Joe Biden said his $ 2 tonne plan to rebuild America’s ‘crumbling’ roads, bridges, railways and other infrastructure would compete with the space race in its ambition and deliver economic and social change on a scale like the New Deal . The president also promised that his investment in a “one-off generation” would stop long-standing racial differences, exacerbated by national mobilizations in the past.
In its extensive infrastructure agenda, the first week of which Biden was launched this week, hundreds of billions of dollars have been dedicated to projects and investments that, according to the administration, will promote racial equality in work, housing, transport, health care and education, while improving economic results . for color communities.
“This plan is important, not only for what and how it builds, but it’s also important for where we build,” Biden said last week in a union training facility outside Pittsburgh. “It includes everyone, regardless of race or zip code.”
His proposal would replace lead pipes and service lines that have harmed black children excessively; reduce air pollution that has long harmed black and Latino neighborhoods near ports and power stations; “Reconnected” neighborhoods cut off by previous transportation projects; expand affordable housing options so that more families can buy houses in color, build wealth and eliminate exclusionary management laws; rebuild the public housing system; and prioritize investments in ‘frontline’ communities whose residents are predominantly colored, often the first and worst affected by climate change and environmental disasters.
The plan also allocates $ 100 million to workforce development programs allocated to historically underserved communities, and $ 20 million to upgrade historic black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority services (MSIs), and to fund the manufacturing expansion partnership quadruples its investment in “minority-owned and rural enterprises.
Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party (WFP), said it was clear that Biden had listened to activists and understood the mutual challenges of racial injustice, climate change and economic inequality.
“It’s not racially neutral – it’s actually very aggressive and specific,” he said. He notes the coalition of black voters and women who helped Biden win the Democratic nomination and win the White House.
Perhaps the most courageous piece of the proposal is a $ 400 billion investment in caring for elderly and disabled Americans. In his speech, Biden said his agenda would create jobs and increase wages and benefits for the millions of “unseen, underpaid and undervalued” caregivers, mostly coloreds.
Ai-jen Poo, co-founder and CEO of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, calls it ‘one of the most effective plans to address racial and gender inequality in our economy’.
Poo said the coronavirus pandemic, which hurts women and people of color excessively, shows how critical caregivers are of the country’s well-being. And yet many of these workers still struggle to care for themselves and their families.
Poo believes Biden’s plan for care and the economy can do what previous jobs for manufacturing did, turning dangerous, low-wage jobs into opportunities for upward mobility and safety. Home care workers are excluded from labor protection – Poo said this effort puts them at the forefront.
“There is nothing more fundamental and possible for our economy than taking good care of families,” she said. “Without it, nothing else can function – we can not even build roads, bridges and tunnels without care.”
Biden’s plan also provides for $ 100 billion for high-speed broadband internet, along with provision to improve access and affordability, which White House officials say will help close the digital divide between white and black and Latino families.
“The Internet is a tool we all rely on,” said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. “And if certain sections of the population, especially those who have historically been left out, do not have access to the tools, they fall even further behind.”
Biden said his plan would help reduce costs by increasing competition and providing short-term subsidies to low-income households. Siefer said these measures are important, but she is skeptical that the rates would be enough to make high-speed internet affordable for low-income families without more permanent subsidies.
Improving digital literacy is also critical to facing racial equality, Siefer said: “To really achieve equality, we need to go beyond thinking: let’s just make it available.”
The proposal also includes $ 5 billion for community-based violence prevention programs. An investment that black and Latino activists have long claimed will help reduce the impact of gun violence.
The government has suggested that additional efforts to reduce the gap in racial prosperity, such as universal kindergarten, affordable higher education and improved family leave, could be included in the second part of a $ 4 ton program.
Republicans accuse Biden of delivering a “Trojan horse” to fund progressive initiatives.
“Biden’s plan includes spending hundreds of billions on left-wing policies and blue-state priorities,” the Republican National Committee said. It singled out parts of the bill aimed at addressing racial and gender inequality, such as “$ 400 billion for an ‘unrelated’ home care program that was ‘one of the largest union groups’.”
While many senior Democrats welcomed the plan, many progressive people said it did not go far enough. They demanded $ 10 tons over the next decade to confront climate change, including more robust investments in renewable energy and a target to reduce the US to 2030.
Biden said he is open to negotiation and hopes he can lure Republicans to the plan. The president suggested that Republicans act quickly when they hear that drinking water on Capitol Hill is flowing through lead pipes.
As Congress begins the process of turning Biden’s blueprint into legislation, progressive groups are campaigning to put lawmakers under pressure to adopt an even more ambitious agenda. The WFP is part of a coalition of groups protesting to demand that Congress deliver a “transformative economic recovery”.
“If you’re going to be big and brave, be big and brave and solve the problem,” Mitchell said. “We are in a time of crisis and we are not getting a chance yet.”