A powerful vision and the fight for more. View this in your browser and share with your friends. <[link removed]>



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The Scale and Structure of the American Jobs Plan



The American Jobs Plan <[link removed]>—the $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal unveiled by the Biden administration this week—is “not a plan that tinkers around the edges,” as the president said <[link removed]'s%20not%20a%20plan%20that,the%20Space%20Race%20decades%20ago.> Wednesday. In tone and approach, that’s already a positive shift: an acknowledgment that generations of public underinvestment and needlessly prolonged joblessness <[link removed]> are neither inevitable nor acceptable, as Roosevelt experts have said during this pandemic <[link removed]> and in the decade after the Great Recession.



But more is possible, and necessary. 



“As in any big economic package, we must focus on both the scale and structure of funding—how much we’re spending, how we’re spending the money, and who’s deciding where and how to spend it,” Roosevelt President & CEO Felicia Wong writes <[link removed]> in an analysis of the plan. 



In its structure, she argues, the AJP is particularly strong in its commitments to care work and worker empowerment and in its potential for virtuous feedback loops <[link removed]>.



But the plan’s scale still falls far short of our economic and climate needs, she writes—about one-third of the $10 trillion <[link removed]> we should be spending per year over 10 years to decarbonize the economy.



“So, two cheers for a huge step forward—a vision worth fighting for, and a big down payment,” Wong writes. “For now, we’re reserving our third cheer, since the federal government will need to make regular, necessary investments beyond this overdue down payment.”



Another pillar of the American Jobs Plan: corporate tax increases. As the Roosevelt Institute, the Groundwork Collaborative, the Center for American Progress, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and the Economic Policy Institute write in a joint statement, “robust taxation of corporations and the wealthy can directly counter damaging inequality, rebalance power in our economy, and increase the competitiveness of American workers.” Read on. <[link removed]>











How to Implement a Wealth Tax



"One of the ironic advantages of having a society with as much distortion inequality as we have is that we can raise a lot of revenue by taxing only those with incomes over $400,000 and corporations,” says <[link removed]> Roosevelt Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz.Taxing wealth is another viable—and popular <[link removed]>—option.



A tax on the wealth of multimillionaires and billionaires would be fair, just, and effective <[link removed]>, reducing racial wealth gaps and restoring equity to our tax system.



It’s constitutional <[link removed]>, as David Gamage, Ari Glogower, and Roosevelt Fellow Kitty Richards explained earlier this year. 



And it’s no more challenging to design and implement than an income tax, as they write in a new report. Learn more in How to Measure and Value Wealth for a Federal Wealth Tax Reform. <[link removed]>



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How to Achieve a Climate-Forward Recovery





This Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 3:00 PM ET, join us to learn more about what the Biden-Harris administration's economic and infrastructure plans mean for climate change and environmental justice. What does a climate-forward economy look like, and how can we achieve it?

Moderator: 



- Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Roosevelt Institute Director of Climate Policy



Featured speakers:



- Brandon Hurlbut, Co-Founder of Boundary Stone Partners and former Obama administration US Department of Energy Chief of Staff 

- Lenore Palladino, Roosevelt Institute Fellow and Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy at UMass Amherst

- John Washington, People's Action Organizer and Political Educator 



Register now. <[link removed]>







What We’re Reading <[link removed]>Full Employment Is Not Enough to Support Black Women [by Roosevelt’s Suzanne Kahn] <[link removed]> - Ms. Magazine <[link removed]>



Evanston, Ill., Approved “Reparations.” Except It Isn’t Reparations. [co-authored by Roosevelt’s William “Sandy” Darity Jr.] <[link removed]> - Washington Post <[link removed]>



Biden Is Facing a Roosevelt Moment [by Roosevelt board member Katrina vanden Heuvel <[link removed]>] - Washington Post <[link removed]>



Biden’s New Deal and the Future of Human Capital <[link removed]> - The New Yorker <[link removed]>



Biden's Spending Plans Could Remake the Economy, Says Nobel Prize Winner Stiglitz <[link removed]> - Axios











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