Biden Details His American Families Plan Expanding Education & Child Care

President Joe Biden and his administration Wednesday laid out the key details of their American Families Plan seeking to expand education, child care options, support women workers and reform tax collection on America’s most wealthy.

The American Families Plan seeks to implement universal prekindergarten care, following cities like New York’s “Pre-K for all” program. Biden’s plan also includes a federal paid leave program, subsidies for child care, free community college, aid for students in colleges that historically serve diverse populations, expansions to the Affordable Care Act and extensions to existing federal efforts to curb poverty.

Biden’s new plan also gives permanence to several temporary provisions from the American Rescue Plan’s COVID-19 stimulus permanent. Among the provisions are the new tax credit system awarding parents of young children additional sums to fight child poverty.

In order to strengthen enforcement of his tax reforms, Biden is proposing a $80 billion investment into the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), hoping to collect more the $700 billion from America’s highest earners with low compliance. More than the IRS budget increase, Biden’s proposals will also raise the top marginal tax rate from 37% to 39.6% and raising the capital gains tax for people with investments larger than $1 million from 20% to 39.6%. The Affordable Care Act surtax on capital gains would still be in effect, making the full taxation on investments over $1 million 43.4%.

Biden provided details of the bill during a joint session of Congress Wednesday night.