It happened a ‘miracle minute’ but Joe Biden’s home gifts are a big win

It took 10 months, 16 days, and an eight-and-a-half hour speech from GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy but House Democrats finally passed the $1.75k welfare spending bill. billion dollars on Friday morning.

By a vote of 220-213, Democrats passed the bill with only one Democrat joining all Republicans opposed to the “Build Back Better” act: Rep. Jared Golden of Maine.

It was a victory on many levels for Democrats, most notably on a policy note. The bill would provide $550 billion for climate change, $400 billion for childcare and general early childhood education, $150 billion for affordable housing and home care programs. of Medicaid, extending the child tax credit, expanding Medicare provisions and benefits, among other priorities.

But victory is sweeter on a personal level, after McCarthy’s farce late Thursday night and early Friday morning.

California Republicans were able to delay the vote by taking advantage of the so-called “Magic Minute” — a courtesy given to leaders of both parties, allowing them to speak for as long as they wanted. time is only one minute. time for debate.

By the time McCarthy ended at 5:10 a.m., all but a few Republicans sitting behind McCarthy as the C-SPAN backdrop had left the Capitol. The Democrats quickly slipped into a recession and bounced back at 8 a.m. Friday.

At that point, members continued the final few minutes of debate and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took her turn to take the podium. She quips as she begins her remarks, “For those of you who work here on Capitol Hill and are polite to my colleagues, I’ll be brief.”

And she was.

Pelosi spoke for just over 10 minutes, emphasizing the usual Democratic views on the text of the bill and proposed legislation that would be a “pillar of financial security and health in America.”

After concluding her speech, Republicans drew one final stop: A proposal to send the bill back to the committee, which was defeated by a 208-220 vote. And then the bill passed quickly.

Instead of passing the bill late on Thursday night, all McCarthy achieved was to push the vote to daylight hours on Friday morning.

Indoor aisles now ease the BBB’s burden on the Senate, where time will tell whether the kids have a problem with Sens Democrats. Are Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Joe Manchin (WV) ready to take this action? Any changes to the bill in the upper house, including the removal of paid leave provisions, would send the BBB back to the House in a game of legislative ping pong.

But that is if the bill can pass the Senate. Manchin and Sinema have yet to sign on, even with the highest cost largely dependent on their needs.

The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday in a preliminary analysis that the bill would cost $367 billion over 10 years, but it did not add a significant offset to the law. They say increased IRS enforcement will bring in an additional $207 billion over the next decade, bringing the total costs to $160 billion — and that’s an estimate the White House considers overly pessimistic.

The Biden administration reckons that increased IRS enforcement — essentially forcing everyone to pay taxes — will bring in $400 billion. That means some Democrats actually believe the $1.75 trillion bill will eventually have a fiscally positive effect on the debt. Or, at least, a minimal cost.

Democrats finished offsetting the new provisions by implementing some new corporate taxes. There is a 15 percent minimum tax for large corporations, one percent tax on corporate stock buybacks, a new tax on income over $10 million and $25 million, and new limits on what deductions businesses can take on losses — among other changes to the corporate tax law.

But for Republicans, the cost of the bill is simply unacceptable.

Even before McCarthy’s eight-and-a-half-hour speech, GOP lawmakers made it clear that they thought the bill was spent recklessly and recklessly for future generations.

Still, Democrats were happy to pass the bill and give themselves a long list of accomplishments to come by 2022, including popular provisions like limits on the cost of daily insulin. month at $35 a month.

As the voting drew to a close, Democrats gathered near the front of the room, cheering and applauding the count. Republicans, meanwhile, insisted on asking in the room to announce proxy votes to colleagues not in the House on Friday morning.

One of the Republicans who insisted on keeping quiet was Representative Kat Cammack of Florida. She announced that she and other Republicans would vote “No” on the “Build Back Broke” law, and she suggested Democrats an ominous sign.

“Good luck in the Senate,” she said.