The House’s Build Back Better Act (BBB Act) will expand low-to-middle income families’ access to medical care by extending increased tax credits from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that make health insurance sold on federal and state marketplaces more affordable. These increased tax subsidies from the ARP have already lowered families’ monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and have helped total enrollment on marketplace plans reach a record high as of August 2021. If Congress makes these subsidies permanent through the BBB Act instead of letting them expire at the end of 2022, researchers estimate that 4.2 million more people will be insured compared to before the ARP was passed. This increase would help millions of families access health care, have more stable household finances and would put more money in their pockets to spend on other necessities.

In the United States, the typical white family has nearly eight times the wealth of the typical Black family. Wealth serves as an enabler of opportunity, such that racial disparities in education, income, housing, retirement and other outcomes can be traced in part to the persistence of the racial wealth gap.

The U.S. economy is again facing the grave threat of a breach of the debt limit. Past debt-limit brinkmanship crises inflicted substantial uncertainty on businesses, drove huge declines in the stock market and consumer confidence and led to higher borrowing costs for taxpayers and consumers. Debt-limit brinksmanship resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and cost the country billions of dollars in lost economic activity, even though a default was ultimately avoided.