Looking Beyond Reconciliation to a Prosperous Future for All
After over a year of negotiations, the Senate and the House passed a reconciliation bill, which President Biden just signed into law this afternoon. While we celebrate long-needed health care and energy provisions finally coming to fruition — especially policies that disproportionately benefit low-income communities and communities of color – and long-overdue action to ensure corporations pay their fair share, the Inflation Reduction Act is smaller and narrower in scope than anything we envisioned under Build Back Better. The bill leaves out too many critical investments in women, children, and young people — like a permanent expanded Child Tax Credit, paid leave, and investments in education and child care — and more is needed.
For ProsperUS, demanding more is not about anger or frustration at the trajectory of a single piece of legislation. Our coalition of more than 80 organizations shares a vision for governance, community, and our economy that cannot be realized without bold public investments in the people who power our economy.
Since our founding, our coalition has fought for healthier communities and a stronger, more resilient economy that works for all of us. We believe transformative, equitable public investments, like those that kept millions of families and our economy afloat during a historic global pandemic and recession, are the only path to fully recover from the COVID recession, help families manage rising prices, and prepare them for whatever economic shocks the future will bring.
In the face of rising authoritarianism, climate change, growing inequality, and other daunting challenges, we can build trust in government and faith in a progressive vision by acting now to help people who are hurting. Indeed, equitable public investment is the only way to restructure the economy and public institutions so they both address peoples’ needs and include all people in an authentic democracy.
People have seen a glimpse of a more just and equitable future: the American Rescue Plan (ARP) helped lift millions of hardworking families out of economic despair and piloted life-changing programs like an expanded Child Tax Credit and ACA subsidies. Given the success of the ARP, it’s unfathomable that our leaders reversed course, refusing to make these policies permanent and failing to build on many of these effective policies.
And as reconciliation negotiations dragged on, the cuts mounted: universal pre-K, child care, affordable housing, paid family leave, free community college, additional climate provisions, and more. We’ve seen legislators use fear-mongering over the deficit and inflation as excuses not to take action to support workers, families, and communities who need these policies to afford the basics, including the completely erroneous claim that it’s “foolish” to invest in people in the face of inflation. We have seen cruel arguments that the cure for an economy that’s squeezing working people and families is to inflict harsh austerity and push millions of people out of work. We have seen compromises that, yet again, Black and brown communities and women will bear the worst of. We refuse to stop fighting for needed, economically sound, and very popular investments that build equity and a strong future for all—and we demand the same from our elected leaders.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will be historic. It will lower health care costs, begin to tackle the climate crisis, and bring us closer to collecting fair tax revenue from the ultra-wealthy and corporations. However, if elected officials give up on the fight for the full suite of investments we need to transform our economy and sustain our communities, the economic and political consequences will be dire. Without further action, the promise of the ARP and the IRA — and our hopes for a more stable, just, sustainable future — will be erased.
