President Joe Biden traveled to Capitol Hill early Thursday to make the case to House Democrats for a dramatically scaled-back domestic policy package, $1.75 trillion of social services and climate change programs the White House believes can pass the 50-50 Senate.
Biden was eager to have a deal in hand before departing later in the day for global summits. But the revised package has lost some of the Democrats’ top priorities as the president’s ambitions make way for the political realities of the narrowly divided Congress.
Paid family leave and efforts to lower prescription drug pricing are now gone entirely from the package, according to senior administration officials who requested anonymity to brief reporters about the emerging details.
Still in the mix: Free prekindergarten for all youngsters, expanded health care programs — including the launch of a $35 billion new hearing aid benefit for people with Medicare — and $555 billion to tackle climate change.
There’s also a one-year extension of a child care tax credit that was put in place during the COVID-19 rescue, new child care subsidies and $100 billion to bolster the immigration and border processing system.
With support for even the narrowed package still an issue, Biden said as he left the Capitol, “I think we’re going to be in good shape.”
Taking form after months of negotiations, the legislation is cast by the White House as the largest-ever investment in climate change and the biggest improvement to the nation’s healthcare system in more than a decade.
Biden’s proposal would be paid for by imposing a new 5% surtax on income over $10 million a year and instituting a new 15% corporate minimum tax, keeping with his plans to have no new taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year, officials said.
Revenue to help pay for the package would also come from rolling back some of the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts, along with stepped-up enforcement of tax-dodgers by the IRS. Biden has vowed to cover the entire cost of the plan, ensuring it does not pile onto the debt load.
Biden will make remarks from the White House about the package, and a related $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan, before departing later Thursday on global summits.
But the framework is not yet the full legislative text, which lawmakers and aides cautioned has not yet been agreed to by the lawmakers. Advocates urging Democrats to support climate change efforts protested outside the Capitol.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the progressive caucus leader, said unveiling the new framework “will show tremendous momentum. But we want to see the actual text because we don’t want any confusion and misunderstandings.”
Democrats’ disputes over the big domestic policy bill has held up passage of a separate $1 trillion package of road, broadband and other infrastructure projects that faces a Sunday deadline for a vote. But Biden will make the push to send both over the “finish line.”
In the divided Senate, Biden needs all Democrats’ support with no votes to spare. The House is similarly split with just a few vote margin.
Two key Democratic holdouts, Sens Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have almost single-handedly reduced the size and scope of their party’s big vision.
Sinema has been instrumental in pushing her party off a promise to undo the Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts, forcing Democrats to take a different approach from simply raising top rates on individuals and corporations.
And Manchin’s resistance to government programs forced serious cutbacks to a clean energy plan and the outright elimination of paid family leave. His insisted there be work requirements for parents receiving the new child care subsidies.
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- White House officials have been meeting repeatedly with Manchin and Sinema, two senators who now hold enormous power, essentially deciding whether or not Biden will be able to deliver on the Democrats’ major campaign promises.
At the same time, progressives achieved one key priority — Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders’ proposal to provide hearing aid benefits for people on Medicare. However, his ideas to also include dental and vision care were left out.
Other expanded health care programs build on the Affordable Care Act by funding subsidies to help people buy insurance policies and coverage in states that declined the Obamacare program.
Overall, the new package also sets up political battles in future years. Much of the health care funding will expire in 2025, ensuring a campaign issue ahead of the next presidential election. The child care tax credit expires alongside next year’s midterm elections, when control of Congress will be determined.
Despite a series of deadlines, Democrats have been unable to close the deal among themselves, and Republicans overwhelmingly oppose the package. At best, Democrats could potentially reach a framework that could send Biden overseas with a deal in hand and unlock the process while the final details were sewn up.
Applying pressure, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a Thursday committee hearing to spur the Biden package along toward a full House vote, though timing remained uncertain.
A Sunday deadline loomed for approving the smaller public works bill or risk allowing funds for routine transportation programs to expire.
