What’s in the Build Back Better Act:
Child care and universal pre-K
- Every family that applies shall be offered child care assistance for children ages 0 to 5. In all, the plan allocates roughly $450 billion to lower the cost of child care and provide two years of universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. The cost of child care will be at or below 7% of most families’ income.
Extended child tax credit
- Extends it through 2025. Under the enhancement, families receive $3,600 per child under age 6, and $3,000 per child age 6 to 18. Most families receive monthly payments of either $250 or $300 per child. The full expanded child tax credit is available to individuals making up to $75,000 or married couples making up to $150,000.
Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid
- Would permanently extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Closes the Medicaid Coverage Gap
- Helps people who do not qualify for ACA subsidies and creates a federal Medicaid program for people in non-expansion states. It would help 4 million people get coverage.
Paid family and medical leave
- For the first time in history, the U.S. would have comprehensive paid leave, covering 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. The legislation would replace at least 2/3 of income, up to $4000 per month
Home- and Community-Based Services
- Makes historic investments in services to people with disabilities and to the elderly by expanding access to quality home-based care. Aims to allow the elderly and disabled to remain in their homes while creating better paying jobs for the caregiving workforce. Projected to create 700,000 jobs.
Climate Change
- Helps the U.S. transition away from fossil fuels, the major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
- The clean electricity performance program would pay utility companies that increase their renewable energy supplies by 4% per year with financial penalties for those companies that do not.
- The bill also provides significant funding for forest management and other wildfire control measures.
- There are also measures to incentivize the buying of electric vehicles and the construction of charging stations
- Consumer rebates will be available to homeowners who weatherfit their houses;
- Financial penalties for oil and gas producers for methane leaks will be imposed.
College
- Provides two years of free community college for all students, regardless of family income. It is anticipated to cost $108 billion.
- Adds $80 billion in funding for Pell Grants, which Democrats say hasn’t kept pace with the increasing cost of college.
Medicare expansion
- Expand Medicare to include coverage of dental, hearing and vision services.
Lesser known provisions include
- Authorizes $5 million a year for the Small Business Administration for an entrepreneurial program for formerly incarcerated individuals.
- Directs $2.5 billion for the Justice Department to award competitive grants or contracts to local governments, community-based organizations and other groups to support intervention strategies to reduce community violence.
The pay fors
The corporate tax rate would rise from 21% to 26%, and the top income tax rate for Americans making over $400,000 would increase from 37% to 39.6%. The top capital gains rate would also go from 20% to 25%.
Beef up tax enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service as a vehicle for paying for the package.
The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the tax changes would raise more than $2 trillion in revenue over 10 years, with roughly $1 trillion in tax increases from high-income Americans and nearly $1 trillion from corporate and international tax reforms.
Sources:
About the entire bill:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/budget-reconciliation-bill-build-back-better-act/
https://19thnews.org/2021/10/whats-in-build-back-better-reconciliation-bill/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/18/what-is-build-back-better-crash-course
insurance including Medicaid expansion and ACA—https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/build-back-better-legislation-would-close-the-medicaid-coverage-gap
prescription drugs—https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22702855/build-build-better-plan-medicare-negotiate-drug-prices
climate details— https://www.vox.com/22685920/democrats-infrastructure-build-back-better-climate-change
