Biden’s presidential agenda hinges on $ 3.5 trillion spending bill

“President is on the verge of major public education expansion, one of the biggest social safety net expansions, biggest investment in climate change mitigation” and labor law overhauls and drug pricing, said Patrick Gaspard, a former Obama administration official, now president of the Liberal Center for American Progress in Washington.

“Each of these things are important in their individual building blocks,” he said, “but taken as a whole, I think it is a testament to the remarkable opportunity we have – these unique opportunities to define a journey. that creates growth for all, including and especially for those who have been the most vulnerable in this economy.

If the effort is successful, Mr. Biden will have accomplished much of what he campaigned on in one fell swoop. Observers say he will bring a strengthened hand to the global summits in October and November that aim to galvanize the world around the transition from global warming fossil fuels and end the use of offshore havens that businesses have long used to avoid taxation.

White House officials say the breadth of the ensemble’s programs form a unified vision of the U.S. national economy and its place in the world, and that the planks serve as a sort of coalition glue. – an approach something for everyone which makes it difficult to drop pieces of the plan in the negotiations, even if they turn out to be contentious.

But the breadth of its content has opened up divisions among Democrats on several fronts, when Mr Biden cannot afford to lose a single vote in the Senate and no more than three votes in the House.

Centrists and progressives have clashed over the scale of the spending in the legislation and the scale and details of the tax increases Mr. Biden wants to use to help offset its cost. They are divided on the price of prescription drugs, the generosity of tax credits for the poor, the aggressiveness of key measures to accelerate the transition to a low-emission energy sector and much more.

Even things that aren’t top priorities for Mr. Biden have opened loopholes. One of the party’s most vocal progressives on Friday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, targeted a critical priority of several leading Democrats, including Senator Chuck Schumer, saying she would resist attempts Completely repeal a cap on deductions for state and local property taxes that would help high incomes in high tax areas.