The White House denied Tuesday a report that President Joe Biden was seeking a less expensive Build Back Better bill, in the hopes Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and other Senate moderate Democrats would support it.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates contested a Reuters report citing “two people working on the plan” that Biden was preparing a skinnier version of his massive $1.75 trillion agenda.
“We are always in touch with members about this, and the substance and details of this report are off base,” Bates told reporters.
Manchin remains a key opponent of radical spending programs which he argues would only make historic inflation worse.
Biden is desperate to preserve the child tax credit passed in 2021 that allows the federal government to send monthly payments to families, even without work requirements.
The Build Back Better Act would cost $4.91 trillion, not $1.75 trillion as Democrats have claimed, according to a study released Monday. https://t.co/1fjWowvEBv
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 16, 2021
“That child tax credit was really helpful and we gotta get that renewed,” Biden said Sunday, during a visit to a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia.
Making that temporary entitlement permanent would cost about $1.6 trillion according to an estimate by the Tax Foundation.
Manchin also opposes extending the tax credit as it has no work requirements.
House Democrats, frustrated by the Senate, already want to see their leadership pressing on individual spending bills to push forward more entitlements in the hopes of getting support during the 2022 midterms.
The White House also wants to see $555 billion in climate spending including government subsides for wind and solar energy production and a tax credit for up to $12,500 for purchases of union produced electric vehicles.
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