Washington: President Biden on Thursday travelled to Capitol hill to convince House Democrats to back a $1.75 trillion framework of social and climate spending and end a weeks-long stalemate over the passage of a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill, reports NPR.
Biden joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party members in a closed-door meeting where Biden made an urgent case for a vote later on Thursday on the bipartisan bill, telling Democrats that in order to have success, they needed to succeed the same day.
The comments were specifically aimed at holdouts in the Congressional Progressive Caucus who have said they will not vote for the $1 trillion
infrastructure bill that passed the Senate in August until there is a final agreement on social spending.
Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal told reporters ahead of the meeting that she intended to stick with her position.
Senior Biden administration officials believe the policies in the framework can become a bill that passes both the House and the Senate, despite the decision to cut the original $3.5 trillion spending goal in half.
The social spending package, which senior administration officials described as “transformative,” would make investments in children and families, efforts to combat climate change, provide affordable health care, and help middle-class families.
It includes major priorities for Democrats including universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, an additional year of the expanded monthly child tax credit payment, invests in affordable housing, premium reductions under the Affordable Care Act and significant investments to address climate change.
The legislation will be paid for with a series of taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Notably absent from the framework are major party priorities, including:
* paid family leave
* measures to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Many Democrats have blamed Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., for the failure to reach a deal on paid family leave and free community college.
The framework comes at a critical moment for Biden, who is set to leave Washington Thursday afternoon for a series of meetings in Europe with global leaders on climate change and the world economy. Senior Congressional Democrats say they believe Biden wants at least one of the bills passed ahead of those talks.
The framework includes:
- Universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, for six years
- Child care support for about 20 million children for six years
- An extension of the child tax credit and earned income tax credit for one year
- More than $500 billion in spending on climate,
- Extending the expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits through 2025
- $100 billion for reforms to reduce backlogs in the immigration asylum process.
The taxes include:
- A 15% minimum tax for large corporations that report profits of more than $1 billion to shareholders
- A 1% tax on stock buybacks
- A 15% minimum tax on foreign profits of U.S. corporations
- A surtax on the top .02% wealthiest Americans of 5% on income over $10 million, and an additional 3% on income over $25 million
