Thursday, October 28, 2021
After pressure from own party
Biden cuts down investment package
US President Biden wants to relieve families and promote the fight against climate change. But the estimated cost of his plans – $ 3.5 trillion – goes too far for even parts of his own party. Now a compromise is to bring the social and climate package through the congress.
In response to pressure from parts of his party, US President Joe Biden has dramatically cut his planned package for investments in social and climate protection. After spending $ 1.75 trillion (1.5 trillion euros) in his plans, senior White House officials said. Originally, Biden had targeted a package that was twice that size, valued at $ 3.5 trillion. Moderate Democrats, however, had resisted such high spending and, in months of negotiations, forced the president to abandon parts of his plans.
The White House employees expressed their confidence that the necessary majorities would now come about in both chambers of congress for the slimmed-down package. “The president believes this framework will have the support of all 50 Democratic senators and will pass the House of Representatives,” said a senior government official.
The center politicians Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema reject the package of measures as too costly and are also resisting tax increases planned by Biden for companies with which the president wanted to counter-finance his measures. The Democrats only have a wafer-thin majority in the Senate and therefore cannot afford a single dissent: Like the opposition Republicans, they have 50 senators, but in stalemates, Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as Senate President, has the casting vote.
Biden seeks domestic political success
There was initially no official agreement with the various party wings of the Democrats. Biden wanted to personally campaign for approval of the compromise package during a visit to the Democratic parliamentary group of the House of Representatives this Thursday and then to comment publicly on the project.
Among other things, the plan is to reduce the – up to now sometimes horrific – childcare costs for many families in the country and in some cases to be taken over entirely by the state, to relieve families of tax and to expand health services. In the fight against the climate crisis, investments in renewable energies and tax incentives for the purchase of electric cars are planned.
The package is to be financed through tax increases for corporations and top earners as well as through the more consistent collection of due taxes. The White House expects around $ 2 trillion in new revenue – a little more than the cost of the package. Various plans that Biden had originally included in the package were dropped, including his plan to introduce twelve weeks of paid parental leave.
Biden was keen to achieve domestic success on his reform agenda before he left for Europe. The US President will meet Pope Francis and French President Emmanuel Macron in Rome on Friday before attending the G20 summit in the Italian capital over the weekend. He will then fly to the World Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.