Democrats are moving quickly to pass a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill via budget reconciliation, with little scrutiny on the details. So the editorial board has been parsing the bill’s vast new entitlements for readers. Take a turbocharged child tax credit that is really a universal basic income, which will discourage work and cost $1 trillion. Or a paid family and medical leave program that purports to help low-income workers but will subsidize affluent Americans earning north of $200,000 a year. The Journal has also walked readers through the array of accounting fictions that make the bill appear cheaper on paper....

Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, with Senators Mitch McConnell, and John Thune,holds a copy of the reconciliation bill on Sept. 28.

Photo: mandel ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Democrats are moving quickly to pass a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill via budget reconciliation, with little scrutiny on the details. So the editorial board has been parsing the bill’s vast new entitlements for readers. Take a turbocharged child tax credit that is really a universal basic income, which will discourage work and cost $1 trillion. Or a paid family and medical leave program that purports to help low-income workers but will subsidize affluent Americans earning north of $200,000 a year. The Journal has also walked readers through the array of accounting fictions that make the bill appear cheaper on paper. The true expense may reach $5.5 trillion over a decade, and much more beyond that. The larger cost will be conditioning the American middle class to rely on government for ever more of life’s needs.

From The Editorial Board

Photo: Alex Edelman - Pool Via Cnp/Zuma Press

Entitlements for the Affluent

President Biden is trying to rescue his $3.5 trillion tax and spend plan by playing the class card, claiming it will help “working people” who are “struggling” to pay the bills. This makes it sound like a safety net program for the poor rather than what it really is: a government subsidy engine for everyone including the affluent.

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Photo: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg News

The New Government Basic Income

The history of government entitlements is that they inevitably expand, often into something far different than how they began. There’s no better example than the “child tax credit” that Democrats are now expanding into a costly guaranteed basic income for families with children. This is an enormous change in social policy and the role of government, and it’s moving through Congress with no scrutiny.

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Photo: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg News

The Government Family Plan

Democrats are back in Washington this week to jam through their $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill within days, including a radical government incursion into American work and family life. With the stakes so high, we’ll devote the coming days to telling you more about these vast new programs.

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Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg News

$3.5 Trillion Is a Phony Number

Democrats are grasping for ways to finance their cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the left demanding what they claim is $3.5 trillion over 10 years. The truth is that even that gargantuan number hides the real cost of their plans.

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More on the reconciliation bill from our columnists

Photo: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Joe Biden’s Economic Fantasy World

By Gerard Baker

‘Every element of my economic plan is overwhelmingly popular,” President Biden said last week. “But the problem is, with everything happening, not everybody knows what’s in that plan.” This is an eye-opening observation, to put it mildly.

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Photo: Tom Fox/Associated Press

Joe Biden’s Lose-Lose Week

By William McGurn

Who says bipartisan consensus isn’t possible in today’s Washington?

Right now the Beltway consensus is that this is a make-or-break week for Joe Biden. The goal is getting the House to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill (already approved by the Senate), and getting both the House and Senate to agree to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that is the vehicle for Mr. Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. This consensus is bipartisan: From Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy to Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, all understand that if Congress doesn’t send both these bills to Mr. Biden’s desk for his signature, the Biden presidency will be cooked.

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