PPI Unveils Blueprint for American Resilience 

Looking ahead to the general election campaign this fall, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) today rolled out a bold plan for making America’s health care system, economy and social safety net more resilient against future pandemics and national emergencies.

“During the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve learned the hard way that our country needs stronger economic and social shock absorbers,” said PPI President Will Marshall. “Our challenge isn’t just to recover from the present crisis, but to build a stronger, more equitable democracy that will be more resilient against future shocks none of us can foresee.”

In Building American Resilience, PPI’s scholars and policy experts present 14 bold and original proposals for tackling long-festering social inequities and bolstering the capacities of business, government and schools to perform their vital roles during national crises. 

“The 2020 campaign isn’t just a referendum on President Trump’s catastrophic failure to lead the nation in containing the virus,” said Marshall. “It’s also an opportunity for voters to demand action against deep structural problems that our leaders have ignored too long, and that have weakened our nation’s response to the pandemic.”

Building American Resilience offers radically pragmatic ideas to: 

• Spur digital manufacturing in America and shorten supply chains for essential goods, such as masks and other personal protective equipment; 

• Launch a “national reemployment” drive to get everyone back to work as soon as conditions allow, and to make work pay;

• Drive down the exorbitant cost of medical care so that we can invest more in healthy communities;

• Create well-paid production jobs and fight climate change by making America number one in electric vehicles;

• Make the social safety net more resilient against hunger and other problems;

• Forge a new economic security bargain with gig workers;

• Install a “fiscal switch” that allows Washington to automatically stimulate during economic downturns and shrink its debts during expansions;

• Give birth to two million new businesses to replace those that have gone under during the pandemic shutdown; 

• Invest in resilient cities and metro regions;

• Fix America’s broken financing model for higher education; 

• Create a more nimble and accountable K-12 school system;

• Democratize capital ownership and expand national service;

• Replace outdated U.S. immigration laws with a “demand-driven” policy that welcomes more willing workers;

• Make our electoral democracy more resilient by ensuring that every citizen can vote at home.

“Americans have made enormous sacrifices to save lives and keep our health system and economy from collapsing.” the PPI report notes. “If U.S. don’t emerge from this painful period resolved to build a more just and resilient society, this suffering and sacrifice will have been in vain.”