The Build Back Better Framework

 

Here's what's been crafted on Build Back Better, from the White House:

Investments in Children, Families and Caregiving that Grow the Economy’s Capacity

• Universal Preschool for all 3- and 4-year Olds: Expand access to free high-quality preschool for more than 6 million children. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.
  
• Affordable High Quality Child Care: Limit child care costs for families to no more than 7% of income, for families earning up to 250% of state median income. It enables states to expand access to about 20 million children. Parents must be working, seeking work, in training or taking care of a serious health issue. This is a long-term program, with funding for six years.
  
• Affordable, High-Quality Care for Hundreds of Thousands of Older Americans and People with Disabilities in Their Homes and Communities: Strengthening an existing program through Medicaid and ending the existing backlog and improving working conditions for home care workers
  
• Expanded Child Tax Credit:  Extend for one year the current expanded Child Tax Credit for more than 35 million American households, with monthly payments for households earning up to $150,000 per year. Make refundability of the Child Tax Credit permanent.

  Investments in Clean Energy and Combatting Climate Change

• Clean Energy Tax Credits ($320 billion): Ten-year expanded tax credits for utility-scale and residential clean energy, transmission and storage, clean passenger and commercial vehicles, and clean energy manufacturing.
  
• Resilience Investments ($105 billion): Investments and incentives to address extreme weather (wildfires, droughts, and hurricanes, including in forestry, wetlands, and agriculture), legacy pollution in communities, and a Civilian Climate Corps.
  
• Investments and Incentives for Clean Energy Technology, Manufacturing, and Supply Chains ($110 billion): Targeted incentives to spur new domestic supply chains and technologies, like solar, batteries, and advanced materials, while boosting the competitiveness of existing industries, like steel, cement, and aluminum.
  
• Clean Energy procurement ($20 billion): Provide incentives for government to be purchaser of next gen technologies, including long-duration storage, small modular reactors, and clean construction materials.

  Affordable Care for Millions of Hardworking Americans

• Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credits: Extend the expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits through 2025. Experts predict that more than 3 million people who would otherwise be uninsured will gain health insurance. Also make Affordable Care Act premium tax credits available through 2025 to 4 million uninsured people in uncovered states.
  
• Allow Medicare to cover the cost of hearing.  Establish a hearing benefit in Medicare, a crucial benefit to our seniors for a reasonable cost.

  Bringing Down Costs, Reducing Inflationary Pressures, and Strengthening the Middle Class

• Housing: $150 billion investment in housing affordability and reducing price pressures, including in rural areas. Funds go towards building, preserving, and improving more than 1 million affordable rental and single-family homes, including public housing, plus rental and down payment assistance.
  
• Education Beyond High School and Workforce Development: Reduce costs and expand access to education beyond high school by raising the maximum Pell grant, providing support to Historically Black Colleges & Universities (“HBCUs”), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Minority Serving Institutions (“MSIs”), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (“TCUs”), and investing in workforce development, including community college workforce programs, sector-based training, and apprenticeships.
  
• Earned Income Tax Credit for 17 Million Low-Wage Workers: Extend for one year the current expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers.
  
• Equity and Other Investments: Other targeted investments including maternal health, community violence initiatives, Native communities, disadvantaged farmers, nutrition, pandemic preparedness, supply chain resilience, and other areas. 

It totals $1.75 trillion, with an additional $100 billion for improving the immigration system thru the Senate's reconciliation rules. 

Clean energy and climate investments represent the largest single outlay at $555 billion.

Here's the video of President Biden announcing the framework.

Now, pass the damn bill (and the $1.2 trillion hard infrastructure bill)!  If the Democrats do, it will be transformational, even if not everything everybody wanted.  Let's hold the House and get at least 2 more Democratic Senators in 2022 and go for the rest!