(NewsNation Now) — When President Joe Biden comes back to Washington from Delaware in 2022, he’ll have a big stick to swing at Republicans — the expiring child tax credits.

Nearly 36 million families benefit from child tax credit payments that pay $3,000 to $3,600 yearly but are sent out in monthly checks. Those checks keep millions of kids out of poverty and with food in their mouths.

But right now, the program is on hold with the apparent failure of Biden’s Build Back Better bill.

Columnist Niall Stanage from The Hill joins “On Balance” to discuss the tax credits and Build Back Better.

As “On Balance” has been reporting, the scale and speed at which China is growing in power and influence are stunning.

From a military perspective, the country’s advances in missile technology and nuclear weapons have triggered serious concerns that a shift in the global balance of power is underway, from the west to Beijing.

President Xi Jinping has ordered his nation’s armed forces to modernize within 15 years and to be capable of fighting and winning any war by 2049.

Congressman Mark Green, a former Green Beret who participated in the capture of Saddam Hussein, joins the show to discuss China’s growing power.

The omicron variant is doubling every day but the good news is it appears far milder than earlier variants.

Podcast host Chris Hahn joins “On Balance” to weigh in on some major U.S. cities reimposing mandates for indoor activities.

At the U.S.-Mexico border, one sheriff said when he started working with the militia “Patriots for America,” he got pushback from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Texas DPS Lieutenant Chris Olivarez joins “On Balance” to discuss the issue.

Critics have been pushing former President Donald Trump to be a more vocal advocate for vaccines and he was clear in his interview with conservative commentator Candace Owens. 

Brad Blakeman, a political consultant, a professor and a former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, weighs in on Tump’s future in the GOP.

And since she is literally the last guest of the year, “On Balance” brings in Liberty Vittert, professor of data science at Washington University, editor of the Harvard Data Science Review, and an author herself for our first annual installment of Leland and Liberty’s “Holiday Book Club.”