White House press secretary Jen Psaki ducked questions Thursday about whether Sen. Joe Manchin III told President Biden this summer he wouldn’t back away from his $1.5 trillion limit on the president’s plan to expand the social safety net.
“As we’ve said many times, we are not going to outline private negotiations or private discussions and let the senators speak on that,” Ms. Psaki told reporters.
“We know that timelines can help make progress. We’ve seen that play out over the course of the last couple of days. We know that compromise is inevitable,” she continued.
Mr. Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, told reporters earlier Thursday that he wouldn’t back away from the $1.5 trillion limit that he gave Mr. Biden earlier this year for the economic spending package.
The figure is less than half the $3.5 trillion number that progressive Democrats insist is the least they will accept.
Progressives say they need an agreement on the $3.5 trillion economic agenda proposal before they would vote Thursday to approve a separate $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
Because the Senate is evenly split at 50-50, the Democrats can afford no defections on bills they want to push through the upper chamber, making Mr. Manchin’s line in the sand potentially decisive.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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