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After Paid Leave Plan Gets Chopped, Biden Promises Revamped Spending Proposal

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Democrats appear likely to abandon plans to include an expensive new federal entitlement program—paid family leave—as they try to trim the overall cost of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan proposal.

Biden’s proposal called for federal paid leaves that could replace as much as 85 percent of workers’ pay, with that percentage decreasing for those who are more well-paid. This would be available for 12 weeks each year. If workers were pregnant, nursing a sick or elderly relative, or recovering after a severe illness, they could apply for paid leave.

Although there hasn’t been an official Congressional Budget Office estimate of the cost of paid leave, a comparable proposal by Democrats was drawn up in 2019. It had a price tag of $547 billion over 10 years. The paid leave proposal was one of Biden’s most costly. While Democrats attempted to reduce the duration of the paid leave to 12 weeks, the cost was over $300 billion. PoliticoReport earlier in this month

It seems that the plan’s high cost has ended up being abandoned by Biden.

Problem facing Democrats is in the basic math behind budgeting. It’s the same kind of math that gets neglected in Washington. Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.) Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has stated that he was concerned about the future trajectory of national debt and won’t support any social spending plans that rely on borrowing more. His support is essential for Democrats to have a majority at the Senate. So the plan has to include enough revenue offsets to pay for the proposed new spending—or, at least, pay for them sufficiently to satisfy Manchin.

But Democrats keep backing away from the sorts of large-scale tax increases necessary to pay for a $3.5 trillion spending plan—like the proposed “billionaire tax” on unrealized capital gains that reportedly got axed on Wednesday. As ReasonPeter Suderman says that while the tax was bad (and perhaps even unconstitutional), it can be discarded to reveal more about the negotiations surrounding Biden’s plan.

There is a chance that a deal could still be reached and that another tax mechanism (or combination of tax mechanisms) will be developed that will generate enough revenue to support the spending-tax math. Even if a deal is reached, the Democrats’ struggle to raise taxes demonstrates the political difficulties inherent in raising taxes. This even though Democrats are nominally committed to higher taxes on the wealthy and the well-off. This is not due to the Senate filibuster or intransigence by tax-hating Republicans. It’s because Democrats struggle to get enough support from the elected Democrats.

Let’s just say that Manchin isn’t going to vote for any more borrowing. Democrats are unable to find votes for tax hikes of any magnitude. At that point, the only option is to begin hacking at the spending portion of the legislation. This is precisely what Democrats have done, which is why paid leave seems to be headed for the cliff. CuttingCommittee room floor.

On Wednesday, Manchin stressed that his objection to the new benefits stemmed from concern about the country’s fiscal future. He made comments to reporters highlighting both the $29 trillion national deficit and the imminent insolvency insolvency trust funds for Social Security or Medicare. “In good conscience, I have a hard time increasing benefits—which, all of us can agree we’d love to have this and love to have that—when you can’t even take care of what you have,” Manchin said.

The real deal for progressives is that a paid leave proposal, no matter how expensive, is popular among Republicans as well. If Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.(D-N.Y. has been championing the policyWe were able, together with a companion bill, to introduce a separate bill for a pay leave program. a mechanism to pay itIt’s theoretically possible for such a bill to pass. It is possible that there will be amendments, negotiations and arguments about it. In other words, legislators would need to legislate. There are 60 votes to approve a federal program for paid parental leave.

There won’t likely be a federal program for paid parental leave. That’s at most due to Democrats trying to fit all their ideas into one piece of legislation instead of trying to reach agreement on individual items and moving them each.

What does this mean for Biden’s bill, just days before the deadline to vote in the Senate? It seems that it is not even close to being implemented. To present a fresh framework, the president should meet Thursday with members of Congress Democrats. The Washington Post Promisions will be “winning the support from all Democrats.” In the meantime, The New York Times According to the revised plan, “some crucial issues such as how to pay it for it” will remain unresolved.

Also, yes.

One of the cardinal rules of politics—and political media, especially—is that nothing is ever as bad (or as good) as it seems. Overreacting in these professions is normal. Here’s what Ron Klain, White House Chief Of Staff and long-time confidant to Biden, retweeted Wednesday night. You can see for yourself what’s happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

FREE MINDS

Sen. Tom Cotton (R–Ark.) Sen. Tom Cotton (R.-Ark.), penned this wildly incorrect piece. National Review Protecting qualified immunity There are reasonsBilly Binion from offers some helpful suggestions:

Please read the whole thing

FREE MARKETS

How to eat for an entire year on $150—as long as your stomach can handle it:

On the first day in his 2014 internship, Dylan saw the rolling coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain through the window of his new office. Fresh out of college and something of a coaster-fanatic already, Dylan was perusing the options for Six Flags’ annual pass when he stumbled upon what might be the deal of his lifetime — for a one-time fee of $150, he could eat two meals a day, every day at the park for an entire year. It was easy to do as his office was only five minutes away.

He says that he didn’t go to the supermarket for the first year. It was timed so that I could go to the grocery store during lunch, return to work and then go to dinner while on my way back.

Dylan says that over the seven-year period he spent at Six Flags, he was able to save enough to pay his student loans off, marry and purchase a home. You can read the entire story in MEL Magazine.

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