Ep. 12 Human Infrastructure

The 2,702 page, multi-trillion dollar “Budget Reconciliation Package” proposed by House Democrats includes the annual infrastructure and budget reconciliation bills, as well as a "human infrastructure" bill. They seek to address innovation, buildings, transportation, utilities, and in-home care. The human infrastructure portion of the bills include federal programs such as dental and vision additions to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), universal pre-k, child tax breaks, incentives for renewable energies and electric vehicles, and free community college at the national level. In this episode we dive headlong (Scrooge McDuck style) into the specifics of the bill and unpack where some of the tax dollars will be going. We discuss how this bill might get funded, debate whether the proposed programs will be sustainable and beneficial, and sift through some of the strange additions to the bill--like the $50 million for “Strategic innovation for revenue collection” which is a fancy committee to figure out how to get more taxes.