LIVE: Senate Debates Biden's Infrastructure Plan That Would Raise Corporate Tax Rate

(Apr. 27) Democratic lawmakers are clamoring to add to President Joe Biden’s package of social spending even before he rolls it out on Wednesday, risking a ballooning price tag and adding to the complications already facing the White House in getting it through Congress.

From taxes to expanding Medicare to subsidizing child care, a wide swath of the party’s lawmakers are arguing that time is running out to act boldly on Democratic priorities before the 2022 midterm elections -- which could flip control of one or both chambers to Republicans.

Biden’s “American Families Plan,” which he’ll outline to a joint session of Congress, is set to include funds for child care, paid family and medical leave, universal pre-kindergarten schooling, tuition-free community college and nutritional assistance paired with a four year extension of the expanded child tax credit enacted in the March Covid-relief bill. He proposes to pay for it with tax increases aimed a high-income earners.

But the party’s progressives are pushing for more. They want the plan to include new health care benefits and to increase the proposed taxes on the wealthy and tax breaks for middle-class and lower-income parents already under consideration.

Meanwhile, Democrats from high-income, high-tax states like New York and California are threatening to withhold their support for Biden’s plan unless it lifts the cap on the state and local tax deduction imposed by Republicans in 2017. They may also balk at some of the president’s proposed tax increases on investment.

There’s no sign that Republicans will go along with any of it.

That leaves House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- with a narrow majority and few votes to spare -- in a potentially tight spot if her Democratic rank-and-file members do not let up on their demands. Expanding the Biden proposal could jeopardize the ability of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to get the plan through the evenly divided Senate using special budget procedures. Schumer will need to keep all 50 in the Democratic caucus united, including moderates like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.

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