Buttigieg’s $1 Trillion Plan for Free Tuition, Child Care and Housing
Budget

Buttigieg’s $1 Trillion Plan for Free Tuition, Child Care and Housing

Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen

Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg released on Friday more than $1 trillion worth of proposals that focus on education, housing and child care. The plans include:

  • $700 billion for pre-K and child care, to fund free programs for low-income families and reduce costs for others.
  • $500 billion to reduce the cost of higher education, with free tuition at public colleges for most families earning less than $100,000.
  • $430 billion for affordable housing, intended to assist 7 million Americans.
  • $400 billion tax cut for low-income families, largely for an increase in the earned income tax credit to provide an additional $1,000 to 35 million families.

Altogether, Buttigieg has proposed roughly $5.7 trillion in spending on new programs, and on Friday he provided some ways to pay for them, including:

  • $2.1 trillion by increasing capital gains taxes on the top 1%.
  • $2.2 trillion by reversing Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
  • $675 billion by trimming health care costs.
  • $100 billion by charging banks more for risk.

Reaching for the middle: Buttigieg continues to make a play for the center of the Democratic party, somewhere to the left of Joe Biden but well to the right of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren – and it appears to be paying off. “Taking the lane between Biden and the party’s left wing seems to be working for Buttigieg, at least in Iowa, where’s Mayor Pete has climbed in the polls,” Vice’s Alex Lubben wrote Friday.

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