27 April 2021
President Biden plans to ask Congress to pay for the entirety of the $1.8 trillion in new spending on health care, child care and education he’ll unveil on Wednesday night, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Why it matters: Biden’s decision to fully offset both the $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan he announced last month, and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan being rolled out in his joint address, all but guarantee big political battles on both the spending and tax sides of the combined $4 trillion proposal.
- To pay for the second package, Biden will zero in on a series of tax increases for the rich, including increasing the top marginal rate and nearly doubling the capital gains rate.
- Biden will pledge not to raise taxes on households making less than $400,000.
- To offset the costs of the first package, Biden focused on increased taxes on corporations.
- To claim the plans are offset, the White House will count increased revenue over a 15-year window to pay for the $4 trillion in spending, most of which they will do in eight years, the people tell Axios.
The big picture: Biden will use his first address to Congress to take stock of his first 100 days in office. He'll also make the case for the additional spending he previewed during the campaign as part of his Build Back Better agenda.
- He's already signed $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief, which passed Congress on a purely party line vote in March.
- In total, Biden will have asked Congress for approximately $6 trillion in new spending, outside of his annual budget request.
Go deeper: The American Families Plan will offer another four years of free education, with two for preschool education before kindergarten and another two years for community college.
- The president also will propose more money for Pell Grants, and lowering tuition at some colleges, including historically Black colleges and universities.
- In addition, he plans to increase paid family leave and extend the Child Tax Credit.
- Finally, Biden wants to make permanent the temporary tax credits for health insurance in Obamacare exchanges that were part of the American Rescue Plan, Axios has learned.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.
