Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the key Democratic vote in the evenly split Senate who blocked the passage of Biden’s domestic and environmental agenda in December.
It is unclear if greater fiscal responsibility can deliver politically for Biden as Democrats try to defend control of Congress.
Trump, among a multitude of promises, pledged to lower the national debt yet failed to do so during any financial quarter of his presidency.
Earlier this week, Treasury said that it expects to pay down $26 billion in privately held debt from the April to June quarter this year.
One of the challenges for Biden is that voters have largely shrugged off deficit increases and seldom rewarded deficit cuts.
Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, noted that deficits are often “abstract” for voters.