A bit over a month ago, we wrote about President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. Today we turn to another bold economic plan — The American Families Plan. Biden’s Families Plan invests in our kids, families, and economic future. Together with The American Jobs Plan, Joe Biden is on course to do more for Americans than any President since LBJ fought the War on Poverty and created Medicare, Medicaid, and the Civil Rights Acts.
Concerned that Biden is being a little too bold? Think about this: No Republican President — Nixon, Reagan, either Bush, or Trump has tried to repeal those laws. Americans wouldn’t stand for it. In more recent history, Trump could not even muster the votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act — coverage for pre-existing conditions and expanded Medicaid were just too popular. LBJ’s achievements were overshadowed by the tragedy of the Vietnam War, but the importance and popularity of his domestic programs, like FDR’s, cannot be denied. These changes were bold and progressive.
It’s time to take the next step. In responding to the emergency created by the recent pandemic the American Rescue Plan has shown us what good government can do when resources are harnessed for the public good. Now, it’s time to build back better. Here’s the scoop on the American Families Plan:
President Biden knows a strong middle class is the backbone of America. He knows it should be easier for American families to break into the middle class, and easier to stay in the middle class. He knows that we need to make it easier for those who dropped out of the workforce – particularly the approximately two million women who left due to COVID – to rejoin and stay in the workforce. The American Families Plan is an investment in our children and our families—helping families cover the basic expenses that so many struggle with now, lowering health insurance premiums, and continuing the American Rescue Plan’s historic reductions in child poverty.
The Families Plan will:
- Add four years of tuition-free education — two on the front end (preschool) and two on the backend (community college)
This will offer education equivalent to that offered by other leading nations. It’s been over a century since our nation recognized that universal publicly-funded high school was necessary in the then-modern world. A lot has changed in one hundred years. It’s past time our education system caught up.
2. Make sure that families spend no more than seven percent of their income on child care, and that the child care they access is of high quality.
Again, this makes our nation competitive with other leading nations.
3. Create a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program that will bring the American system in line with competitor nations that offer paid leave programs. People will be better able to manage the health and well-being of their families.
Again, this makes our nation competitive with other leading nations.
4. Expand nutritional assistance and healthy meals for students.
We must end child poverty. This is a moral imperative.
5. Extend tax credits for low- and middle-income families, including the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and the new (with the American Rescue Plan) health insurance tax credit.
These reduce income inequality – another moral imperative.
In all, the American Families Plan includes $1.8 trillion in investments and tax credits for American families and children over ten years. President Biden knows that, unlike in past decades, policies to make life easier for American families must focus on bringing everyone along inclusive of gender, race, or place of residence – urban, suburban, or rural. Leading economic research has shown that the investments proposed in the American Families Plan will yield significant economic returns – boosting productivity and economic growth, producing a larger, more productive, and healthier workforce on a sustained basis, and generating savings to states and the federal government. We will grow the economy for all because leaving anyone behind is wrong and economically counterproductive. It’s time for racism and prejudice to stop being in the way of a strong America.
Read the evidence and more here.
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