The Build Back Better package that has consumed Congress for months was relegated to the footnotes.
Administrations normally detail their biggest policy dreams in their annual budgets. The Biden administration tucked its into the footnotes instead. Months after congressional talks stalled on the president’s expansive climate and social safety net bill known as Build Back Better, the White House simply declined to include its fine print in its annual budget proposal that was released on Monday. The budget included a slew of smaller policy specifics, including a new minimum tax for the very wealthy; a change to the way the government pays for vaccines for adults; and new money to ensure clean drinking water. But it did not include the key provisions in Build Back Better — the legislation that President Biden has spent much of his time in office promoting. White House budgets are always largely symbolic documents, unlikely to become law without substantial changes from Congress. But without details about many of Mr. Biden’s top priorities, the budget this year is unusually unhelpful in even understanding the administration’s budgetary goals. “Ironically, what you are seeing in the budget is things that are not going to happen,” said Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “And what you are not seeing are things that possibly are going to happen.” In a call with reporters on Monday, Shalanda Young, the White House budget director, said the administration had left out the specifics to help the continuing congressional negotiations on the package. “I understand their political calculus, but it makes their budget not a very useful document for understanding their priorities,” Mr.
