President, first lady begin tour to sell massive families, jobs plans

The first couple arrived in Yorktown Elementary School in Virginia early Monday and later toured Tidewater Community College, symbolic of the president’s plan to provide universal preschool, upgrade schools and provide two years of community college free to strengthen the workforce.

Biden said at Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, Va., that the plan invests in people, especially children.

“Every child has a capacity to learn,” Biden said, and providing education would prepare America for global competition with other countries.

“Any country that out-educates us, will out-compete us, and that’s a fact,” Biden said at the Portsmouth campus following a visit to a classroom where a class on heating and air conditioning systems was being conducted.

Biden said the first lady, a former community college professor, will be leading the education and child care efforts, which includes appearing before audiences throughout the country.

Dr. Biden will arrive in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Her schedule is being finalized.

She also will stop in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she will appear at public schools, and at Fort Carson, a National Guard training ground outside Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Las Vegas is part of a sprint to sell the president’s plan in fast-growing and politically important Western states.

Massive spending package

Last week, Biden unveiled his massive $4 trillion spending packages in a speech to a joint session of Congress.

The blueprint includes spending on infrastructure that includes traditional programs to build and repair roads, bridges, rail and water and energy systems, as well as provide investments in schools, home care and extend child tax credits to help working families and reduce poverty.

Biden has proposed $2 trillion for traditional infrastructure improvements in what he’s tabbed as his jobs plan. He has detailed another $1.8 trillion for education programs and other federal spending that would help working families with reduced costs to care for children, parents and provide a stronger financial footing.

Part of the school funding includes addressing teacher shortages, like those in the Clark County School District.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said GOP lawmakers in the Senate would not approve more than $600 billion for an infrastructure plan, forcing Democrats to explore taking up the legislation under a parliamentary maneuver to avoid a Republican filibuster and 60-vote threshold.

In the House, Democrats have a thin majority but enough to pass legislation along party lines.

But the Biden plan relies on hikes in corporate and capital gains taxes on investors, as well as increased income tax for those making over $400,000 a year.

Republicans have criticized the plan over the tax hikes, which would roll back their signature 2017 tax cut legislation that reduced taxes across the board.

And even some Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a moderate and key swing vote, have questioned some of the program spending and tax increases.

Democrats control the 50-50 Senate with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, and can ill afford any defections.

‘A liberal wish list’

GOP lawmakers have called Biden’s plan, which would become one of the largest economic overhauls since Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson if implemented, a “liberal wish list” of programs and a giant step toward socialism.

But Biden told educators and students in Virginia that the tax plan would require only corporations and the wealthy to pay equally, and should not be seen as a punishment.

The president noted that many corporations paid nothing in taxes last year, while reaping billions in profits. And wealthy millionaires and billionaires took advantage of tax loopholes to lessen their federal tax burden.

“It’s about time they start paying their fair share,” Biden said.

Requiring the top 1 percent of taxpayers to pay what they did in 2001 under former President George W. Bush would provide the funding needed to give every student who wanted it two free years of community college education and an opportunity for better-paying jobs.

“Think about it as what is better for America,” Biden said.

And he derided GOP plans to give tax breaks for top wage earners in previous cuts approved by Congress.

“Folks, for too long we’ve seen that trickle-down economics does not work,” the president said.

White House officials and Democratic lawmakers say polls show that the plan has bipartisan support.

Still, Republicans in Congress have been united in their dismissal of the hefty price tag on the Biden infrastructure and family plan proposals.

To sell the plan, Biden, the first lady, Harris and the second gentleman, as well as Cabinet secretaries, will fan out across the country to hold events promoting the proposals.

It’s no secret that many of the destinations, like Nevada, are swing states in the upcoming 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections.

Events also are planned in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Ohio and North Carolina, where second gentleman Doug Emhoff visited last Friday.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.