参议员艾米·克洛布查尔(Amy Klobuchar)说，她有信心乔·拜登总统的“重建得更好”计划将在圣诞节前获得通过，但包括参议员比尔·卡西迪在内的共和党人仍然坚决反对。
明尼苏达州的克洛布查尔周日告诉《本周》主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯，重建更好法案将有助于创造就业机会，她说，由于某些领域的劳动力短缺，这一法案现在至关重要。
“我们有劳动力问题，这就是为什么这个重建更好的法案如此重要，”克洛布查尔说。“我们需要人，我们需要孩子从事我们短缺的工作。我们不缺体育营销学位。我们缺少医护人员。我们缺少水管工、电工、建筑工人。这项法案让我们走上了正确的道路。”
众议院11月19日以220-213票通过了1.7万亿美元的“重建得更好”法案，一名民主党人投了反对票。该法案包括5550亿美元用于气候倡议，1090亿美元用于全民预K，1500亿美元用于经济适用房，1670亿美元用于医疗保险扩展。
拉卡西迪。斯特凡诺普洛斯说，重建得更好的计划是“一个糟糕、糟糕、糟糕的法案。”
“还有企业福利。这将使汽油价格至少每加仑上涨20美分。联邦政府开始规定如何处理孩子的学前教育，甚至课程，”他说。
乔·拜登总统为众议院鼓掌并在一份声明中表示，如果该法案获得通过，将有助于改善经济。
他说:“美国众议院通过了《重建更美好生活法案》，在执行我的经济计划方面向前迈出了又一大步，以创造就业机会，降低成本，使我们的国家更具竞争力，并给劳动人民和中产阶级一个战斗的机会。
该法案现已提交参议院，但确保该法案在参议院获得通过的关键人物——亚利桑那州参议员基斯顿·西内马和弗吉尼亚州参议员乔·曼钦尚未同意支持该法案的最新版本。
克洛布查尔说:“曼钦参议员还在谈判桌上，每天都在和我们谈话，和我们谈论投票权，完成那个法案，恢复参议院。“他正在和我们谈论这个法案。”
卡西迪认为，社会支出法案将加剧通货膨胀，根据劳工统计局的数据，通货膨胀目前处于30年来的最高水平。
斯特凡诺普洛斯指出，拜登政府已经提出了17位获得诺贝尔奖的经济学家谁说的法案不会增加通货膨胀但是，卡西迪认为，根据《华盛顿邮报》的事实核查，这些经济学家“说那是他们当时的账单，而不是他们现在的账单。”
“他们指出，如果你想避免通货膨胀，那么你必须有能力为此买单，”卡西迪说。
这华盛顿邮报我采访了17位经济学家中的6位，他们在一揽子计划总额达到3.5万亿美元时签署了支持该法案的信函。《华盛顿邮报》发现，尽管“一些人表示提议的(对法案的)修改已经减轻了对通胀压力的潜在影响”，但他们都没有放弃签署这封信。
通货膨胀一直是美国人越来越关心的问题。随着拜登的民调数字下降，55%的美国人不赞成，民主党人也感到担忧他对经济的处理根据美国广播公司新闻/华盛顿邮报最近的一项民意调查，50%的人直接将通货膨胀归咎于拜登。
周二，拜登宣布，他将授权从美国战略石油储备中释放5000万桶石油，希望降低飙升的天然气价格。
“我是这样看的——我们的需求增加，供应短缺。石油储备是一项临时措施，”克洛布查尔说。
卡西迪在推文中指责拜登政府造成了高油价提到了拜登利用战略石油储备作为“权宜之计”
立法者也面临着另一个挑战。10月，国会投票决定暂时提高债务上限并将美国债务违约的风险(财政部长称这将是“灾难性的”)推迟到12月中旬。
现在，谈判加速的时候到了，但共和党人和民主党人仍在针锋相对。
克洛布查尔说:“你知道，如果共和党人想从我们身上捞钱，提高人们的利率，让汽车支付变得困难——那就去做吧。“我们要阻止他们那样做。”
离美国达到债务上限只剩下几周时间了，斯特凡诺普洛斯向卡西迪施压，要求他解释为什么反对提高债务上限。
“你提到了减税。斯特凡诺普洛斯说:“共和党人在特朗普总统的领导下通过了一项巨大的减税计划——这是延长债务限额必须付出的代价之一。“那么，你为什么反对延长债务限额?”
卡西迪说:“过去的债务限额是两党谈判的结果，两党都同意支出，两党都同意债务限额。“如果你没有注意到，共和党人根本没有被邀请进来讨论这个问题。”
As inflation concerns mount, Republicans, Democrats still at odds over Build Back Better plan
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she’s confident President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan will be passed by Christmas, but Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, are still firmly opposed.
Klobuchar, D-Minn., told "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that the Build Back Better Act would help create jobs, which she said is crucial right now because of labor shortages in certain fields.
"We've got workforce issues, and that's why this Build Back Better Act is so important," Klobuchar said. "We need people, we need kids to go into jobs that we have shortages. We don’t have a shortage of sports marketing degrees. We have a shortage of health care workers. We have a shortage of plumbers, electricians, construction workers. This bill puts us on the right path."
The House passed the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act on Nov. 19 along party lines, 220-213, with one Democrat voting "no." The legislation includes $555 billion for climate initiatives, $109 billion for universal pre-K, $150 billion for affordable housing and $167 billion for Medicare expansion.
Cassidy, R-La., told Stephanopoulos the Build Back Better plan is "a bad, bad, bad bill."
"There's corporate welfare. It's going to raise the price of gasoline at least about 20 cents a gallon. And it begins to have federal dictates as to how your child's preschool is handled, the curriculum even," he said.
President Joe Bidenapplauded the Housefor passing the Build Back Better Act and said in a statement it would help improve the economy if enacted.
"The United States House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act to take another giant step forward in carrying out my economic plan to create jobs, reduce costs, make our country more competitive, and give working people and the middle class a fighting chance," he said.
The bill now heads to the Senate, but Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Manchin D-W.Va. -- key players in ensuring that the bill passes in the Senate -- have not agreed to support the latest version of the bill yet.
"Sen. Manchin is still at the negotiating table, talking to us every day, talking to us about voting rights, getting that bill done, restoring the Senate," Klobuchar said. "He's talking to us about this bill."
Cassidy argued that the social spending bill will fuel inflation, which is currently at a 30-year high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Stephanopoulos pointed out that the Biden administration has brought forward 17 Nobel Prize-winning economists who said the billwon't increase inflation, but Cassidy argued that, according to the Washington Post's Fact Checker, those economists "said that was the bill they had then, not the bill they have now."
"They point out that if you are going to avoid inflation, then you've got to be able to pay for it," Cassidy said.
TheWashington Postspoke to six of the 17 economists who signed the letter in support of the bill when the package totaled $3.5 trillion. The Post found that while "some indicated that the proposed changes [to the bill] have lessened the potential impact on inflationary pressures," none of them backed away from their signing of the letter.
Inflation has been a mounting concern among Americans. Democrats are concerned, too, as Biden's polling numbers drop, with 55% of Americans disapproving ofhis handling of the economyand 50% blaming Biden directly for inflation, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll.
On Tuesday, Biden announced that he would authorize a release of 50 million barrels from the U.S. strategic oil reserve, hoping to lower surging gas prices.
"I look at it this way -- we’ve got an increased demand, shortage of supply. The petroleum reserve was a temporary measure," Klobuchar said.
Cassidy has blamed the Biden administration for the high gas prices and in a tweetreferred to Bidentapping into the strategic oil reserve as a "Band-Aid fix."
Lawmakers are also facing another challenge. In October, Congress voted totemporarily raise the debt ceilingby $480 billion and put off the risk of the United States defaulting on its debt -- which the treasury secretary said would be "catastrophic" -- until mid-December.
Now, the time has come for negotiations to ramp up, but Republicans and Democrats are still butting heads.
"You know, if the Republicans want to scrooge out on us, and increase people’s interest rates and make it hard to make car payments -- go ahead, make that case," Klobuchar said. "We're going to stop them from doing that."
With only a couple weeks left until the U.S. reaches the debt limit, Stephanopoulos pressed Cassidy on why he’s against raising the debt ceiling.
"You mentioned the tax cuts. Republicans passed a huge tax cut under President Trump -- that's one of the things that extending the debt limit has to pay for," Stephanopoulos said. "So why are you against extending the debt limit?"
"The debt limit in the past has been the result of bipartisan negotiations, bipartisan both about the spending, bipartisan both about the debt limit," Cassidy said. "If you haven't noticed, Republicans have not been invited in at all to discuss this."
