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Why Infrastructure Should Be
Public
Yesterday, the Senate
voted to move forward with the $1 trillion
bipartisan infrastructure framework, which includes $550 billion in
new federal spending.
The bill still faces several
hurdles, but if it passes it will make huge investments in our
nation’s roads, bridges, transit, and other physical infrastructure,
as well as investments to help cities and states prepare for the
worsening impacts of climate change (like droughts, wildfires, and
flooding).
It also includes
far
less
infrastructure privatization than congressional negotiators had
discussed in recent weeks, a win for people and the planet.
As Roosevelt
Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz warned this
week,
public-private partnerships and asset recycling as “proposed financing
sources for new investment” would be a big step backward.
These measures use public funds for
projects controlled by private firms, which ultimately prioritize
profit maximization over the good of society and the
environment.
“These kinds of proposals represent
a misguided reversion to a neoliberal framework that has, for decades,
widened economic inequality, prioritized extractive corporate power
over people, and hollowed out our public capacity,” he
wrote.
Government, on the other hand, can
prioritize the public good in ways that the private sector is not
designed to.
As Roosevelt’s Suzanne Kahn
told Vox’s Emily Stewart, “Of course we want
businesses to be responsible . . . [But] private companies don’t,
can’t, or won’t plan with the same values that we demand and expect
the government to.”
Policymakers should keep that in
mind as they finalize this legislation and continue working on a
much-needed $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.
Read “The Harms of Infrastructure
Privatization: A Step Backward in Progressive
Policymaking.”
Cancel Student
Debt
“According to a recent
Roosevelt
Institute report,
canceling student debt ‘would provide more benefits to those with
fewer economic resources’ and is key to ‘building the Black middle
class,’” Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Natalia Abrams write in a USA Today opinion
piece, which calls for President Biden to cancel $50,000 of student
loan debt and extend the pause on student loan payments—currently set
to expire on September 30.
Read more in our recent issue
brief, “Student
Debt Cancellation IS Progressive: Correcting Empirical and Conceptual
Errors” by Charlie Eaton, Adam Goldstein, Laura
Hamilton, and Frederick Wherry.
What We’re
Reading
Want Proof We Need a Civilian Climate Corps?
Look No Further Than Louisiana [feat. Roosevelt’s Mark
Paul] -
Rolling
Stone
What It Looks Like to Reconnect Black
Communities Torn Apart by Highways - Bloomberg CityLab
Republicans Hate Voting Rights Because They
Threaten White Power
- The
Nation
How to Make the Child Tax Credit More
Accessible -
Vox
An Old Idea for a Guaranteed Income Is Back
in Style [feat. Roosevelt’s Naomi Zewde, Kyle Strickland, and Darrick
Hamilton] - In These
Times
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