SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Director of the Sierra Club's Living Economy Program Ben Beachy (far left), Executive Director of the US Climate Action Network Keya Chatterjee, CASA member Sofia Portillo, activist Maurice Mitchell, activists Hope Butler and activists Evan Weber (2nd from R) pose for a photo during a demonstration by various activists who are calling on President Joe Biden to not compromise on election promises regarding climate change, health care, jobs and social justice on May 24, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network)
We Can't Afford to Go Small on Infrastructure
By raising taxes on the wealthy and redirecting other public resources, we can meet everyone's needs and strengthen our economy.
Jul 14, 2021
For the past few months, a debate has been unfolding over what it will take to address the country's infrastructure needs.
Earlier this year, President Biden released the American Jobs Plan, a blueprint for physical infrastructure like transportation, water, broadband, and buildings, including childcare facilities and public housing.
It came alongside the American Families Plan, which emphasized "human infrastructure"--like universal free pre-K, free community college, child and elder care, a national paid family medical leave program, an expanded child tax credit, and more.
These plans--totaling about $4 trillion--would be funded primarily by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. Together, they accounted for both the physical infrastructure and the human infrastructure we need to repair this country.
More recently, a bipartisan framework came out that focuses only on physical infrastructure, totaling just $579 billion and relying on privatization to finance part of it. As we have seen before, this will only lead to higher user fees and fines, and put communities at risk of losing access to basic public services like water.
We can do a lot better than this--and in fact, we can do more than Biden has proposed, too.
In June 2019, the Poor People's Campaign released a Poor People's Moral Budget that made two essential points: First, we have abundant resources to meet everyone's needs. And second, investing public resources to meet everyone's needs will strengthen our economy.
Inspired by this vision, members of Congress introduced the Third Reconstruction Resolution this spring.
This plan offers a much broader vision of what it means to fully address poverty and economic insecurity, including around infrastructure. Alongside big investments in green infrastructure, it calls for universal health care, a living wage, a jobs guarantee, and more.
As the Reverend William J. Barber II, a campaign co-chair, said: "Only poor and low-wealth people and their moral allies have the legitimate contractor's license to reconstruct America."
The proposal has been endorsed by the 90-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and lawmakers from dozens of states.
We've already seen a glimpse of what this vision might look like in practice.
During the pandemic, government programs were significantly expanded. Medicaid enrollment went up 14 percent, covering over 80 million people. Stimulus payments and expanded unemployment insurance kept millions of families and the economy afloat. Meanwhile, moratoriums on evictions and water shutoffs prevented mass homelessness and water scarcity.
Although these programs have been a lifeline, there's been pushback against them. Several states have refused to expand Medicaid, and others are prematurely ending expanded unemployment programs.
This resistance is not just cruel, inhumane, or bad for the economy. It has a history--one rooted in the ongoing redefinition of who is entitled to all of our Constitutional and human rights.
Similar counterattacks came in response to both the First Reconstruction after the Civil War and the Second Reconstruction of the Civil Rights Movement, when multi-racial alliances expanded democratic participation and the substantive rights that a robust democracy offers.
In the first Poor People's Campaign of 1968, poor people and their allies lobbied Congress and camped for six weeks on the National Mall to demand economic justice for everyone in this country.
"We come to you as representatives of Black, brown, and white Americans who are starving in this land of plenty," they wrote in a statement. "We say that the system must change and adjust to the needs of millions who are unemployed and under-employed."
That's the legacy upon which we're building the Third Reconstruction today. Now as then, we say: Don't go small--not on infrastructure, and not on anything we need to ensure dignified lives for us all.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Shailly Gupta Barnes
Shailly Gupta Barnes is the Policy Director of the Poor People's Campaign and the Kairos Center.
For the past few months, a debate has been unfolding over what it will take to address the country's infrastructure needs.
Earlier this year, President Biden released the American Jobs Plan, a blueprint for physical infrastructure like transportation, water, broadband, and buildings, including childcare facilities and public housing.
It came alongside the American Families Plan, which emphasized "human infrastructure"--like universal free pre-K, free community college, child and elder care, a national paid family medical leave program, an expanded child tax credit, and more.
These plans--totaling about $4 trillion--would be funded primarily by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. Together, they accounted for both the physical infrastructure and the human infrastructure we need to repair this country.
More recently, a bipartisan framework came out that focuses only on physical infrastructure, totaling just $579 billion and relying on privatization to finance part of it. As we have seen before, this will only lead to higher user fees and fines, and put communities at risk of losing access to basic public services like water.
We can do a lot better than this--and in fact, we can do more than Biden has proposed, too.
In June 2019, the Poor People's Campaign released a Poor People's Moral Budget that made two essential points: First, we have abundant resources to meet everyone's needs. And second, investing public resources to meet everyone's needs will strengthen our economy.
Inspired by this vision, members of Congress introduced the Third Reconstruction Resolution this spring.
This plan offers a much broader vision of what it means to fully address poverty and economic insecurity, including around infrastructure. Alongside big investments in green infrastructure, it calls for universal health care, a living wage, a jobs guarantee, and more.
As the Reverend William J. Barber II, a campaign co-chair, said: "Only poor and low-wealth people and their moral allies have the legitimate contractor's license to reconstruct America."
The proposal has been endorsed by the 90-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and lawmakers from dozens of states.
We've already seen a glimpse of what this vision might look like in practice.
During the pandemic, government programs were significantly expanded. Medicaid enrollment went up 14 percent, covering over 80 million people. Stimulus payments and expanded unemployment insurance kept millions of families and the economy afloat. Meanwhile, moratoriums on evictions and water shutoffs prevented mass homelessness and water scarcity.
Although these programs have been a lifeline, there's been pushback against them. Several states have refused to expand Medicaid, and others are prematurely ending expanded unemployment programs.
This resistance is not just cruel, inhumane, or bad for the economy. It has a history--one rooted in the ongoing redefinition of who is entitled to all of our Constitutional and human rights.
Similar counterattacks came in response to both the First Reconstruction after the Civil War and the Second Reconstruction of the Civil Rights Movement, when multi-racial alliances expanded democratic participation and the substantive rights that a robust democracy offers.
In the first Poor People's Campaign of 1968, poor people and their allies lobbied Congress and camped for six weeks on the National Mall to demand economic justice for everyone in this country.
"We come to you as representatives of Black, brown, and white Americans who are starving in this land of plenty," they wrote in a statement. "We say that the system must change and adjust to the needs of millions who are unemployed and under-employed."
That's the legacy upon which we're building the Third Reconstruction today. Now as then, we say: Don't go small--not on infrastructure, and not on anything we need to ensure dignified lives for us all.
Shailly Gupta Barnes
Shailly Gupta Barnes is the Policy Director of the Poor People's Campaign and the Kairos Center.
For the past few months, a debate has been unfolding over what it will take to address the country's infrastructure needs.
Earlier this year, President Biden released the American Jobs Plan, a blueprint for physical infrastructure like transportation, water, broadband, and buildings, including childcare facilities and public housing.
It came alongside the American Families Plan, which emphasized "human infrastructure"--like universal free pre-K, free community college, child and elder care, a national paid family medical leave program, an expanded child tax credit, and more.
These plans--totaling about $4 trillion--would be funded primarily by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. Together, they accounted for both the physical infrastructure and the human infrastructure we need to repair this country.
More recently, a bipartisan framework came out that focuses only on physical infrastructure, totaling just $579 billion and relying on privatization to finance part of it. As we have seen before, this will only lead to higher user fees and fines, and put communities at risk of losing access to basic public services like water.
We can do a lot better than this--and in fact, we can do more than Biden has proposed, too.
In June 2019, the Poor People's Campaign released a Poor People's Moral Budget that made two essential points: First, we have abundant resources to meet everyone's needs. And second, investing public resources to meet everyone's needs will strengthen our economy.
Inspired by this vision, members of Congress introduced the Third Reconstruction Resolution this spring.
This plan offers a much broader vision of what it means to fully address poverty and economic insecurity, including around infrastructure. Alongside big investments in green infrastructure, it calls for universal health care, a living wage, a jobs guarantee, and more.
As the Reverend William J. Barber II, a campaign co-chair, said: "Only poor and low-wealth people and their moral allies have the legitimate contractor's license to reconstruct America."
The proposal has been endorsed by the 90-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and lawmakers from dozens of states.
We've already seen a glimpse of what this vision might look like in practice.
During the pandemic, government programs were significantly expanded. Medicaid enrollment went up 14 percent, covering over 80 million people. Stimulus payments and expanded unemployment insurance kept millions of families and the economy afloat. Meanwhile, moratoriums on evictions and water shutoffs prevented mass homelessness and water scarcity.
Although these programs have been a lifeline, there's been pushback against them. Several states have refused to expand Medicaid, and others are prematurely ending expanded unemployment programs.
This resistance is not just cruel, inhumane, or bad for the economy. It has a history--one rooted in the ongoing redefinition of who is entitled to all of our Constitutional and human rights.
Similar counterattacks came in response to both the First Reconstruction after the Civil War and the Second Reconstruction of the Civil Rights Movement, when multi-racial alliances expanded democratic participation and the substantive rights that a robust democracy offers.
In the first Poor People's Campaign of 1968, poor people and their allies lobbied Congress and camped for six weeks on the National Mall to demand economic justice for everyone in this country.
"We come to you as representatives of Black, brown, and white Americans who are starving in this land of plenty," they wrote in a statement. "We say that the system must change and adjust to the needs of millions who are unemployed and under-employed."
That's the legacy upon which we're building the Third Reconstruction today. Now as then, we say: Don't go small--not on infrastructure, and not on anything we need to ensure dignified lives for us all.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.