President Joe Biden acknowledged publicly for the first time Wednesday that his stalled social safety net and climate change mitigation package may have to be substantially slimmed down.
In a rare press conference, Biden said top priorities including expanded child tax credits that lapsed on Jan. 1 may have to wait for a subsequent legislative push. He also lamented the loss of his proposal to finance two years of free community college, although that provision was dropped earlier from the House-passed budget package.
“I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now and come back and fight for the rest later,” Biden told reporters. “There’s two really big components that I feel strongly about that I’m not sure I can get in the package. One is the child care tax credit and the other is help for the cost of community colleges.”
