Washington (AFP)

Like the Minister of the Economy Janet Yellen, Ms. Pelosi also spoke on Sunday of the possibility that these reforms are partly financed by a tax on assets held by the richest people in the United States.

"We're almost there," the official said on CNN, also replying "that's what's on the table", when asked if the deal would come out within a week.

"We have an agreement on 90% of the project, we just have some of the last decisions to make," she also said.

Joe Biden received Sunday morning in his Delaware residence the Democratic leader of the Senate Chuck Schumer, and Senator Joe Manchin, one of the elected Democrats refractory to parts of the social reform project.

To finance it, "we will probably have a tax on the rich," Ms. Pelosi said on Sunday, stressing that this option was still under discussion among Democratic senators.

It would at best finance 10% of the project, also indicated the person in charge.

Ms. Yellen later clarified on CNN that the proposal Ms. Pelosi referred to was that of Senator Ron Wyden.

It plans to tax each year the capital gains generated, but not cashed, by liquid assets held by billionaires, those that can be quickly transformed into cash such as shares.

"I wouldn't call it a tax on the rich," said Yellen.

"But this would make it easier to achieve gains on capital, which represent an extremely important part of the income of the richest people and which currently are not taxed" until they are sold, she added. .

The proposal would affect people with more than $ 1 billion in assets or with more than $ 100 million in income over three years, or less than 1,000 U.S. taxpayers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US president expressed cautious optimism on Thursday about the possibility of an agreement in Congress to push through his social reform project and his infrastructure plan.

The amounts have been planed in an attempt to bring together all the fringes of the Democratic Party.

Joe Biden notably led during the week intensive negotiations with reluctant elected officials during which he agreed to drastically reduce spending on social and climate measures.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, two centrist Democrats, have the equivalent of a veto on these projects in the face of the extremely thin majority of Democrats in the upper house of Congress .

The American president initially wanted to vote for a program of 3.500 billion dollars over 10 years to improve the care of health, education and early childhood.

During discussions within his party, this amount was reduced to around 2,000 billion.

The other $ 1.2 trillion program involves investments to modernize infrastructure.

© 2021 AFP