White House announces sweeping $1.8tn plan for childcare and universal preschool
Joe Biden’s speech to the US Congress on Wednesday evening caps off his first 100 days in office and puts him in the very chamber and at the very podium where insurrectionists loyal to Donald Trump sustained mob rule for a time on 6 January.
Amid high security around Washington DC and the US Capitol, Biden is due to make his first address to members of a joint session of the House of Representatives and the US Senate.
He is due to talk about the third massive piece of legislation of his young presidency, the $1.8tn American Families Plan that focuses on children, and is expected to bring up the topics of police reform and racial justice, the climate crisis and his huge infrastructure plan, unity and immigration.
And behind Biden will be a historic first – the sight of two women, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, seated behind the president.
Harris, the first female, Black and south Asian vice-president, and Pelosi, the first female House speaker, will take up their positions as the president reflects on the first 99 days of his presidency and lays out his vision for the 1,362 days to come.
The White House’s latest, sweeping $1.8tn plan would invest billions in a national childcare program, universal preschool, tuition-free community college, health insurance subsidies and tax cuts for low- and middle-income workers.
The American Families Plan was unveiled just ahead of the president’s address to Congress, and reflects many of Biden’s campaign promises.
It builds on his American Rescue Plan, which was the biggest expansion of the welfare state in decades. While the Rescue Plan was designed to bail the nation out of the depths of the coronavirus crisis – funding the $1,400 cheques that were sent to most Americans, and efforts to ramp up Covid-19 vaccinations – the plan unveiled on Wednesday aims to reshape the economy’s social infrastructure.
The vision would be funded by rolling back Trump-era tax cuts, raising the capital gains rate for millionaires and billionaires, and closing tax loopholes for the wealthy, senior administration officials said in a call with members of the media.
If the plan passes, about $300bn would be dedicated to funding education, $225bn would go toward childcare and another $225bn toward subsidizing paid family leave. The program reflects progressive ideas, including a national family leave program, which have only recently been adopted by mainstream Democratic lawmakers. The US is the only wealthy nation that does not have a federal policy for paid maternity leave, and is one of a very small group of wealthier countries that do not provide for paid paternity leave.
During a press briefing last week, Brian Deese, a senior adviser to the president, said the plan “will provide critical support for children and families and, in – by doing so, critical support for our economy by boosting labor force participation and future economic competitiveness”.
The plan excludes some provisions that leading Democrats, including the progressive senator Bernie Sanders and the House speaker, Pelosi, have pushed for, including reductions to consumer and government spending on prescriptions and an expansion to the eligibility criteria for Medicare, the governmentrun healthcare program.
Administration officials did not clarify why those provisions were excluded from the plan, though they said that the president has a plan to address drug prices and Medicare eligibility.
Republican lawmakers, who have staunchly opposed Biden’s spending proposals despite their broad popularity among both Democratic and Republican voters, are likely to bristle at this latest development. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who was unable to block the passage of the American Rescue Plan, this month vowed to fight Biden’s $2tn infrastructure plan “every step of the way”.
Central to their opposition are Biden’s plans to increase taxes on the wealthy to fund investments in infrastructure, education and healthcare – a tactic that would unravel the Republicans’ crowning achievement during the Trump administration: the sweeping tax cuts passed in 2017.
But Democrats don’t need bipartisan support. Although most bills must surpass 60 votes in the Senate, Democrats are able to pass budget-related measures with just 51 votes through a process called reconciliation. With representation in the chamber split 50-50 between parties, the vice-president serves as a tie-breaking vote.
On Tuesday evening, Biden is expected to make a grand entrance to the House to speak at 9pm local time. Attendance is highly restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is expected to talk about the attack on the Capitol on 6 January on that very spot, which was incited by Trump as the outgoing president when he exhorted supporters at a rally outside the White House to march on the seat of Congress and “fight” to stop lawmakers certifying Biden’s election victory. Trump was impeached, and acquitted by the Senate in February.