What's in Democrats' new $1.75 trillion social spending and climate bill?
CBSN
Washington – After protracted negotiations between congressional Democrats and President Biden over the details of his domestic policy agenda, the White House on Thursday rolled out a revamped framework that aims to expand the nation's social safety net and combat climate change.
The cost of the package has been whittled down from its original $3.5 trillion price tag to $1.75 trillion over a decade. Despite the drop in cost, it is opposed by Republicans, so Democrats are trying to enact the plan through a budgetary process called reconciliation, which would allow it to clear the Senate solely with Democratic support.
Democratic leaders have spent weeks haggling with their colleagues over the size and scope of the package, working to bridge the gaps between a pair of moderate Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and progressives in the House.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.