SB 106-05: New Great Society Act (Passed)

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I'd like to thank the gentleman from Oregon for introducing this bill. He deserves full credit for initiating this proposal, and I'm proud to throw the full support of my administration behind this bill.

I had the opportunity to proofread the bill prior to its introduction, and while it would already go very far in equalizing opportunities for students, families, and working Atlasians, I wanted to use the education portions as an opportunity to have an open discussion about addressing the root causes of student debt.

In most countries abroad where college is "free", and I heavily emphasize the quotation marks, there exists a fundamentally different understanding of what college is for. Most European colleges do not provide the special, 'fun' amenities that Atlasian students take for granted as part of the college experience. Moreover, these colleges do not provide room and board. Students must be sponsored by family or find work in order to pay for housing.

The tuition cap, I believe, is one of the most effective ways to draw a long-term solution to the student debt crisis in conjunction with the Pell Grant expansion. I had also proposed a cap or freeze specifically on executive pay, but the tuition cap should help us lower the burden on students by incentivizing less college spending that does not directly pertain to improving or renovating classes and school technology.

The bill, as we can see, funds these new expenditures with modest increases in the payroll tax.

I am very proud of the work Senator WD has done with me and my administration, and I urge the Senate to pass this crucial infrastructure for shared prosperity and a great, moral society.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

The Vice President and I have been discussing expanding UBI to single adults and couples without children. If there is support in this chamber to expand UBI beyond parents, I would support that, but we're definitely going to need to reduce the UBI benefit extension by at least half ($1500, but I won't rule out keeping the amount at $1000 if that is necessary for this bill's package).

Wealthies do not need this money though, so this is still technically not a Yang-style UBI program.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

There is a welfare cliff in Section III.

UBI is not traditional welfare. That's why I support a generous income cap but we're also not giving free money to Donald Trump's or Jeff Bezos's families.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

There is a welfare cliff in Section III.

UBI is not traditional welfare. That's why I support a generous income cap but we're also not giving free money to Donald Trump's or Jeff Bezos's families.

Indeed. The change in the income threshold was for good reason. Families making 130K, 140K, 150K, and so on....do not need $2000 checks.

True, plus it would actually be $4000 for two-parent households.

We have to draw the line somewhere, obviously. That's why I'm willing to negotiate smaller checks ($1500 or the current $1000) for expanded eligibility to all adults.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

How does this look?

Section III. CUBI benefit enhancements

The Children's Universal Basic Income Act is amended as follows:

Section 1. Title

This legislation may be cited as the Children'sUniversal Basic Income Act of 2021.

Section 2. Monthly Universal Basic Income for Families with Children

1. Beginning in January of 2022, parents or legal guardians of persons under the age of 18 individual adults who have a disposable income of less than $100,000 shall be entitled to $1,500 monthly checks.

2. The income received shall not be taxed or counted toward existing benefits.

3. This program shall run until 2028, with the monthly amount decreasing by $100 per each of the fifteen remaining months of the program's effectiveness, but may be extended by Congress.

In summary, it expands the program from parents to adults and lowers the monthly benefit increase to $1500. The size of the checks decreases by $100 each month in the final fifteen months of the program.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I'd like to thank the gentleman from Oregon for introducing this bill. He deserves full credit for initiating this proposal, and I'm proud to throw the full support of my administration behind this bill.

I had the opportunity to proofread the bill prior to its introduction, and while it would already go very far in equalizing opportunities for students, families, and working Atlasians, I wanted to use the education portions as an opportunity to have an open discussion about addressing the root causes of student debt.

In most countries abroad where college is "free", and I heavily emphasize the quotation marks, there exists a fundamentally different understanding of what college is for. Most European colleges do not provide the special, 'fun' amenities that Atlasian students take for granted as part of the college experience. Moreover, these colleges do not provide room and board. Students must be sponsored by family or find work in order to pay for housing.

The tuition cap, I believe, is one of the most effective ways to draw a long-term solution to the student debt crisis in conjunction with the Pell Grant expansion. I had also proposed a cap or freeze specifically on executive pay, but the tuition cap should help us lower the burden on students by incentivizing less college spending that does not directly pertain to improving or renovating classes and school technology.

The bill, as we can see, funds these new expenditures with modest increases in the payroll tax.

I am very proud of the work Senator WD has done with me and my administration, and I urge the Senate to pass this crucial infrastructure for shared prosperity and a great, moral society.

A couple of questions about the tuition cap. Should it be indexed to general inflation? Also do we have authority to mandate the cap in this fashion? When I suggested such some months ago, it was in the context of conditioning financial aid, seeking to leverage the vast cadre of students and real dollars that come with them to keep prices down (which should deter a school from just rejecting all financial aid entirely since that was a concern of that approach).

How will fees be treated, especially if institutions jack up fees to ridiculous levels to circumvent the tuition cap?

I'm pretty sure that the ability to set tuition caps, a price control, is already protected by the Commerce Clause. I would support indexing the cap as well in addition to relevant fees to inflation, or anything that's most effective at shrinking these non-essential expenditures so that students can graduate with little if any debt.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Another amendment proposal; remember that like the last one, I cannot officially submit amendments and so a senator must sponsor it.

Section VII. Tuition Cap

For students enrolled in a Community College, HBCU, Institution of Higher Education, Public 4-year Institution of Higher education, Tribal College or University, 2-year Tribal College or University, 4-year Tribal College or University, the tuition total amount, including tuition and fees, owed by any individual student shall not exceed $8,000 per year.

The Vice President and I have been discussing expanding UBI to single adults and couples without children. If there is support in this chamber to expand UBI beyond parents, I would support that, but we're definitely going to need to reduce the UBI benefit extension by at least half ($1500, but I won't rule out keeping the amount at $1000 if that is necessary for this bill's package).

Wealthies do not need this money though, so this is still technically not a Yang-style UBI program.

I don't support UBI, only in extreme circumstances. It's wasteful spending and we can't afford increasing the deficit whatsoever.

You propose new spending bills all the time that don't raise taxes or cut spending elsewhere.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I'm going to ask a senator to amend the bill to keep the UBI amount at $1,000 and instead make the program available to all adults including non-parents, with the similar $100 monthly gradual reduction during the final ten months of the program to avoid the "benefit cliff" that AGA warned about.

According to Vice President Battista, the proposed $2,000 expansion would nearly double the cost of the existing program, which the payroll tax increase probably wouldn't even pay for on its own. But making the CUBI universal would cost just slightly more than the existing program.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

WD has told me he'd prefer an increase of at least $500. I think the benefits realized from simply removing the 'C' from 'CUBI' is a better way of expanding the program, but I'm not opposed to an amount increase if there's a way to pay for it (i.e. other tax increases or cuts). There's no way the payroll tax increase will cover expansion of eligibility and benefits along with everything else in the bill.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I’m unsure what you mean by tax deductions, because if I’m not mistaken, I don’t see anything in this bill which could be construed as doing as such.

Section IV. Programs for Urban Economic Action Districts
i. Businesses that open new locations within UEADs shall receive a 3% federal corporate tax rebate, exclusive to the UEAD, for the new location for up to three tax years.
ii. Small businesses within UEADs owned by residents of the UEAD are eligible to apply to receive a 5% reduction in federal income tax for up to three tax years.
iii. Businesses receiving the aforementioned tax incentives shall also be exempt from employer-paid payroll taxes on new hires that are residents of the UEAD for up to one tax year.

If the employer tax isn't related to the the exemption granted here then that language should probably be made clearer too.

My amendment for the broadband section:

4. Broadband Initiatives Program - Section 3 of the Let’s Get Wired Act is as follows:

3.) $30 billion shall hereby be appropriated over the next 5 years to aims and objectives of the LGW Act. The $30 billion is hereby broken down in the following areas.  

3A.) $12 billion of this funding is for the up-front cost of installing new broadband route in areas currently not receiving an connection of least 25 megabits per second, an upload speed of at least 3 megabits per second.

3B.) $7 billion is hereby granted to the regions of Atlasia to spend on the improving and expanding broadband access.

3C.) $4 billion is hereby allocated for the installation of broadband for rural areas and areas under the oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

3D.) $3 billion is hereby allocated for a federal jobs training and apprenticeship scheme designed to train employees for the skills needed in the installation of broadband infrastructure.

3E.) $3 billion is hereby allocated for public schools and libraries to improve and expand broadband access.

WD's first amendment from somewhere up top is adopted with no objections. Senators have 24 hours to object to this one.

Also, is the current CUBI not working well enough or something? I'm not sure where the pressing need for an expansion or amount increase is when we've only just got the program going and haven't actually seen anything come of it yet. Why not leave it as is?

Technically, we ran a pilot UBI program from the start of the pandemic to, if memory serves, early summer of this year. I had intended on transitioning to a full Yang-style UBI eventually (below a certain income level of course). Over the long term, that's going to inject money into the economy and the UBI will pay for itself as that is reflected by increased tax revenue.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

How much would the program cost per household instead?

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I'm fine with the original text. I still want Yang-style UBI eventually but I'll take half a loaf over nothing at all. I do believe that UBI would pay for itself in time, however.

We need to be careful with how much we're increasing taxes. The budget situation is a bit confusing because people said that it would result in people giving over 100% of their income to the government. I'm not sure if that's true, but we need to be mindful of tax increases and spending.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I urge the Senate to reject the amendment. This bill does not ban the importation of iron or steel for private companies, but any public works project should support domestic industry and use of quality resources that are made here in Atlasia.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I'm very pleased with what we have now and I urge a vote in favor of this historic bill! Let's give our people a holiday present in the form of shared prosperity, protection for our seniors, and support for Atlasian families.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

I do not want to spoil the moment and I agree with Scott's last post wholeheartedly, but I just realized that the proposed [by AGA and Scott] CUBI phase-out so that the program does not end abruptly was never even sponsored nor subject to a vote. Is no one interested in it?

Good eye. Here's the proposed amendment, modified to accommodate the current text:

Section III. CUBI benefit enhancements

The Children's Universal Basic Income Act is amended as follows:

Section 1. Title

This legislation may be cited as the Children'sUniversal Basic Income Act of 2021.

Section 2. Monthly Universal Basic Income for Families with Children

1. Beginning in January of 2022, parents or legal guardians of persons under the age of 18 individual adults who have a disposable income of less than $100,000 shall be entitled to $2,000 monthly checks.

2. The income received shall not be taxed or counted toward existing benefits.

3. This program shall run until 2028, with the monthly amount decreasing by $100 per each of the twenty remaining months of the program's effectiveness, but may be extended by Congress.

The benefits will start to decline 20 months before the program is renewed or canceled.