Senate Democrats are planning a vote on a version of President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better” bill sometime in the coming weeks or months. The Democratic House has already passed its version of the bill, which includes over $270 billion for a massive new federal child-care program (there are additional funds for Pre-K, but I’ll set those aside for now). Yet there’s no assurance this plan will ultimately pass: Last week, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin (the crucial 50th vote for Democrats) made it clear that he has very mixed feelings about the bill, while NPR reported that just 41 percent of voters support the Build Back Better agenda.
