U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to unveil a sweeping $1.8 trillion package for families and education in his first joint speech to Congress on Wednesday, as he stresses the need to invest to compete with China, senior White House officials say.
Biden is expected to use the national speech to argue that the new package – which when coupled with an earlier infrastructure and jobs plan totals around $4 trillion, rivaling the annual federal budget – is vital to America’s future.
The U.S. president will also plead directly with lawmakers to pass legislation to curb police violence, senior administration officials say. Biden will highlight repeated police killings of Black citizens and years of entrenched racism, while also honoring the service of the vast majority of officers.
The plan to be detailed on Wednesday includes $1 trillion in new spending over ten years on education and child care, and $800 billion in tax credits aimed at middle and low income families, according to senior White House officials.
“These are about the highest value economic investments we can make for our future economic competitiveness,” said one senior administration official. Another official described it as a “once-in-a-generation investment.”
Republican lawmakers have already rejected the over $2 trillion infrastructure plan as too large. The Democratic president is gambling that his spending plans, which are largely popular with American voters, can sway Republicans in Congress to cooperate with the White House.
To pay for the plans, Biden has proposed an overhaul of the U.S. tax system. Wednesday’s ‘American Families Plan’ is funded by raising the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent and nearly doubling the tax on investment income – known as capital gains – for Americans who earn more than $1 million. The proposed infrastructure plan is funded by corporate tax.
News of the tax proposal briefly sank stock markets last week…..read more
Source: Reuters
