康涅狄格州哈特福德-总裁乔·拜登他说，他更愿意缩短他的大社会服务和气候变化一揽子计划中的项目持续时间，而不是完全取消一些项目，因为民主党人正在努力通过削减3.5万亿美元的提案来赢得温和派的支持。
拜登周五的言论让进步人士放心，他希望这将是他遗产中具有里程碑意义的一部分，这标志着他迄今为止最明确地表明了他希望该法案的谈判将如何进行。它似乎站在进步议员更喜欢的策略一边，至少标志着与众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)的微妙决裂，佩洛西暗示，大多数民主党人更喜欢专注于建立几个持久的项目。
他还表示，交易没有最后期限。
拜登在乘坐空军一号从康涅狄格返回华盛顿之前对记者说:“我认为，在一系列问题上确立这一原则很重要，但不能保证获得整整10年的时间。“建立它很重要。”
“所以发生的事情是，你通过了原则，并在此基础上发展，”他补充道。“你回头看，要么成功，要么失败。”
然而，佩洛西在周一给其他民主党议员的一封信中说，“绝大多数情况下，我从议员那里得到的指导是少做好事。”
拜登周五表示，尽管他预计该计划将会缩减，但“我们会在计划通过后回来拿剩下的钱”。
“我们不会得到3.5万亿美元。我们会得到更少的，但我们会得到的。我们会回来拿剩下的，”拜登在康涅狄格州的一个儿童护理中心发表讲话时说。
国会山的民主党人正在努力将一揽子计划削减至约2万亿美元的支出，这些支出将通过提高企业和富人的税收来支付。该提案包括从免费儿童保育和社区大学到老年人牙科、视力和助听器福利的所有内容，以及一些旨在应对气候变化的重要条款。它们都是进步人士的关键项目，但温和派对最初的3.5万亿美元价格犹豫不决。
一个几乎可以肯定的减少是免费社区大学的提议。
拜登说:“我怀疑我们是否会获得社区学院的全部资金，但只要我还是总统，我就不会放弃社区学院。他的妻子吉尔是北弗吉尼亚社区学院的英语教授。
由于众议院和参议院的微弱优势，民主党在该法案上没有多余的选票。削减过程引发了一些进步人士的担忧。
参议院预算委员会主席伯尼·桑德斯表示，该党的内部辩论非常明显。，他为西弗吉尼亚州一家报纸写了一篇观点专栏文章，点名批评该州民主党参议员乔·曼钦迄今为止阻挠国内一揽子计划。
桑德斯将曼钦列为仅有的两名“仍然反对”该措施的民主党参议员之一，这挫败了该党在参议院50-50票通过仍在演变的立法所需的一致支持。
“这是美国现代历史上举足轻重的时刻。我们现在有一个历史性的机会来支持西弗吉尼亚州、佛蒙特州和整个国家的工人家庭，并制定一项适用于所有人而不仅仅是少数人的政策，”桑德斯在一篇定于周日《查尔斯顿公报-邮件》上发表的文章中写道。
曼钦在周五晚些时候的一份声明中回击说:“这不是第一次有州外的人试图告诉西弗吉尼亚人什么对他们最好。”
参议员公开批评同一个政党的同事是非常不寻常的，尤其是涉入另一名议员所在的州。
曼钦提议将该措施的10年总成本控制在1.5万亿美元，并表示希望限制部分成本卫生保健仅惠及低收入人群的举措。
桑德斯和曼钦分别是民主党最进步和最保守的参议员。
拜登公开承认，他的一揽子计划的价格必须降低。周五，他参观了哈特福德的一个儿童发展中心，谈到对儿童保育和其他社会安全网项目的投资需求，认为这些项目对保持美国在全球经济中的竞争力至关重要。
在中心，拜登推动了他的提议，让低收入家庭免费获得这种护理，并确保占该州收入中位数150%的家庭支付不到7%的儿童护理工资。这是拜登倡导的社会安全网大规模扩张的一部分，目的是在国会仅获得民主党选票的情况下通过。
“华盛顿太多的人仍然没有意识到仅仅投资于我们的有形基础设施是不够的。我们还必须投资于我们的员工，”他说。
拜登在该中心的操场上短暂地问候了一些孩子，一度跪着给一个孩子一个拥抱。
总统的推销之际，他的民主党盟友提出了美国公众不理解他的一揽子计划好处的担忧。民主党人再次迫切希望在月底交通融资截止日期、拜登即将进行的海外之行以及比预期更接近弗吉尼亚州下一任州长的竞选之前推动这一进程。
这项被拜登称为“重建得更好”的立法的命运，也阻碍了参议院今年夏天通过的一项超过1万亿美元的两党基础设施法案。众议院的进步人士不愿支持道路和桥梁法案，直到就社会安全网一揽子计划的前进道路达成一致。
民主党弗吉尼亚州州长候选人特里·麦考利夫本周在接受美联社采访时，批评了包括拜登在内的民主党人缺乏进展。
麦考利夫说:“他们必须齐心协力投票。当被特别问到他是否在呼唤拜登时，麦考利夫说，“我让每个人都在那里。”麦考利夫在去年秋天拜登以10分优势领先的州与共和党新人格伦·扬金展开了激烈的竞争。
拜登随后还在康涅狄格大学多德人权中心的落成典礼上发表了讲话，该中心改名是为了纪念一位老朋友，前康涅狄格参议员克里斯·多德和多德的父亲，也是前参议员。
Biden says he's open to shortening length of new programs
HARTFORD, Conn. -- PresidentJoe Bidensays he would prefer to cut the duration of programs in his big social services and climate change package rather than eliminate some entirely, as Democrats struggle to win support from moderates by trimming what had been a $3.5 trillion proposal.
Biden's comments on Friday, reassuring progressives on what he hopes will be a landmark piece of his legacy, marked his clearest indication yet on how he hopes negotiations over the bill will play out. Appearing to side with a strategy preferred by progressive lawmakers, it marked at least a subtle break with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has suggested that most Democrats prefer to focus on establishing a few enduring programs.
He also said there is no deadline for a deal.
“I’m of the view that it’s important to establish the principle on a whole range of issues without guaranteeing to get the whole 10 years,” Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from a trip to Connecticut. "It matters to establish it.”
“So what happens is, you pass the principle and you build on it,” he added. “You look back and either it works or it doesn’t work.”
Pelosi, however, in a Monday note to fellow Democratic lawmakers, said, “Overwhelmingly, the guidance I am receiving from members is to do fewer things well.”
Biden said Friday that although he expects the package to shrink, “we're going to come back and get the rest” after it's passed.
“We're not going to get $3.5 trillion. We'll get less than that, but we're gonna get it. And we're going to come back and get the rest,” Biden said during remarks at a child care center in Connecticut.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are working to reduce the sweeping package to about $2 trillion in spending, which would be paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy. The proposal includes everything from free child care and community college to dental, vision and hearing aid benefits for seniors and a number of significant provisions meant to combat climate change. They're all key items for progressives, but moderates have balked at the original $3.5 trillion price tag.
One almost certain reduction would be in the proposal for free community college.
“I doubt whether we will get the entire funding for community colleges but I’m not going to give up on community colleges as long as I’m president,” Biden said. His wife, Jill, is a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College.
With slim margins in the House and the Senate, Democrats have no votes to spare on the bill. The whittling process has sparked concern from some progressives.
The party's internal debate was apparent as Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote an opinion column for a West Virginia newspaper calling out that state’s Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin by name for blocking the domestic package so far.
Sanders named Manchin as one of only two Democratic senators who “remain in opposition” to the measure, thwarting the unanimous support the party needs in the 50-50 Senate to approve the still-evolving legislation.
“This is a pivotal moment in modern American history. We now have a historic opportunity to support the working families of West Virginia, Vermont and the entire country and create policy which works for all, not just the few,” Sanders wrote in a piece scheduled to appear in Sunday’s Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Manchin shot back in a statement late Friday, saying: “It isn’t the first time an out-of-stater has tried to tell West Virginians what is best for them."
It’s highly unusual for a senator to publicly criticize a colleague of the same party, particularly by wading into the other lawmaker’s state.
Manchin has proposed holding the measure’s overall 10-year cost to $1.5 trillion and has said he wants to limit somehealth careinitiatives to benefit only lower-earning people.
Sanders and Manchin stand, respectively, as among the Democrats’ most progressive and conservative senators.
Biden has openly acknowledged the price tag of his package will have to come down. On Friday, he visited a child development center in Hartford to speak about a need for investments in child care and other social safety net programs, arguing they're imperative to keep America competitive in the global economy.
At the center, Biden promoted his proposal to make such care free for lower-income families, and ensure that families making up to 150% of their state's median income pay less than 7% of their salaries on child care. It's part of a massive expansion of the social safety net that Biden has championed and is aiming to pass with just Democratic votes in Congress.
“Too many folks in Washington still don’t realize it isn’t enough just to invest in our physical infrastructure. We also have to invest in our people,” he said.
Biden briefly greeted some of the children at the center's playground, at one point kneeling to give a child a hug.
The president's sales pitch comes as his Democratic allies have raised concerns that the American public does not understand the benefits of his package. There is renewed urgency among Democrats to push it through ahead of an end-of-month deadline on transportation funding, Biden's upcoming foreign trip, and a closer-than-anticipated race for Virginia's next governor.
The fate of the legislation, branded “Build Back Better" by Biden, is also holding up a more than $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate this summer. House progressives are balking at supporting that roads-and-bridges bill until agreement is reached on a path forward for the social safety net package.
In an interview this week with The Associated Press, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, criticized Democrats including Biden over the lack of progress.
“They all got to get their act together and vote,” McAuliffe said. Asked specifically if he was calling out Biden, McAuliffe said, “I put everybody there.” McAuliffe is in a tight race with Republican newcomer Glenn Youngkin in a state Biden carried by 10 points last fall.
Biden also delivered remarks later at the dedication of the Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut, which is being renamed to honor a longtime friend, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, and Dodd's father, also a former senator.
