Having struggled to respond to a surge in migrants on the southwest border since taking office, the president promoted his planned overhaul of the immigration system and spoke about his goals to curb climate change by cutting carbon emissions in half over the next decade.
While Mr Biden endorsed his decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by September 11 after nearly 20 years of war, he said little new about how he would approach the challenges of increasingly antagonistic opponents such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea than his intention to repeat, drawing a hard line if necessary, and looking for collaboration where possible.
But as striking as anything else in the speech was Mr. Biden’s vision of a profound lynchpin in America’s eternal debate about the role of government in society. Four decades after President Ronald Reagan declared that government was the problem, not the solution, Mr Biden wanted to turn that thesis on its head and use the state as a catalyst for reshaping the country and restoring the balance between the richest and the rich strengthen the rest.
The American Families Plan, as he called his latest $ 1.8 trillion proposal, would follow the American Rescue Plan, a $ 1.9 trillion spending package on pandemic relief and economic incentives that he already has and the American Jobs Plan, a $ 2.3 trillion program for infrastructure, home health care, and other priorities that is outstanding.
The family plan includes $ 1 trillion in new spending and $ 800 billion in tax credits. It would fund the universal preschool garden for all 3- and 4-year-olds, a federal paid family and sick leave program, efforts to make childcare more affordable, a free community college for all, aid to students at colleges that historically serve non-white communities, and expanded subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
The plan would also extend key tax breaks that are included as temporary measures in the coronavirus relief package and benefit low- and middle-income workers and families, including the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, and the child and dependent care tax credit.
To pay for this, the president proposed raising the marginal tax rate for the top 1 percent of American income earners from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. It would also increase capital gains and dividend tax rates for those who earn more than $ 1 million a year. And he would remove a provision in the tax code that reduces capital gains on some inherited assets, such as vacation homes, that largely benefit the rich.
