Biden Build Back Better bill: House passes social safety net and climate plan
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 3 years ago • 55 commentsBy: Christina Wilkie (CNBC)
Published Fri, Nov 19 20219:46 AM ESTUpdated 1 Min Ago WATCH LIVE Key Points
- The House of Representatives has passed the largest expansion of the social safety net in decades, a $1.75 trillion bill that funds many of President Joe Biden's top priorities.
- The bill is a major victory for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who pulled together a divided caucus to pass the mammoth bill with a thin majority.
- Now that it has cleared the House, the Build Back Better Act goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be revised in the coming weeks.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) presides over the vote for the Build Back Better Act at the U.S. Capitol on November 19, 2021 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives on Friday passed the largest expansion of the social safety net in decades, a $1.75 trillion bill that funds universal pre-K, Medicare expansion, renewable energy credits, affordable housing, a year of expanded Child Tax Credits and major Obamacare subsidies.
The final vote was 220-213, and only one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voted against the bill.
Now that it has cleared the House, President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be revised in the coming weeks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he aims to have the chamber pass the bill before Christmas. The House will need to vote on it again if the bill is altered.
If the measure is signed into law, the bill will profoundly change how many Americans live, especially families with children, the elderly and low income Americans.
What's in the current version of the bill:
- Universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year olds. In addition to helping millions of children prepare better for school, the benefit would enable parents of young children to return to the work force earlier.
- Capping childcare costs at 7% of income for parents earning up to 250% of a state's median income.
- 4 weeks of federal paid parental, sick or caregiver leave.
- A year of expanded Child Tax Credits. During the past year, these credits have raised households with more than 3 million children out of poverty, and cut overall child poverty in America by 25%.
- Extended pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies. So far this year, these subsidies have increased ACA enrollment by more than 2 million.
- New hearing benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, including coverage for a new hearing aid every five years.
- A $35 per-month limit on the cost of insulin under Medicare, and a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 per year.
- $500 billion to combat climate change, largely through clean energy tax credits. This represents the largest ever federal investment in clean energy.
- Raising the State and Local Tax deduction limit from $10,000 to $80,000.
The bill represents a major victory for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who pulled together a divided caucus with conflicting interests and united it behind a sprawling, 2,000-plus-page bill, passing it with a thin majority.
"This bill will speak for itself to millions and millions and millions and millions of Americans whose lives will be made more secure and richer in terms of their quality of life, whose educational opportunities will be greater, and whose job opportunities will be greatly enhanced," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Md., said Friday at a press conference after the vote.
The long road to a vote
Pelosi and Democratic leaders had initially hoped to pass this bill on Nov. 5, the same day the chamber voted to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
But Democratic moderates insisted upon seeing a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bill's impacts before they voted on it. That analysis wasn't released until Thursday. House Democrats had hoped for a vote Thursday night, but Republican leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy derailed those plans with a rambling, eight-hour-plus speech that lasted through the night and into early Friday morning.
Progressives were reluctant to throw their weight behind the infrastructure bill without an iron-clad assurance that moderates would in turn vote to pass the Build Back Better Act when it came to the floor later on.
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They got that assurance, in the form of a statement from moderates saying in part that they would "commit to voting for the Build Back Better Act, in its current form" as soon as they got the CBO score.
But even after this compromise agreement was reached, six progressives still voted against the infrastructure bill, while 13 Republicans crossed the aisle to join Democrats in passing it.
Absent those 13 Republican votes, however, the bill would not have passed.
Last-minute compromise
The final language of the Build Back Better Act reflects a number of late-stage deals that Democratic leadership reached with small groups of holdouts.
Among them were Democrats who insisted on immigration language in the bill, a group of lawmakers from the Northeast opposed to the lower SALT deduction cap, and a third bloc of moderates who refused to support granting Medicare sweeping powers to negotiate prescription drug prices.
In each case, leaders and members reached a compromise, a testament to the trust that members of Pelosi's caucus still place in the speaker, even after months of sometimes tense negotiations.
For Golden, the only Democratic "no" vote, one of those compromises went too far: The large increase in the maximum that individuals can deduct on their federal tax returns for state and local taxes.
In a statement Thursday explaining his opposition, Golden noted that the long-term cost of lifting the SALT tax cap, around $280 billion over a decade, is greater than the "child care, pre-K, healthcare or senior care provisions in the bill."
Moreover, several analyses of the bill's outcomes have indicated that the majority of the savings to taxpayers in the SALT cap repeal provision will accrue to the benefit of high earners.
A major win for Biden
The Build Back Better Act and the separate bipartisan infrastructure bill together would represent the defining achievement of Biden's first year in office. The president signed the infrastructure bill into law earlier this week.
Together they fulfill his core campaign promise to be a president for the middle class, to tangibly improve the lives of working families and to address climate change.
More broadly, they serve as an example of Biden's argument around the world, that "American democracy can deliver" a better quality of life than autocracies can.
The bills could hardly come at a more important time for the president. As inflation and a global supply chain crisis dominate many Americans' sentiments about the economy, Biden has seen his approval ratings plummet.
Polls also showed that as Democrats in Congress battled over what would be in the bills, voters increasingly came to see the party as ineffective and wrapped up in "Washington problems," not in touch with the daily struggles of their constituents.
Next steps in the Senate
Now that it has cleared the House, the Build Back Better Act goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be revised in the coming weeks.
There, two conservative Democrats have an outsized influence on what happens next: Key swing vote Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Manchin has already said he opposes including paid leave in the bill.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has said he opposes raising the SALT cap deduction, arguing that it favors the wealthiest taxpayers and costs the government billions of dollars.
Go Nancy! Go Nancy! Go Nancy!
I guess half a loaf is better than nothing. I expect Manchin and Sinema to stand firm against the excesses of this pork filled travesty.
How much gas does Manchin's maserati use? He's really in touch with the people he represents.
Depends on whether it is city or highway driving, and other factors.
[Deleted]
16 city, 22 highway. Not great but not bad for an suv. How many gallons of gas did dumbshits 85 car motorcade in rome use? How big is the carbon footprint of all the global warming dumbasses and their multiple homes and private jets? Yeah, they are really in touch with the common man. Notice the left never talks about that? Lol.
Yeah, for anyone to seriously ask that dumb question when Pelosi eats $12 a pint ice cream stored in her $24,000 freezer is astonishing [Deleted]
She will, after she loses her position as Speaker after the midterms.
Just be a little patient.
Americans will benefit from BBB by 2022...
As Biden's agenda passes economy soars.
Do not bet on the gop gaining any power...
Americans will be benefiting from BBB by 2022.
Do you understand how inflation works?
And paying for it until 2050.
Is it soaring now? LOL! Ever even heard of inflation? Ever considered the effects of inflation on the economy?
Deluded people often ignore history and reality. Democrats lose their tiny majority, and it won't even be nearly as close as to what Democrats currently hold.
How so? Please be specific.
Bullshit. What in this fiasco is going to help the economy? The REAL infrastructure bill yes. This piece of shit, NO
I understand supply and demand. As supplies increase post Covid prices will fall. The BBB is paid for thus will not increase the deficit...
Trump's unfunded tax cuts and his profligacy plus Covid are responsible for the inflation...
Dems wiill lose ~40 seats in the House, 6-8 in the Senate
Based on what? The gop has no plan to win...
Based on history and current polling.
Seems like the GOP DOES have a plan to win. Did you forget the ass-whipping Democrats just took in Virginia and New Jersey?
Lol. That's not true at all.
Again bullshit
And that is just the deficit with no mention of the debt increase.
They really don't need a plan or have to do anything. They just have to sit back and continue to let the Democrats ensure their losses next year.
Everything is improving, so don't bet on that...
So, gas prices are lower now than when Biden was elected?
Food prices lower now, too?
How about utility costs?
In what fucking world is everything better?
Hey, Biden has been lying so long about it that some fools have started to believe his shit!
Based on their gerrymandering and voter suppression laws would be the only way they would win
Gee, did the Republicans win in Virginia because Democrats gerrymandered or passed suppressive laws?
What's the Dem plan to win?
Pray that Trump actually runs so they will have something to campaign on?
They damn sure can't run on accomplishment!
If the Dems want to win the WH in 2024 they need to do two things.
1) Put up a better candidate than Biden or Harris. Neither one of them will win the Independent votes.
2) Get Trump back on Twitter and social media and let him shoot himself in the foot.
I did see that it was passed after the minority leader tried the longest floor speech in history.
Ah yes, Wannabe Kevin babbled for hours.
Actually he does now hold the record for the longest floor speech in the House of Representatives. He held the floor for 8 hours 33 minutes, eclipsing Pelosi's speech from Feb 2018 which was a paltry 8 hours 7 minutes...
(and before anybody has a cow... the "paltry" was sarcasm. 8 hours 7 minutes is a long time for anybody to speak, much less anybody elderly)
Who gives a shit?
I say good. Now he will have the record for being an idiot.
Well, obviously, the posters who posted 2 and 2.1
Babes - pure Babes. Pelosi and McCarthy are kids to the "real" politicians below.
The 5 Longest Filibusters in US History
Strom Thurmond - The record for the longest filibuster goes to U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 , according to U.S. Senate records.
U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato -The second longest filibuster was conducted by U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, who spoke for 23 hours and 30 minutes to stall debate on an important military bill in 1986.
U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse - Morse spoke for 22 hours and 26 minutes to stall debate on the Tidelands Oil bill in 1953, according to U.S. Senate archives.
U.S. Sen. Robert La Follette Sr. - The fourth longest filibuster in American political history was conducted by U.S. Sen. Robert La Follette Sr. of Wisconsin, who spoke for 18 hours and 23 minutes to stall debate in 1908.
U.S. Sen. William Proxmire - U.S. Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin, who spoke for 16 hours and 12 minutes to stall debate on an increase of the public debt ceiling in 1981.
Nancy should get an award for writing the longest bills in history - ACA - 2,835 pages - BBB - 2,000 + pages - no one ever reads them 'cause they are brought up for vote - EVEN BEFORE BEING PUBLISHED. Example - ACA - 'You have to vote on it before you get to see it."
Pelosi began the windup of her healthcare pitch by alluding to the controversies over the healthcare bill and the process by which it has reached its current state. Then, just after saying, "It's going to be very, very exciting," Pelosi gaffed, telling the local elected officials assembled that Congress "[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it ,
The record of McCarthy being an idiot is galactic. Hell, McCarthy rarely forms a coherent sentence.
Ah!
Common ground with Biden then!
If the Senate even passes their version of the bill, it will be greatly different than what the House just passed.
IMO a lot of the pieces of the bill are really just partisan politics pieces that will be used for the 2022 and 2024 elections, used by both parties to hammer the other side. If Congress truly wanted a transformational bill they should have not used the reconciliation process but built a normal bill (or several) that enough parties could agree on, but that is not the nature of today's Congress.
"social safety net" lol...
The biggest item is a tax break for millionaires:
A five-year repeal would cost roughly $475 billion, with $400 billion of the tax cut going to the top 5 percent of households. That is more than any other part of Build Back Better, including the Child Tax Credit, spending on child care and pre-K, climate-related tax credits, or health care funding.
A point Republicans need to hammer on every time a Democrat opens their mouth and talks about how the rich aren't paying their fair share.
Why are Democrats so worked up over giving the rich a massive tax break?
Where to start? That somehow this meme makes a giant tax giveaway to the rich after Biden already borrowed trillions acceptable?
Or that he "successfully" ended the war in Afghanistan? Do the Americans he left behind believe that?
The use of a meme to defend Biden makes sense when you start thinking about what they have to believe to defend him.
notice he can't even address it. It's so bad he chooses to draw attention to the worst American policy blunder since the fall of Saigon.
I guess when your poster boy's approval is in the mid 30s, you don't have many options.
The rich pay more taxes under Biden's program. Families making less than $450,000 will not see their taxes increase. If you think working people writing off state and local taxes like they always could before Trump benefits the "Rich" you don't know what rich is. A tax break that only benefits families making less than $450,000 is hardly a benefit to the truly wealthy. Your complaint is that this mainly benefits blue states with higher local and state taxes.
You obviously don't know what SALT deductions are, or who benefits the most from them.
All of this has been explained many time here.
I won't waste time explaining it yet once again to someone not interested in facts.
Do you feel at all constrained by reality when making arguments?
[Deleted]
Is it your posit that a family making $100,000 are 'rich'?
Almost 20% of those that make $25,000 - $49,999 and over 44% of those that make between $50,000 and $100,000 qualify for SALT deductions. That is a MUCH larger amount of actual families than 'the rich' who claim the deduction.
The benefits of what Democrats in the House passed will go largely to the very rich.
That's data from Nov. 2nd.
Cleanup in aisle 1. Meta deleted. Play nice.