US President Biden announces $1.75 trillion domestic policy deal

President Joe Biden declared Thursday he had reached a "historic economic framework" with Democrats in Congress on his sweeping domestic policy package, a hard-fought yet dramatically scaled-back deal announced just before he departed for overseas summits.

Biden's remarks at the White House came after he travelled to Capitol Hill to make the case to House Democrats for the still-robust domestic package — $1.75 trillion of social services and climate change programs — that the White House believes can pass the 50-50 Senate.

"It will fundamentally change the lives of millions of people for the better," Biden said of the agreement, which he badly wanted before the summits to show the world American democracy still works."

"Let's get this done."

Together with a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill heading for final votes possibly as soon as Thursday, Biden claimed a domestic achievement modeled on those of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

"I need your votes," Biden told the lawmakers earlier, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss the private remarks.

Biden was eager to have a deal in hand before departing for the global summits. But at best, he was leaving with a framework while the details were still being sewn up. The revised package has lost some top priorities, frustrating many Democrats as the president's ambitions make way for the political realities of the narrowly divided Congress.

Paid family leave and efforts to lower prescription drug pricing are now gone entirely from the package, drawing outrage from some lawmakers and advocates.

Still in the mix, a long list of other priorities: Free prekindergarten for all youngsters, expanded health care programs — including the launch of a $35 billion new hearing aid benefit for people with Medicare — and $555 billion to tackle climate change.

There's also a one-year extension of a child care tax credit that was put in place during the Covid-19 rescue and new child care subsidies. An additional $100 billion to bolster the immigration and border processing system could boost the overall package to $1.85 trillion if it clears Senate rules.

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With support for even the narrowed package still an issue, Biden said as he left the Capitol, "I think we're going to be in good shape."

At least one pivotal holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., struck a similar tone: "I look forward to getting this done."

However, another holdout, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was less committal: "This is all in the hands of the House right now."

The two Democrats have almost single-handedly reduced the size and scope of their party's big vision.

Taking form after months of negotiations, Biden's emerging bill would still be among the most sweeping of its kind in a generation, modeled on New Deal and Great Society programs. The White House calls it the largest-ever investment in climate change and the biggest improvement to the nation's healthcare system in more than a decade.

In his meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol, Biden said he wanted progress in hand when he arrives in Rome for a global summit to show world leaders, including those in Russia and China, that democracies still work, according to those attending the private meeting.

"We are at an inflection point," Biden said. "The rest of the world wonders whether we can function."

And he said it's not "hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week."

At one point, Biden "asked for a spirited enthusiastic vote on his plan," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

Twice over the course of the hour-long meeting Democratic lawmakers rose to their feet and started yelling: "Vote, vote, vote," said Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia.

Biden's proposal would be paid for by imposing a new 5% surtax on income over $10 million a year and instituting a new 15% corporate minimum tax, keeping with his plans to have no new taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year, officials said.

Revenue to help pay for the package would also come from rolling back some of the Trump administration's 2017 tax cuts, along with stepped-up enforcement of tax-dodgers by the IRS. Biden has vowed to cover the entire cost of the plan, ensuring it does not pile onto the debt load.

But the framework is not yet the full legislative text, which lawmakers and aides cautioned has not yet been agreed to by the lawmakers.