“I don’t think we should play this game where the things we want have to be paid for and the things they want can be put on a credit card,” he said, referring to Republicans. “So I’m cautious about falling into that trap, but if we can find pay-fors, that’s even better.”

Democrats, who will have dozens of new members in January and comfortable majorities in both the House and Senate, are still figuring out their internal consensus, Neal said. They are eager to show that they can quickly deliver results that put money into people’s pockets and to demonstrate the differences between themselves and Trump.

They can use the one-party budget reconciliation process to get bills to Trump’s desk with simple majorities. They can clear the Senate filibuster with backing from a handful of Republicans—but Trump could veto such a measure. Or they can try to muster bipartisan supermajorities, particularly on tariff policy, to override Trump’s opposition. They may take different procedural paths and tax strategies with different bills.

Democrats expect to start the new Congress with a series of bills that would reverse policy changes that Republicans enacted in the “one big, beautiful bill” last year. That law imposed work requirements on Medicaid recipients and tightened food-stamp eligibility. Republicans also allowed the expiration of expanded subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the end of 2025. Trump has imposed a series of tariffs that raised consumers’ costs, so undoing them could address the affordability concerns that helped propel Democrats to victory.

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who is poised to be the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he is open to paying for the party’s agenda but sounded wary of a hard-and-fast rule, especially after watching Republicans’ major legislation last year add to deficits.

“I don’t think we should play this game where the things we want have to be paid for and the things they want can be put on a credit card,” he said, referring to Republicans. “So I’m cautious about falling into that trap, but if we can find pay-fors, that’s even better.”

Democrats, who will have dozens of new members in January and comfortable majorities in both the House and Senate, are still figuring out their internal consensus, Neal said. They are eager to show that they can quickly deliver results that put money into people’s pockets and to demonstrate the differences between themselves and Trump.

They can use the one-party budget reconciliation process to get bills to Trump’s desk with simple majorities. They can clear the Senate filibuster with backing from a handful of Republicans—but Trump could veto such a measure. Or they can try to muster bipartisan supermajorities, particularly on tariff policy, to override Trump’s opposition. They may take different procedural paths and tax strategies with different bills.

Democrats expect to start the new Congress with a series of bills that would reverse policy changes that Republicans enacted in the “one big, beautiful bill” last year. That law imposed work requirements on Medicaid recipients and tightened food-stamp eligibility. Republicans also allowed the expiration of expanded subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the end of 2025. Trump has imposed a series of tariffs that raised consumers’ costs, so undoing them could address the affordability concerns that helped propel Democrats to victory.

Richard Rubin, Wall Street Journal