President Joe Biden will unveil on Wednesday a sweeping 1.8 trillion plan to expand educational opportunities and child care for families, funded in part by the largest tax increases on wealthy Americans in decades the centerpiece of his first address to a joint session of Congress. Called the American Families Plan, Bidens third major legislative proposal combines 1 trillion in spending with 800 billion in tax cuts and credits for middle and lowerincome families.

The plan would make prekindergarten and community college free across the country, extend the child tax credit through 2025 and make permanent an expansion of the earned income tax credit to childless adults with low incomes, provide direct support to families for child care, finance teacher training and create a national paid family leave program.

The proposal follows on the heels of a 2.25 trillion infrastructure plan that has yet to be taken up by Congress and a 1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan that Biden has signed into law. Together, the measures would remake the U.S. tax code and social welfare programs, vastly expanding federal support even for families that consider themselves uppermiddle class while substantially shifting the overall tax burden to the wealthy.

Taken together, Bidens proposals illustrate the presidents ambitions after nearly 100 days in office. Elected to pull the U.S. out of the coronavirus pandemic and its associated economic crisis, Biden now seeks to use the presidency to reshape…