President Joe Biden last year asked Congress to pass more than $4 trillion worth of infrastructure and economic proposals. Progressive Democrats sought to bump that up to $6 trillion. Now Democrats will be lucky to pass just a fraction of that before the midterm elections this fall.
Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., has tentatively agreed to support a narrow, health care-focused version of Democrats’ original “Build Back Better” package containing just a two-year extension of expanded health insurance subsidies costing roughly $40 billion and a prescription pricing package that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will reduce deficits by nearly $300 billion.
(All spending, revenue and deficit reduction figures mentioned in this story reflect estimates over the 10-year budget window.)
