With Washington’s — and the public’s — attention riveted on Ukraine and rising prices, particularly at the gas pump, in recent weeks, it’s been easy to forget the litany of unresolved issues facing states. States still face at home.
The promise of President Biden’s national agenda has faded. Build Back Better, the massive $2 trillion budget bill that Biden hoped would be his flagship legislative achievement, has been dormant for months. To revive it, even in the piecemeal way that seems the only way forward, Biden will have to do more than he did two weeks ago in his first State of the Union address. He touted important elements of that program — universal preschool, investments in affordable housing, and hundreds of billions invested in green energy — but didn’t offer a clear roadmap for how his administration, in collaboration with Democrats who tightly control both houses of Congress, can put these changes into law.
The changes are no less urgent, and the politics of pushing them through no less difficult. Since Build Back Better was scuttled in December, the US economic outlook has arguably deteriorated. Although his administration has created jobs, the price of almost everything is rising sharply. Inflation rose by almost 8% through February, the fastest pace in 40 years.
That’s why it’s so important that the day after Biden’s speech, Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va, a key part of the original bill, offered the president a lifeline. Biden needs to take advantage of this and start from scratch, building a legislative agenda that has a real chance of passing.
In one interview with Politics, Manchin outlined several provisions he could support: prescription drug reform, investments in clean energy and making health insurance subsidies permanent, paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations. He envisages that half of the revenues generated by the tax reform will be devoted to reducing the deficit.
That’s a far cry from Biden’s proposed transformation agenda, and far less than his party’s progressive wing continues to demand. Indeed, many of the missing elements make Manchin’s narrower proposal a tough pill to swallow. The editorial board supported the goals of Build Back Better because we agree with Biden that increased investment in education, housing, health care and opportunity for women would have lifted millions of children and other people from poverty. It would also have largely paid for itself thanks to the proposed tax increases.
But with debt reaching $30 trillion, with Republicans controlling 50 Senate seats and poised to take control of perhaps one or both chambers after this fall’s election, time to grieve over what could have been is past.
Call it rebuilding something. Nothing. Anything that brings Congress to a yes.
Biden should seize on Manchin’s willingness to back parts of his bolder agenda — and work with lawmakers to craft a bill that could pass. There should be opportunities to go beyond what Manchin has proposed as a starting point, but the bottom line should be a bill that can become law this year. The frame that Manchin left floating offers an opportunity to do a lot of good.
Consider just one small element of the reduced program: prescription drug price reform. That alone could save taxpayers nearly $300 billion capping reimbursable drug prices at $2,000 per year for Medicare beneficiaries and allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs for all Americans. It includes a provision requiring inflation rebates to limit annual drug price increases in Medicare and private insurance. Texas would benefit greatly from these changes, with the third highest health insurance population in the nation.
Manchin’s support for green energy investments is also key, especially since he represents coal-dependent West Virginia. The original Build Back Better bill would have spent $555 billion on alternative energy sources, largest clean energy investment in U.S. history. That total — which includes tax credits for businesses and consumers that will make it easier to buy electric vehicles, install solar panels, renovate buildings and manufacture wind turbines — should be the benchmark for any new expense bill.
Biden campaigned from the center. With Congress as divided as it is, it will also have to govern from the center. Plus, rising inflation makes a major spending bill harder to sell in 2022 than it would have been a year ago.
But the nation’s needs aren’t taking a break, and neither is its president. Biden may not have been able to push the Build Back Better bill past the finish line. But now he must put together his most important pieces and win support in Congress. Presenting this streamlined bill as a tonic for the biggest issues facing families right now will be key to making that happen.
The Democrats should make a deal and relieve families squeezed by our broken economy.