Democrats Hammer Out Plan to Tax Billionaires and Corporate Giants

New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand sought assistance, including from Mr. Manchin, to reinforce a state-paid family and sick leave regime that had been reduced from 12 to just four weeks.

Senator Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia, threatened to withdraw his support for the bill if, as expected, it dropped a provision that would expand health coverage for the working poor in a dozen states like his that have refused to accept Medicaid expand under the Affordable Care Act.

Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, was still angry about the refusal of a handful of Democrats to give Medicare far-reaching powers to negotiate prescription drug prices.

But overall, Liberal Democrats were trying to make their peace with a scaled-down bill that would turn a once sweeping vision for social transformation into a series of short-term measures – many of which would expire under a Republican Congress if history stands and that President’s party will lose seats midway through next year.

“I would prefer if we put programs out and if people like them we should run them as a government and if for some reason they are not popular it helps make some decisions,” said Rep Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin and a leader of the Progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington and chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus, made a pragmatic note: “Look, the thing is, we would have finished a very different law a month ago if we had used 90 percent of us , but that is not the case. We need 100 percent of us. “

White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted that the package would not contain everything Mr Biden wanted, but said, “The alternative to what is being negotiated is not the original package; there is nothing.”