Biden Proposes Making Health Premium Subsidy Boost Permanent

A Paid Family and Medical Leave Proposal

Another section in the American Families Plan fact sheet describes a proposal for a “national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program” that would cost about $225 billion over 10 years.

The program would cover leave workers take to “bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with a loved one’s military deployment, find safety from sexual assault, stalking, or domestic violence, heal from their own serious illness, or take time to deal with the death of a loved one.”

The program would provide:

• 3 days of paid bereavement leave per year.
• 12 weeks of “paid parental, family and personnel illness save leave by year 10 of the program.”
• Benefits equal to a minimum of two-thirds of average weekly wages, up to a limit of $4,000 per month.

Administration officials do not say whether workers or employees would help pay for the paid leave program.

Estate Planning

The new fact sheet includes only general descriptions of provisions that might be used to raise the revenue needed to pay for the new programs.

Officials give this description of how they want to handle taxable estates:

The President would eliminate the loophole that allows the wealthiest Americans to entirely escape tax on their wealth by passing it down to heirs. Today, our tax laws allow these accumulated gains to be passed down across generations untaxed, exacerbating inequality. The President’s plan will close this loophole, ending the practice of “stepping-up” the basis for gains in excess of $1 million ($2.5 million per couple when combined with existing real estate exemptions) and making sure the gains are taxed if the property is not donated to charity.

The new capital gains provision would come with exemptions for family-owned businesses and farms, so that heirs who continue to run the businesses would not have to pay extra taxes.

Proposal Prospects

Biden administration officials have talked about trying to pass the proposal using procedures that would help supporters get the package through the Senate with just 51 votes, rather than the 60 votes needed to get ordinary bills through the Senate.

Supporters would need to round up support from both the most progressive and the most conservative Democrats.

Federal agencies would then have to implement the legislation. In the past, opponents of legislation have managed to block some provisions either by taking federal agencies to court, by persuading Congress to adopt temporary or permanent suspension measures, or by persuading Congress to change or repeal the underlying legislation.

(Image: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)