They'd been working on it for nearly two months, identifying needs and, at Biden's direction, crafting the plan around them, regardless of cost. But if the Democrats won in Georgia, the plan would suddenly go from an aspiration they would have to bargain with Republicans over, to a reality as long as they kept their party unified.
With no war room to report to that night, no headquarters or even a transition office to gather in, the Biden staffers were all glued to the TVs in their homes around Washington, or, in the case of incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain, in Delaware with Biden, firing off texts to one another as each Georgia county reported results.
By late morning the next day, it was clear that Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock had done the improbable, sweeping both races in Georgia and delivering the Senate back to the Democrats less than a month before Biden took office.
The twin victories marked a political earthquake for the incoming president and opened the door to one of the largest public health and economic relief proposals in US history.
For all of Biden's talk of bipartisanship, Democrats now had the power to move their top priority without a single Republican vote. It was the same situation as 2009, when the Obama administration rushed to pass a relief package during his first month in office. Back then Democrats lowered the size of the plan to garner some Republican support, a decision many of them came to regret during the slow recovery that followed.
This time would be different. From the outset, the common goal among Biden's team was to go big -- even if that meant going it alone.
At $1.9 trillion, the American Rescue Plan is second only in size to last year's $2.2 trillion CARES Act. When it was first unveiled to the public on January 14, the assumption among Republicans and even some Democrats was that Biden's nearly $2 trillion moonshot was an opening offer, a place to start negotiations that would inevitably lead to a smaller price tag.
But there would be no negotiating from Biden's team. That was the number, and while there was room to bargain over marginal side items, the topline wasn't moving.
This story is based on interviews with more than two dozen officials from the White House, Capitol Hill and outside interest groups who worked directly with the campaign and transition on Biden's cornerstone legislative proposal. CNN also spoke to Republican lawmakers and aides who remain agog at the size of the package and the speed with which Biden has pushed it along. (...)
Building the bill
The meetings began in November, not long after the election was called for Biden. Even before the President-elect's transition officially kicked into gear, Biden's top advisers, many of whom would get jobs in the White House, gathered daily -- and always virtually -- to hash out what they knew would become the single most prominent marker of their accomplishments in their first 100 days in office.
From the start, they took a unique approach.
Often, when spending bills are crafted, the topline number is settled on first as lawmakers and officials figure out what is possible and work down from there. But Biden's team says it started at the bottom and built up. The $1.9 trillion figure wasn't nailed down until the days before its public release, advisers say.
As they went, the goal was two-fold -- fund everything needed to end the pandemic, while also doling out enough money to float struggling Americans until things got back to normal. The proposal includes $160 billion for vaccine distribution and testing, $130 billion for K-12 schools, and $350 billion for state and local governments. It also contains hundreds of billions more in aid to families, including $1,400 in direct monthly payments, expanded nutrition assistance programs, extensions of emergency unemployment programs, and big expansions of the Child Tax and Earned income Tax Credits, boosting the benefits to a level some economists project could cut child poverty in half.
As the plan came together, administration officials said one priority remained clear: Biden didn't want just a short-term infusion of stimulus, with patches and temporary extensions to various aid provisions to keep the economy afloat for a few months -- he wanted to lock in long-term aid and investment. Enough money not just to pull the US out of the pandemic, but to give it the fuel for a massive future expansion.
by Phil Mattingly, CNN | Read more:
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[ed. About time the Dems starting acting with some backbone. Does anyone seriously think Republicans would give one second's damn about bipartisan cooperation if they were in charge? See also: The Senate Passed a $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill. Here's What's In It (Time).]
