The United States government has provided an unprecedented level of assistance to Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the most recent efforts to provide greater financial assistance under the Build Back Better Act have come to a grinding halt. President Joe Biden stated last week that Congress may yet be able to enact portions of the social and environmental programs suggested in the package of legislation.
Road block on bill
Because Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, doesn’t like any of the proposals in the package, the bill has hit a snag. Manchin has broken with his party on many of the proposals. To get the bill passed through reconciliation, all Senate democrats had to back it.
There is another reason why more aid isn’t needed right now: The U.S. economy has changed as reported by MSN.
According to the most recent government data, inflation is now at a record high. In the last 12 months, it grew at the fastest rate in about 40 years.
In addition, high unemployment in the early stages of the pandemic has mostly gone away. In December, the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 3.9% in November. This is compared to when it was at its highest point: 14.8%.
Package: Democrats used it to push for the “Big Tent” they believe in. Jason Grumet, the president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said it was hard to talk about a package with 70 different parts.
Many people paid attention to how much it would cost to get all of the things together. It was hard to agree on even the big number, Grumet said. It could be $3.5 trillion, $1.8 trillion, or $1.2 trillion, but not everyone agreed on that.
Breaking up Build Back Better
Back in January, Reuters said that the White House wants to “reset” talks about its $1.75 trillion budget resolution. It wants to keep climate change measures, but it also wants to cut back on things like the child tax credit and paid family leave in order to get support from Democrats like U.S. Senator Joe Manchin and other Democrats.
Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to stop trying to pass voting rights legislation through the Senate and start talking with lawmakers in earnest about a slimmed-down version of the Build Back Better bill, instead.
With both houses of Congress, the president is still trying to pass a big bill that helps the middle class pay for things like prescription drugs and child care, says Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman.
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