(UnitedVoice.com) – On October 28, President Joe Biden traveled to Capitol Hill to talk to lawmakers about his “Build Back Better” plan. The commander-in-chief agreed to a scaled-back version of the legislation in order to get it passed. It came with a hefty political price tag.
Factbox: What's in Biden and Senate Democrats' new $1.75 trillion spending framework https://t.co/ytFfqM5Lql pic.twitter.com/jwWTYOizlr
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 28, 2021
When the Left first proposed the massive infrastructure bill, they said it would cost $6 trillion. Then the president split the bills, negotiating with Republicans on one while Progressives worked on the other. In the end, the Democratic Party had a $3.5-trillion plan but couldn’t get everyone in their own party to agree to it. Now, the most recent framework from the president is much smaller than the far-Left wanted at $1.75 trillion.
To get the price down, the following programs (among others) were cut:
- Paid family leave
- Medicaid and Medicare expansion
- The wealth tax
- A provision allowing the negotiation of lower prescription drug costs
- The Clean Electricity Performance Program
The death of the wealth tax was one of the Left’s most beloved provisions. It was what they said would pay for the bill. Now that the provision is gone, Democrats are relying on a new 1% tax on stock buybacks, surtaxes on those making over $10 million annually and other measures to pay for the plan.
Progressives are furious about the cuts to the legislation. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pushing the far-left to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill soon while they continue to negotiate. She scheduled a vote for the same day, but it was delayed — again. The Democratic divide seems to be getting wider one year out from the 2022 midterm elections. That could pay off big for Republicans down the road.
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