(Biden is scheduled to begin speaking at 12:30 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if the video above doesn’t play at that time.)
President Joe Biden will speak at noon today about the newly announced Democratic budget deal in Congress. The deal revives Biden’s signature legislative priority, a Build Back Better economic bill that collapsed late last year after moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin abruptly withdrew his support for it.
The speech comes one day after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Manchin, D-W.V., announced that they had struck a long-awaited deal on the legislation, which aims to reform the tax code, fight climate change and cut health-care costs.
The reconciliation bill would invest more than $400 billion over 10 years, to be fully paid for by closing tax loopholes on the richest Americans and corporations, the senators said in a joint statement. It would reduce the federal deficit by $300 billion over that decade, the senators said, citing estimates from nonpartisan congressional tax and budget offices.
The package would raise an estimated $739 billion in tax revenue, including:
- $313 billion through a 15% corporate minimum tax
- $288 billion through prescription drug pricing reforms, including measures to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and cap out-of-pocket costs to $2,000
- $124 billion through the IRS enforcement of a reformed tax code
- $14 billion through closing the carried interest loophole
The bill would also invest a total of $433 billion:
- $369 billion from a suite of energy and climate-related programs
- $64 billion from extending an expanded Affordable Care Act program for three years, through 2025
The full Senate will consider the bill next week, Schumer and Manchin said. They hope that the legislation will meet the Senate Parliamentarian’s budget reconciliation rules, allowing Democrats to pass it without needing GOP votes.
