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batboyblog · 2 months

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The Biden-⁠Harris Administration Advances Equity and Opportunity for Black Americans

Growing Economic Opportunity for Black Families and Communities Through the President’s legislative victories, including the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—as well as the President’s historic executive orders on racial equity—the Biden-Harris Administration is ensuring that federal investments through the President’s landmark Investing in America agenda are equitably flowing to communities to address longstanding economic inequities that impact people’s economic security, health, and safety. And this vision is already delivering results. The Biden-Harris Administration has:

Powered a historic economic recovery that created 2.6 million jobs for Black workers—and achieved both the lowest Black unemployment rate on record and the lowest gap between Black and White unemployment on record.

Helped Black working families build wealth. Black wealth is up by 60% relative to pre-pandemic—the largest increase on record.

Cut in half the number of Black children living in poverty in 2021 through ARP’s Child Tax Credit expansion. This expansion provided breathing room to the families of over 9 million Black children.

Began reversing decades of infrastructure disinvestment, including with $4 billion to reconnect communities that were previously cut off from economic opportunities by building needed transportation infrastructure in underserved communities, including Black communities.

Connected an estimated 5.5 million Black households to affordable high-speed internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program, closing the digital divide for millions of Black families.

Helping Black-Owned Businesses Grow and Thrive Since the President entered office, a record 16 million new business applications have been filed, and the share of Black households owning a business has more than doubled. Building on this momentum, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Achieved the fastest creation rate of Black-owned businesses in more than 30 years—and more than doubled the share of Black business owners from 2019 to 2022.

Improved the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) flagship loan guarantee programs to expand the availability of capital to underserved communities. Since 2020, the number and dollar value of SBA-backed loans to Black-owned businesses have more than doubled.

Launched a whole-of-government effort to expand access to federal contracts for small businesses, awarding a record $69.9 billion to small disadvantaged businesses in 2022.

Through Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, invested $10 billion to expand access to capital and invest in early-stage businesses in all 50 states—including $2.5 billion in funding and incentive allocations dedicated to support the provision of capital to underserved businesses with $1 billion of these funds to be awarded to the jurisdictions that are most successful in reaching underserved businesses.

Helped more than 37,000 farmers and ranchers who were in financial distress, including Black farmers and ranchers, stay on their farms and keep farming, thanks to resources provided through IRA. The IRA allocated $3.1 billion for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide relief for distressed borrowers with at-risk agricultural operations with outstanding direct or guaranteed Farm Service Agency loans. USDA has provided over $2 billion and counting in timely assistance.

Supported small and disadvantaged businesses through CHIPS Act funding by requiring funding applicants to develop a workforce plan to create equitable pathways for economically disadvantaged individuals in their region, as well as a plan to support procurement from small, minority-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses.

Created the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that will invest in clean energy projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Increasing Access to Housing and Rooting Out Discrimination in the Housing Market for Black Communities To increase access to housing and root out discrimination in the housing market, including for Black families and communities, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Set up the first-ever national infrastructure to stop evictions, scaling up the ARP-funded Emergency Rental Assistance program in over 400 communities across the country, helping 8 million renters and their families stay in their homes. Over 40% of all renters helped are Black—and this support prevented millions of evictions, with the largest effects seen in majority-Black neighborhoods.

Published a proposed “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will help overcome patterns of segregation and hold states, localities, and public housing agencies that receive federal funds accountable for ensuring that underserved communities have equitable access to affordable housing opportunities.

Created the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity, or PAVE, a first-of-its-kind interagency effort to root out bias in the home appraisal process, which is taking sweeping action to advance equity and remove racial and ethnic bias in home valuations, including cracking down on algorithmic bias and empowering consumers to take action against misvaluation.

Taken additional steps through HUD to support wealth-generation activities for prospective and current homeowners by expanding access to credit by incorporating a borrower’s positive rental payment history into the mortgage underwriting process. HUD estimates this policy change will enable an additional 5,000 borrowers per year to qualify for an FHA-insured loan.

Ensuring Equitable Educational Opportunity for Black Students To expand educational opportunity for the Black community in early childhood and beyond, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Approved more than $136 billion in student loan debt cancellation for 3.7 million Americans through various actions and launched a new student loan repayment plan—the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan—to help many students and families cut in half their total lifetime payments per dollar borrowed.

Championed the largest increase to Pell Grants in the last decade—a combined increase of $900 to the maximum award over the past two years, affecting the over 60% of Black undergraduates who rely on Pell grants.

Fixed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, so all qualified borrowers get the debt relief to which they are entitled. More than 790,000 public servants have received more than $56 billion in loan forgiveness since October 2021. Prior to these fixes, only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness through PSLF.

Delivered a historic investment of over $7 billion to support HBCUs.

Reestablished the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.

Through ARP, secured $130 billion—the largest investment in public education in history—to help students get back to school, recover academically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and address student mental health.

Secured a 30% increase in child care assistance funding last year. Black families comprise 38% of families benefiting from federal child care assistance. Additionally, the President secured an additional $1 billion for Head Start, a program where more than 28% of children and pregnant women who benefit identify as Black.

Improving Health Outcomes for Black Families and Communities To improve health outcomes for the Black community, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Increased Black enrollment in health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act by 49%—or by around 400,000—from 2020 to 2022, helping more Black families gain health insurance than ever before.

Through IRA, locked in lower monthly premiums for health insurance, capped the cost of insulin at $35 per covered insulin product for Medicare beneficiaries, and helped further close the gap in access to medication by improving prescription drug coverage and lowering drug costs in Medicare.

Through ARP, expanded postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months in 43 states and Washington, D.C., covering 700,000 more women in the year after childbirth. Medicaid covers approximately 65% of births for Black mothers, and this investment is a critical step to address maternal health disparities.

Financed projects that will replace hundreds of thousands of lead pipes, helping protect against lead poisoning that disproportionately affects Black communities.

Provided 264 grants with $1 billion in Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funds to more than 40 states to increase the supply of school-based mental health professionals in communities with high rates of poverty.

Launched An Unprecedented Whole-Of-Government Equity Agenda to Ensure the Promise of America for All Communities, including Black Communities President Biden believes that advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our government, which will require sustained leadership and partnership with all communities. To make the promise of America real for every American, including for the Black Community, the President has:

Signed two Executive Orders directing the Federal Government to advance an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the challenges we face as a country and the opportunities we have to build a more perfect union.

Nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and more Black women to federal circuit courts than every President combined.

Countered hateful attempts to rewrite history including: the signing of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act; establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday; and designating the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois. The Department of the Interior has invested more than $295 million in infrastructure funding and historic preservation grants to protect and restore places significant to Black history.

Created the Justice40 Initiative, which is delivering 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments in clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other programs to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution as part of the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history.

Protecting the Sacred Right to Vote for Black Families and Communities Since their first days in office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized strengthening our democracy and protecting the sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections. To do so, the President has:

Signed an Executive Order to leverage the resources of the Federal Government to provide nonpartisan information about the election process and increase access to voter registration. Agencies across the Federal Government are taking action to respond to the President’s call for an all-of-government effort to enhance the ability of all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.

Repeatedly and forcefully called on Congress to pass essential legislation, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, including calling for an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

Increased funding for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which has more than doubled the number of voting rights enforcement attorneys. The Justice Department also created the Election Threats Task Force to assess allegations and reports of threats against election workers, and investigate and prosecute these matters where appropriate.

Signed into law the bipartisan Electoral Reform Count Act, which establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President, to preserve the will of the people and to protect against the type of attempts to overturn our elections that led to the January 6 insurrection.

Addressing the Crisis of Gun Violence in Black Communities Gun violence has become the leading cause of death for all youth and Black men in America, as well as the second leading cause of death for Black women. To address this national crisis, the President has:

Launched the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and taken more executive action on gun violence than any President in history, including investments in violence reduction strategies that address the root causes of gun violence and address emerging threats like ghost guns. In 2022, the Administration’s investments in evidence-based, lifesaving programs combined with aggressive action to stop the flow of illegal guns and hold shooters accountable yielded a 12.4% reduction in homicides across the United States.

Signed into the law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun violence reduction legislation enacted in nearly 30 years, including investments in violence reduction strategies and historic policy changes to enhance background checks for individuals under age 21, narrow the dating partner loophole in the gun background check system, and provide law enforcement with tools to crack down on gun trafficking.

Secured the first-ever dedicated federal funding stream for community violence intervention programs, which have been shown to reduce violence by as much as 60%. These programs are effective because they leverage trusted messengers who work directly with individuals most likely to commit gun violence, intervene in conflicts, and connect people to social, health and wellness, and economic services to reduce the likelihood of violence as an answer to conflict.

Enhancing Public Trust and Strengthening Public Safety for Black Communities Our criminal justice system must protect the public and ensure fair and impartial justice for all. These are mutually reinforcing goals. To enhance equal justice and public safety for all communities, including the Black community, the President has:

Signed a historic Executive Order to put federal policing on the path to becoming the gold standard of effectiveness and accountability by requiring federal law enforcement agencies to ban chokeholds; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate the use of body-worn cameras; implement stronger use-of-force policies; provide de-escalation training; submit use-of-force data; submit officer misconduct records into a new national accountability database; and restrict the sale or transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, among other things.

Taken steps to right the wrongs stemming from our Nation’s failed approach to marijuana by directing the Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice to expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law and in October 2022 issued categorical pardons of prior federal and D.C. offenses of simple possession of marijuana and in December 2023 pardoned additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law. While white, Black, and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionately higher rates.

Announced over 100 concrete policy actions as part of a White House evidence-informed, multi-year Alternatives, Rehabilitation, and Reentry Strategic Plan to safely reduce unnecessary criminal justice system interactions so police officers can focus on fighting crime; supporting rehabilitation during incarceration; and facilitating successful reentry.

FACT SHEET

#Joe Biden #Thanks Biden #Black History Month #black americans #african american #kamala harris #politics #US Politics #Economy #student loan debt #marijuana #criminal justice #gun violence #voting rights #from the White House #long post #because a lot has happened

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tomorrowusa · 3 months

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Right now is the time to get involved in the defeat of America's most dangerous enemy since the Cold War.

The traditional election season, starting on Labor Day, is a thing of the distant political past. And considering the magnitude of the threat to democracy, even waiting for the end of the primary season may be too late.

The worst president in our history is, arguably, stronger within the leadership ranks of the Republican Party than he has ever been. He is now the most dangerous presidential candidate in U.S. history. As a consequence, the great question before the rest of us is whether enough of us are ready to do whatever is necessary to defeat this threat as we have all those that have come before. Sadly, there is reason to believe that this time we may not meet the challenge. Right now, Donald Trump is one of two people who could be our next president. The race, at the moment, between him and President Joe Biden, is too close to call.

The people with their heads up their ass over Biden's age are either hypocrites or dissemblers. On Inauguration Day 2025, Donald Trump will be 95.66% of Joe Biden's age. And Trump will also be older in January of 2025 than Biden was upon assuming office in 2021. Biden may have a lifelong stutter but he is still grounded in reality in a way the narcissistic nepo baby Donald Trump never was.

Joe Biden by any objective metric has been one of the most successful presidents in modern U.S. history. He has led the creation of more major legislative initiatives benefiting the American people than any president in 60 years. He oversaw the creation of more than 14 million jobs during his first three years in office. He has brought down inflation and reduced the prices of vital medicines to affordable levels. He has restored American leadership worldwide, expanded our vital alliances like NATO, and stood up to our enemies. All presidents face challenges and make missteps. But it is hard to deny that in the wake of the U.S. economic recovery, the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPs and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the expansion of NATO, and the creation of new Indo-Pacific alliances, Biden’s record is formidable. That a president with this record is in a horse race with a candidate who is a menace to the country, who led an insurrection, who is a pathological liar whom courts have found to be a fraud and a rapist, and who has no real ideas, no credible policy proposals, no record of actually ever achieving anything for the American people is chilling.

In normal times, over 40% of US voters would NOT pick a notorious sex offender for president. But these are not normal times.

You would have thought that the sight of mobs carrying Trump flags and weapons and chanting for the death of Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021, would have been alarm enough. You would have thought the same of Trump’s Access Hollywood tape, in which he confessed his impulse to abuse women. You would have thought the two dozen women who accused him of abuse would have had that effect. Even if none of those things were quite warning enough, you would have thought the findings in the E. Jean Carroll case would have been enough. After all, respected federal judge Lew Kaplan wrote, “The fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused—indeed, raped—Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case.” It should have been enough. But so far, it has not been.

And who would have thought that the party of Ronald Reagan is now led by a stooge of the Evil Empire?

You would have thought that Trump reaching out on national television to our Russian adversaries for aid during the 2016 campaign would have been enough. You would have thought the conclusive findings of every major U.S. intelligence agency that Russia sought to aid Trump’s campaign would have been enough. You would have thought that Robert Mueller’s finding 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by Trump would have been enough. You would have thought Trump kowtowing to Vladimir Putin and taking his word over that of our intelligence and law enforcement communities would have been enough. You would have thought his illegally withholding aid to Ukraine to seek dirt on Joe Biden would have been enough. You would have thought his impeachment for that would have been enough.

Are you willing to spend more time and money than in previous election cycles to end a major threat to Western democracy and to undermine homegrown fascism for at least the rest of this decade?

So, ask yourself, is that enough to make you do more than you have done? Is that enough to commit for the next 10 months to do more than you have ever done during an election year? To give more? To canvas more? To spread the word more? To help get voters to the polls? To ensure every member of your family, your friends, your co-workers do the same? The stakes are too high to do less than everything you can.

I rarely quote Margaret Thatcher and would probably disagree with at least 90% of her views. But she did know something about winning elections and combating the USSR. If she was good for just one thing, it's for this observation in a speech made in her retirement.

[N]o battles are ever finally won; you have to go on winning them by example and by being prepared to defend your way of life against those who would attack it.

If we learn just one thing from the Trump threat, it's that we can never rest on our past laurels. A slacker democracy is one which will not outlast a determined demagogue.

Civic involvement by pro-democracy citizens is absolutely necessary to maintain freedom.

#democracy #threat to democracy #donald trump #democracy vs. totalitarianism #trump is a tool of russia #trump is a sex offender #if you hate freedom vote for trump #register and vote #vote blue no matter who #support democratic candidates #the biden administration's economic growth programs #civic involvement #david rothkopf #bernard l. schwartz #election 2024

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cogitoergofun · 4 months

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January is usually a big month for hiking the list prices of drugs in the US—and it looks like 2024 will be no different. Pharmaceutical companies plan to raise the US list prices of more than 500 prescription medications this month, and more are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. That's according to a report from Reuters, which is based on data from the health care research firm 3 Axis Advisors.

The high-profile drug makers with plans to increase prices include giants such as Pfizer, Sanofi, and Takeda.

This year's tally of 500 is in line with the past few years, with 452 list price increases as of January 1, 2023, and a high of 602 on January 1, 2021, according to data from 46brooklyn, a drug pricing nonprofit related to 3 Axis Advisors. Overall, drug makers raised the list prices of 1,425 drugs in 2023, down slightly from 1,460 in 2022.

So far, Pfizer—which has lowered 2024 profit projections and is now implementing cost-cutting and layoffs after its meteoric pandemic rise—has plans to raise prices on the largest number of drugs this month: 124. Takeda-owned Baxalta has the second-largest number, with 53 hikes planned.

It's unclear what all of the price hikes are or will be, but the industry standard is to keep these annual increases at or below 10 percent. According to 46brooklyn's data, median price increases have been around 5 percent since 2019, Reuters notes.

The annual hikes come amid fresh federal efforts to drag down America's uniquely expensive drug prices. While drug makers are continuing with January hikes, they're also lowering some prices to avoid paying costly penalties under a provision of 2021's American Rescue Plan Act, which took effect January 1. The provision would force drug makers to pay hefty rebates to Medicaid if drug price increases outpace inflation—which they often do handily. In some cases, such as for insulin, drug makers would have to pay Medicaid programs more in rebates than the actual net cost of the drug unless they adjusted their prices.

Additionally, under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare is now able to negotiate the prices of drugs, with the first 10 drugs selected for negotiation announced in August.

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highfantasy-soul · 6 months

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I'm sickened by the response my US Senator representative sent me after I contacted him about the genocide of Palestinians (send from a 'no reply' email address, of course).

Rafael Warnock, a Christian pastor (of course) had the absolute gall to say

"The heinous acts of violence committed by Hamas upon the people of Israel on October 7, 2023 were horrific and are rightly condemned by all who believe in human dignity and seek a lasting peace. What these events make clear is that there are those who fear peace and seek to sabotage it at any cost."

As if Israel is the one who had been 'accomplishing' peace until the evil, evil Palestinians attacked out of nowhere!! There hasn't been peace for Palestinians for 75 years!! Remember this analysis of Hamas' actions later when he discusses Israel's reaction to it.

He went on to say

"I also recognize the Palestinian community’s deep, legitimate pain and suffering. As a pastor who believes every human being is sacred, I am carefully monitoring Israel’s operations in Gaza. I am praying that all hostages are rescued, and innocent Palestinians are not caught in the crossfire."

'Monitoring'???? If he was 'monitoring Israel's operations in Gaza', he would have seen that for fucking DECADES that Israel has already been attacking Palestinian civilians!! There is no 'crossfire' to be caught in - Israel is specifically targeting civilians! So what is he planning to do with all the info he's getting from this 'monitoring'? What more does he need to see in order to take action and stand up against what Israel is doing?

He continues with about the most horrific statement I can imagine

"Israel has a moral responsibility to protect its citizens from indiscriminate harm"

Just flat out saying that Israel is MORALLY CORRECT to slaughter Palestinians because of Hamas' actions! And by extension, that Palestine DOES NOT have the 'moral responsibility' to protect its citizens from indiscriminate harm perpetrated by Israel since he called their actions 'heinous' and 'horrific'. How much more clear can you get that this Southern, Christian pastor, a registered Democrat, believes that it is morally correct for the Palestinian people to be oppressed by a settler colonial fascist nation?

He started his letter by condemning Hamas' actions against Israeli civilians, but when Israel does FAR FAR worse to Palestinians, it's no longer 'horrific' or 'heinous', it's "Israel's moral responsibility".

He again reiterates that

"it [Israel] also has a duty to do all it can to prevent harm to innocent Palestinian civilians"

And to that, all I can say is: WTF are you even saying? We have hard evidence that for over 75 years Israel has been 'harming' innocent Palestinian civilians in every conceivable way. So this statement is either wildly misinformed or he doesn't consider apartheid, military occupation, war crimes, violations of international law, carpet bombings of civilian areas, and restriction of resources like food, water, and electricity to be 'harm'. As long as it's happening to those 'savage Arabs' it's fine. Almost like he believes, as Israel does, that there are no innocent Palestinians.

He then goes on to talk about all the work he's done to 'help' the Palestinian people such as

"joined a letter to Secretary of State Blinken regarding the need for humanitarian support and access in Gaza as a result of the May 2021 hostilities" "joined a letter to Secretary Blinken expressing my concern about the Israel High Court's recent ruling to allow the evictions of Palestinian residents from their homes in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank" "I signed onto a June 23, 2023 letter to President Biden calling for an investigation into her [American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh] killing"

And finally,

"On October 18, 2023, I joined several of my colleagues in the Senate in sending another letter to Secretary Blinken requesting that the U.S. provide at least $73 million in emergency international humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people following the outbreak of the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza"

So, after a couple years and you 'expressing concern' and 'joining letters', what has happened? Why did that aid need to be sent? What did the investigation in the murder of the American journalist find and what did you do with that information? (It found that Israeli forces had killed her and Senator Warnock did nothing with that information).

These statements firmly place the suffering of the Palestinian people as passive things that 'just happen' rather than an active choice to impose suffering upon them by the Israeli government.

And about that aid that's trying to get into Palestine now: how's that going? Is Israel letting that aid get through the border? No? So why hasn't he mentioned that? Why hasn't he called out Israel's refusal to allow aid in? Unless he doesn't truly believe that Palestinians deserve that aid.

It is not 'confusing' or 'complicated' to condemn apartheid, war crimes, and military rule over a disenfranchised people trapped in an open-air concentration camp. People standing up against their oppressors should not be seen as 'justification' for wiping an entire people group off the map.

If you TRULY believe that the death of civilians is never justified and must be stopped, but then you only condemn one side's actions (the side that is being oppressed, has no military, no resources of its own, etc), then it sounds like you just want the oppressed to sit down and shut up so the oppressors can continue to murder and subjugate them. It sounds like you don't want 'peace', you want 'quiet' and the domination of the 'superior' group over the 'inferior' one.

As Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others have echoed the sentiment "Peace is not the absence of violence, it is the presence of justice"

Palestinians aren't calling for the eradication of Jewish people. They are not calling for Jews to be second-class citizens. They are not attempting to treat Israelis like Israelis have treated them. They are calling for freedom and equality.

As long as there is a government whose foundational principals are that one ethno group of people should be above another, there can be no peace, no justice, no equality. That is why the Confederate States of America had to be removed from power, that is why the Nazi Party of Germany had to be removed from power, that is why the Israeli government as it stands today MUST be removed from power.

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I went back to Senator Warnock's contact page and sent my response to him that way as I could not respond to the email reply, but honestly, I'm not expecting much in return.

Senator Jon Ossoff, the other senator for my state (as well as a descendant of Jewish people who fled from the Holocaust) has not responded to my initial email. As this conflict is closer to him than others, I'm not sure I expect an answer from him at all as I am not in favor of Israel which many take as antisemitism. Perhaps he will take the situation more seriously than a Christian pastor, and perhaps he will listen to the countless Jews around the world who are standing up for Palestine, but only time - and actions - will tell.

#israel #palestine #free palestine #martin luther king jr #human rights #palestine conflict #gaza #american politics

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 8 months

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By Michael Tomasky

The last Congress, the 117th, which sat from January 2021 through January 2023, was controlled by Democrats on both sides of the Capitol. These lawmakers worked in concert with a new Democratic President, so naturally, we witnessed an unusual amount of legislative activity.

Wanna guess how much? The 117th Congress passed, and Joe Biden signed, 362 laws. Now it practically goes without saying that a hefty majority of these were small-bore matters—relatively inconsequential in policy terms. There were the proverbial post office renamings, the Harlem Hellfighters Congressional Gold Medal Act, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, and the like. Still, an unusually high number of them were very consequential indeed: the American Rescue Plan, the hard infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, and several more. They were aimed at helping people and businesses through the pandemic, solving aching public needs, creating jobs, reshaping industrial policy, and more. Whatever else you want to say about them, these people were earning their paychecks.

The 118th Congress—the current one; the one that opened with the clown show where Kevin McCarthy needed 15 ballots to be elected Speaker by his own party—has not been quite the hive of productivity that its predecessor was. So far, seven months into its term, it has passed, and the president has signed, 12 bills. They’re on track, if they can possibly keep up this scorching pace for the next 17 months, to pass maybe 44, even 45 or 46 bills!

And what laws they are! They’ve renamed a veterans’ clinic. They’ve toasted the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps commemorative coin. Oh, but it hasn’t all been ceremonial. They’ve also pressed forward with the racism for which they are so widely and justly known, notably the bill that revoked part of Washington D.C.’s criminal code—McCarthy called it soft on crime, and Biden quasi-reluctantly signed it to avoid that age-old tag. The only law of any real consequence was the increase in the debt limit, on which the supposedly out-of-it Biden ran circles around the supposedly spry Speaker.

As far as improving the lives of working- and middle-class people, McCarthy’s majority has done absolutely nothing. But by God, don’t call them the “Do-Nothing Congress.” Oh, no! They’ve done stuff. For example, they’ve investigated Hunter and Joe Biden over, under, sideways, and down.

I wonder how many public dollars James Comer and Jim Jordan, respective chairs of the House’s Oversight and Judiciary committees, have spent trying to prove crimes that probably don’t exist but that they insist, every week, will be pitilessly exposed for all the world to see in just a little while, you’ll see—you’ll all see. In fact, Democrats: Why not tell the world how much they’re spending? I’d assume you have access to the basic budgetary materials. How about a Biden Goose Chase Clock toting up the taxpayer dollars being wasted on this sham?

Those two just get more ridiculous every week. Last week, you’ll recall, Comer’s committee had a closed-door session with yet another star witness, Devon Archer, a former Hunter Biden business partner who was supposedly poised to finally blow the lid off the whole thing. “The walls are closing in on the Bidens,” Comer crowed on Newsmax Monday night.

In the end, Archer’s testimony—taken that afternoon, released later in the week—did nothing of the sort. Which Comer might have known if he’d even bothered to show up at his own hearing, which he did not do!

As for Jordan—well, his special new “deep state” committee or whatever it’s called has been an even bigger abuse of the taxpayer dollar. Just Google “Jim Jordan deep state committee” and look at the headlines: “Inside Jim Jordan’s Disastrous Search for a ‘Deep State’ Whistleblower”; “Jordan’s ‘weaponization’ panel is all conclusions, no evidence”; “Jim Jordan’s ‘Weaponization’ Committee Is Misfiring.”

But hey, don’t be too hard on him. He may have other matters on his mind. In late June, the Supreme Court decided that a lawsuit brought by former Ohio State University wrestlers against a team doctor who was found by an investigation to have sexually abused 177 young men from the 1970s to the 1990s can move forward. Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach during part of the period in question; he has always denied any knowledge of the abuse. Two former wrestlers, however, in a complaint to the Supreme Court, allege that Jordan was aware of the behavior of “Dr. Cough” and did nothing: “Because Coach Hellickson, Assistant Coach Jordan, and the athletic department treated Dr. Strauss’s behavior as acceptable, John Doe 23 believed there was nothing he could do to address his discomfort with Dr. Strauss.” CNN reported back in 2020 that six ex-athletes charged that Jordan knew.

This is one of the reasons I laugh these days when I hear Republicans say of Democrats, as McCarthy and others did during the D.C. criminal code debate, that Democrats are soft on crime.

And oh yeah, the other (and main) reason: Donald Trump. Today’s Republicans are the softest-on-crime bunch of legislators in the history of the republic. They wanted, until they got hooted out of town for it, to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments! I’m putting that in scare quotes because there’s actually no such thing as an “impeachment expungement,” but you know, there was no such thing as holding family members guilty for someone’s crimes until Stalin decreed it, either.

The GOP’s lies are operatic, bald-faced, and so nakedly and obviously untrue that one experiences a kind of wonderment just watching these people actually go out in public before cameras and say these things. Here was McCarthy, for example, shortly before Trump’s arraignment: “I could say the same thing that Hillary Clinton says about her election that she lost.… I can say the same thing about those in the Democratic Party from the leadership on down about George Bush not winning, that Al Gore did. But were any of them prosecuted? Were any of them put in jail?”

I mean … what?! Do I even have to answer that? Clinton made some noises about votes being off but conceded to Trump the day after the election. Gore fought the 2000 outcome to the Supreme Court, as anyone would have, but the court issued Bush v. Gore on December 12 and Gore conceded on December 13. Neither egged on a riot on our most sacred national building (a riot that McCarthy denounced at the time himself!). I can’t help but think that when these guys and their handlers sit around dreaming up what they’ll say next, they just howl to one another: “We can say anything—the mainstream press, drunk on their weird notion of ‘objectivity,’ can’t really challenge us because if they do, we can accuse them of showing liberal bias, and the gullible idiots on our side will be our echo chamber!”

I’d call these people a joke, but it’s far worse and more frightening than that. They are a menace. Congress has been littered with racists and drunks and bribe-takers throughout its history. But it has never been this bursting at the seams with people like this. They lie about everything. They denounce and seek to destroy our system of government. They use their power to conduct taxpayer-funded fishing expeditions for which they have no evidence, where they’re just praying they get a bite so that, in classic fascist-projection fashion, they can accuse Biden of that which they know Trump to be guilty.

And as for trying to do anything to improve the lives of the American people—i.e., doing their jobs? Please. Don’t be naïve. To their mind, American people don’t need health care or wages or a cleaner planet. They need tax cuts and guns and protection from those 100 or so transgender high school female athletes (yes, in the whole country) and, most of all, Donald Trump as their President for life. Come to think of it, the fewer laws these maniacs pass, the better.

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saywhat-politics · 1 year

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Former Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) attributed his decision to retire due to the long-term effects of COVID-19, telling local newspaper Tulsa World that certain symptoms were still affecting him day-to-day.

Inhofe voted against multiple coronavirus aid packages meant to help Americans at the height of the pandemic, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act approved overwhelmingly by 90 senators in March 2020, and the American Rescue Plan in March 2021.

The 88-year-old did not say which symptoms he was dealing with. But he suggested he was in good company, alleging that other elected representatives in Congress are also struggling with long COVID behind the scenes.

“Five or six others have (long COVID), but I’m the only one who admits it,” Inhofe told Tulsa World.

At least one Democratic senator, Tim Kaine of Virginia, has spoken openly about his experience with lingering symptoms after contracting COVID-19.

#oklahoma #republican senator #jim inhofe #covid 19

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 months

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 30, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 31, 2023

One day short of his first 100 days in the White House, on April 28, 2021, President Joe Biden spoke to a joint session of Congress, where he outlined an ambitious vision for the nation. In a time of rising autocrats who believed democracy was failing, he asked, could the United States demonstrate that democracy is still vital?

“Can our democracy deliver on its promise that all of us, created equal in the image of God, have a chance to lead lives of dignity, respect, and possibility? Can our democracy deliver…to the most pressing needs of our people? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate, and fears that have pulled us apart?”

America’s adversaries were betting that the U.S. was so full of anger and division that it could not. “But they are wrong,” Biden said. “You know it; I know it. But we have to prove them wrong.”

“We have to prove democracy still works—that our government still works and we can deliver for our people.”

In that speech, Biden outlined a plan to begin investing in the nation again as well as to rebuild the country’s neglected infrastructure. “Throughout our history,” he noted, “public investment and infrastructure has literally transformed America—our attitudes, as well as our opportunities.”

In the first two years of his administration, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, lawmakers set out to do what Biden asked. They passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to help restart the nation’s economy after the pandemic-induced crash; the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) to repair roads, bridges, and waterlines, extend broadband, and build infrastructure for electric vehicles; the roughly $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to promote scientific research and manufacturing of semiconductors; and the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to curb inflation by lowering prescription drug prices, promoting domestic renewable energy production, and investing in measures to combat climate change.

This was a dramatic shift from the previous 40 years of U.S. policy, when lawmakers maintained that slashing the government would stimulate economic growth, and pundits widely predicted that the Democrats’ policies would create a recession.

But in 2023, with the results of the investment in the United States falling into place, it is clear that those policies justified Biden’s faith in them. The U.S. economy is stronger than that of any other country in the Group of Seven (G7)—a political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union—with higher growth and faster drops in inflation than any other G7 country over the past three years.

Heather Long of the Washington Post said yesterday there was only one word for the U.S. economy in 2023, and that word is “miracle.”

Rather than cooling over the course of the year, growth accelerated to an astonishing 4.9% annualized rate in the third quarter of the year while inflation cooled from 6.4% to 3.1% and the economy added more than 2.5 million jobs. The S&P 500, which is a stock market index of 500 of the largest companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, ended this year up 24%. The Nasdaq composite index, which focuses on technology stocks, gained more than 40%. Noah Berlatsky, writing for Public Notice yesterday, pointed out that new businesses are starting up at a near-record pace, and that holiday sales this year were up 3.1%.

Unemployment has remained below 4% for 22 months in a row for the first time since the late 1960s. That low unemployment has enabled labor to make significant gains, with unionized workers in the automobile industry, UPS, Hollywood, railroads, and service industries winning higher wages and other benefits. Real wages have risen faster than inflation, especially for those at the bottom of the economy, whose wages have risen by 4.5% after inflation between 2020 and 2023.

Meanwhile, perhaps as a reflection of better economic conditions in the wake of the pandemic, the nation has had a record drop in homicides and other categories of violent crime. The only crime that has risen in 2023 is vehicle theft.

While Biden has focused on making the economy deliver for ordinary Americans, Vice President Kamala Harris has emphasized protecting the right of all Americans to be treated equally before the law.

In April 2023, when the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature expelled two young Black legislators, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, for participating in a call for gun safety legislation after a mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Harris traveled to Nashville’s historically Black Fisk University to support them and their cause.

In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, Harris became the administration’s most vocal advocate for abortion rights. “How dare they?” she demanded. “How dare they tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body?... How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future? How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms?” She brought together civil rights leaders and reproductive rights advocates to work together to defend Americans’ civil and human rights.

In fall 2023, Harris traveled around the nation’s colleges to urge students to unite behind issues that disproportionately affect younger Americans: “reproductive freedom, common sense gun safety laws, climate action, voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and teaching America’s full history.”

“Opening doors of opportunity, guaranteeing some more fairness and justice—that’s the essence of America,” Biden said when he spoke to Congress in April 2021. “That’s democracy in action.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Biden Administration #Biden's accomplishments #Election 2024 #Mike Luckovich

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partisan-by-default · 3 months

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Many people who need insulin aren’t on Medicare, of course. But now, non-Medicare patients also have access to cheaper insulin, thanks to the way another policy implementation has played out.

As of Jan. 1, the three companies that dominate the market (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi) have all lowered prices and made some of their products available to non-elderly, non-disabled Americans for the same $35 a month that Medicare beneficiaries now pay. The companies announced these changes last year, presenting them as a voluntary action to show they want to make sure customers can get lifesaving drugs.

But by nearly all accounts, it was primarily a reaction to an obscure policy change in Medicaid, the joint federal-state program for low-income people. The effect of the tweak was to penalize drug companies financially if they had been raising commercial prices too quickly.

“This is a smart PR move and to some extent a response to market pressure... but drug companies are not lowering insulin prices to be generous,” KFF executive vice president Larry Levitt told me in an email. “They’re lowering prices to avoid paying rebates to Medicaid programs and therefore maximize profits.”

This change in policy was tucked into the American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 relief act that Biden and the Democrats passed in 2021. The idea had been kicking around for years, endorsed by members of think tanks and government commissions who saw it as a smart way to reduce government spending. (Cheaper drugs mean lower costs for Medicaid, which means less federal and state spending.)

“It was very attractive... because it produced significant federal and state savings that could be used as an offset,” Edwin Park, a Georgetown University research professor who was among those promoting the idea back in 2019, told me this week.

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mariacallous · 7 months

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Claudia Swanson knew that child care spots for infants were scarce in her rural Minnesota community. So she got on waitlists early in her pregnancy in 2020, and over a year later, secured a day care spot for her daughter—only for the center to unexpectedly shut down a month later due to a lack of funds.

“It was devastating,” Swanson told us. “And very scary. I lost hope.” Every day care she called was full. She had to quit her job as a social services case manager, and nearly lost her house.

“I went from being a social services case manager and a leader to becoming a client myself,” said Swanson. After being out of work for six months, she finally secured a high-quality, dependable child care spot, providing the security and support she needed. “The day that my daughter started day care is the day I went back to work,” she said. Today, Swanson is a head chef and owns a catering company that employs several staff members.

A sudden loss of child care can be destabilizing, distressing, and make it very difficult to hold down a job. Access to affordable and reliable child care is one reason that women with children are able to work.

In 2021, the White House and Congress helped steady the child care sector, which has always been unstable, but was especially hard-hit during the pandemic. The American Rescue Plan Act sent a one-time infusion of $24 billion in child care stabilization funds to states, which helped more than 200,000 child care providers keep their doors open. Yet these funds must be spent by states by September 30, creating a funding cliff for state support to the child care sector.

Investing in child care matters because right now, women have made impressive gains in the labor market. But if Congress fails to allocate additional funding for the sector by the end of the month, work will be that much more difficult for millions of parents.

After living through pandemic-era job losses, school closures, and caregiving crises, women between the ages of 25 and 54 have lifted their labor force participation rate to its highest level ever: approximately 78%. Incredibly, mothers with young children under the age of five are leading the way; about 70% of them are now in the labor force—an increase of 5 percentage points over the decade before the pandemic (Figure 1).

Record high participation isn’t just an historic milestone for women—it’s critical for the economy. Women are stepping up for all of us at a time when the economy is missing workers and needs to draw more people into the labor force to grow. The labor force is smaller because of the pandemic, but demand is quite high. Increasing participation allows the economy to grow while easing pressure on inflation.

Women’s participation gains have driven the economic recovery. But that recovery is fragile, and built on an unstable, patchwork child care system. If Congress fails to extend these stabilization funds, the Century Foundation predicts that 70,000 child care facilities could shutter and 3.2 million children could lose child care.

Courtney Greiner runs a child care center in Minnesota. Like many child care center directors, she struggles to stay afloat with high staff costs and low profit margins. The funds Greiner’s center received from the state and from the federal stabilization fund have allowed her to retain employees without raising rates at a time when child care is already unaffordable to most American families. She’s proud to be able to provide for families in her community, but admits that “without additional money, I wouldn’t be able to keep my center open.”

Ending funding to the child care sector could reverse the gains we see now. Already, parents struggle to find child care. Waitlists can stretch for years, and the child care workforce is more than 10% smaller than it was at the start of the pandemic, even as more mothers have gone to work. It is little wonder that one-fifth of mothers with young children who wanted a job in 2023 weren’t looking for one due to child-care-related concerns, according to our analysis of Census Bureau data.

For some mothers of young children, the rise of telework has supported flexibility to balance work and family, including managing a disruption in child care (at least temporarily). But telework cannot absorb the consequences of a collapse in the sector. This is something we, the authors of this piece, understand personally—and not just from during the worst of the pandemic. This year, one of us unexpectedly lost child care for three young children. Even with the flexibilities of telework, it prompted a make-or-break confession to a supervisor: “If I can’t find another child care arrangement that works, I cannot keep doing this job.”

Figure 2 shows child care arrangements for working prime-age mothers with young children, categorized by whether or not they report having teleworked at least once in the prior week. While many families use more than one child care arrangement, this figure represents exclusive categories in the following order: child care facilities; sitter, friends, and family; parent only; and before/after care or camp. For example, this means that if a family uses both child care facilities and parental care, they are categorized as using child care facilities.

This analysis shows that half of all working mothers of young children at least partially rely on child care facilities. While they are only one way that parents get care, 55% of teleworking mothers with young children and 43% of non-teleworking mothers with young children use child care facilities. Critically, just 6% of working mothers with young children telework while only using parental care.

Since 2020, labor market conditions and policy have made working easier and more rewarding for mothers of young children, so many more have chosen to participate in the labor force. But now, this historic growth in participation that mothers with young children have only just achieved is at risk.

Much is on the line for these working mothers and others who want to work: a job, health insurance, retirement savings, and the income a family relies on to support themselves and save for tomorrow.

Congress must proactively invest in today’s—and tomorrow’s—workforce. Earlier this month, we learned that when Congress allowed the enhanced Child Tax Credit to lapse after 2021, child poverty more than doubled. If Congress does nothing about child care stabilization by September 30, millions of working parents, and the economy as a whole, would be the collateral damage.

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arpov-blog-blog · 1 year

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...."America was reeling during the traumatic first year of the pandemic and there was a sense that Democrats were happy to have the race settled so they could concentrate on taking down Donald Trump, which was considered Job One by every faction of the Democratic coalition.

When the Democrats barely held onto the House and squeaked out a 50-50 Senate "majority" (thanks to the runoff elections in Georgia and Trump's constant whining) everyone assumed that the Democratic agenda promised during the campaign was pretty much dead. The best we could hope for at that point was to stop the bleeding and live to fight another day.

But Biden has turned out to be full of surprises. Rather than just acting as a kindly old caretaker president until the new generation can take the wheel, his administration has been a flurry of activity, passing more Democratic domestic legislation than any president since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s. To name just a few, he signed into law the huge American Rescue Plan in the spring of 2021 (with no Republican votes); the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act, with massive investments in climate policy and health care; the $280 billion CHIPS Act, funding a vital semiconductor industry in the U.S.; the PACT Act to help veterans; and the first federal gun control legislation in almost 30 years. In the big omnibus spending bill just passed during the lame-duck session, he got the Electoral Count Act included as a step toward avoiding another Jan. 6 debacle. Finally, Biden pushed through and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, offering at least some protection to same-sex couples against the inevitable assault from right-wing judges and legislators. Some of that legislation was even bipartisan, which seems like something out of an old black-and-white movie at this point.

These achievements really are impressive, and even more so because of the need to accommodate the two Senate divas — Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — who needed to be the center of attention at all times and who were unfortunately crucial to passing legislation. It was often torturous watching the Senate sausage-making, with Biden himself often appearing unable to manage the negotiations despite his alleged mastery of the process. But somehow it worked."

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reasoningdaily · 10 months

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Farmers of color plan to appeal a recent federal court judge’s ruling, which they say is a continuation of Jim Crow and erases their commitment to right the historical wrongs against them.

Six months ago, John Boyd Jr., Kara Boyd, Lester Bonner, and Princess Williams filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. government, including the United States Department of Agriculture. The farmers alleged the government broke its promise when it failed to pay the eligible debt for farmers of color because Congress repealed a $4 billion debt relief program for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers — which includes Black, Native American, Hispanic, and Asian communities.

Instead, they created a race neutral program to replace it, which the plaintiffs say was a “blatant attempt to skirt its contractual commitments” to them and other farmers. As a result, farmers can’t pay off their debts, according to the lawsuit.

“They have to know that this is a continuation of Jim Crow, and a continuation of what free Black men and women went through in this country. This is a continuation of that because we see it as another broken promise,” Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, said last week. “Just like my forefathers, I ain’t giving up the fight.”

The U.S. Justice Department argued in a March 10 filing that the legislation established the financial assistance program, “not contractual undertakings.” The department asked for the complaint to be dismissed for “failure to state a plausible claim for relief.”

Senior Judge Edward J. Damich for the United States Court of Federal Claims agreed in an April 27 opinion, saying there wasn’t an expressed or implied-in-fact contractual agreement between the farmers and the federal agency.

“Instead, the program reflects Congress’ intent only to “declare a policy to be pursued until the legislature shall ordain otherwise,” not an intent “to create private contractual or vested rights,” Damich wrote.

The original loan forgiveness program at the center of the complaint passed in March 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, offering up to 120% of the outstanding indebtedness to address historical inequities and funding disparities by the USDA.

Black farmers saw this as the first step to repair the broken relationship with the federal government, especially after the landmark Pigford v. Glickman, a class-action lawsuit alleging the USDA discriminated against Black farmers from 1983 to 1997 when they applied for federal financial assistance, and failed to respond to complaints of discrimination. The court approved a settlement in 1999. While some Black farmers received payments, thousands did not because of confusing paperwork, filing deadlines, denials of claims, processing issues and attorney malpractice, NPR reported.

In June 2021, the same month the USDA planned to start loan payments to eligible borrowers, a judge issued a restraining order on the program in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of white farmers alleging that debt relief racially discriminated against them.

“The discrimination is just not with the USDA. It also goes deep into the court system,” farmer Corey Lea told Capital B in December. “It’s crazy how the white farmers got it done within 30 days and Black farmers, if they get any justice at all — most of the time, no — they’re in [the courtroom] for years. It’s a systemic problem.”

Rather than implement the existing loan forgiveness program, the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law last year, replaced it with assistance for a broader group of “distressed borrowers.”

The act provides $125 million for technical assistance regarding food, agriculture, and agricultural credit to underserved farmers, ranchers, or forest landowners, including those living in high poverty areas. Another program provides $2.2 billion for farmers who have experienced discrimination prior to January 2021 by the Agriculture Department’s farm lending programs. Recipients can receive up to $500,000 each.

In September, all parties agreed to dismiss the lawsuit in response to the Inflation Reduction Act. A month later, Boyd Jr. filed suit. He said the relief from the original program in the American Rescue Plan Act would’ve made a big difference in helping farmers to wipe their slate clean — especially for Bonner and Williams, who have struggled to make ends meet or pay off mounting bills.

“This administration … just abandoned us, left us out there high and dry. That’s why I turned to the courts,” Boyd Jr. said.

#Black Farmers Matter #Black Farmers #Black Farms #Black Lives Matter #Black Farmers Refuse to Back Down After Federal Judge Dismisses Suit

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meandmybigmouth · 1 year

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda D. Young today released the final budget results for fiscal year (FY) 2022. During FY 2022, the deficit fell by $1.4 trillion—the largest one-year decrease in the Federal deficit in American history.

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cogitoergofun · 7 months

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While government subsidies allowed Jordyn Rossignol to keep her child care center in northern Maine afloat during the pandemic, she finally made the wrenching decision in August to shutter because of rising operational costs.

That federal aid, which may not have fixed the industry but served as a critical lifeline, is set to expire at the end of this month, putting other day care providers across the U.S. in jeopardy in what industry advocates are calling a "child care cliff."

Rossignol, 35, envisions an even more dire scenario.

"It's going to be a child care apocalypse," she said. "If someone came to me today and said they wanted to open up a child care center, I'd say, 'Don't do it.' I was in debt, and my health was suffering."

"I couldn't keep staff because of pay," she added of the federal money, amounting to about $12,000 a month, that still left her struggling as she wrestled with payroll and food and training compliance costs. "I lost my best teacher to go work across the street at a hardware store."

A Century Foundation report in June estimated that over 70,000 child care programs, or about one-third of those that relied on funding from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act passed in March 2021, could close. That amounts to about 3.2 million children losing child care.

The potential loss of child care providers would have a profound impact on working parents, with women shouldering the worst of it, but labor and economic experts warn the ripple effect will be far-reaching in ways that those who don't have young children should be just as concerned about.

"Our economy is strong. We have a strong labor market, and there has been a decent amount of recovery in terms of our job growth," said Julie Kashen, the director of women's economic justice and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a nonpartisan progressive think tank.

"But if parents lose their child care, they will have to cut their work hours or leave their jobs altogether," Kashen said. "Fewer people in the workforce means fewer people spending money — and the economy will feel it."

To stem losses, Kashen said a handful of states, such as Alaska, California, Minnesota and New York, have attempted to steer millions of dollars to benefit child care providers who counted on the federal funding to pay for staff, buy supplies and reduce tuition costs for families.

In some states, the crisis is deepening. In June, the GOP-controlled Legislature in Wisconsin voted to end its Child Care Counts subsidy program, with funding to help child care providers expected to be exhausted by February. Some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, however, are proposing alternate solutions.

On the federal level, Democratic members of Congress have introduced bills this year to expand federal subsidies for child care providers and create federally funded, but locally run, child care centers. Republicans have resisted continuing the pandemic-era funding, initially meant to be just temporary relief.

"At this point, everything is caught up in the government shutdown issue," Kashen said. "If this Congress can act on this before the end of the year, it will make a huge difference."

The effects of the loss of funding may not be seen immediately, she added, but will come in waves over the next year as child care centers grapple with whether they can keep operating.

As more centers close and those that remain open only increase already-long waitlists for limited spots, some families will have to decide whether one parent will need to stay home to care for their children, said Cathy Creighton, the director of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab, who has studied child care costs.

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