The American Rescue plan is a big deal for North Carolina

To borrow from now President Biden’s well-known statement to then President Obama, and to sanitize it for polite company — the American Rescue Plan is a big deal.

In my lifetime, there has not been this ambitious a response to hardship nor such public recognition that our full recovery requires a commitment of our collective resources to the well-being of every person — white, Black, and brown.

Only in enacting policies that aim to deliver directly to people what they need do we all have the potential to realize the still unfulfilled promise of the American Dream.

COVID-19 may have finally catalyzed policy changes that recognize our humanity and our connections. The pandemic forced us to reckon with an economy that is consolidating income and wealth in the hands of the very few and leaving more and more of us uncertain about affording the basics of a life. COVID-19 showed the tremendous costs — in lost lives, lost jobs, and lost learning — that occur when we don’t have policies in place that can balance the public health and economic needs in our communities.

The American Rescue Plan is a Big Deal, not just for putting people first, but because it took a simple, straightforward approach to do it. It provides money to people directly and in a timely way to ensure that people can make ends meet. It supports the public institutions directly caring for our children, educating our children, and providing health care to our elders and neighbors — in other words, sustaining our quality of life. It provides stimulus to the majority of Americans because when we have what we need, we can spend and support a strong economic recovery.

Estimates find that the entire plan will reduce poverty in half in this country. That will mean 13 million people — more than the entire population of North Carolina —will no longer be living on less than $25,000 for a family of four. In our state, that reduction would effectively hundreds of thousands of people into greater economic security, which will help local businesses and improve lifelong outcomes for the next generation of North Carolinians.

In North Carolina, the increase in food assistance that is part of the American Rescue Plan will provide additional dollars to households specifically benefiting those who live at half the federal poverty level, a group that has grown exponentially since 1996.

In North Carolina, the Earned Income Tax Credit changes will extend the credit for individual workers without children who are earning low wages. These workers have been too often blocked from policy supports.

In North Carolina, the Child Tax Credit expansion alone will lift 137,000 children out of poverty and reach 2.6 million children through monthly advance payments between July and December. Raising the income in households with children is a proven tool to boost educational, health, and developmental outcomes critical to lifelong success and well-being.

The American Rescue Plan not only makes these commitments, but it recognizes that we can and must have the public infrastructure to connect directly with people across the country to deliver aid. The ability to mail checks to people each month, to provide just-in time aid, is critical to households and sustaining the recovery.

Targeting aid to those most in need is especially important now as we push against the current uneven recovery that threatens to increase inequality in our country and keep our economic well-being at risk.

North Carolina leaders would do well to consider how their vision for our state can match the bold one set forth in the American Rescue Plan. A year later, it is time to make clear just how our state is responding now, as well as what we are doing collectively to rebuild better and more equitably.

It is time to embrace the reality that our policies can be of help to people and, thereby, the economy. It is time to focus on poverty as our primary challenge if our state wants to compete for any economic accolade of worth.

The American Rescue Plan shows us it is possible to be bold. We can fulfill the promise of America.

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 8:55 AM.