From Cradle to Grave, Democrats Move to Expand Social Safety Net

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said the legislation would promote economic growth, with child care subsidies that would get parents back into the work force, education spending to more equitably prepare all Americans to work, and job training to improve labor mobility.
59% : When that child turns 3, another part of the bill, universal prekindergarten, would ensure public education can begin at an earlier age, regardless of where that child lives.
59% : Even the Affordable Care Act of 2010 created an entirely new government infrastructure, a federally operated or regulated exchange where Americans could buy private health insurance that has to conform to government strictures on coverage and cost, noted Michael R. Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
53% : The pandemic loosened the reins on federal spending, prompting members of both parties to support showering the economy with aid.
53% : Most Americans traditionally have seen the federal government's involvement in their finances once a year, at tax time, when they claim a child credit, get a write-off for the truck they may have bought for their business, or receive a check for an earned income credit, to name a few.
51% : To Republicans, who are readying a counteroffensive, the Democratic plans are nothing short of socialism.
50% : In a mechanical sense, the legislation is not as much of a sea change as the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s, or Social Security in the 1930s.
48% : At the president's insistence, the House and Senate tax-writing committees are to finance the bill's spending with taxes on corporations and individuals with incomes over $400,000 a year.
43% : "I'm going to bring the caucus into that discussion, but I believe billionaires ought to pay taxes every year, just like nurses and firefighters do" out of each paycheck, Mr. Wyden said.
35% : Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Finance Committee chairman, said such measures are the only way to ensure that the superrich must pay their fair share of taxes each year.
34% : That is largely because the proposed legislation would be so transformative -- a cradle-to-grave reweaving of a social safety net frayed by decades of expanding income inequality, stagnating wealth and depleted governmental resources, capped by the worst public health crisis in a century.
20% : And with two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, saying they would not accept such a costly plan, it will challenge Democratic unity like nothing has since the Affordable Care Act.

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