Democracy Matters - Episode 58: Is Big Government Back?

"America is on the move again,” declared President Joe Biden in a joint session of Congress on April 28, 2021 and on the eve of the 100th day of his administration. In March, President Biden signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and less than three weeks later, he unveiled a $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, dubbed the American Jobs Plan. The plan calls for spending on a range of items like roads, bridges, water systems and broadband access, but also expands beyond traditional infrastructure spending to include addressing racial inequity and climate change. Congress is debating what qualifies and as infrastructure and Republicans have introduced their smaller $568 billion Infrastructure Plan. President Biden also used his speech to another massive domestic program, the $2 trillion American Families Plan aimed at widening the social safety net for Americans from preschool age to those on Medicare. 

President Biden framed expanded federal programs as a “New Deal” for the middle class to compete globally in the 21st century and argued his proposal to tax wealthy Americans and corporations was a fair approach. 

In this episode, Caitlin Tully, a first-year Finance major in JMU’s College of Business, moderates a discussion with economic policy experts Flint Engelman, Americans for Prosperity, and Ben Ritz, Director of Progressive Policy Institute's Center for Funding America’s Future about the presidential administration’s economic policy priorities and impacts on Americans.

Links in this episode:

• Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by President Biden — Address to a Joint Session of Congress
• American Jobs Plan 
• American Families Plan
• Progressive Policy Institute
• Americans for Prosperity