The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of American democracy in at least two important ways. First, the coronavirus has ravaged Black communities across the United States, unmasking decades of inequitable laws and public policies that have rendered Black lives socially and economically isolated from adequate health care services, educational resources, housing stability, environmental security, stable and living wage jobs, generational wealth, and other institutional structures necessary for the survival of a culture and race. Second, government-mandated social distancing in response to the coronavirus has failed to dampen America’s racially biased, violent, and supervisory policing culture, reigniting demands from the FixSAPD for police abolition and, more generally, the dismantling of white supremacy in sociopolitical life. In response, scholars have called for a radical reimagination of American democracy.
March 11, 2021 was a big day for the United States of America. President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. This bill marks a turnaround in our government. Rather than focusing on dismantling the federal government and turning individuals loose to act as they wish, Congress has returned to the principles of the nation before the Regan years, using the federal government to support ordinary Americans. With its expansion of the child tax credit, the bill is projected to reach about 27 million children and to cut child poverty in half. The bill is a landmark piece of legislation, reversing the trend of American government since Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Rather than funneling money upward in the belief that those at the top will invest in the economy and thus create jobs for poorer Americans, the Democrats are returning to the idea that using the government to put money into the hands of ordinary Americans will rebuild the economy from the bottom up.
This is the first expansion of the American government since the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights Acts. Unlike the Civil Rights Act Biden’s legislation has the potential to truly change the economic future of millions of people of color and lift children out of poverty in this country.
There are $1,400 checks sent directly to roughly 280 million Americans including an estimated 26 million adult dependents who were left out of previous rounds of checks. Then there is a continuation of the $300 per month supplement to unemployment benefits (which will last through the first week of September). There is also $350 billion to help state and local governments deal with the fallout of the pandemic. The major expansion of the Child Tax Credit will increase from $2,000 per child to $3,600 for children under six years old and $3,000 for children between 6-17.
Republican lawmakers are labeling this bill as a socialist handout. However, more objective prognosticators would call the American Rescue Plan a hand up! Local municipalities will receive over $250B to fund Covid relief efforts. The City of San Antonio has partnered with Workforce Solutions Alamo, Alamo Colleges, Project Quest, Restore Education, Family Service, Chrysalis Ministries, and SA Works to offer free workforce training and education to San Antonio residents who have been negatively affected by the pandemic. Qualified participants are eligible to receive stipends of $15 per hour up to 30 hours for actual time spent in an approved training program. To apply, please call City of San Antonio Customer Service (311). Operating hours are 7 days a week, 7 AM – 7 PM.
