Ambition and reality
| EDITOR'S NOTE
Hello,
Since he was elected, President Biden has stressed that he wanted to take big, bold action on a number of pressing issues, from contending with the Covid crisis and repairing the nation's infrastructure to fixing immigration and improving health care.
His $1.9 trillion Covid relief measure is making its way through Congress. The House hopes to vote on it next week, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The administration and Democrats in Congress expect the law to be a done deal by mid-March.
Biden has also started talks about infrastructure, his next priority, in a bid to deliver another boost to the economy following the Covid bill. Democrats appear divided, however, about how big the bill should be. And there has been debate about how the bill could be paid for. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC on Thursday that tax increases, slowly phased in, are on the table.
Immigration looks even trickier, as it has for several previous administrations. Democrats unveiled a sprawling bill Thursday that would, among other provisions, create an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before Jan. 1 of this year. It's unlikely to get much Republican support, which it will need to reach 60 votes to break the filibuster in the Senate, without some heavy compromises.
That leaves Obamacare, which hasn't gotten much attention in the early going of the Biden administration. The president and other mainstream Democrats are onboard with expanding the health care law, which has increased in popularity over the past decade, particularly with a public option insurance plan. Even though two moderate Democrats unveiled a public option proposal this week, it looks like boosting Obamacare is lower on the list of priorities, which is surprising.
You would think that broadening the popular health care law would take precedence during a once-in-a-century public health crisis. And yet it's unclear whether Biden and Congress will take it up any time soon. With a midterm election campaign looming next year, that could turn out to be a risky choice.
Thoughts? Email Politics Editor Mike Calia at CNBCPolitics@nbcuni.com.
Have friends or colleagues who might like this newsletter? They can sign up here.
Subscribe to CNBC's daily new podcast The News with Shepard Smith, which provides deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day's most important stories.
KEY STORIES
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Post a Comment