movie, dave, budget-smudget. is that what s happening right now? i assume, at a level much higher than mine, that s exactly what s happening. and also, the president was very realistic about the 50/50 margin in the senate and certainly we now are just being able to tease out numbers from senators manchin and sinema, but the president, as you pointed out, has spent tens of hours with those two senators in order to come to yes. i have a confidence that we will get to yes, as i said, not because the presidency but because the american people are at stake. and i appreciate your candor, and you always showcase that for our viewers in not knowing when, but would you be surprised if it were days, weeks, months? could you put it in sort of a framework, what you re expecting, days? i hope it s within days. literally, i talked to members of leadership to say it s easy for me to say.
infrastructure bill which has passed the senate. centrist democrats in the house are demanding an immediate speedy vote on that. they want to get that, have it on the president s desk, go home, celebrate, come back and get to work on the social safety package. progressive democrats have threatened to vote the infrastructure bill down if it comes up saying it must be tied to an ironclad agreement to move that social safety net package of multiple trillions of dollars that you point out is a centre piece of president biden s agenda, investment in health care, child care, universal pre-k. this is all on the line here. speaker pelosi has struggled to corral her caucus. she is talented at this, but she s dealing with a waver thin majority and several blocks on her left, and the centrists are making demands that are hard to reconcile. president biden has to get
been saying this the last couple of weeks. house democrats have to stop talking about the price tag and talk about what is in this bill, child tax credits, free education, help for the elder. she has been trying to steer conversation that way. a democratic senator last night told me that s exactly the argument he and his colleagues are making with joe manchin. do you like this idea, this program, yes, you like this, that, my gosh, we are at $2 trillion or whatever the case might be. they are making a values-based argument internally to try to change the conferring. having the president out on the road making it public would sure be helpful as well. the speaker is a powerful figure in washington but nobody commands attention on those issues as with the president out somewhere in the country maybe in like phoenix or tucson for
up so that they match the competing interests of the various groups of democrats. i do think i am very confident they are going to get to a deal. i agree with claire, there is nothing magic about today, tomorrow, or yesterday in terms of getting a bill done. it s about getting it done in the right way that it is going to bring on all the democrats to both the reconciliation and to the infrastructure bill. and no democrat is interested in tanking the president s agenda. jonathan, let me the white house does have that opportunity to sort of reframe the tactics and say just what donna and claire are articulating, we put this deadline on ourselves, let s take a breath. let s build consensus, let s ride these incredible we talk about our country as being so divided and polarized around
3.5. i don t believe under any circumstances that going to happen. will they get above 2? i don t know. will they get above 175? i don t know. but everybody needs to like remember here this is massive change in this bill that is so good for american people along with a massive infrastructure we could actually have infrastructure week in this country with the democrats in charge. it would be political malpractice for them to allow this to blow up right now because the progressives are insistent on one number and a couple of moderates in the senate are insistent on another number. that s when you split the difference, make a deal, and go shout from the rooftops what you got done for working moms in this country, and their children. let me add to this conversation democrats congressman madeleine bean of pennsylvania precious out of the meeting with president joe biden. what did you hear?