Infrastructure/Social Spending

[TheLeviathan]

Well....how do we see this thing going?  Personally, I think the progressives and Biden find a way to get both through by Halloween, but it'll take some serious compromises to drag Manchin along.  Whatever it takes though, these are fundamental societal changes in the right direction IMO.

[MMMordabito]

It won't be 3.5 trillion. 

It's stupid that Medicare doesn't already cover hearing, vision and non-cosmetic dental, so that should stay in. They should also give seniors more coverage for home care assistance. 

The bank account snooping should be cut, and it looks like it's already getting paired down.  I already wrote to my congressman and told him I won't vote for him next time if he supports that.  

The green energy funding should only be in there, if it includes reasonable transition timelines that don't drive up prices on conventional fuel sources while the transition is going on.  Most people can't afford to just go out and buy an electric vehicle. Even if it is affordable, someone who just bought a vehicle may not want to buy another one for 10 years or more.  Conventional fuel should never be subject to "sin taxes" on the average consumer either. Fuel already gets taxed enough, as it should be for road maintenance and upgrades. I'm not saying that's in there, but it's a direction I could see down the road if they aren't careful. I fully support infrastructure for e-vehicle use though, just don't always give them all the parking spots at the front.

Government funding for pre-K is a good idea, as long as funding isn't tied to programming and curriculum. 

As far as community college, goes,  I think it should be more affordable without being free.  If there's no skin in the game, then it will only be a matter of time before people think they should also get free meals, free transportation, free equipment and free housing to go along with the free tuition.  It should be affordable enough that someone could take a year off after high school and work a $12/hr job for a year (and there are plenty of those) and save up enough to cover a couple years of community college with government assistance.  I would even extend that to four year state schools, but that is going to get into a whole other tangent.

I know there are other items in the bills, and there will probably be a bunch of pork as well.