Democrats Can Make 2022 A Landmark Year In American History

     I've said it before, and I'll say it again: $6 trillion will mean we have built back better. If we can end the COVID-19 pandemic, restore the economy, and overhaul our education, employment, healthcare, and infrastructure systems, we can look back with pride at having brought the United States from a new low to a new high. We are on track to do just that, and well before the end of this year. We will still have Congress in 2022, but we will not likely be able to make any investments on the same scale as the $6 trillion Build Back Better Agenda. So, what to do?

     Progressives like to point out that we are the party of the New Deal and Great Society, and this is the perfect time to remind people we have not forgotten that. We have a clear vision to replicate the New Deal to fit this moment; 2021, the good and the bad, will be historic. Why not take a page from the Great Society and make 2022 a landmark year in American history? Lyndon. B. Johnson cut poverty in half, and we should strive to do that again.

     Permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit alone will cut child poverty by 61 percent, and that is included in the American Families Plan. We can build on this. President Biden, in a similar fashion to that of President Obama and the goal Biden himself set to tackle climate change by 2030, should lay out his antipoverty vision in a televised address to Congress. A 61 percent reduction is an excellent start; we should make it so that no child is in poverty by 2030. We can start with tackling child hunger with school lunch, breakfast, and dinner programs, something Trump talked about but never acted on. We can continue and expand the Opening Doors Initiative President Obama launched, which cut veteran homelessness by 47 percent in six years, and this can be done with executive power. California alone has half of all homeless people, and working with Governor Newsom and directing various government agencies to build on existing programs could end veteran and family homelessness by 2030 and drastically cut the overall rate if combined with appropriate measures in the 2023 budget. President Biden has the executive authority to cancel student debt, and this, if combined with taking advantage of the free Pre-K and community college as well as the lower prescription drugs costs of the American Families Plans, could end the death grip of the education and healthcare industries on keeping Americans in debt.

     15 percent of Americans live in poverty; we have a chance to knock this number well into the single digits for the first time ever if we take it. An article from March declared the launch of a "Second War on Poverty." What better time than now? FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and Barack Obama are all considered great presidents; President Biden can do the same and make 2022 another significant year if he does what I have outlined above.