“Build Back Better”. It’s not a great slogan, but Biden’s BBB bill will be passed eventually. It won’t be as sensible as what Biden originally proposed. A few “conservative” or flaky congressional Democrats insisted on making it worse. But it will make a difference in millions of lives when it finally becomes law.
Democrats in the House say they want to pass it this coming week, which means by Thursday, November 18. Then, however, both the House and Senate take another much needed break until the end of November. Assuming House Democrats do their job next week, Senate Democrats will then have two weeks to do theirs, before it’s break time again. Unless Senate Democrats approve it by December 10, it won’t get done until 2022 (we really are living in the future).
Almost all the news about BBB has been about the spending side of the bill, leaving out the popular offsetting taxes the bill would impose on corporations and people with plenty of cash to spare. The other thing the news has mostly ignored is what the bill would do. A relatively objective and nonpartisan group called the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has kindly provided the list below. The CFRB concludes it would have a small effect on the federal deficit in its present form. In the long run, they say it would have a bigger effect, assuming all the temporary parts of the bill are made permanent. But there’s no doubt whatsoever these things are worth doing and we can afford to do them (unlike the last Republican tax cut, for example, which wasn’t worth doing and made good things like BBB less easy to afford).
What’s in the Build Back Better Act?
| Policy | Cost/Savings (-) |
|---|---|
| Family Benefits | $585 billion |
| Provide universal pre-k & establish an affordable child care program (6 years) | $390 billion |
| Establish a paid family and medical leave program | $195 billion |
| Climate & Infrastructure | $555 billion |
| Invest in clean energy & climate resilience | $220 billion |
| Establish or expand clean energy & electric tax credits | $190 billion |
| Establish or expand clean fuel & vehicle tax credits | $60 billion |
| Establish or expand other climate-related tax benefits | $75 billion |
| Enact infrastructure & related tax breaks | $10 billion |
| Individual Tax Credits & Cuts | $210 billion |
| Extend Child Tax Credit (CTC) increase to $3,000 ($3,600 for kids under 6) for one year | $130 billion |
| Make CTC fully refundable for 2023 & beyond | $55 billion |
| Extend expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for one year | $15 billion |
| Other individual tax changes | $10 billon |
| Health Care | $335 billion |
| Strengthen Medicaid home- and community-based services | $150 billion |
| Extend expanded Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits & make premium tax credits available to those in Medicaid coverage gap through 2025 | $125 billion |
| Establish Medicare hearing benefit | $30 billion |
| Invest in the health care workforce | $30 billion |
| Other Spending & Tax Cuts | $310 billion |
| Build & support affordable housing | $170 billion |
| Increase higher education & workforce spending | $40 billion |
| Other spending & investments | $100 billion |
| Reduce or Delay TCJA Base Broadening | $290 billion |
| Increase SALT deduction cap to $80,000 through 2025 | $285 billion+ |
| Delay amortization of research & experimentation expenses until 2026 | $5 billion’ |
| Enact Immigration Reform | ~$100 billion |
| Subtotal, Build Back Better Act Spending & Tax Breaks | $2.4 trillion |
| Increase Corporate Taxes | -$830 billion |
| Impose a 15 percent domestic minimum tax on large corporations | -$320 billion |
| Impose a 15 percent global minimum tax & reform international taxation | -$280 billion |
| Impose a 1 percent surcharge on corporate stock buybacks | -$125 billion |
| Enact other corporate tax reforms | -$105 billion |
| Increase Individual Taxes on High Earners | -$640 billion |
| Expand the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax | -$250 billion |
| Impose a 5 percent surtax on income above $10 million & an 8 percent surtax on income above $25 million | -$230 billion |
| Extend and expand limits on deductibility of business losses | -$160 billion |
| Other Revenue | -$170 billion |
| Reduce the tax gap by funding IRS & other measures | -$125 billion* |
| Reinstate superfund taxes on oil | -$25 billion |
| Expand nicotine taxes | -$10 billion |
| Reform tax treatment of retirement accounts | -$10 billion |
| Health Care | -$250 billion |
| Repeal Trump Administration drug rebate rule | -$150 billion |
| Reform Part D formula, cap drug price growth, & allow targeted drug price negotiations | -$100 billion |
| Establish $80,000 SALT deduction cap from 2026 through 2030 & $10,000 cap in 2031 | -$300 billion+ |
| Subtotal, Build Back Better Act Offsets | -$2.2 trillion |
| Net Deficit Increase, House Build Back Better Act | ~$200 billion |
Whereof One Can Speak 🇺🇦 