Biden announces 'historic' deal -- but still must win votes

At one point, Biden “asked for a spirited, enthusiastic vote on his plan,” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

Twice over the course of the hour-long meeting Democratic lawmakers rose to their feet and started yelling: “Vote, vote, vote,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia.

Biden’s proposal would be paid for by imposing a new 5% surtax on income over $10 million a year, and instituting a new 15% corporate minimum tax, keeping with his plans to have no new taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year, officials said. A special “billionaires tax” was not included.

Revenue to help pay for the package would also come from rolling back some of the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts, along with stepped-up enforcement of tax-dodgers by the IRS. Biden has vowed to cover the entire cost of the plan, ensuring it does not pile onto the debt load.

With the framework being converted to a 1,600-page legislative text for review, lawmakers and aides cautioned it had not yet been agreed to.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the progressive leader, said her caucus endorsed the framework, even as progressive lawmakers worked to delay further action. "We want to see the actual text because we don’t want any confusion and misunderstandings,” she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Biden asked the House to vote on the related $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which already cleared the Senate but became tangled in deliberations over the broader bill. But Jayapal said she did not hear an urgent request from him, which emboldened progressives to halt the hoped-for Thursday vote.

“When the president gets off that plane we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress,” Pelosi told lawmakers, the person at the private meeting said.

But no votes were scheduled. Progressives have been withholding their support for the roads-and-bridges bill as leverage until they have a commitment that Manchin, Sinema and the other senators are ready to vote on Biden's bigger package.

“Hell no,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., about allowing the smaller infrastructure bill to pass.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., shared her own story of making “pennies” at low-wage work, struggling to afford child care and wanting to ensure constituents have better.

“We need both bills to ride together. And we don’t have that right now,” Bush said. "I feel a bit bamboozled because this was not what I thought was coming today.”

Instead, Congress approved an extension to Dec. 3 of Sunday's deadline for routine transportation funds that were at risk of expiring without the infrastructure bill.

The two holdout Democratic senators now hold enormous power, essentially deciding whether Biden will be able to deliver on the Democrats’ major campaign promises.

Sinema has been instrumental in pushing her party off a promise to undo the Republicans' 2017 tax cuts. And Manchin's resistance forced serious cutbacks to a clean energy plan, the elimination of paid family leave and the imposition of work requirements for parents receiving the new child care subsidies.

At the same time, progressives achieved one key priority — Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders' proposal to provide hearing aid benefits for people on Medicare. However, his ideas to also include dental and vision care were left out.

Other expanded health care programs build on the Affordable Care Act by funding subsidies to help people buy insurance policies and coverage in states that declined the Obamacare program.

Overall, the new package also sets up political battles in future years. The enhanced child care tax credit expires alongside next year's midterm elections, while much of the health care funding will expire in 2025, ensuring a campaign issue ahead of the next presidential election.