需要简单的多数票就能通过立法，而不是通常需要的60票就能克服阻挠议案并向前推进。在目前50比50的参议院中，该程序可能允许民主党在没有一名共和党人赞成的情况下通过立法，副总统卡马拉·哈里斯(Kamala Harris)可以投出打破僵局的一票。
舒默周四表示:“如果我们的共和党同事决定反对这项紧迫而必要的立法，我们将不得不在没有他们的情况下前进。”"我们有责任尽快帮助美国人民。"
预计下周参议院将对参议院预算决议进行投票，这是启动和解进程的第一步。然后，它将提交众议院审议。
共和党人称之为犯规，警告民主党人，利用和解来通过COVID救济将削弱拜登在竞选期间和就职演说中对团结的呼吁。
“如果和解被选为COVID的立法工具，它将使@JoeBiden总统的就职演说听起来非常空洞，”参议员林赛·格雷厄姆说。，周五发微博。
格雷厄姆敦促政府寻求两党合作的途径。
“这需要努力，但显然拜登政府在COVID救济的两党合作方面表现出的努力很少。”
更多:拜登将在新的行政命令中，在新的19岁以下儿童中扩大平价医疗法案的覆盖范围
印第安纳州参议员托德·杨。格雷厄姆周四对记者表示，寻求和解“将向美国和国会的共和党人发出一个信号，即总统的团结信息是言辞而不是实质。”
过去，双方都利用和解来通过有争议的优先事项。根据自1980年首次使用以来，这种方法已经使用了25次。
随着共和党人继续对拜登的计划不满，民主党人别无选择，只能独自实现拜登的关键竞选承诺，尽管帮助起草最后一项新冠肺炎纾困法案的两党国会小组早些时候努力达成共识。
该小组上周末与白宫国家经济委员会负责人布赖恩·迪斯进行了交谈，一些人还进行了额外的私下交谈。共和党人离开时敦促政府更严格地调整他们的方法。
参加两党合作的缅因州参议员苏珊·科林斯周四表示，关于和解的讨论“肯定无助于”该组织的努力。
俄亥俄州参议员罗布·波特曼(Rob Portman)也是两党对话的一部分，他说，他一直在努力“试图说服政府，他们应该与我们合作，而不是通过严格的党派投票在国会阻挠一些事情。”
一些共和党参议员希望有针对性的立法，包括为疫苗开发和分发提供资金。
“到目前为止，我听到的最有吸引力的事情是推出疫苗保健实施部分，并有一项可能几乎获得普遍通过的法案，”密苏里州参议员罗伊·布朗特(Roy Blunt)说。，说道。“但我没有任何特别的理由相信这个想法会向前推进，它来自我们民主党的一个朋友。”
共和党会议中的许多人认为，在另一项大规模援助措施获得通过之前，上一个COVID救助计划中分配的9200亿美元应该得到更充分的支付。该立法扩大了对租房者、失业救济和其他关键条款的保护。这些延期不会在几周内到期。
波特曼周四说:“我不确定我是否明白为什么现在会出现严重的紧急情况。”。
但民主党人反驳说，时间至关重要，政府官员本周明确表示，救助计划不会一分为二。
伊利诺伊州参议员迪克·德宾。引用了3月14日的最后期限，即上个月一揽子援助计划中提供的联邦政府增加的失业保险福利到期，作为抢购的原因。拜登计划将把这些每周福利从300美元增加到400美元，并将援助延长到9月份。
一些民主党人，如弗吉尼亚州参议员蒂姆·凯恩，敦促共和党人关注预算法案中对他们有吸引力的优先事项。
康涅狄格州参议员克里斯·墨菲(Chris Murphy)指出，和解不一定是纯粹的党派方法，尽管历史表明，这一程序很少得到两党的支持。
“和解并不要求你只获得50票，所以共和党人没有理由不能投票支持这个方案，即使我们使用和解。”
然而，要跨越终点线，和解还有很长的路要走。民主党人希望通过和解获得联邦最低工资增加一倍以上(达到每小时15美元)等措施，这一壮举甚至连众议院预算委员会主席约翰·亚穆特都没有想到。最近被称为“伸展运动”预算工具旨在用于以下三个领域:直接支出(福利、食品券、其他强制性支出)、收入(税收)和赤字削减。
工资上涨肯定会受到共和党人的挑战，他们说受疫情影响的企业负担不起上涨的费用。
不过，伯尼·桑德斯参议员。即将上任的参议院预算委员会主席坚持认为，他和他的预算专家打算表明，每小时15美元的最低工资增长将导致“大幅削减赤字”。
“我认为争论的焦点是，提高最低工资将对预算产生深远的影响，所有的预算都是如此。...如果你一小时挣15美元，你就不太可能继续接受某种形式的公共援助。”
Biden signals support for Senate Democrats moving on COVID relief without GOP backing
With Republican opposition growing to the size of his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal, President Joe Biden on Friday expressed his clearest support yet for Senate Democrats to use a fast-track budgetary tool that would allow the legislation to pass with a simple majority.
Asked by reporters as he left the White House, "Do you support passing COVID relief through budget reconciliation?," Biden answered, "I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it. But COVID relief has to pass. There’s no ifs, ands or buts."
Biden had focused repeatedly on has repeatedly called for a bipartisan approach, reaching across the aisle to try to rally support only to be stonewalled by opposition. A few Republicans have expressed a willingness to consider a far smaller, "targeted" package, but none has come close to supporting the level of spending advocated by Biden and congressional Democrats.
But Biden, who met with newly-installed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Friday morning, said he's focused on providing broader relief than most Republicans can stomach.
"We have learned from past crises; the risk is not doing too much, the risk is not doing enough," Biden said.
MORE: Biden's COVID relief package presents 1st test of his deal-making skills
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled that Democrats are preparing to move forward with budget reconciliation: a complex, fast-track process that requires just a simple majority to pass legislation rather than the usual 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and move forward. In a Senate now split 50-50, the procedure could allow Democrats to pass legislation without a single Republican in favor, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast a tie-breaking vote.
"If our Republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them," Schumer said Thursday. "We have a responsibility to help the American people fast."
A vote on a Senate budget resolution, which is the first step in beginning the reconciliation process, is expected next week in the Senate. It would then go to the House for consideration.
Republicans are calling foul, warning Democrats that using reconciliation to pass COVID relief will diminish Biden's calls for unity throughout his campaign and in his inaugural address.
"If reconciliation is chosen as the COVID legislative vehicle, it will make the Inaugural speech by President @JoeBiden ring very hollow," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC., tweeted Friday.
Graham urged the administration to pursue a bipartisan path forward.
"It would take effort, but apparently very little effort is being shown by the Biden Administration when it comes to bipartisanship on COVID relief."
MORE: Biden to expand Affordable Care Act enrollment amid COVID-19 in new executive order
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., echoed Graham, telling reporters Thursday that pursuing reconciliation is "going to send a signal to America, and to the Republicans throughout Congress, that this President's message of unity was rhetoric as opposed to substance."
Reconciliation has been used by both parties to pass controversial priorities in the past. According to the Congressional Research Service, the process has been used 25 times since its first use in 1980.
As Republicans continue to sour on the Biden plan, Democrats are left with few options but to go it alone to deliver on Biden's key campaign promise, despite early consensus building efforts from the bipartisan congressional group that helped craft the last COVID-19 relief bill.
That group spoke with White House National Economic Council head Brian Deese last weekend, and some have had additional private conversations. Republicans left urging the administration to tailor their approach more narrowly.
Discussions about reconciliation are "certainly not helpful" to the group's efforts, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is part of the bipartisan effort, said Thursday.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, was also part of the bipartisan conversations and said he's been working on "trying to convince the administration that they ought to work with us rather than jam something through the Congress with a strictly partisan vote."
There is an appetite among some GOP senators for targeted legislation that includes funding for vaccine development and distribution.
"The most appealing thing I've heard so far would be to break out the vaccine healthcare implementation part and have a bill that probably would be almost universally passed," Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said. "But I don’t have any particular reason to believe that that idea, which came from one of our friends on the Democratic side, will move forward."
Many in the GOP conference feel that the $920 billion allocated in the last COVID relief package should be more fully disbursed before another large aid measure is passed. That legislation extended protections for renters, jobless benefits, and other key provisions. Those extensions don't begin expiring for another few weeks.
"I'm not sure I understand why there's a grave emergency right now," Portman said Thursday.
But Democrats counter that time is of the essence, and administration officials made clear this week that the relief package would not be split in two.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., cited the March 14 deadline when federally-enhanced unemployment insurance benefits - provided in last month's aid package - expire as reason for the rush. The Biden plan would increase those weekly benefits from $300 to $400 and extend the aid through September.
Some Democrats, like Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., have urged Republicans to focus on the priorities in the budget bill that will appeal to them.
And Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., noted that reconciliation does not have to be a purely partisan approach, though history shows that the procedure rarely attracts bipartisan support.
"Reconciliation doesn't require that you only get 50 votes, so there is no reason that Republican's couldn't vote for the package, even if we use reconciliation."
Reconciliation has a long way to go to get across the finish line, though. Democrats are looking to get measures such as a more than doubled federal minimum wage - to $15 per hour - through reconciliation, a feat that even House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., recently called "a stretch." The budgetary tool is designed to be used in these three areas: direct spending (entitlements, food stamps, other mandatory spending), revenue (taxes), and deficit reduction.
And the wage hike is sure to be challenged by Republicans who say that businesses crippled by the pandemic could not afford the increase.
Still, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the incoming Senate Budget Committee chairman, insisted that he and his budget experts intend to show that a $15-per-hour minimum wage increase would result in "dramatic deficit reduction."
"I think the argument is that raising the minimum wage is going to have a profound impact on the budget, all across the budget. ... If you're making 15 bucks an hour, you're less likely to have to go on to one form or another of public assistance."
