See Everything the White House Wanted, and Everything It Got

The first two years of the Biden administration were marked by major legislative victories. A package of massive bipartisan infrastructure deals, technology bills, veterans health bills, gun safety bills, and new investments in climate and health care.

Of course, President Biden didn’t get everything he wanted. he won’t be president Even with these major bills, he falls well short of several legislative goals.

With the midterm elections less than three weeks away, The Upshot examines the president’s policy goals and Congress’ success in previously unreported details. We matched every line of employment and family planning spending and income from Biden’s 2022 budget to cost estimates for the five major policy bills passed by Congress last year.

Our analysis focuses on legislation aimed at achieving long-term policy change, primarily funding short-term relief programs passed by Congress in March 2021. Not including the $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus.

Here’s what we found:

More new programs have been accomplished than without Republicans than with Republicans. It’s worth noting that most of the appropriations bills were passed with Republican backing at a time of frequent partisan divisions. The bill’s bipartisan nature reflects, in part, Biden’s skill as a dealmaker and congressional Democrats’ inability to agree on key parts of the agenda.

Four of the five major bills (the Infrastructure Bill, CHIPS, the PACT Act, and the Safe Communities Act) were bipartisan.

But the Inflation Cuts Act, which accounts for about a third of spending, was passed solely by Democrats. Most of the healthcare subsidy expansion and carbon emission reduction plans have been achieved through party votes. So did most of the new taxes and spending cuts to help offset the new spending. The bill was smaller than Biden and many Democrats wanted. Joe Manchin, a Democratic Senator from West Virginia, objected to some of the original scope and policy details, limiting what Democrats could accomplish alone.

About a quarter of new climate spending went into infrastructure bills. This means more than $100 billion in climate spending has been passed with Republican backing.

Most equity-focused policy proposals have been substantially or completely curtailed. Cut included a program designed to reconnect communities divided by roads. investing in low-income housing; funding historically black colleges and universities; However, the Inflation Reduction Act included funds to prioritize the development of low-income communities.

Building the physical infrastructure was the main focus. A lot of money is being invested in roads, bridges, airports and funds for computer chip manufacturing., It also includes tax credits that encourage companies to build factories that manufacture technologies such as batteries and solar panels. These were areas of strong bipartisan support. One of his reasons is that legislators like to push concrete, visible projects in their districts.

Biden wanted to direct large sums of money to people and social services, but the bill primarily funds businesses and construction projects. Much of the legislative successes were in infrastructure and industrial policy, and most of the administration’s unfulfilled goals were in programs that directly benefit individuals. About 60% of the social service spending that went through was for veterans.

A portion of corporate spending benefits individuals in the form of jobs, lower energy costs, and so on.

But under the administration’s original plan, about half of the proposed spending, or about $2 trillion, would be spent directly on social services or households through tax credits, expanded health insurance, and education subsidies. was

The (partial) funding of new programs has changed a lot. Democrats have been unable to pass massive corporate tax hikes and higher taxes on the wealthy as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, largely due to resistance from Arizona Senator Kirsten Cinema. Instead, Congress created several new tax policies and also found significant savings from Medicare’s policy of lowering the price of prescription drugs.

Democrats could lose seats in one or both houses of the House next month, but the Biden administration hopes to pass more legislation as long as the party remains in power. White House is still pushing for a broader child tax credit that was not included in the Control Inflation Act.

The difference between the original Biden agenda and the spending and income passed into law is how much Congress has accomplished so far, and how horse deals, compromises and other political constraints have undermined its original ambition. This indicates that the

Let’s take a closer look at what Mr. Biden asked for and what he got.

When it comes to climate, the Biden administration got much of what it wanted. The bill included large spending on climate resilience and incentives to manufacture low-carbon technologies. Most of the funding came from the Democratic Party’s Inflation Reduction Act, which he said would help cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% from 2005 levels by 2030. . buses and other climate related projects.

In physical infrastructure, the infrastructure bill has seen big new spending on roads, bridges, water, rail, airports and broadband.

There have been significant cuts in terms of housing and vocational training. For example, the administration’s blueprint included tens of billions of dollars in affordable housing. Only $1 billion was ultimately passed.

When it comes to healthcare, the president has had a few wins and a lot of cuts. Congress did not expand Medicare benefits to include sight, hearing, and dental coverage. It also did not expand coverage to poor adults in states that did not expand Medicaid. The administration also lost out on a $400 billion proposal to expand access to home health care and reduce reliance on nursing homes for Americans requiring long-term care.

But Congress passed legislation that would make Medicare’s prescription drug coverage cover more drug costs and temporarily increase subsidies for Americans who buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act market. The gun safety bill, the bipartisan Safe Communities Act, included new spending on mental health services in schools and community health centers.

Congress also passed the PACT Act, a bill that expands veterans’ benefits, making more veterans eligible for medical and disability benefits if exposed to toxic substances during military service. .

Much of the original agenda, intended to support families and caregivers, has been removed entirely. The package that became law did not include subsidies for day care, paid leave or child tax credits aimed at reducing child poverty.

Family-oriented programs were scrapped largely due to Mr. Manchin’s concerns about the overall scale of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Also missing is a whole educational agenda, such as funding free community colleges and universal pre-K. However, the government is aiming to reform student debt forgiveness and loan repayment by the executive branch. The plan is estimated to cost about $400 billion.

Funded

The gap between the administration’s vision and the results of Congress is greater in revenue than in spending. On his original agenda, Biden proposed raising about $3 trillion through higher tax rates on businesses and wealthy Americans, and hundreds of billions more through increased tax law enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service. suggested to procure

Funding method

Democrats were able to pass only a small portion of these proposals. The administration failed to garner support for a 28% corporate tax rate, the lowest global tax rate, or higher taxes on the richest Americans. opposed the tax increase. Instead, Congress passed a new tax on companies that buy their own stock and a new minimum tax rate on companies that make more than $1 billion a year.

The president also called for policies to cut Medicare spending on prescription drugs. Although these proposals were not included as items in his budget, versions of these policies were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act and represent a significant portion of the bill’s savings.