As discussion of the budget bill intensifies, these are the five biggest issues that are dividing Democrats

Senior Democrats in the White House and the House and Senate are trying to bridge divisions on key issues to save a massive climate and social policy bill, a key issue on President Biden’s domestic agenda. With a bill this large and as narrow as the margins of Congress, each member has red lines and demands they hope to include (or exclude) from the final legislation.

Clear battle lines have been drawn on some of the top issues, and whether they can be resolved is the key to the resolution’s final passage. Here are five areas of disagreement among Democrats.

Health care

Democrats are wrestling with funding and duration for the bill’s three central health care provisions: expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies; Medicare coverage for dental, vision and hearing; And efforts to provide health care coverage for some people in Republican-led states that haven’t expanded Medicaid.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has previously said all three of those priorities would be placed in the final bill—but that could become increasingly challenging if moderate Democrats insist on a lower amount of overall spending.

The health conundrum became more complicated after a handful of centrist lawmakers in the House and Sen. Kirsten Cinema (D., Ariz.) opposed the main Democratic proposal to lower the cost of prescription drugs by giving Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices. raised his voice in protest. pharmaceutical companies. His plan could save up to $500 billion a decade, the money Democrats are counting on to pay for their Medicare, Medicaid and ACA plans.

Long term home care and child care

Mr. Biden’s plan called for $400 billion in funding for home health care for the elderly and disabled. But West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, like other centrists, has avoided spending that much. The House Energy and Commerce Committee drew up a $190 billion expansion plan to help the elderly and disabled stay in their homes, and Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) has his own $250 billion plan. Progressives worry that an inadequately funded plan will not be able to achieve its objectives, and they continue to press for $400 billion at Biden’s request.

Mr Manchin also called for a means of testing other new benefit programs, including a child care tax credit, an expanded monthly child tax credit (which is already above certain income levels) and free preschool. Progressives argue that universal programs are less likely to be cut in the future, and adding constraints such as work requirements or extra paperwork would prevent programs from benefiting those most.

Climate

The centerpiece of Democrats’ plan to tackle the climate crisis is the Clean Electricity Demonstration Program, which will pay utilities that switch to clean energy and penalize those that don’t. Utilities that increase their use of clean energy by 4% each year (under the current House bill) will receive money from the federal government, and those failing to do so will be fined. For many progressives and environmentalists, the program is the preferred way to decarbonize the electrical grid.

But Mr Manchin, who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has questioned whether the plan is even necessary. “The infection is happening. Now they want to pay companies what they’re already doing,” Mr. Manchin said on CNN earlier this month. “It doesn’t make sense for me to take billions of dollars and pay utilities for them.” Going to change.”

On the other hand, Ms Sinima told the Arizona Republic on Thursday that she prioritizes climate provisions in the bill given the drought and wildfires that have affected her state and the West in recent years. “Right now, we have the opportunity to pass smart policies to address this – look forward to it,” she said.

immigration

Democrats are looking for a way forward after a Senate lawmaker decided they could not include a citizenship route for millions of immigrants living in the country illegally in the budget law. They say they have devised several more measures they plan to run by lawmakers to see if they can be deemed kosher under the mysterious budgetary process Democrats should use to avoid the Republican filibuster. .

One possibility they considered is updating an immigration law known as the Registry, which would allow anyone who was in the country before a certain date to become a legal permanent resident.

taxes

Senior Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee have drawn up a long menu of options for paying for the expense along with tax credits that would add to the bill’s total cost. At this point, nothing has been firmly decided, and for members who demand that the entire bill be paid in advance, agreeing on taxes is a prerequisite for deciding which programs are funded. Huh.

Progressives and centrists are split on a new corporate tax rate (anywhere between the current 21% and 26.5%), the top individual rate (perhaps between the current 37% and the old top rate of 39.6%), as well as include: Whether or not to raise taxes on private-equity managers, capital gains and measures to supersize Roth IRAs used by the ultrawealth.

And above all, many House members, mainly from high-tax blue states, want to reinstate part or all of the state and local income tax deduction, which Republicans limited to $10,000 in 2017. . Many progressives oppose the idea, as it would benefit the wealthy and add costs to the bill that would be likely to be cut from other sectors.

Bonus: Top-of-the-line Costs

The bill is the sum of several parts, but ultimately, top-line cost is a moot point for members as well. Progressives such as Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) say the $3.5 trillion figure that took the House and Senate to draft the bill was already a compromise—they won $6. trillion would have been preferred. But Ms. Cinema, Mr. Manchin and house moderators have warned that it will be difficult to support such spending, or have dismissed it outright from the start.

Another important point is how the total cost is measured. The White House insisted on the assumption that the bill would cost $3.5 trillion given all the revenue measures in it. “The net cost of Build Back Better is zero,” Biden chief of staff Ronald Klein said earlier this month.

To move forward, however, Democratic leaders want to know the maximum moderates are willing to spend. “He basically said find a number you’re comfortable with,” Manchin said after emerging from a meeting with Biden at the White House on Wednesday.