What Is Biden Trying To Hide From Americans In His Build Back Better Plan?

The $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act that President Joe Biden wants to make law will change how the U.S. handles several social services, however, most Americans are not aware of what exactly is in the bill.

According to a CBS News/YouGov poll released Oct. 10, only 10% of Americans said they know “a lot of the specifics” of the bill, while an alarming 60% said they didn’t know any specifics at all.

“The average American only has so much time to devote to politics,” David Ditch, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation said. “The spending package is so unbelievably large … I think it’s impossible for the typical American to know a substantial amount of the details of what’s in it.”

Some Democrats admit that the size of the bill may be a roadblock to understanding what’s in it. “We gave them too much to swallow, too many elements in that package,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip, said.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said the fault lies with the media.

“The mainstream media has done an exceptionally poor job in covering what actually is in the legislation.” Sanders said there was “very limited coverage as to what the provisions of the bill are and the crises for working people that they address.

The poll also showed that some parts of the Build Back Better Act are acceptable to Americans people, at least in theory. The use of federal funds being used to lower prescription drug costs got 88% support, and using funds for paid medical and family leave got 73% support among respondents.

However, the poll also reported that only 54% of Americans approved of the overall spending package, while an I&I/TIPP poll released on Oct. 4 showed 51% of Independents opposed the plan.

Sasha Mackler, executive director of the Energy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), said that he would like to see more focus put on climate change, as they go beyond the traditional wind and solar solutions.

“It has very strong incentives for hydrogen production, for energy storage, like advanced batteries, for advanced nuclear, for carbon capture and storage, and direct air capture,” Mackler said. “So there’s additional pieces of the energy technology equation that will be given very significant support … which I think maybe doesn’t get as much attention.”