AMERICA ON THE DOLE.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: ECONOMICS

AFTER CONGRESS PASSED the American Recovery Plan, Joe Biden's $2 trillion economic relief legislation, the president proposed roughly $4 trillion in further spending. The American Jobs Plan, also known as the president's infrastructure proposal, accounted for about half of that money. The rest was included in the American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion package that the Biden administration described as a set of "investments and tax credits for American families and children over ten years."

In other words, it was a welfare bill, and quite an ambitious one. The plan would put most working-age American households on the dole, even when the economy is strong and the country is not in crisis.

The American Families Plan proposes spending on various new and newly expanded programs, including an extension of the American Recovery Plan's one-year child tax credit boost, increased subsidies for insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act's health exchanges, a new universal paid family and medical leave program, and federal funding for two years of "free" community college. The plan thus represents an escalation of the American Recovery Plan, which temporarily funded some new benefits based on the argument that they were necessary salves for the economic pain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The American Families Plan, by contrast, is premised on the idea that such benefits are necessary on an ongoing basis, regardless of the...