Biden $3.5T plan tests voter appeal of expansive gov’t role

By LISA MASCARO
AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s “build back better” agenda is poised to be the most far-reaching federal investment since FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s Great Society. The prodigious effort to tax the rich and shift money into projects and programs would touch the lives of nearly every American. As Democrats craft the $3.5 trillion package, Americans will have to assess: Is this what they signed up for when Biden won the White House? Lawmakers on the front lines are about to find out. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign committee, says, “We’re doing hard things.”