Characters: President Richardson, Iosif, Senator Vichter
Players: Dentali, Sarenium
Location: White House, Washington DC
Date: January 22nd, 2021
Jack Vichter arrived at the White House that morning wide awake. As usual he had woken at 6, he had taken the kids to their preschool and had also taken the time to go on his morning run. By the time he arrived at the White House he felt fresh and crisp. He held his binder and very well organized electronic document viewer under his arm, and waited patiently to be led into wherever it was that this President wanted to meet.
Iosif led him into the Oval Office, making very little small talk along the way, “Mr. President, Senator Vichter,” he introduced.
Richardson was standing next to the Oval when the Senator arrived, “Senator Vichter, it's a pleasure to meet you in a more private setting.”
“Mr. President,” Jack extended a hand.
Richardson met his hand and gave him a firm and well practiced hand shake, “How are you finding Washington so far?”
“Very,” he paused, searching for the right word, “urban, back home the yard is much larger, here, it’s a little different,” he smirked, “but it does have it’s own charm,” he conceded.
“Don’t tell the folks back in Florida'' Richardson said almost conciliatoryly, “seafood is better around here…” He nodded towards the window “It was a bit easier for me though, swampy climate both here and Florida… humidity gets to a lot of Washington first timers.”
Jack laughed, he noticed what he sensed was a little Richardsonian hold-back, but he paid it no attention, “well, I did make it here, partly by pledging to drain the swamp,” he mused.
“You and every other fresh face in Congress over the past 4 years or so” Richardson chuckled “Not doubting your sincerity, the term is just becoming a bit cliche.”
Iosif gave Nate a glance which said time, as he moved himself tactically closer to the couches.
“I gather that you’ve not brought me to the Oval Office to discuss the ambitions of freshmen Senators,” Jack said with a smile.
Richardson looked at Iosif with a playful annoyance, Richardson’s personal punctuality was almost obsessive. “Right you are….” Richardson gestured to the couches and sat down himself undoing the button on his suit as he did “The Economic Relief Bill… I was hoping we could open this session with a strong bi-partisan measure… have a few of the fresher faces in Congress at the forefront… ‘new day in Washington’ sort of thing… Frankly the country needs something to signal we can actually move forward without killing one another.”
Richardson let that hang in the air before continuing, “I’ll be frank with you… I watched your Iowa race and I think you’re just what DC needs right now, I want to help you out… This bill is going to be popular around the country, and if you go in as the lead Democrat in the Senate sponsoring it… well I don’t need to tell you what that would do for your career.”
Vichter listened to the President calmly, the man had the most sincere of a midwestern kindness about him, without breaking eye contact he also opened on his document viewer his notes, as Nate would see, each section basically had a scribble next to it. When the President was finished speaking, Jack replied, “I find your concern for my career very touching, Mr. President,” he paused, “the shape of the current relief bill is, in my opinion, missing one key element. The entire bill, as I’ve seen it, shows little desire to prevent the next crisis. Our healthcare system buckles, and this relief bill aims more to manage the pain than prevent it from recurring. Mr. President, I talk to Iowans every day who are struggling.”
He paused before continuing, “the way I see it there’s a number of measures I’d like to see, and I think you and I can meet each other halfway on more than one of them. First and foremost, a one-time handout may work fine to stimulate the economy from horrific to bad, but permanent stimulus to get us back up to pre-2020 levels is essential, I want to put raising the minimum wage on the table, I know your caucus can’t agree to one too high, but there’s a middle ground here.”
Nate shook his head “Getting one Democratic Senator onboard isn’t worth losing 20 GOP Votes… apologies I can’t do that… What I will do is get a blue collar tax credit… Are you familiar with the concept?”
The ego on the man in front of him matched that which he had seen on television, “Mr. President, I’m confident you’d find more than one Democratic vote if you added a minimum wage hike to the bill. You were open to it during the campaign, nothing would convince wavering Democrats of your willingness to work across the aisle than this.”
“I’m a small business guy, Senator...” Richardson replied respectfully “I grew up with my parents starting one up in our basement… In truth I am certainly open to a minimum wage hike but only once the job market is better. Especially when we are still subsidizing wages with Paycheck protection, I don’t think Small Businesses can afford that right now.”
“Mr. President, I respect the tenacity of your parents, but right now we have families who are fitting adults and kids alike into the one basement,” Jack paused, “but if that’s a no-go, then I do have other proposals that I think would go a long way in making this bill more amenable to myself and the Democratic caucus members I’ve spoken to.”
Richardson looked at Iosif a bit doubtfully “Respectfully Senator you’re a new member of the Senate and to my knowledge don’t have too many connections in Washington… How many votes are we talking about here?”
“It’s true I’m the new kid on the block,” he chuckled, “but, my connections to my fellow Senators while new isn’t unfamiliar. Particularly Senator Obradovic and I, both of us come from the long line of men fond of Tom Harkin’s wisdom,” he paused.
“Those of us that come from states with, a more,” he considered his next word, “swinging, nature, will all have different desires. The minimum wage was one of two of my proposals, that I know have the broad support of a number of our caucus members. The other was to remove the expiry of the child tax credit, and increase its focus on lower-income families. Capping it at $150,000; but upping the scales at the lower end, and offsetting it by reducing the credit on the upper end after the first year.”
Iosif had kept to himself, as he tended to, but he glanced at Nate in a way which suggested this wasn’t going to be a silver bullet.
“We are preparing a Tax credit package for later… CTC, EITC, and others… doing anything more than a temporary measure here would complicate matters.”
Jack’s face remained upbeat, but it didn’t hide his disappointment at the recalcitrant President. He placed his tablet of a document viewer into it’s little case and looked at the President, “I assume your blue collared tax credit of sorts is planned for that same package then?
“That’s the idea at least….” Richardson explained” You and I agree in principle on the minimum wage and these tax credits… But the issue is timing. My objective with this bill is to get it done quickly… I worry taking any permanent measures will complicate things. And any long term measures made in haste will lack the kind of review and consideration they deserve.”
Jack replied, “the timing will never be right for a well-timed minimum wage and tax credit bill with this relief bill. It doesn’t go far enough to pull our economy back from the depth of a depression, if anything it assures a nice report card for April and stagnation for May. Unless that is, we can agree to expand the stimulating factors of the bill. There’s a need for some sort of residual impact of this spending, I want to see much more spending on construction jobs.”
Richardson countered, “I consider this bill a stopgap honestly… How would you feel about delaying the minimum wage hike? 50 cents a year starting in 2022 until it hits $10 an hour and then pegging to inflation? By then we would theoretically have an infrastructure bill, and the tax credits… at least have a growing economy that will give Small Businesses breathing room.”
Iosif began making a mental list of Republican Senators who would have an issue with what Nate just said for later.
“A minimum wage hike of sorts, in this bill?” asked Jack, “because I would be open to a delayed impact minimum wage hike if it were included in this relief bill.”
“Not making promises or deals now” Richardson said “Just want to see what's possible…”
Jack nodded slowly, “the details would need to be hashed, I think raising the wage over an eight year period from 2022 until $10 is dangerously low, but the gist is there for us to work on in future if this is a track the White House would seriously entertain.”
“I don’t need to tell you, only about half the GOP supports ANY raise to the minimum wage… and only about 35% supports raising it to 10 or 11 dollars an hour.” Richardson said almost wistfully “and frankly I don’t trust the democrats to deliver enough to make up for what we would lose in support.”
“I understand the delicate game you have to play,” Jack nodded, “I am open to this being the bridge, and Mr. President, I hope you seriously entertain including it in the bill. It would signal to more than one Democrat that you’re serious about working with us.”
“Just to recap… EITC upgrade, more construction jobs and the minimum wage… give you 2 out of three and you’d be onboard?” Richardson asked for clarification
“Give the American people any or all of the three, at a scale we can agree on, and I’d be on board,” Jack nodded.
“Two questions… how much money for construction and are there any other options?”
“Well, federal medicaid expansion isn’t something you’d sign is it?” Jack asked chuckling, “the money for construction would depend on how you want to pay for it. Watching the purse is on my mind, though further down on my list than yours, instead I imagine we’d be at loggerheads over where to put the money, not necessarily how much to spend,” Jack said.
“Okay well give me some more detail there… I’m planning on a big infrastructure bull anyway… I ran on it so doing some of it early isn’t a massive ask.”
“Throw half a trillion onto what’s being spent right now, for grid upgrades and modernisation, I also want a few extra dollars for alternative fuel research done with industry onsite via our Public Universities, and if you’re open to it, an injection of dollars aimed at energy independence specifically in more rural communities. I’m thinking of solar panels for farmers, etc.”
“Half a TRILLION?” Richardson said somewhat stunned by the number “The entire bill right now is $1.5 trillion….”
“What was the scale of your future infrastructure bill?” frowned Jack, “the electrical grid upgrade alone is 95% of that, the rest is tiny dollars. If you want to do some of it early, may as well do the big one, alternatively, you could do the smaller stuff but then again I fear the impact would be too low to notice a drop in the pool. Look, Mr. President, we’re at double digit unemployment, benefits alone don’t get people back to work and I don’t want this recession to linger more than you do, bringing up a substantial bulk of bipartisan infrastructure work would go a long way to reactivating the dormant aspects of the economy.”
“Senator,” Iosif spoke up, “I have to say that for the new kid on the block, you sure don’t pull your punches.”
Jack smirked, “well, I don’t believe we need to be limited here, Mr. President. What’s your limit on early infrastructure?”
“My limit on this bill is $1.6 trillion and i’m at $1.595 right now” Richardson clarified, “Any more and the GOP starts to bolt... ”
Jack studied the President with a curious look, he gave Iosif a cursory review earlier when they walked in, but Nate was different, less prepared to wear his heart on his palm. He didn’t mind, that’s how business worked in DC.
“We’re talking about a measly $5bn then,” Jack mused, knowing full well that was not Nate’s actual limit, “I can scale down my ambitions to about thirty to forty billion, in just farm and rural infrastructure alone, ignoring the grid upgrades and that would be assuming we’re back here this year to talk minimum wage and the wider infrastructure bill.”
“I am more than willing to cut back on a few of my priorities to give yours some breathing room…” Richardson conceded with a nod to Iosif “committing $30 or $40 billion to rural infrastructure is acceptable in my opinion…”
“Where would you find that additional $40 billion?” Jack asked, worried he was about to negotiate SNAP benefits for solar panels.
“First thing i’d cut is Blue Dot honestly” Richardson said disappointed “Unfortunately i knew that would probably be coming… Off the top of my head… probably my pet projects around mental health and toning down school construction.
Jack reopened the document on his viewer and shook his head instinctively at the notion of mental health funding being cut, “Blue Dot being cut, makes sense, I think the airport stuff we can leave to the big package, given it’s a larger scale type of project, I think it’d make the most sense. That would put us fifteen billion apart,” Jack paused, “this additional funding for FEMA, what’s the extra dollars based on? Is there something we’re expecting to happen that’s got us funding FEMA more than usual?”
“Airports are honestly on the verge of collapse, that’s more about keeping the lights on instead of upgrades… and FEMA can probably be cut for now.”
“Well, that would fix up forty billion for rural infrastructure including renewable energy subsidies, broadband, roads and bridges. Removing $35bn from this bill by removing the FEMA extras and Blue Dot investments, being fully acceptable to you, Mr. President?”
“Blue Dot won’t be totally removed…” Richardson clarified “I need it to please China hardliners and frankly I want the funding too… But i’ll be reducing it significantly… The details I need to speak with a few others but like I said I can probably get you $40 billion or thereabouts… I’ll always be straight with you on what's possible and whats not.”
Jack nodded with a grin, “I appreciate it, Mr. President.”
He stood, “this works well for a framework, if it’s in the final bill, you can definitely count on my vote and the vote of any other Democrat who feels particularly strongly about rural infrastructure,” he mused to Iosif and Nate alike. He waited for the President to stand before he’d extend his hand.
The President nodded and stood. “My people will keep you posted” Richardson shook Jack’s hand “I hope this is the first of many meetings.”
Iosif smiled and began ushering Jack towards the door, “thanks for coming in Senator,” as Jack left, Iosif closed the door, turning to Nate and nodded along as he made a mental note of that meeting. He returned to the President, “I have a meeting with [Not-Kay Granger] and [Not-Kevin Brady] today, and the Speaker will want a phone call. If every swing seat Democrat is going to ask for fifty billion, we’ll hit half a trillion by the end of the week. I'll do some ringing around, I imagine we can swing a few others but that’s if you want to include these changes now.”
“Rural is a bit different” Richardson explained “How many red states and GOP Senators benefit from that? That’s somewhat more doable… if that was for HUD? That would be a fight.”
“Well, I’ll tell the Chairs to let the Senate handle the amendment, much neater to put your original up through the House and let the Democrats be seen to rob the anti-China alliance,” Iosif paused, “there is something there though, if he’s serious about infrastructure, might be worth operating the next few weeks with both bills on hand. We can get the relief bill through if we let leadership hash out the details, and we can work directly with the Democrats we need for a wide ranging infrastructure bill.”
“We can do preliminary stuff on Infra sure… But the American people don’t have the attention span for two major bills at once… and those are two big price tags…”
Iosif nodded his concurrence, “I have you down to meet with Deborah Feyrer later this week, something about the Endless Frontiers Bill, whips think we can get it through the House and Senate and onto your desk in good time. Do you want to take the meeting yourself or shall I handle it?” His face indicated it would be better for Nate to meet with Deb.
Nate looked a bit annoyed “Some personal relationship building is probably a good thing…” Richardson grumbled “I’ll bite my tongue… I don’t want to lose focus on the relief bill… If we can multitask, great but I want separation between the bills passing by at least 2 weeks so we can take victory laps… and to make sure we don’t mess one up because we were too focused on another… We have a lot on our plate.”
Iosif grinned, “if the whips can guarantee it’s passage by the end of next week, I’ll set up the meeting with the giantess. Otherwise, the overlap would be unnerving.”
The President’s E.A. entered to hurry the President onto the next meeting, he was twenty seconds overtime, no thanks to Iosif, who bid the President farewell and returned to his office.
