I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, October 28th.

This could be the day that President Biden and congressional Democrats come to an agreement on the main items in the

build back better or human infrastructure bill that we've been talking about so much and that

Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema are the main dissenters on. Biden is trying to have

something to announce before he leaves for Europe later today. Now, the latest reporting is that

to get Manchin and and Cinema's votes,

Biden will announce a new framework for the bill today, not sure what new framework means exactly.

It's also being reported that, of all things, paid family leave, any paid family leave

may be getting dropped from the bill. It had already been negotiated down from 12

weeks to four weeks, according to reports over the weekend. Also on the chopping block are the tax

hikes on corporations and some of the wealthiest Americans that the president proposed to pay for

some of the social benefits and anti-climate change measures,

still perhaps in is a more limited tax hike structured to effect an estimated 700,

only 700 American billionaires. We'll get some details and a perspective on the changes being considered now

from Washington Post columnist Helene Olin, who focuses on the changes being considered now from Washington Post columnist,

Helene Olin, who focuses on the intersection of economics, politics, and American life.

Two or for recent columns are called debate over which democratic proposals to invest in short changes on needs.

And this is the real reason Americans distrust, the child tax credit,

and other government benefits. We'll get, of course, to what she thinks that real reason is.

Helene, thanks for doing this on what appears to be a critical day. Welcome to WNYC.

Thank you for having me on. First, I know you're a columnist, not a moment-to-moment reporter, but do you have a sense of where things stand as we speak?

I believe as we speak, Biden is either meeting with or just met with members of Congress,

...