Biden tells Jayapal and the progressives to assume the position!

Bend over and take a 2.5 trillion drop in spending up the keister 

President Joe Biden said in a virtual meeting with a group of House progressives on Monday that the top line of the social safety net package needs to come down to somewhere between $1.9 trillion and $2.2 trillion, according to two sources familiar with the call. Biden told the group, according to one of the sources, that was the range he felt Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would accept but did not specify further within that range.

The interesting thing here folks is that Manchin has not suggested that he is willing to go more than the 1.5 trillion. He has called that the ceiling for months. Recently he even suggested that we should pass infrastructure and wait on reconciliation till we take a breath (after all, we have already spent 2.6 trillion, cut taxes by 900 billion, and are looking at passing another 1.2 trillion). If 4.6 trillion dollars in stimulus in less than two years is not enough, then I think we have some really power drunk people... or possibly just drunk people.

If I was Joe Manchin, I might be a little upset that Joe Biden is just assuming that I am willing to cut a deal for something upfront and for more than I have told everyone is my limit.  Obviously the same applies for Kyrsten Sinema. You notice that Biden has not suggested that he actually has buy in from either, just that he feels that is what they would expect. 

Either way, the buzz is that the progressives are now upset because they believed that Biden was on their side with getting a robust reconciliation bill passed. They feel like he caved to the moderates. Last weekend he pissed off the moderates by taking the side of the progressive after making it appear he was there to push the infrastructure vote. So the moderates feel he caved to the progressives. It take enormous skill to actually piss off both sides in this sort of argument. It's one thing if you just slightly disappoint everyone to cut a compromise. It's another if people feel you are betraying them., which is exactly what Biden did here.

There is a lot of distrust. Oh, and don't forget about that Hyde amendment argument. Could be he thing that eventually crushes the deal even if they can agree on a cost.