Psaki Won’t Answer Whether Build Back Better Could Go Past Schumer’s Christmas Deadline

White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to answer on Monday whether she believed President Joe Biden’s massive spending proposal could meet the unlikely goal of winning congressional passage by Christmas.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to senators on Monday “making clear that his deadline of Christmas” to pass Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan “still stands,” a reporter noted at Psaki’s daily press briefing, asking whether that was a deadline to which the White House subscribed.

Demurring, Psaki replied, in part, “We certainly support Leader Schumer’s effort and push to move this forward and get it done in the coming parts.”

Persisting, the reporter asked, “I guess what I’m asking is — is Christmas drop dead, or is this something that can move past Christmas if the legislative realities make that the case?”

“I certainly understand why you’re asking,” Psaki responded. “We have many conversations and briefings between now and Christmas, so we’re just encouraged” by Schumer’s letter, Psaki said.

Forty-nine percent of registered voters support Biden’s proposal, according to a November survey conducted by Morning Consult, though 43 percent of voters said they believed it would make inflation worse — including 48 percent of independent voters. Registered voters tend to be more favorable to Democrats than the likely voters who show up to vote in midterm elections, which are expected to pose a challenge for Biden’s party next year. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) have made that dynamic even more challenging for the president by resisting efforts to pass his Build Back Better plan.

Watch above via the White House.