Joe Biden’s $1.8 Trillion Spending Plan
Introduction
President Joe Biden plans to uncover a $1.8 trillion spending plan with the purpose of expanding child care, education and paid leave opportunities, greatly funded by the largest tax increases on the wealthy in decades. It would be financed, in part, through higher taxes on the nation’s wealthiest citizens.
As the nation begins to recover from and look beyond the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden administration embraces this plan as part of its comprehensive vision for overhauling America’s economy. Through President Biden’s Americans Families Plan, he would be addressing wealth inequalities.
What does Biden’s $1.8 Trillion American Families Plan Involve?
Providing families with financial assistance for child care
The Biden plan incorporates $225 billion for coverage of child care, funding of child care providers. Moreover, the President plans to invest more in the childcare workforce by raising employee wages to $15 for each hour worked. Biden is also proposing a tax credit worth up to $4,000 for one child and up to $8,000 for multiple children.
Free community college
The federal government would allocate $109 billion just for tuition-free community college for students for two years, while $85 billion would go towards providing education grants to students pursuing four-year degrees.
Additionally, the plan calls for $62 billion in investments to help improve the rates at which low-income students attend college, as well as $46 billion to pump into historically black colleges, tribal colleges, and other minority-serving institutions.
Providing paid leave for medical needs and family members
Biden’s new plan will result in the creation of a $225 billion paid medical and family leave program. It would offer partial reimbursement to workers who take time off to care for newborns or sick loved ones, recover from health issues, deal with military deployments, address domestic violence cases, or deal with the death of a loved one.
Employees in the plan are also guaranteed twelve weeks of parental, family, and personal leave by the end of year ten of the program. They are entitled to two-thirds of their typical monthly wage per month, up to $4,000, for the lowest-paying employees.
Enhancing Pell Grants
In line with President Biden’s American Families Plan, low-income students would receive up to an additional $1,400 in additional assistance when they apply for Pell Grants. This is significant because Pell Grants provide financial assistance to more than 7 million students, mostly from racial minorities, but their value has not kept pace with the soaring cost of college. During the 2021–2022 school year, students can receive up to $6,495 in scholastic awards. Biden has offered to double the maximum financial assistance amount in the upcoming years.
Investing money in universal preschool
In partnership with a wide array of states, Biden has asked the federal government to invest $200 billion in universal pre-kindergarten, which is expected to benefit five million young children, ages three to four years old, every year and save families an average of $13,000 per year. According to Biden, this program will be fully accessible to families of any income level.
This program strives to aid families in paying for child care by providing them financial relief that will prepare them for a successful K-12 learning environment. Generally, high-need areas will be first prioritized in the proposal.
Strengthening the educator workforce
Biden hopes to strengthen the educator workforce by addressing the academic shortages by preparing to build on an expectation that the demand for universal pre-K educators will grow by increasing funding for teacher scholarships and specialty training, as well as increasing the pay of certain groups within federal programs.
The plan further incorporates an allocation of $2 billion for educator leadership programs, such as teachers of colour and mentorships for new educators. An additional $1.6 billion will go toward supporting current educators to earn credentials for in-demand specialties, such as special education and bilingual education.
Conclusion
The Biden administration maintains that no one making $400,000 a year will see their taxes go up under the new plan. A number of tax loopholes are also proposed to be closed, and capital gains taxes will get a 39.6% rate for households making over $1 million.
Economist Owen Zidar claims that capital gains tax hikes might boost the government’s revenues since the programs funded with the proceeds could help more underprivileged kids become inventors and entrepreneurs, a position that is increasingly reserved for those who are born into wealthy families.
Zidar says, “there are many missing Einsteins and Elon Musks.” Biden’s trillion dollar investment has the potential to create invaluable change in the world economy for generations to come.
