Most of the benefits in the bill, which has no Republican support, would have taken months or even years to become reality. But expanded child tax credit payments that expired Wednesday are at risk of lapsing. The Internal Revenue Service had sought enactment of the bill before Dec. 28 to ensure Jan. 15 payments go out on time.
“The delay matters,” Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said. “If we do it in the first weeks of January it makes it a little more challenging for the secretary of the Treasury to get the checks out by Jan. 15.”
“But it’s going to all happen,” he said.
The delay to next year is the latest set back for the Build Back Better agenda which Democrats have been wrangling over since April. Passage last month of the bill in the House had raised hopes that the infighting would end but those hopes have now been dashed.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell was gleeful Thursday at the prospect of a delay in the bill, which he argues will add to inflation.
“The best Christmas gift Washington could give working families would be putting this bad bill on ice,” McConnell said.
As approved by the U.S. House, Biden’s plan would spend $1.64 trillion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis. When tax credits are factored in, the investment in the economy is about $2.2 trillion.
It would provide universal pre-K, childcare subsidies, four weeks of subsidized paid family leave, subsidized Obamacare premiums and an alternative to Medicaid in some states, and would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time while capping out-of-pocket costs for seniors. Medicare would cover hearing benefits for the first time.
The legislation aims to fight climate change by imposing a fee on methane and providing a slew of tax credits for renewable energy and electric vehicle purchases, and it would provide relief from deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.
On the tax side, the bill would extend expanded child tax credits and make them permanently refundable to those without sufficient income-tax liability to get the full benefit. It would also increase the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, a provision that will benefit wealthy taxpayers and which has sparked some push-back from progressives.
To raise revenue, it would impose a new 15% corporate minimum tax and a 5% surtax on individual incomes over $10 million, with an additional 3% tax above income of $25 million. There are also taxes on large individual retirement accounts and stock buybacks.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.