By Steve Otto
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan will get passed, but it is a major disaster for the common working people or those who are not wealthy. For all of us on the left it is a loss of major proportions. The Republican Party got everything they wanted—at our expense. The party of the wealthy, the party of the 1%, the party of $millionaires and $billionaires got it all. The corporations got it all. All the perks for the wealthy that former President Donald Trump created are now still there. Biden has not gained us a anything.
Despite a few progressives elected to congress, this country is still held hostage to the far right. We have conservative idiots that wine about having to wear a mask or take a vaccine. And yet these same idiots keep electing people who vote against their interest. The needs of the many are derailed for the desires and benefits of a few wealthy people.
This is a rich man’s country and we can still see that. Biden’s intensions seem good, He has tried to do things that are way better than his former master Barack Obama (Biden was vice president.) who did little for common working man. He was hardly better than the Republicans. Biden has turned out to be better. But if he was more competent he night be able to muscle the Republicans who have used their majority on the Senate to hold him back. There must be things they want and they need to be held back until they give into the Progressive agenda. Biden dose not seem to be up to the task. Besides lousing out on raising the minimum wage, there are other losses in Biden’s bill including no maternity leave and no free college. According to Forbs:
“What Got Eliminated from the Reconciliation Bill
The new framework for the Build Back Better bill, announced by the White House on Thursday, is $1.75 trillion, half of the $3.5 trillion proposal that was originally proposed. This framework will serve as a new focal point for Democrats’ negotiations.
It leaves out key programs, including:
Paid Family Leave
The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not guarantee paid parental leave—and this unfortunate fact looks likely to endure.
The original plan included 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, replacing at least two-thirds of earnings up to $4,000 per month, with the lowest-paid workers receiving 80% of their income. But after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) raised objections to implement such leave, the period was slashed to four weeks, and then cut entirely from the bill.
The new framework still includes important investments for working families, including universal preschool, capping child care costs at 7% of income for families earning up to 250% of state median income and extending the expanded child tax credit.
The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the need for paid leave as families were forced to choose between paychecks and caring for sick loved ones or children.
The lack of federally mandated paid leave after the birth of a child is likely also a contributing factor to the U.S. birth rate dropping to a new record low in 2020.
Two Years of Free Community College
President Joe Biden heavily campaigned to make higher education more affordable for Americans. One of his proposals was to give Americans two years of free community college. Instead, the bill only increases the maximum Pell Grant award by $550 and expands its access to DREAMers.
In a town hall hosted by CNN last week, Biden said he’s convinced he will be able to implement free community college “in the next several years.”
Higher education costs are skyrocketing, and free community college was Biden’s attempt at reining in the nation’s broken education system. A bachelor’s degree from a four-year university for in-state students costs an average of $37,640, according to CollegeBoard. Attending community college first to complete prerequisites can be a strategy to rein those costs in.
But even with attending a community college first, or receiving more aid via the proposed expanded Pell Grant, most Americans still turn to student loans for help covering the remaining costs of their degree. The average student loan balance is nearly $30,000, according to U.S. News data.
Medicare Drug Price Negotiation
Drug costs are a major financial burden on seniors, with some Medicare patients spending a third or more of the Social Security checks on medication alone.
The original reconciliation bill framework would have allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices and cap out-of-pocket costs while restricting price increases. But it’s now left out of the new framework.
According to the Washington Post, pharmaceutical lobbyists and some Democrats, including Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), pushed back on including the drug negotiation provision. Manchin also indicated that Medicare’s long-term finances should be “stabilized” before adding new benefits to the program.
Medicare Dental and Vision Coverage
Although Biden originally wanted Medicare to cover vision and dental coverage, the two provisions did not make the cut in the new framework for the bill. Instead, it aims to establish a hearing benefit. Specifics on what that would look like are not included in the White House release about the new framework.
Dental coverage became a serious talking point among Democrats due to its high cost. While some, including Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) argued that it was necessary and a human right, others balked at its high price tag and were concerned over how it would be funded.”
It is hard to believe we live in a country where Donald Trump is a working class hero. The motto for the American worker should be “bend over and spread your cheeks. You’re going to get it now.” Many workers in this country just seem to be idiots.
Pix from What the working class is still trying to tell us | The Seattle Times.