Biden’s Build Back Better ‘framework’ will fail

Published October 28, 2021 12:00am ET



President Joe Biden unveiled a shrunken reconciliation package on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to get Congress to pass his domestic agenda. It will fail for the same reason it hasn’t passed already: It is still too far to the left for the likes of Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona but not far left enough for progressives.

Biden’s new “framework” for $1.75 trillion, half of the $3.5 trillion Democrats wanted to spend, is an attempt to meet both sides of the Democratic Party in its middle. The bill would include investments in child care and universal preschool, Obamacare credits, affordable housing expansions, higher education, and clean energy. Notably, the bill does not include paid family and medical leave, free community college, expansions of other Medicare benefits, such as dental and vision, and the ability to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

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