Public Supports Bipartisan & Build Back Better Bills

The charts above reflects the results of the new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between October 1st and 4th of a national sample of 1,326 adults, with a 2.7 point margin of error.

Public Supports Biden's Plan (But Corporations Don't)

As the chart above (and many other polls) show, the public supports President Biden's "Build Back Better" plan. So, why is the plan having so much trouble passing Congress? All Republicans and a few Democrats are blocking the plan. Why?

The reason is that corporations are opposing the plan. They don't want to pay more (or any) taxes. They know the country needs the plan, and they would also benefit from it, but they don't want to help pay for it.

Here is some of what Judd Legum has to say about this at Popular Information: 

The reconciliation bill, also known as the "Build Back Better" plan, has two main components. There is a wide-ranging collection of new policies, including:

• Paid family leave

• An expanded child tax credit

• Universal pre-K

• Free community college

• Expanding Medicare to cover vision and dental

• A serious effort to address climate change, including a Clean Energy Standard

There is also a set of proposals to pay for these new policies, including:

• Closing tax loopholes for private equity managers and wealthy heirs

• Increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5%

• Raising the top individual tax rate from 37% to 39.6%

• Imposing a 3% surtax on income over $5 million

• Increasing tax enforcement to enable the IRS to collect more money that is already owed

• Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, lowering costs

People can debate whether or not these policies are good. But there is no question these policies are extremely popular. 

A recent poll from Data for Progress found that 62% of Americans support the reconciliation package. This includes 85% of Democrats, 58% of Independents, and 39% of Republicans. 

Likely voters also overwhelmingly support proposals to raise taxes on wealthy business owners (68%), increase funding for IRS enforcement (64%), and raise the corporate tax rate (62%). 

The Data for Progress poll is not an outlier. Every recent poll of the reconciliation bill found supporters outnumbering opponents, including Pew (+24), Fox News(+22), Monmouth (+28), and Quinnipiac (+30).

While opponents of the bill are relatively small in number, they make up for it with money and power. Corporations and the wealthy have launched an aggressive campaign to defeat the legislation.  

Despite the bill's significant support among independents and some Republicans, opponents can count on every Republican in Congress to vote against the legislation. But since it is a reconciliation bill and the Democrats control both chambers of Congress, it doesn't require any Republican votes to pass. 

So opponents need to peel off some Democrats. Since the Senate is evenly split and Democrats control the House by a razor-thin margin, they don't have to convince many Democrats to kill the bill. Corporations and the wealthy need to convince a handful of Democratic members of Congress to vote against the preferences and interests of their constituents.

Much of this lobbying effort is taking place behind closed doors.

In the Senate, even one Democratic defection could sink the reconciliation bill. Many eyes are on Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) who has publicly said she believes the bill is too large and privately "told Senate Democratic colleagues that she is averse to the corporate and individual tax rate increases that both the House and Senate tax-writing committees had planned to use to help pay for the measure."

On Tuesday, five corporate lobbying groups are hosting a fundraiser for Sinema in DC. For a ticket price of $1,000 to $5,800, the event provides an opportunity to schmooze with Sinema for 45 minutes. . . .

Sinema isn't the only Democratic member of Congress who has seen an influx of corporate cash after raising doubts about the reconciliation package. Campaign finance filings reveal that "nine of the Democrats threatening the bill were rewarded during the month of August with over $150,000 in donations from PACs, including many affiliated with business groups that are lobbying against it."

For example, in August, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) received $5,000 each from the PACs of International Paper Co. and Marathon Petroleum. Manchin has been a key Democratic voice objecting to the size and scope of the reconciliation bill." The paper company’s chair and CEO, Mark Sutton, is a member of the Business Roundtable. Suzanne Gagle, Marathon’s general counsel and senior vice president for government affairs, is a board member of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)," Sludge reports. Both the Business Roundtable and NAM are lobbying against the legislation. . . .

The Business Roundtable also announced a "multi-million-dollar campaign" to defeat the reconciliation bill which will include "direct CEO engagement to Capitol Hill and the Administration, as well as high-frequency radio print and digital ads in over 50 media markets across the country, generating calls and letters from constituents in target states."

The Progressive Case For Linking The Infrastructure Bills

House moderates and progressives in the Democratic Party are still squabbling over the infrastructure bills. The moderates want to go ahead and vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and vote later on the "soft" infrastructure bill. The progressives want the "soft" (Build Back Better) bill voted on first, and then the bipartisan plan voted on. They don't think the moderates will vote for the bigger, family-centric, bill once they get the bipartisan bill passed -- and they may be right about that. They are threatening to vote against the bipartisan bill if it is voted on first.

In the following op-ed (by Rep. Porter, Rep. Omar, and Rep. Jayapal), progressives make their case:

When President Joe Biden announced in the spring his plans for "once-in-a-generation investments in our nation's future," he said that "it is not enough to restore where we were prior to the pandemic. We need to build a stronger economy that does not leave anyone behind -- we need to build back better."

That is our shared vision -- the vision the American people voted for -- and it is what we as Congressional leaders must deliver with urgency.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced her intention that the House vote this week on a transformative economic package and a major investment in infrastructure. Congress now faces a choice: advance the entirety of an agenda that gets American families the help they need, or deliver only a fraction of it. That's why we, as leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, remain committed to voting for the infrastructure bill only after the Build Back Better Act is passed.

We lead one of the largest ideological caucuses in the US House of Representatives, and our membersrepresent a cross-section of America. From rural districts to urban, from some of the most competitive districts in the country to Democratic strongholds, our caucus is emblematic of the diversity of our party and our country.

Yet, we hear remarkable consistency in our communities' concerns.

Parents can't get back to work because they can't find affordable child care. Young people are infuriated that their country's leaders are not taking aggressive enough steps to leave them a livable planet. Families are struggling to stay healthy in dangerous, crumbling public housing. Immigrant communities are tired of living under the threat of deportation -- especially as so many are essential workers who kept our country's economy going through the pandemic at risk to their own safety. And people cannot afford the prescription drugs they need, forced to rationmedication to stay alive.

In short: Americans need the Build Back Better agenda.

This agenda was divided into two concurrent bills -- the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Build Back Better Act. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will allow for long overdue updates to our country's roads, bridges and waterways. But it's the Build Back Better Act that will deliver the child care, climate action, affordable housing, immigration reform and lower drug prices that Americans need, deserve and voted for.

The Build Back Better Act provides child care to women who have been pushed out of the workforce. It funds free community college and affordable housing. It finally expands Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing benefits for our seniors. And it takes meaningful action on climate change -- funding millions of green jobs to build our energy future.

Not only is this good policy, but it's also overwhelmingly popular. Voters support the Build Back Better package's provisions by a 30-point margin, according to an August Quinnipiac University poll. Funding for home-based care for seniors has 75% support across the political spectrum, a July AP/NORC survey shows, with universal pre-K and affordable housing funds both seeing 67% support. More than half of voters are in favor of the child tax credit (55%) and free community college (54%). And about 2 in 3 Americans support paying for these investments by taxing corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

From the beginning of this process, the Progressive Caucus has been clear that the infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act are two parts of a whole, so they must be passed together. Our call has been echoed by the President, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority Leader. As Speaker Pelosi said in June, "there won't be an infrastructure bill, unless we have a reconciliation bill. Plain and simple."

Passing the Build Back Better Act will require standing up to powerful special interests. The investments it makes in improving our economy are paid for by getting billionaires and big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes; insisting to Big Pharma that we negotiate drug prices; and taking on the fossil fuel lobby to address the climate crisis.

That's why corporate lobbyists, Big Pharma, and Wall Street executives have declared all-out war to stop the bill. Rather than understanding that these are investments in our economy -- which should be its mission -- the US Chamber of Commerce has been one of the leaders in lobbyingagainst the bill with reported six-figure ad campaigns trying to block worker protections and climate action. The pharmaceutical industry, which already spent $92 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2021 alone, launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to torpedo President Biden's effort to rein in drug costs. Another corporate lobbyist decried provisions to catch tax cheats as "existential threat(s)."

If we allow corporate lobbyists to dictate our legislative agenda, the economic recovery will grind to a halt.

Let us be clear: our caucus supports the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We see the harms that crumbling roads, structurally deficient bridges, and lead-poisoned water have on our communities. Updating our infrastructure is a necessary component to delivering a strong, stable economy that creates opportunity for all.

But equally necessary are the child care, elder care, health care, housing, education and climate actions currently included in the Build Back Better Act. Without both the infrastructure bill and the budget bill, our economic recovery will be slow, unstable, and weak. Millions of Americans will be left out or fall further behind.

A few conservative Democrats have suggested we should "pause" this urgently needed legislation by moving forward without the Build Back Better Act and providing less help to families. But we will not leave behind child care, paid leave, health care, housing, education, climate action, and a long-overdue road map to citizenship.

We must deliver for American families. Our Progressive Caucus members will put our votes on the line to send the entirety of the Build Back Better agenda to President Biden's desk. As he said when he laid out this plan: "We can do this. We have to do this. We will do this."

These were the priorities Democrats ran on in 2020. These were the values that allowed us to take the House, the Senate, and the White House. And by getting both the Build Back Better Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law, we will meet the needs of the American people.

Voters Support Democrats' Tax Plan To Pay For Infrastructure

 

The charts above are from the latest Politico / Morning Consult Poll -- done between September 18th and 20th of a national sample of 1,998 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.

It shows that voters like the Democratic tax plan to pay for their infrastructure bill.

How Biden's $3.5 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Would Help

 

President Biden has proposed a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill to help families. The total the bill spends is spread over 10 years, and would be paid for (so it wouldn't add to the deficit). Every single Republican in Congress is opposing the president's bill. That's not surprising, since the GOP is only interested in helping the rich and corporations -- not everyday Americans.

Here, from Robert Reich, is a short summary of what the bill would do:

Right now, Democrats are working to pass a $3.5 trillion package that will provide long overdue help for working Americans.

The final bill hasn’t yet been determined, so we don’t know the exact dollar amounts for all its policies. We’ll probably find that out in late September or early October. For now, the Democrats’ budget resolution frames what’s in the bill.  

First, on families:

The bill would make permanent key benefits for working families, including the expanded child tax credit in the pandemic relief plan that sends families up to $300 per child each month but is now set to expire in December, and is estimated to cut child poverty by half. 

It would also establish universal child care, for which low- and middle-income households would pay no more than 7 percent of their incomes. 

And provide a national program of paid leave — worth up to $4,000 a month — for workers who take time off because they are ill or caring for a relative.

Next, on education:

The bill would reduce educational inequality by establishing universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, benefiting an estimated 5 million children, and providing tuition-free community college – essentially expanding free public education from 12 years to 16 years. 

It will also invest in historically Black colleges and universities and increase the maximum amount of Pell grants for students from lower-income families. 

On health care:

The bill expands Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing benefits and lowers the eligibility age. It also expands Medicaid to cover people living in the 12 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid, and makes critical investments to improve healthcare for people of color. 

The big question is how far it will go to reduce prescription drug prices by, for example, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. That could reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending, and free up more money for other parts of the bill. But Big Pharma is dead-set against this.

Big corporations and the rich picking up the tab:

In another step toward fairness, all of these are to be financed by higher taxes on the rich and big corporations. 

The bill would also increase the Internal Revenue Service’s funding so the agency can properly audit wealthy tax cheats, who fail to report about a fifth of their income every year, thereby costing the government $105 billion annually. 

In addition, the bill tackles the climate crisis, which also especially burdens lower-income Americans: 

There are a range of solutions – subsidizing the use of solar, wind, nuclear and other forms of clean energy while financially penalizing the use of dirty energy like coal; helping families pay for electric cars and energy-efficient homes. 

The bill might include something known as a carbon border adjustment tax — a tax on imports whose production was carbon-intensive, like many from China.

The bill would also establish a Civilian Climate Corps, and invest in communities that bear the brunt of the climate crisis.

And the bill helps American workers:

It will hopefully contain much of the PRO Act, the toughest labor law reform in a generation. 

Finally, the bill includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
This is all about making America fairer. 

Remember: we won’t know the exact details of the bill for at least a month, but these are the main areas that it will focus on. The big challenge will be ensuring Senate Democrats remain united to get it passed. All of us will need to fight like hell.

Don’t listen to spending hawks who claim it’s too expensive or too radical. For far too long, our government has ignored the needs of everyday Americans, catering instead to the demands of corporations and the super-rich. No more. 

It’s time to get this landmark bill passed and build a fairer America.

Biden's 9/16 Speech On Taxes, Infrastructure, & The Economy

Here is the transcript of President Biden's speech on the economy, taxes, and the infrastructure plans: 

Good afternoon.  I want to start by thanking the House committees for working hard this week to advance critical components of the economic plan that I’ve put before the Congress.
 
I know we still have a long way to go, but I’m confident that Congress will deliver to my desk both the bipartisan physical infrastructure plan and the Build Back Better plan that I have proposed.
 
And I’ve said many times before: I believe we’re at an inflection point in this country — one of those moments where the decisions we’re about to make can change — literally change the trajectory of our nation for years and possibly decades to come. 
 
Each inflection point in this nation’s history represents a fundamental choice.  I believe that America, at this moment, is facing such a choice.  And the choice is this: Are we going to continue with an economy where the overwhelming share of the benefits go to big corporations and the very wealthy?  Or are we going to take this moment right now to set this country on a new path — one that invests in this nation; creates real, sustained economic growth; and that benefits everyone, including working people and middle-class folks?
 
That’s something we haven’t realized in this country for decades.
 
The data — (clears throat) — excuse me.  The data is absolutely clear.  Over the past 40 years, the wealthy have gotten wealthier, and too many corporations have lost their sense of responsibility to their workers, their communities, and the country.
 
Just look at the facts.  CEOs used to make about 20 times the average worker in the company that they ran.  Today, they make more than 350 times what the average worker in their corporation makes.
 
Since the pandemic began, billionaires have seen their wealth go up by $1.8 trillion.  That is, everyone who was a billionaire before the pandemic began, the total accumulated wealth beyond the billions they already had has gone up by $1.8 trillion.  Simply not fair.
 
And it’s — how is it possible that 55 of the largest corporations in this country paid zero dollars in federal income taxes?  They made over $40 billion in the year 2020, and they’ve paid zero.  Think about that.  Zero dollars in federal taxes on $40 billion in profits.
 
How is it possible that the wealthiest billionaires
in the country can entirely escape paying income tax on what they’ve made?
 
How is it possible for millionaires and billionaires that can pay a lower rate of tax than teachers, firefighters, or law enforcement officers?
 
Here’s the simple truth.  For a long time, this economy has worked great for those at the very top, while ordinary, hardworking Americans — the people who built this country — have been basically cut out of the deal.
 
And I’ve said this from the time I announced I was going to run: I believe this is a moment of potentially great change.  This is our moment to deal working people back into the economy.  This is our moment to prove to the American people that their government works for them, not just for the big corporations and those at the very top.
 
When I was sworn in as President, the nation was struggling to pull out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Job growth was anemic, with just over 60,000 new jobs per month in the three months before I was sworn in.
 
Then we went to work and passed the American Rescue Plan back in March.  And it worked.  It’s still working.
 
Over the last three months, we’ve been creating, on average, 750,000 new jobs per month.  Our economy is growing at the fastest rate we’ve seen in nearly 40 years.
 
Our recovery is unique in the world.  We’re the only developed country in the world whose economy is now bigger than it was before the pandemic.
 
While this is all good news, I know many Americans are still struggling to make it through each and every day.
 
For too many, it’s harder and harder to pay the bills — food, gas, rent, healthcare.  I get it.  We still have a long way to go to get the economy where it needs to be.
 
As I’ve said for a long time: Coming out of this economic crisis as deep as the one we were in was never going to be easy.  But we’re doing it, and we can continue to do it.
 
COVID, supply chain issues, and bad actors seeking to profit off the pandemic are all contributing to the challenges we’re facing.
 
That’s why I’ve made getting COVID under control my top priority from my first day as President.  Everything — everything, from our public health to our economy, depends on this.
 
We made enormous progress against the virus through the summer, and now we’ve put ourselves in a strong position to battle this Delta variant.  That’s why the actions I proposed on vaccines last week are so critical: from requiring federal workers to get vaccinated; requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated; requiring employers with over 100 employees to institute vaccine and/or test protocols, calling on — for them to be able to know what their employers — their employees are doing before they walk through the door; calling for vaccine or test requirements to enter big venues; and a whole series of steps I proposed to protect our kids in schools.
 
Wall Street firms have analyzed the impact of these plans, and they’re projecting that these new requirements will help 12 million more Americans get vaccinated, which will help more businesses stay open and more Americans back to work.
 
The data shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with my proposal.  That’s — there’s no surprise, given that 76 percent of American adults have already gotten at least one shot.
 
But — but we’re facing a lot of pushback, especially from some of the Republican governors.  The governors of Florida and Texas — they’re doing everything they can to undermine the lifesaving requirements that I’ve proposed.
 
And some of the same governors attacking me are in states with some the strictest vaccine mandates for children attending school in the entire country.
 
For example, in Mississippi, children are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus, and more.  These are state requirements. 
 
But in the midst of a pandemic that has already taken over 660,000 lives, I propose a requirement for COVID vaccines, and the governor of that state calls it, quote, a “tyrannical-type move”?  A “tyrannical-type move”? 
 
This is the worst kind of politics because it’s putting the lives of citizens of their states, especially children, at risk.  And I refuse to give in to it. 
 
These policies are what the science tells us we need to do.  They’re going to save lives.  And they’ll protect our economic recovery as well, and allow the economy to continue to grow.
 
We’re also going after the bad actors and pandemic profiteers in our economy.  There’s a lot of evidence that gas prices should be going down, but they haven’t.  We’ll be taking a close look at that.
 
Taxpayers in this country also have paid for extraordinary effort to keep our country going over the past year or so. 
 
Unlike the last administration, which resisted oversight and allowed taxpayers to be victimized by fraud, we’re working hard to protect vulnerable Americans from having their identities stolen — as a consequence of their unemployment check stolen as well.
 
And we’re going offer organized criminal — we’re going to go after organized criminals that defraud America or misuse COVID funds.
 
Look, we’re also taking a closer look at places in our economy where fewer and fewer corporate giants are controlling more and more of the marketplace in the area that they work.
 
Just look at agriculture and the food industry.  A very small number of giant corporations now dominate the market, which gives them the ability to drive up prices because they face so little competition.
 
As we work to build healthier competition in our economy and crack down on bad actors, the American Rescue Plan, which we passed in March, is still working to give hardworking Americans — hardworking people some relief.
 
One of the best examples of that relief is the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, which, in effect, is essentially a historic tax cut for families with children.
 
Just yesterday, 39 million working moms and dads got their direct payment.  That money is going to help cover groceries, the mortgage, new pairs of shoes — all the things that kids need.  It’s a tax cut for working families.
 
So, we’re working to provide as much relief as we can right now to American families.  But here’s the truth: Yes, the pandemic has caused a lot of economic problems in the country, but the fact is our economy faced challenges long before this pandemic struck.  Working people were struggling to make it long before the pandemic arrived.
 
Big corporations and the very wealthy were doing very well before the pandemic.  That’s why I’ve said — starting back in my campaign for president — that it’s not enough just to build back; we have to build back better than before.  And that’s how it all begins. 
 
Big corporations and the super wealthy have to start paying their fair share of taxes.  It’s long overdue. 
 
I’m not out to punish anyone.  I’m a capitalist.  If you can make a million or a billion dollars, that’s great.  God bless you.  All I’m asking is you pay your fair share.  Pay your fair share just like middle-class folks do.  But that isn’t happening now.
 
Today, in this country, right now, the top 1 percent, for example, evade an estimated $160 billion in taxes that they owe each year.  Not new taxes, taxes that they owe. 
 
And the way it works is this: If you’re a typical American — like I suspect most of the press people sitting in front of me here — you pay your taxes.  Why?  Because you get a W-2 form.  It comes in the mail every year.
 
The IRS gets that information as well.  Your taxes get deducted from your paycheck, and you pay what is owed beyond that.  That’s why about 99 percent of working people pay the taxes they owe.
 
But that’s not how it works for people with tens of millions of dollars.  They play by a different set of rules.  And they’re often not employees themselves, so the IRS can’t see what they make and can’t tell if they’re cheating.
 
That’s how many of the top 1 percent get away with paying virtually nothing.  It’s estimated by serious economists that that number is about $160 billion collectively owed each year that doesn’t get paid.  It’s not an even playing field.  My plan would help solve that.  For example, it would give the IRS the resources it needs to keep up with the lawyers and accountants in the super — of the super-wealthy.
 
It would ask just for two pieces of information from the banks of these folks: that amounts — the amounts that come into their bank accounts and what amounts go out of their bank accounts, so that the wealthy can no longer hide what they’re making and they can finally begin to pay their fair share of what they owe.
 
That isn’t about raising their taxes.  It’s about the super-wealthy finally beginning to pay what they owe — what the existing tax code calls for — just like hardworking Americans do all over this country every Tax Day.
 
Look — and like I said just a few minutes ago, 55 of the most profitable corporations in America paid zero in federal income taxes on what amounted to $40 billion in profit.  Not a penny.  That’s not right.  And my economic plan will change that.  Not punish anybody, just make them pay their fair share.
 
But my Republican friends in Congress don’t want to change the law.  So, what are they doing?  They’re attacking me and my plan — which is fine.  But if we’re going to have a debate, let’s have an honest debate. 
 
My Republican friends are attacking my plan, saying it’s “big spending.”  Let me remind you, these are the same folks who just four years ago passed the Trump tax cut totaling almost $2 trillion in tax cuts –- a giant giveaway to the largest corporations and the top 1 percent.  And listen to this: Almost none of that $2 trillion tax cut was paid for.  It just ballooned the federal deficit.
 
In fact, the unpa- — unpaid bills ranked up — racked up by the last administration are projected to increase the national debt by more than $8 trillion over time.
 
What I’m proposing is totally different from that approach for three reasons: 
 
First, my plan is paid for.  It’s fiscally responsible, because our investments are paid for that by making sure that corporations and the wealthy Americans pay their fair share.
 
Second, we’re not going to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000.  That’s a lot of money.  Some of my liberal friends are saying it should be lower than that.  But only corporations and people making over $400,000 a year are going to pay any additional tax.
 
And third, not only will no one making under $400,000 see their taxes go up, the middle class are going to going to get some tax cuts — some breaks.
 
My plan benefits ordinary Americans, not those at the top who don’t need the help.  It’s a historic middle-class tax cut, cutting taxes for over 50 million families.
 
My Republican friends are making a different choice though.  They’d rather protect the tax breaks of those at the very top than give tax breaks to working families.  It’s that simple.
 
But let me ask you this: Where is it written that all the tax breaks in the American tax code go to corporations and the very top?  I think it’s enough.  I’m tired of it.
 
For me, it’s pretty simple: It’s about time working people got the tax breaks in this country.  That’s what my plan does.
 
But here’s what it also does: By asking big corporations and the very wealthy to pay their fair share, it makes it possible to invest in America, to invest in the American people.
 
According to leading economists — forecasters like Moody’s and major international financial institutions — my plan will create — make us — create jobs, make us more competitive, and grow our economy and lessen — lessen, not increase — inflationary pressure.
 
I don’t know if it’s been handed out today, but, by the way, 15 Nobel laureates in economics released a letter yesterday arguing that exame [sic] — that exact same point.
 
They said, and I quote — and this is from 15 Nobel laureates in economics — quote, “Because this agenda…” — the one I’m talking about, mine — “Because this agenda invests in long-term economic capacity and will enhance the ability of more Americans to participate productively in the economy, it will ease long-term inflationary pressures.”  It will ease it.
 
Let me highlight just a few provisions of my plan.  I know this is long, and I apologize, but it’s important, I think. 
 
My plan lowers the cost of daycare and childcare and eldercare for families and [has] the added benefit of allowing millions of people, mostly women — who are not able to go back to work because of very young family members or elderly people they’re taking care of — allow them to go back to work.  It’s estimated in the millions that can’t go back.
 
It lowers healthcare premiums for millions of families.  It lowers prescription drug costs by giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices.  And it strengthens Medicare by adding dental, vision, and hearing coverage for — if you’re on Medicare.
 
It also extends the tax cut for families with kids that we passed in the American Rescue Plan in March.
 
All of this will mean thousands of dollars in savings for the average American family on some of the toughest and most important bills they have to pay every month.
 
My Republican friends talk a lot about inflation, but if you want to talk about actually lowering the cost of living for people in this country, my plan does just that.
 
By strengthening the capacity of our economy, it will also reduce inflationary pressures over the long run.
 
Here’s something else my plan does: It confronts the crisis of extreme weather events that we’re seeing all around us and around the world — but just here in America.  We see it everywhere.  We know it’s real.
 
In just the past few weeks — and there’s more to come — I’ve seen the destruction of hurricanes in Louisiana, where winds got up to a hundred- — gusts of 179 miles an hour; the deadly toll from flooding in New York, where 20 inches of rain, and New Jersey, more than 11 inches of rain in some areas.
 
More than 5 million acres of our lands and communities have burned to the ground in wildfires just this year alone.  That’s more than the size of the entire state of New Jersey burned to the ground.  When I was out in California, I flew over some of these areas. 
 
In addition, there’s a severe drought in the West and the Midwest.
 
There’s a blinking code red out there for the nation.  We can’t wait to act.
 
Extreme weather, just last year, cost the American public $99 billion in damage — $99 billion in damage last year.  And unfortunately, we’re likely to break that record this year.
 
And the evidence is overwhelming that every dollar we invest in resilience saves six dollars down the road — when the next fire doesn’t spread as widely or the power station holds up against the storm. 
 
We need to rebuild with resilience — with resilience in mind — so roads are built higher; levees are built more — made more strong — stronger; transmission lines are better protected, and so much more.
 
You know, I hope we’re past debating climate change in this country.  Now we have to act, and we have to act fast.  And my plan does that.
 
Let me end with this.  This pandemic has been God-awful
for so many reasons: the lost lives — as I said, over 660,000; the jobs, the businesses lost; the lost time in school for our kids.
 
But it does present us with an opportunity: We can build an economy that gives working people a fair shot this time.  We can restore some sanity and fairness to our tax code.  We can make the investments that we know are long overdue in this nation.
 
That’s exactly what my bipartisan infrastructure plan does — I should say, our bipartisan infrastructure plan does: investments in roads, bridges, highways; clean water in every home and every school; universal broadband; quality and affordable places for families to live.
 
And we can invest in our people — giving our families a little help with their toughest expenses, like daycare, childcare, eldercare, prescription drugs, healthcare, preparing our young people to compete against any country in the world with preschool and community college.
 
We can confront this crisis of extreme weather and climate change, and not only protect our communities but create new opportunities, new industries, and new jobs.
 
In short, this is an opportunity to be the nation we know we can be — a nation where all of us — all of us, not just those at the top — are getting a share of the benefits of a growing economy in the years ahead.
 
Let’s not squander this moment trying to preserve an economy that hasn’t worked too well for Americans for a long time. 
 
Let’s not look backward, just trying to rebuild what we had.  Let’s look forward, together, as one America — not to build back, but to build back better.
 
Thank you all very much.  And God bless you all.  May God protect our troops.  Thank you.