President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are poised to channel historic investments into programs for kids — if they can navigate around competing demands, particularly from programs for seniors, as they slim down the massive public investment and social safety net bill now under intense negotiation on Capitol Hill.
The distribution of spending between young and old — though almost totally overshadowed by the internal party disputes about the package’s total cost — constitutes one of the most consequential policy and political choices facing Democrats as they labor to finish the massive plan. The bill offers them a unique opportunity to confront one of the federal budget’s most glaring inequities: the generational imbalance between programs aimed at kids and those directed at seniors. CONTINUED
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
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