Congressional Democrats yesterday continued to clash over a slew of policy disagreements that have stalled roughly $3 trillion in new economic spending initiatives, raising the prospect that President Biden could depart for a foreign tour this week without a long-sought deal in hand, the Washington Post reported. Two days before the trip, Democratic lawmakers in the nation’s capital still had failed to resolve some of their most intractable disputes. Talks advanced between the party’s warring moderate and liberal factions, but they still appeared far apart on their plans to expand health care coverage, invest in green energy, provide paid leave to all Americans and overhaul the tax code. One of their more contentious ideas — a new tax targeting hundreds of the country’s billionaires — remains in political limbo. A number of Democrats had hoped to create it in a way that raised more than half of its revenue from just 10 people, including Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But others questioned whether the “billionaires tax” actually would work, clouding its political prospects. The late-stage scramble over the details added to the steep task Democrats already faced in financing their new proposal, which could be valued at $1.75 trillion over 10 years.
