The fix could be as easy as inserting language in must-pass legislation before the cuts set in come mid-January, as Congress has previously done with little fanfare. Unlike a reconciliation bill, however, that solution cant pass the Senate with a simple majority and requires 10 Senate Republicans to sign off. Everybody seems to not worry about it, Yarmuth said. I dont know, Ive been told its pretty much perfunctory that well get it done. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office did not respond to two requests for comment about whether Republicans would help waive off the gouges to mandatory spending that stem from Bidens pandemic aid plan. In ordinary times, it would be almost certain that Republicans would go along with it, said David Wessel, a director at the centrist Brookings Institution. But these arent ordinary times, and you cant be sure that Republicans would go along with this, said Wessel, who heads the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings. I think theres a small but significant risk that the Republicans would use this as leverage to get something from Democrats. Both parties have repeatedly voted to waive the rule and avoid the cuts with other major reconciliation packages. Democrats joined Republicans to avert $150 billion in cuts that would have been prompted by the 2017 tax overhaul, including a $25 billion chunk from Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office at the time determined that certain programs, like the Public Health and Prevention Fund under Obamacare, would have been virtually wiped out.
Let's be clear about where blame would lie if this happened. Please don't make me defend Joe Biden in the future, thank you.