The egos of Manchin, Sinema and the progressive caucus guided are creating a betrayal of the president and his agenda to help the lower and middle class. For months, the negotiations have tirelessly sounded like, “Manchin doesn’t want that”, and ” Sinema refuses to vote for that.” The original “Build Black Better” bill that President Biden wrote for $3.5 trillion included:
- Offers universal and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, the largest expansion of universal and free education in 100 years
- Delivers affordable, high-quality care for older Americans and people with disabilities in their homes, while supporting the workers who provide this care.
- Provides 39 million households up to $3,600 (or $300 per month) in tax cuts per child
- Delivers substantial consumer rebates and tax credits to reduce costs for middle class families shifting to clean energy and electrification.
- Strengthens the Affordable Care Act and reduces premiums for 9 Million Americans.
- Closes the Medicaid Coverage Gap, Leading 4 Million Uninsured People to Gain Coverage.
- Expands Medicare to cover hearing benefits.
- Makes the single largest and most comprehensive investment in affordable housing in history.
- Extends the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for around 17 million low-wage workers.
- Invests in immigration reform.
- Stops large, profitable corporations from paying zero in tax and tax corporations that buyback stock rather than invest in the company.
- Asks the highest income Americans to pay their fair share.
- Invests in enforcing our existing tax laws, so the wealthy pay what they owe.
Manchin, who has financial ties to the fossil fuel industry, opposes key measures in Biden’s human infrastructure bill. He objects to the amount of spending in the account, singling the issues of providing free community college and expanding Medicare coverage. Senator Sinema opposes raising taxes on the rich or corporations but remains opaque about her position on other matters in the bill. There have been concerns about her possible ties to special interests. She voted against Trump’s tax cut for the rich but now refuses to consider the raising of corporate taxes to what they were before the tax cut.
The White House officially declares:
The Build Back Better framework is fully paid for:
“Combined with savings from repealing the Trump Administration’s rebate rule, the plan is fully paid for by asking more from the very largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The 2017 tax cut delivered a windfall to them, and this would help reverse that—and invest in the country’s future. No one making under $400,000 will pay a penny more in taxes.”
Republicans campaign against taxing the rich based on the failed assumption that billionaires and corporate wealth produce financial gains to the lower and middle class. This Reagan-era ” trickle-down” economic philosophy has never materialized. Trump’s tax cut for the wealthy blew up the deficit and never paid for itself as promised. Republicans and Trump are skilled at denying their failures and lies, leaving their followers blind to the fact that they stand for nothing except power-grabbing, inciting divisiveness and violence, supporting Trump, and passing legislation to steal future elections.
When Buden’s agenda for the lower and middle classes pass, MAGA supporters should be exempt from it’s benefits because it would be hypocritical to benefit from Biden’s agenda while you support the big lie that he is not the legal president. Instead, follow Trump’s vision of waiting like sheep for the rich and the corrupted Republican party to deliver help to fami!ies on childcare, healthcare, Medicare, and the threat of climate change.
