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BY MARTHA BURK | The highest profile hot-button argument on Capitol Hill these days is over President Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) plan to fund a robust “caregiving infrastructure.” If passed, the government would spend $3.5 trillion over the next decade on domestic programs, including establishing universal pre-kindergarten, subsidizing childcare, extending the expanded child tax credit, subsidizing free community college, providing 12 weeks of paid medical and family leave, help for low wage workers in home care and closing the Medicaid insurance coverage gap.
The main objection to BBB by Republicans and so-called “moderate” Democrats is the price tag—$3.5 trillion over 10 years. Broken down, it’s $350 billion per year. If that sounds like a lot of money, it is—until you compare it to the boys and their toys.
Last month, the House voted 316–113 to pass a single year $777.9 billion defense policy bill for 2022 that would increase service members’ salary by 2.7 percent and fund 13 additional combat ships. That’s more than double the yearly cost of the Build Back Better plan. And know this: The Pentagon asks for (and gets) more money every year, while BBB is a fixed amount over 10 years.
It goes without saying that BBB disproportionately benefits women, who have left the workforce in droves during the COVID-19 pandemic as it disrupted school and childcare arrangements. The numbers are grim: Overall, the U.S. economy added 194,000 new jobs in September, the second straight month of low growth after a summer where we were averaging about 1 million added jobs monthly. All of the September gains went to men—women actually lost 26,000 jobs.
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