Pelosi open to scrapping key components in spending package
By Mike Lillis - 10/21/21 12:34 PM EDT
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she's ready to scrap two key components of the House's $3.5 trillion social benefits package — a long-term extension of the child tax credit and a hike in corporate tax rates — in order to get the legislation to President Biden's desk.
The child tax credit has emerged as a key selling point of the massive social spending bill, which stands at the center of Biden's economic agenda, and powerful Democrats are pushing to extend permanently an expansion of that credit, which they first adopted in March.
Pelosi said she also supports that long-term extension, but will accept the shorter one-year window that Biden proposed earlier in the week, saying the president is driving the train.
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"That's what the president has agreed to," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol.
"Let me just say I want a permanent child tax credit. I've wanted it for years," she quickly added. "This is the president's big issue. It is called the Biden child tax credit. So if it's acceptable to him, in light of the bill, it's acceptable to me."
The corporate tax hike has surfaced as another point of internal tension as Democratic leaders race to win unanimous support for the package in both chambers, where razor-thin majorities mean they can afford virtually no defections.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/577808-pelosi-open-to-scrapping-key-components-in-spending-package
