Washington, October 29 (BNA) President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he and Democrats in Congress have reached a “historic” framework for a comprehensive domestic policy package. The AP said he still needs to shut down votes from key colleagues for what is now a drastically reduced bill.
Eager to strike an agreement before leaving late in the day for world summits, Biden made his case privately on Capitol Hill to House Democrats and publicly in a speech at the White House.
He is now pushing for a still-robust package — $1.75 trillion in social services and climate change programs — that the White House believes could pass the Senate 50-50.
Rapid developments have brought the Democrats closer to a tough bargain, but battles still rage as they press to finish the final draft in the coming days and weeks.
“Let’s get this done,” Biden warned.
“It will radically change the lives of millions of people for the better,” he said of the package he so desperately wanted before the summits to show the world that American democracy was still working.
Combined with a bipartisan infrastructure bill of nearly $1 trillion, Biden claimed that the federal investment injection would be a domestic feat on the lines of those of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
But the final vote will not be called for some time. The revised package lost some key priorities, frustrating many lawmakers as the president’s ambitions give way to the political realities of a narrowly divided Congress.
A long list of other priorities remain in the mix: free kindergarten for all young people, expanded health care programs — including the launch of $35 billion worth of new hearing aids for people who have Medicare — and $555 billion to tackle climate change.
There is also a one-year extension of the child care tax credit that was put in place during the COVID-19 bailout and new child care subsidies. An additional $100 billion to bolster immigration and border processing could boost the total package to $1.85 trillion if Senate rules pass.
After months of negotiations, Biden’s emerging bill will remain among the most comprehensive of its kind in a generation, modeled on the New Deal and Great Society programs. The White House calls it the biggest investment ever in climate change and the biggest improvement in the nation’s health care system in more than a decade.
Biden’s proposal will be paid for by an additional 5% tax on income over $10 million a year, and a new minimum tax of 15% for businesses, in line with his plans to not introduce new taxes on those who earn less than 400 $1,000 a year, officials say. She said. The special “billionaire tax” is not included.
Revenue to help pay for the package will also come from rolling back some of the Trump administration’s tax cuts in 2017, along with strengthening the IRS’ tax evasion enforcement. Biden has pledged to cover the full cost of the plan, ensuring that it does not pile into debt burdens.
With the framework turned into a 1,600-page legislative text for review, lawmakers and aides warned that it has yet to be agreed.
But no date has been set for the vote. Progressives held back on their support of the Roads and Bridges bill as leverage until they committed that Manchin, Cinema and other senators were willing to vote on Biden’s bigger deal.
Instead, Congress agreed to extend the Sunday deadline to December 3 for routine transportation funds that were in danger of expiring without the infrastructure bill.
Other Expanded Health Care programs build on the Affordable Care Act with Subsidy Funding to help people purchase insurance policies and coverage in states that rejected Obamacare.
In general, the new package also sparks political battles in the coming years. The Improved Child Care tax credit expires along with next year’s midterm elections, while a large portion of healthcare funding will expire in 2025, ensuring there’s a problem campaigning ahead of the next presidential election.
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