The Build Back Better plan is a once-in-a-generation investment in our human infrastructure. It will directly help Utah families. It lowers child care costs, provides for preschool education for all 3 and 4 year-olds, provides some paid family leave to care for infants or the ill, expands the Child Tax Credit, improves free school meals, invests in in-home care for our elders, addresses our nation’s urgent housing crisis, lowers the high cost of prescriptions, reduces the Medicaid coverage gap, reduces premiums for ACA medical insurance, and takes the first bold steps to counter future devastations from global warming.
All of that is accomplished without raising taxes on the bottom 98.2% of taxpayers. Only those earning more than $400,000 will see their taxes rise.
With such great potential good for Utahns, and so little cost, why have our four congressmen voted against it? Do they not see the direct benefits to families? Not see the indirect benefits to Utah businesses in freeing up parents to work, and improved education for the workforce in the next decade? Do they lack knowledge, or do they lack the courage to stand up for Utah families?
Soon Sen. Mitt Romney, winner of the 2021 John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award, will face the same challenge. The fate of this law, the fate of our families, will likely come down to a single senator’s vote. Should Joe Manchin fold under political pressure, will Sen. Romney have the courage to stand up for Utah’s children and Utah families?
William E. Cosgrove, Cottonwood Heights