Family Leave, Medicare Remain Divisive Issues In Dems’ Spending Talks

Politico: House, Senate Democrats At Odds Over Whether To Slash Paid Leave Plan 
Senate leadership is considering slashing funding for paid leave in Democrats’ reconciliation package to $300 billion, four sources told POLITICO, as part of a broader push to bring down the bill’s price tag to appease moderates. That’s about $200 billion, or about 40 percent, less than what the House approved. To get there, policymakers would need to make major changes to the House-drafted language, illustrating the kind of tradeoffs Democrats are being forced to consider — and the type of schisms that's creating between moderates and progressives. (Mueller, 10/13)

The New York Times: Which Of These 4 Family Policies Deserves Top Priority? 
The safety net spending bill proposed by Democrats in Congress includes major benefits for families: paid leave, child care, pre-K and child allowances. But as they negotiate over the size of the bill, they may need to choose. Senator Joe Manchin, one of the two centrists whom Democrats must persuade to vote with them, has suggested that they pick just one, Axios reported. In a letter to colleagues Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote, “Overwhelmingly, the guidance I am receiving from members is to do fewer things well.” We asked 18 academics who study family policy — scholars of sociology, economics, public policy, social work and law — what they would choose if they could have only one, based on evidence from research in the United States and other countries. (Miller, 10/13)

Politico: Social Spending Fight May Claim Progressives’ Medicare Expansion
The push to cut more than $1 trillion from Democrats’ social spending bill and possibly scrap a planned expansion of Medicare presents the biggest test to date of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ clout. The 96 members, who account for nearly half of the House majority, showed their strength last month by delaying a bipartisan infrastructure bill until party leaders finish work on the social policy package H.R. 5376 (117). But the coming weeks could prove much tougher, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi intent on trimming the number of programs in the bill and cutting back on how long certain others will be funded to pare the $3.5 trillion price tag to a figure that centrist Democrats would support. (Ollstein, 10/13)

NBC News: Democrats Confront Divisions Over Health Care Benefits In Biden's Mega-Bill
Democrats, wrestling with what to cut from their economic and safety net package, are confronting intensifying divisions over health care as competing factions on Capitol Hill fight to keep their priorities off the chopping block. As President Joe Biden seeks to cut more than $1 trillion from his $3.5 trillion price tag, House leaders are trending toward prioritizing extending the increase of the Obamacare subsidy in the American Rescue Plan and closing the Medicaid coverage gap in states that didn’t expand the program. (Kappur, 10/14)

Politico: Dems Torn Between Wooing And Badgering The Biden Agenda Holdouts
There’s a wide spectrum of Democratic-allied groups trying to cajole the party’s moderates into backing President Joe Biden’s major domestic spending proposal. Their approaches, though, have followed two vastly different tracks: There’s the honey and there’s the vinegar. Progressive activists have adopted an aggressive, confrontational approach, epitomized by protesters following Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) into the bathroom and then traveling to Boston to hound her at the Monday marathon there, even though a foot injury kept her from running the actual race. (Korecki, 10/13)