Originally published in the Charleston Mercury newsletter, May12, 2021
There’s a lot of outrage about Biden’s new $3.5 trillion plan, which is understandable considering it’s a massive amount of spending and one of the biggest expansions of government ever. But I’m finding it hard to understand why certain parts of this plan generate more outrage than others. For instance, one of the most enraging elements seems to be, based on feedback I’ve read and heard, the part where qualifying Americans get free or reduced-cost preschool and two years of community college. This response is baffling to me. The only sense I can make of it is that those who object to these kinds of services think they don’t know anyone who needs them.
They don’t know that before my husband and I were married, he received unemployment for almost two years after he lost his job in commercial plumbing. He was offered a job during that period of time that paid less than the unemployment. He didn’t take it, not because he is lazy but because it wasn’t enough for him to live on, nor would it have led to higher-paying job opportunities or skills. Instead, he took out loans to attend a two-year community college program. He ended up with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and is now a small business owner — but he also has $70,000 in student debt.
So two years after our second child was born, I started looking for a job. And maybe the people who don’t like the free child care part of this plan don’t know that we had to get financial help from my family to pay for child care while I was job hunting. Maybe they don’t know that there are already free 3K and 4K programs at the public schools in the Charleston area, which our oldest child has attended.
We are some the people who will benefit from this plan. And maybe people who don’t need it and don’t like it just don’t know that.
But there are things that they probably do know, such as the fact that expanded education opportunities make America more competitive in the global arena — if you want to reduce it to its most materialistic terms. President Biden made the point that we are the country that introduced 12 years of public, free education to the world. With the global economy more competitive than ever, can we stay competitive with just 12 years of public education? Biden thinks not, not unless we become the leader in this area again.
Another thing these people know is that these expansions to education will be paid for, in part, by taxing the nation’s corporations, 55 of which paid zero percent in federal income tax on more than $40 billion in profits in 2020. They know that under Biden’s proposed plan these corporations would have to pay at least 21 percent after various deductions. They know these corporations currently avoid taxes with offshore shelters and loopholes like tax deductions for sending jobs overseas, which benefits neither individual Americans nor our nation as a whole, and which would go away under Biden’s proposed tax reform.
They know that this enlarged access to child care and education will also be paid for by increasing taxes by only 2.6 percent only on individual earnings of more than $400,000. They know this is a return to a 39.6 percent tax rate, which was the rate recently paid by top earners before it was lowered in 2017. They know that these top earners are still super rich despite having once paid that higher rate.
If they still don’t think this is fair, they might not know that 20 million Americans lost their jobs during the pandemic, but 650 billionaires saw their net worth increase by more than $1 trillion.
Maybe they don’t know that reduced-cost child care and some free college education feels like relief to my husband and me. Maybe they don’t know that we both had to have financial help from our families to pay for our college education and living expenses and to buy our first house, despite the fact that we’ve both had jobs since high school. Maybe they don’t know that the big tax cut of 2017 added $2 trillion to the national deficit and increase the pay gap between CEOs and workers. Maybe they don’t know that a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center shows since 2000, weekly wages have risen 4.3 percent in real terms for the lowest-paid quarter of workers but 15.7 percent for the highest-earning tenth. Maybe they don’t know that it’s not enough for the economy to grow; it must grow in a way that helps the middle class and those in poverty.
They probably do know that this plan has been called a wasteful, socialist, big government overstep by those who are outraged that Americans who couldn’t otherwise afford it might get paid family and medical leave, free preschool, free community college, reduced child care, college grants and food assistance.
But the fact is, whether they like it or not, whether it fits the idea of how things should be working out in our capitalist, democratic society, Americans still need these things, and they are still struggling to provide them for themselves, often through no fault of their own. Hardworking, taxpaying Americans who have tried to get an education and be responsible, contributing members of society are still struggling to live on a single income, afford child care so both parents can bring in income, pay off student debt, or save enough for the down payment on a house.
If they don’t know someone who has struggled with any of these things, now they do.
And if they know someone who has said, “I can’t wait to take advantage of the government by putting my kids in day care while I go back to school for an associate’s degree so I can be more competitive in the job marketplace,” I’d sure love to know about it.
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