Weekly Roundup: December 17th

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Biden acknowledged Thursday that the centerpiece of his agenda, a nearly-two trillion dollar social programs package known as the Build Back Better Act, won't pass the Senate before Christmas as Democrats had hoped. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin is a key holdout. But Congress was able to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling, despite doubts that they could reach consensus.

And: is there a rising workers' and unionization movement in the United States? Many low-income workers have seen a sharp increase in their pay during the pandemic, though an increase in the cost of goods stemming from an overloaded supply chain has softened the impact of the pay jump.

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Asma Khalid, congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, and business correspondent Alina Selyukh.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Jenny Werner. I'm in Lake Tahoe, California, and it's our third night without power.
0:06.0	We're watching the snow fall outside and cooking on our wood burning stove under our battery-operated
0:11.5	Christmas lights. This show was recorded at... oh my gosh! Oh, one 13 p.m. on Friday the 17th of December.
0:21.9	Things may have changed the time you hear this, but I hope the power is back on,
0:25.6	and thanks to the crews working all night. Hope you enjoy the show! Oh gosh! I'm so impressed they
0:34.4	used their limited power to send in the timestamp to us. I feel great sympathy, but then also I think
0:40.6	they're gonna have some sweet powder. There is gonna be so much good snow. Upside if it's snowing,
0:47.3	you can put all the things from your fridge outdoors. Right! Ah, smart thinking. Outside fridge.
0:52.0	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamra Keith. I cover the White House.
0:58.0	I'm Miss McCallid. I also cover the White House, and I'm Kelsey Snellie, cover Congress.
1:02.3	President Biden in a Thursday evening statement acknowledged what had become kind of obvious,
1:09.0	that there are roadblocks to his $2 trillion social spending package that build back better.
1:15.8	It could take weeks before the package is ready for a vote if it happens, and Democrats had pledged
1:21.9	to pass Biden's plan before Christmas. So, Kelsey, you know, other than giving people permission to
1:27.9	go home for the holidays, why this statement now from Biden? What has happened with Senate
1:32.8	negotiations? Well, they basically have reached a point where there is just not enough time to actually
1:38.8	do this before Christmas, even if they had an agreement like in the next 24 hours. The math
1:45.1	of the Senate clock just makes it impossible, because not only do they have to go through the
1:49.9	process of voting on just the concept of build back better. They have to do a thing called a vote
1:54.9	aroma, which is where the Senate could have unlimited amendments. Sometimes that takes a whole day,
2:01.6	sometimes it goes into a second day. So, it's just not possible for them to kind of do all of the
2:06.8	mechanical, you know, in the background stuff, and then hold this vote. They were eventually going
	...

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