News from Facebook about the Donald Trump account ban.

And let’s talk about Joe Biden’s American Families Plan.

 

What is this American Families Plan Thing

Joe Biden wants to spend another $2 trillion for his American Families Plan. He made a big stink about it in his speech last week. Let’s take a look at the plan from the horse’s mouth at whitehouse.gov.

It starts:

Right now, too many Americans are struggling to meet basic needs and cover basic expenses. An economy that fails so many of us is not only unfair, it’s unsustainable. The American Families Plan is a once-in-a-generation investment in the foundations of middle-class prosperity – education, health care, and child care. It recognizes that policies to make life easier for American families must focus on bringing everyone along: inclusive of gender, race, or place of residence – urban, suburban, or rural. Beyond helping American families meet the needs of today, this plan powers the innovation and growth of tomorrow.

Of course, gender and race have to be brought up. You know something, I’m pretty sure all laws apply to you no matter your gender or race. That’s because this country is not systemically racist and all are laws are applied equally. I think I read that somewhere.

The plan is broken up into three sections.

The first section is titled Make education more affordable and expand opportunity. It includes:

Investing in education is a down payment on the future of America. The American Families Plan will make transformational investments from early childhood to postsecondary education so that all children and young people are able to grow, learn, and gain the skills they need to succeed.

Two free years of community college for millions of Americans.

What a waste. Today, people out of college are given entry level jobs. Why? Because they have no useful skills. Apparently mastering in Lesbian Dance Theory is not a useful skill. Reality is most college students take liberal arts not STEM courses. These are not useful.

Also, there is no limit on what students can take. They can take anything. Maybe force them to take something useful. I think trade schools would be far more helpful than a community college degree. To me, this seems like more of an opportunity to indoctrinate.

Here’s something I might support: money for trade schools where students actually learn a skill that can benefit society.

Universal access to high-quality, free Pre-K for 3- and 4- year-olds.

Really? Kids at 3 need free access to an education in block building? One word: indoctrination.

Lower college costs for low-and middle- income students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and institutions such as Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions (AANAPISIs), and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

This is racist and unconstitutional. It is a law that favors one race over the other.

An increase of up to approximately $1,400 in Pell Grants and allowing DREAMers to access the funding.

Making future voters, illegal aliens, legal. Why is my tax money going to people who are not citizens and actually have no business being in this country?

Provide support to students to increase retention and completion.

Not sure what this is going to do but if students need help to retain and complete their college education, should they really be going to college?

A $9 billion investment to strengthen teacher pipelines and address shortages, increase the number of teachers of color, and support the growth of teachers.

This is more money to the teacher’s unions. Seriously, how much money do these people need? They haven’t worked in over a year!

The next section is entitled, Provide economic security for families. 

Our nation is strongest when everyone has the opportunity to join the workforce and contribute to the economy. But many workers struggle to both hold a full-time job and care for themselves and their families.

Ensure no one earning under 150% of state median income has to pay more than 7% of their income on high-quality care for children under 5.

This encourages single-home families. That’s what it’s for. I know we are in a society that discourages single motherhood and really doesn’t care about fathers. Heck, nuclear families with a stay-at-home parent has been condemned my Karl Marx himself. That’s because they want the government to be the second parent. Be damned to the kid being raised in a healthy, caring environment with two parents, the government will look like a foreigner.

This also brings up something that annoys the crap out of me: If you can’t afford kids, do not have kids until you can afford kids! 

Provide comprehensive paid family and medical leave, allowing workers to take the time they need to care for a new child, their own serious illness or a seriously ill loved one.

You know, I never got this. The reason is that business needed to run  even if I had a kid. Taking six months off to have a baby was never an option. If I needed six months off then I better start looking for another job. This is just not fair to the business, the business owner and my fellow employees.

That brings up another point: who is going to pay for this? What the hell do you need three to six months off for to take care of a kid and why should you get paid for it? Again, if one cannot afford to have a kid, do not have a kid.

Expand nutrition assistance, including school meal programs and the summer nutrition benefit program, for children and families.

More nanny-state crap.

There are three jobs of a parent: provide shelter, clothing and food. It’s not the government’s job to do that and none of those are a “right”.

If you can’t afford to feed a child, don’t have children.

Invest $3 billion in maternal health.

Not sure more money is a thing. There are a ton of services available already. I used to work for one. I would like to see what that $3 billion will be going to. Abortion on demand? Planned Parenthood? I might have a problem with this.

The final section is to Expand tax credits that help workers and families.

I don’t like this one. Tell me what you think:

Make the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit permanent, providing up to $4,000 to cover expenses related to care for a child under age 13 or dependent with a disability needing care and up to $8,000 to cover expenses for multiple children or dependents. Families making under $125,000 can claim the full credit, and families earning up to $438,000 can claim a partial credit. It will be fully refundable so low-income families who don’t owe a lot in taxes can fully benefit.

No, no, no.

This is paving the way for Universal Basic Income. This is already a serious drag on the debt. It is too expensive.

Again, if you can’t afford to raise a kid, do not have a kid.

Make the Earned Income Tax Credit Expansion for Childless Workers Permanent, benefitting 17 million low-wage workers, many of whom are essential workers including cashiers, cooks, delivery drivers, food preparation workers, and child care workers.

Paves the way for Universal Basic Income and more dependence on the government. If you are single, you should be able to take care of yourself.

Extend the Child Tax Credits increases in the American Rescue Plan for another five years – increasing tax credits for child under 6 from $2,000 to $3, 600 and for child over 6 from $2,000 to $3,000.

I wouldn’t mind this much except for the fact that the extra money given to those who qualify will be stolen from people who make more and are already paying a ton of money. This is just another way of redistributing wealth.

Lower health care costs by making the American Rescue Plan’s health insurance premium reductions permanent, saving families an average of $50 per person per month.

Make a bad idea permanent. We are going to see in the coming “Biden ideas” that he is slowly and through deception try to implement parts of the Obamacare plan. This is part of it.

And, remember this, it sounds like a little thing but that money is going to come from somewhere.

My Thoughts

The American Families Plan is simply a wealth redistribution plan. It’s socialism. It uses the greed of the middle and lowers classes to justify stealing money from those who make more. It’s a bad plan.

• It is introducing us to the untenable Universal Basic Income.
• It embraces bad decisions. Having children out of wedlock and having children when one can’t afford them just to name a couple.
• It creates dependence on the government.
• Doesn’t encourage people to work and improve themselves or their circumstance.

It is a bad and wasteful plan. It won’t pass by itself, if Republicans have the balls to wave it off. Joe Machin and Kirsten Sinima have already said they are not sure of this bill so it hardly looks like it has any chance of getting passed (much like Old Joe’s infrastructure bill).

We shall see.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/american-families-plan/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-the-american-families-plan/