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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Before Europe, Biden at Capitol to rally Dems on scaled-back $1.75T policy package

The administration aims to fund progressive priorities on the climate, health care and immigration with tax increases on just a few dozen of the wealthiest Americans. 

WASHINGTON (CN) — After months of negotiations with warring factions in his party, President Biden will announce a framework on his big domestic policy package that his administration bills as one focused on delivering for middle-class families. 

“This will mean the most transformative investment in children and caregiving in generations, the largest effort to combat climate change in history, a historic tax cut for tens of millions of middle-class families, and the biggest expansion of affordable health care in a decade, and it is entirely paid for by rewarding work not wealth and ensuring that the super-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share and can't cheat every honest American on their tax bills,” a senior administration official told reporters. 

Notably missing from the framework was paid family leave and lowering the price of prescription drugs. The White House did not share specifics on which members of Congress had agreed to the framework but insisted it would gain Democratic support in both the House and Senate — the latter of which much involve all 50 Democrats in the evenly divided chamber.

The framework includes big investments in education and child care with universal free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, as well as investments in free education by increasing funding for Pell Grants and historically Black colleges and universities. Biden wants to limit child care costs to 7% of income and will include six years of funding for a program. The program will have a work requirement. 

On child tax credits — originally implemented by the American Rescue Plan — the framework will extend the $300 per month benefits for households earning up to $150,000 per year. 

President Biden will be visiting the House Democratic Caucus at 9 a.m. to present the framework and then will address the nation.

The push from the White House to get an agreement on the package before President Biden leaves for a Friday meeting at the Vatican came in part from pressure to present climate initiatives before a climate summit in Scotland. Senior administration officials say the framework will offer “the largest effort to combat the climate crisis in American history.” 

Climate efforts within the framework will allocate $320 billion in clean energy tax credits for rooftop solar and electric vehicles and $105 billion for civilian climate corps to create clean energy jobs. These efforts will look to reduce emissions by 50–52% by 2030. 

The framework will expand reduced premiums through the federal health care knowns as the Affordable Care Act by about $600 per person per year, and attempt to close the Medicaid coverage gap. It will also expand Medicare coverage for hearing services, though some progressives in the party had advocated for inclusion of dental and vision coverage as well. 

At $1.75 trillion, the bill is significantly less than the $3.5 trillion package that was advanced in August. The White House insists it will decrease the deficit and be paid for in full with a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans; no one who makes less than $400,000 per year will see their taxes raised. 

Included in the tax increases will be a 15% corporate minimum tax on large corporations and a 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks. The framework also includes a new surtax on multimillionaires and billionaires that would apply a 5% for income above $10 million and an additional 3% for income over $25 million. 

The timing of the passage of the bills is still up in the air. The president will defer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi but will be “full-throated” on the passage of the bills when they come to a vote, according to a senior administration official.  

Follow @KelseyReichmann
Categories / Financial, Government, National, Politics

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