Biden downgrades his “historic” social spending plan despite doubts from progressives

The “historical“US President Joe Biden’s social spending package remains up in the air in the face of skepticism that has caused in the progressive wing of the Democrats the notable reduction of its cost to about US $ 1.75 billion compared to the initial US $ 3.5 billion, leaving out measures such as paid maternity leave.

Although Biden celebrated the proposal as an example of the search for consensus, the truth is that he left for Europe this Thursday to participate in the G20 leaders’ summit in Rome and the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow (Scotland), without having specified this pillar basic of your domestic agenda.

Aware of the importance of it being approved by Congress, the president went to the Capitol early in the day to defend the plan before the legislators of his party and ask for their support.

“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the majorities in the House and Senate and my Presidency will be determined by what happens next week.“, said Biden to Democratic legislators in the Lower House of the US Congress, indicated a source familiar with what happened at the meeting.

Shortly after, and already in a public intervention from the White House, he assured that this is “a historic economic agreement“To what he considered”a turning point” in United States.

“A proposal that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation, and in our people to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity”, He stressed.

Biden he offered a dose of realism and pragmatism in defending the pact. “Nobody got everything they wanted, including myself. I have long said that commitment and consensus are the only ways to do something great in a democracy“, Held.

Despite the optimism shown by BidenSeveral prominent progressive lawmakers, such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been more cautious and have indicated that they will wait to read the text of the agreement in detail before giving their explicit endorsement.

In this regard, the leader of the progressive wing of the Democrats in the House, Pramila Jayapal, he warned that “right now there are too many votes against for the proposal to be approved today ”.

For his part, the senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders generally praised the plan, but remarked that it “clearly” has “big absences”, Among which he cited the lack of paid maternity leave.

The slim majority of Democrats in Congress, especially in the Senate, forces Biden to have the unanimous backing of all 50 Democratic senators and he can only afford to lose a handful of votes in the House of Representatives.

Climate crisis yes, maternity leave no

The plan maintains investments in climate and early childhood education, which were planned in the initial US $ 3.5 billion project, but leaves out a nationally paid family and maternity leave in the face of pressure from the centrist wing of his party.

The package, announced this Thursday by the White House, includes an investment of US $ 555,000 million in the fight against the climate crisis, especially through fiscal incentives for the use of clean energy sources.

Another $ 400 billion will go towards free education for children between the ages of three and four, the two years before entering elementary school, and a further $ 200 billion will allow the tax credits for Americans to be extended for another year. lower income having children.

However, it abolishes paid maternity leave, after having progressively reduced its proposals from 12 to 4 weeks.

Likewise, it eliminates the two-year free education plan for pre-university education centers and also dampens the expectations of a regularization plan for undocumented immigrants, since it does not include it directly in the proposal.

Moderate tax increases

For its part, the financing of Biden’s spending plan is based on the imposition of a 15% tax for large companies, within the global agreement of a minimum international tax on multinationals.

Likewise, it is based on a 5% increase in taxes for people with incomes above US $ 10 million and an additional 3% for those with more than US $ 25 million.

On the other hand, it penalizes the repurchase of shares by large companies with 1%, a mechanism used to raise the price of assets.

Finally, the proposal to tax billionaires who earn more than US $ 100 million a year or whose assets are valued at more than US $ 1 billion, and which would have affected tycoons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, is finally left out.