Build Back Better
Biden budget plan would levy minimum tax on billionaires, boost national security
President Joe Biden sent a new $5.8 trillion budget request to Congress on Monday that calls on lawmakers to institute a minimum tax on billionaires and boost spending on national security. The proposal, which lawmakers will undoubtedly change, asks Congress to provide $795 billion in defense funding, a roughly 4% increase, and $915 billion for domestic and foreign aid programs, about 5% more, for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. The rest of the funding would go toward mandatory spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Biden meets with county leaders in D.C., promotes Build Back Better plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden during a Tuesday meeting with county leaders called on Congress to pass his stalled social spending package as a way to fight inflation, saying it would help with expenses families face. “Families are getting clobbered by the cost of everyday things,” Biden told members of the National Association of Counties […]
Electricity CEOs tout Biden clean energy tax credits, despite stalled plan
Duke Energy’s Lynn Good among those in attendance at White House gathering Clean energy tax credits President Joe Biden proposed in his massive domestic spending and climate measure last year would help electric utilities build resilience and transmission lines, utility CEOs told Biden at a White House event Wednesday. But the $1.9 trillion budget measure, […]
Weekend humor from Celia Rivenbark: Manchin and Sinema go on a date…
“Table for two free-thinking patriots, please,” said the genial owl-faced Senator from West by-God Virginia. “Right away, Senator Manchin. Here’s a lovely table right here…” “It’s OK, but it’s a little too much in the center. What about that nice two-top over on the right? We don’t want to draw too much attention to ourselves, […]
In Year Two, no more Mr. Nice Biden, please
Republicans would roll over Democrats if they were in charge. Why the constant olive branches? About halfway through his marathon news conference last week, President Joe Biden finally asked the only question in Washington that’s worth asking. With congressional Republicans standing in the way of the Democrats’ every initiative, including voting rights (which should be […]
Biden says ‘big chunks’ of his spending bill could still succeed, including climate plan
President Joe Biden said Wednesday the climate and child care provisions in his domestic spending agenda could still become law this year, even as the larger plan has stalled in the Senate over other items that Biden conceded may not pass — such as an expanded child tax credit. In a nearly two-hour news conference, […]
Some Democrats push to rescue climate plan in Biden spending package
A group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday called for preserving the climate portions of President Joe Biden’s stalled domestic spending bill as Democrats in the U.S. Senate rewrite the measure. U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Tina Smith of Minnesota and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, along with Reps. Kathy Castor […]
Home care is a lifeline for people with disabilities. Demise of Build Back Better means fewer will receive it.
In high school, while my classmates were away on college visits, I toured nursing homes. Even though I was just 18, I was informed that I would soon be living in one. It was true: Barely into my 20s, I was moved to a nursing home where my roommates were elderly Alzheimer patients. During my […]
Prescription drug price reform on the line in Biden’s big social spending bill
WASHINGTON — Among the most potentially transformational changes in the Democrats’ massive social and climate bill pending in the Senate are a set of long-sought changes intended to tamp down the fast-rising cost of prescription drugs. The $2 trillion spending package would ensure Americans don’t pay more than $35 when they pick up a new […]
Today’s enhanced monthly Child Tax Credit payment could be the last that families receive unless Congress acts to extend this successful policy
Today marks the sixth round of Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments going out to an estimated 1.2 million families in North Carolina, supporting the well-being of nearly two million children in the state. The temporary improvements to the CTC under the American Rescue Plan increased funding available to families, expanded eligibility by making the credit […]
‘Americans always rebuild’: Biden promotes infrastructure investments in Kansas City speech
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Joe Biden on Wednesday visited the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority to tout the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill he signed into law last month, expected to bring billions in spending on roads and bridges, clean water, public transportation, high speed internet and more to Kansas and Missouri. The president said […]