 
Structural Change Starts
with Policy Structure
One goal of the American Families
Plan, the latest of President Biden’s major economic proposals: to
restructure the economy by investing in families and industries often
left behind.
One caveat: Achieving structural
change won’t be possible without the right policy structure, as
Roosevelt’s Suzanne Kahn explains in
a new blog post.
Among the AFP’s greatest structural strengths, Kahn writes,
is policy visibility.
When people regularly experience
the benefits of a policy and—just as importantly—know government was responsible for those benefits, they are more
likely to fight for that policy’s permanence. Social Security and
Medicare, for example, boast unyielding support because of those
positive feedback loops, and threats to their existence activate
passionate defenders.
Several AFP policies have the
potential to build similar constituencies. An extension of the
American Rescue Plan’s expanded Child Tax
Credit—which now functions as a recurring cash payment—and four
additional years of free public education are tangible, everyday
reminders of what government can do.
While the AFP visibly strengthens public power, it’s less
effective in constraining corporate power, Kahn argues.
The plan’s subsidies for health
care, and its policy capping childcare costs at 7 percent of income
for low- and middle-income families, would provide substantial and
vital relief for millions of families. But to prevent insurance
companies and service-providers from raising costs and extracting new
profits from government funds, policymakers should be thoughtful about
setting guardrails and service requirements and pairing investments
with democratic governance structures.
To help, Kahn outlines
four
questions policymakers should ask themselves when designing public investment
plans.
For more Roosevelt analysis of
Biden’s economic plans, click
here.
 How
Incarcerated People Are Excluded from Full Employment
Targets
“What is currently considered full employment doesn’t include 2.3
million incarcerated people—who are largely in prison due to the
racist criminal justice policies that result in higher arrests,
convictions, and sentences for Black and brown people,” Roosevelt’s
Lauren Melodia writes for the blog.
“If we do not acknowledge people in
prison and drug rehabilitation programs as job-seekers and create
space in the economy for them to return to, the US will be unable to
break the recidivism rate that fuels mass incarceration to this
day.”
Learn
more.
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