WASHINGTON — The next phase of
President Joe Biden’s $4 trillion
push to overhaul the US economy will seek to raise taxes on millionaire
investors to fund education and other spending plans, but it will not take steps
to expand health coverage or reduce prescription drug prices, according to
people familiar with the proposal.
اضافة اعلان
Administration officials had planned to include a health care
expansion of up to $700 billion, offset by efforts to reduce government spending
on prescription drugs. But they have decided to instead pursue health care as a
separate initiative, a move that sidesteps a fight among liberals on
CapitolHill but that risks upsetting some progressive groups that have pushed Biden to
prioritize health issues.
The president is set to outline his so-called American Family
Plan, which includes measures aimed at helping Americans gain skills throughout
life and have more flexibility in the workforce, before his first address to a
joint session of Congress next week. Its details remain a work in progress and
could change in the days before the announcement.
But after weeks of work, administration officials have closed in
on the final version of what will be the second half of Biden’s sweeping
economic agenda, which also includes the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan the
president described last month. That plan focused largely on physical
infrastructure spending, like repairing bridges and water pipes and building
electric vehicle charging stations, and was funded by tax increases on
corporations.
The second phase centers on what administration officials call “human
infrastructure.” It will spend hundreds of billions of dollars each on
universal prekindergarten, expanded subsidies for child care, a national paid
leave program for workers and free community college tuition for all.
It also seeks to extend through 2025 an expanded tax credit for
parents — which is essentially a monthly payment from the government for most
families — that was created on a temporary basis by the $1.9 trillion economic
aid package Biden signed into law last month. The duration of that extension
was earlier reported by The Washington Post.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have urged Biden to instead make
permanent that credit, which analysts say will drastically cut child poverty
this year.
The family plan will also include some type of extension for an
expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, which was included in the earlier aid
package on a one-year basis.
The plan’s spending and tax credits will total around $1.5
trillion, according to administration estimates, in keeping with early versions
of the two-step agenda first reported last month by The New York Times.
To offset that cost, Biden will propose several tax increases he
included in his campaign’s “Build Back Better” agenda. That starts with raising
the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 37 percent, the level it
was cut to by former President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul in 2017. Biden would
also raise taxes on capital gains — the proceeds of selling an asset like a
stock or a boat — for people earning more than $1 million, effectively
increasing the rate they pay on that income to 39.6 percent, from 20 percent.
The president will also propose eliminating a provision of the
tax code that reduces taxes for wealthy heirs who sell assets they inherit,
like art or property, that have gained value over time. And he would raise
revenue by increasing enforcement at the Internal Revenue Service to bring in
more money from wealthy Americans who evade taxes.
Administration officials were debating other possible tax
increases that could be included in the plan this week, like capping deductions
for wealthy taxpayers or increasing the estate tax on wealthy heirs.
All of the tax provisions would keep with Biden’s campaign
promise not to raise taxes on individuals or households earning less than
$400,000 a year.
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