| Democrats have taken a big step toward getting the landmark piece of President Biden's agenda done, a $2 trillion social safety net/climate change spending bill. The House of Representatives passed it this morning, with only Democrats voting in favor. It is, as The Post's Tony Romm put it, potentially one of the most significant overhauls of domestic policy in generations.  House Democrats celebrate Friday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | Let's pause and look at what exactly is in this legislation. It's too big to sum up here, but some highlights are: Provides universal prekindergarten: For all 3- and 4-year-olds. The bill also has billions to subsidize child care for families earning less than $300,000. It would be free for lower-income families and would ensure higher-earning families don't spend more than 7 percent of their income on it. Fights climate change: A big chunk of the bill, $555 billion, goes to expanding tax credits for the energy industry and consumers who switch to renewables, retrofitting buildings and public transit to run on renewable energy and giving tax credits for people to buy electric vehicles that could lower the cost of these vehicles by as much as $12,500. Strengthens Medicare: This bill would add hearing coverage to the Medicare program and allow the government to demand lower prices for a limited number of prescription drugs. Extends tax credits and child payments: Lower-income workers in particular will be receiving these payments for years. Takes on housing problems: The bill infuses billions to try to improve public housing and make housing more affordable. Romm writes this bill is "widely considered the largest infusion of federal funding for housing in modern history." Provides four weeks of paid family leave: This could get cut in the Senate version. Halts potential deportations: It protects nearly 65 percent of undocumented workers from deportation, reports The Post's Maria Sacchetti. But this provision could get knocked out of the Senate version for parliamentary reasons. There is much more detail here. This isn't a done deal yet The bill still needs to pass the Senate, which has a number of hurdles. There are Democratic holdouts, like Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.). And it needs to get approval from the Senate parliamentarian that all the items are directly related to the budget. (Democrats are passing this legislation over the objections of a Republican filibuster by using a procedural tool that requires them to only deal with the budget.) The Senate can amend the measure, and if the two versions vary enough, the Senate version would have to be passed by the House again. Meanwhile, after the Thanksgiving break, Congress will have just days to avert a potential government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. A note on SALT Earlier this week, I explained the political debate around a long-standing policy to allow people to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal income, known as SALT. I wrote: "It's a tax cut for wealthy people." A number of you wrote me to say that you live in a high-income state, you are decisively not a millionaire, and you benefit from being able to deduct $10,000 or more from your federal income taxes. So there are some in the middle class who say they too are helped by it. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the party's champion of populism, doesn't necessarily agree. As Democratic leaders try to allow people to deduct more, raising the overall cost of their social policy bill, he said this week of SALT: "I think it's bad politics, it's bad policy." Sure enough, Republicans sent out a statement after the House passed its version, which included allowing more SALT deductions, saying: "This bill would … give tax cuts to the wealthy." Your politics questions, answered Ask me a question anytime. How long is the censure of Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) valid? The rest of this term in Congress? No, forever. That's the point of the vote House Democrats took on Thursday to censure Gosar for sharing an anime video depicting him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and refusing to apologize for it. If Republicans get the majority back in next year's midterms, they can reinstall Gosar on committees, as Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) suggested he'd do. But they can't take away his censure. Gosar goes down in the books with 23 other lawmakers in U.S. history, like two lawmakers in the 80s who were censured for having sexual relations with a House page. | 
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