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Biden pushes for money for child care, health care, education


President Joe Biden visited a community college in a key Illinois swing district Wednesday to pitch “human infrastructure,” which includes money for child care, health care, and education.

The investments, while part of President Biden’s economic agenda, didn’t make it into the bipartisan infrastructure deal that the president signed onto last month.

The deal includes hundreds of billions of dollars of investments in roads and bridges, transit systems and broadband. “Under a bipartisan infrastructure agreement, we’re going to make the biggest investment in roads and bridges since the construction of the interstate highway system, literally creating millions of good paying jobs,” President Biden said.

However, the deal constitutes only a fraction of the $4 trillion in spending Biden proposed as part of a broader plan to reinvigorate the economy.

“As the president presses for the bipartisan infrastructure framework, he’s also pressing ahead on a dual track for the full breadth and scope of the Build Back Better agenda, which includes his critical climate priorities and the American Families Plan,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

Biden highlighted the rest of his proposal Wednesday. This includes plans to invest in child care and workforce development programs, and provide two years of free community college, universal prekindergarten and paid family and medical leave.

The president also highlighted his proposals to establish a clean energy standard and invest in home care for seniors, as well as affordable housing.

Finally, Biden talked about plans to make his child tax credit expansion and expanded health care premium subsidies from the COVID-19 aid bill permanent.

Democrats plan to include many of these plans into a bill they hope to pass through reconciliation, a legislative maneuver that would require just a simple majority vote, skirting the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate.

Biden has said he would prefer the two bills move through Congress together.

The community college Biden visited Wednesday is located in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District. He won the district by about two points last November.

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Joe Biden, U.S. President: “We used to, we used to invest more in research and development than any country in the world three decades, four decades ago. Now, now we’re number eight. We were number one. China’s number two, they were number nine. That’s why this program I’m going to be talking a little bit about where you can invest significantly more money in research and development to own the 21st century. We have the best folks in the world, and we’re just not investing the kind of money you should. But, you know, I personally was a single parent for five years after my wife and daughter were killed and I had two little boys. And I was a U.S. senator. I was 29 years old, 30 years old,a U.S. senator. And I could not afford child care, but I had a family to help. I had my best friend in the world, my sister, she and her husband moved into my home and helped raise my kids, my brother and my mom. But people can’t make it by themselves. And this is really important. And by the way, being able to if you’re working in a child childcare center, being able to learn more skills and raise your standard, your ability in the jobs you have is really a big deal.”

Reporter: “Mitch McConnell says you’re on for a heck of a fight on this one.”

Joe Biden, U.S. President: “Mitch McConnell loves our program. You see what Mitch McConnell said? He told me he wasn’t going to get a single vote in order to allow me to get, with the help of everybody here, that $1.9 trillion dollar tax cut, I mean, excuse me, program to for economic growth. Look it up, man. He’s bragging about it in Kentucky. It’s a great thing for Kentucky. It’s getting four billion dollars to help poor…It’s amazing. Check out Mitch McConnell, you can even see it on TV anyway. Thanks. Under a bipartisan infrastructure agreement, we’re going to make the biggest investment in roads and bridges since the construction of the interstate highway system, literally creating millions of good paying jobs. The agreement is going to do to encourage the physical ensure the physical infrastructure lays the foundation for a strong and durable, sustainable, competitive economy. But what I’m talking about today is human infrastructure. It’s essential to that foundation as well to truly win the 21st century and once again lead the world to truly build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, to truly deal everybody in this time, we need to invest in our people, need to invest in our people. That’s why in addition to the bipartisan infrastructure agreement that I believe we’re going to get done, I’m here to make a case for the second critical part of my domestic agenda. It’s a combination of parts of my American Jobs Plan that were essential and not included in the bipartisan infrastructure plan as well as my American Families Plan. In Washington, they call it a reconciliation bill. That’s a fancy way of saying with a filibuster that our friends on the other side use constantly more than ever been used in history. So I’m going to be making the case to the American people until the job is done, until we bring this bipartisan deal home, until we meet the needs of families today and the economy of tomorrow, and we can pay for it. Let me give you a rough example. This isn’t you know, by the way, the American the the plan for infrastructure is paid for. It’s paid for. People say that one of the purposes of taxes is to also generate growth, along with making sure that we can pay for our basic needs. Let me ask you, what is more likely to grow the economy and enhance us? Continuing the tax cut at 37% or spending… having to pay 39.5%, generating economic growth because now you have a tax system that will allow millions of students to go to community college. We pay for our entire plan to make the tax system fair for all Americans. It’s about time. There’s a lot of work ahead of us to finish the job but we’re going to get it done. We’re going to reimagine what our economy and our future could be and show the world, just as importantly, we’ll show ourselves that democracy, democracy can deliver the people of Illinois and the people of America and the world can lead again.”