Biden, Democrats shred spending, tax plans to get a deal done

[Celerity]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-democrats-shred-spending-tax-plans-get-deal-done-2021-10-21/

Oct 21 (Reuters) - For months, U.S. President Joe Biden and Democrats touted a $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan as a transformational piece of legislation that would reshape the world’s largest economy for decades to come. They have spent recent days painfully deciding how to pare down parts of the plan, and which parts to scrap entirely as they seek to satisfy demands from within their own ranks to cut the size of the package.

Congressional and White House sources say that among the ideas now on the chopping block are: a $109 billion plan to provide free community college to all Americans and a $150 billion program to push utilities to switch to renewable energy. The highly touted child tax credit extension was slashed to one year, and paid family leave could be gutted as well, they say.

Most significantly, a fundamental mechanism for paying it all, raising the corporate tax rate, is on ice, because Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a key swing-vote Democrat, is unlikely to support it.

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Paid family leave, a cornerstone of Biden’s economic agenda, and a topic some members of his women-heavy economic team have spent years advocating for, also faces severe cutes. Biden’s initial plan called for providing up to 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents and caretakers for seriously ill family members, and compensating workers for at least two-thirds of their earnings. Now the benefit could shrink to just a few weeks, alarming supporters who view this as the best chance to secure a crucial safety net for workers, particularly women.

child tax credit extension was slashed to one year