Joe Biden heads to Virginia schools with Jill to pitch his $4trillion big government spending spree ahead of White House negotiations with Republicans
- President Joe Biden headed to Yorktown, Virginia, as his administration starts a blitzkrieg to sell its $4.1 trillion in federal spending package
- Jill Biden joins him as they visit two schools – an elementary one and college
- Part of a massive push by administration to sell its $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan and $1.8 trillion American Families Plan
- Jill Biden heads to West Coast later this week, Biden to New Orleans on Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff also traveling
- Push comes ahead of negotiations with Republicans on the legislation
- Biden hosting Dem and GOP congressional leaders at White House next week
President Joe Biden headed to Yorktown, Virginia, on Monday as his administration starts a blitzkrieg to sell its $4.1 trillion in federal spending package amid negotiations with Republicans.
Jill Biden, a teacher, is joining him for a trip to highlight the educational component of his plans. The couple will visit two schools – Yorktown Elementary School and Tidewater Community College.
The first couple is kicking off a weeklong push by the Biden administration to sell its massive social welfare and infrastructure plans.
The first lady heads out West on Wednesday to visit Utah, Nevada and Colorado. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Milwaukee on Tuesday and in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday. Doug Emhoff will visit the Lehigh Valley on a Wednesday. President Biden visits New Orleans on Thursday.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden headed to Yorktown, Virginia, on Monday as his administration starts a blitzkrieg to sell its $4.1 trillion in federal spending package
The Bidens will visit two schools – Yorktown Elementary School and Tidewater Community College
Polls show conflicted feelings over Biden’s $2.3 trillion jobs package – a massive infrastructure bill that Republicans have criticized for containing items other than tradition infrastructure, such as housing for the elderly and a Climate Corp.
An April Ipsos Poll found that only 45% supported the plan but many elements in the proposal had strong support, such as the repair or replacement of American ports, railways, bridges, and highways (79%) and investing in home-based care for the elderly or disabled (78%).
Biden plans to pay for his ambitious jobs agenda with a hike in corporate taxes.
He’ll also be pitching his second proposal, a $1.8 trillion families plan he laid out in his speech to Congress last week. Called a ‘human infrastructure’ bill, it focuses on social programs such as education and health care and is funded through a tax hike on the wealthy.
Many of the items – the expanded Child Tax Credit, expanded paid family and medical leave, free tuition and universal pre-K – poll well with voters.
Republicans are balking at the cost and the expanded role in government the programs would bring.
They’ve countered Biden’s infrastructure plan with a smaller proposal of their own that focuses on tradition items and have called the president’s families plan a nonstarter.
Later this week, Jill Biden will head to the West Coast and Joe Biden goes to New Orleans
Democrats control both chambers of Congress but hold a narrow margin in the House. In the Senate, Biden needs at least 10 Republican votes to move his proposals through the legislative process.
As part of negotiations, Biden will host congressional leaders in both parties in the White House next week on May 12. It’s a different step from negotiations in the $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan passed in March, which did not garner a single Republican vote.
‘We’re going to work with Republicans. We’re going to find common ground. You know, the Senate last week passed by an overwhelming margin, a part of a water infrastructure bill that’s part of- related to our jobs plan. So I think you’re starting to see some progress here,’ White House chief of staff Ron Klain said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday.
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