Dems went big and they won

Many of us aren't conditioned to expect much from Democratic administrations, even ones we've worked hard to elect. But this American Rescue Plan, as they are calling the bill that Democrats -- without a single Republican vote -- passed out of the Senate yesterday is a BFD.

People are hurting. Some of us have had a "good pandemic" -- able to work from home online, not spending much, merely feeling some social isolation. But so many have seen jobs disappear and/or are stuck at home with kids who aren't getting educated. I see them in the line around the block at the Mission Food Hub each week; I wave at them in doorways when I deliver boxes for elders and families who can't even go out to pick up for themselves.

The American Rescue Plan is a true something. It takes the condition of the least among us seriously.

It includes checks of $1400 for people who make less than $75,000, making up the difference between the $600 the last coronavirus relief measure provided and the $2000 the former president demanded. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The bill provides federal unemployment benefits of $300 a week until Labor Day to supplement state benefits. It provides $350 billion for state, local, and tribal governments, which will prevent further job cuts and enable services to continue. It provides $130 billion for schools, as well as support for rent payments and food. With its expansion of child tax credits, subsidies for childcare, expansion of food assistance, lowering of costs under the Affordable Care Act, and rental assistance, the American Rescue Plan could cut child poverty in half by the end of this year.

Its benefits should begin helping low-income and moderate-income people immediately, injecting money into the economy to help us recover from the economic effects of the pandemic, even as we are starting to get vaccinated to emerge from the pandemic itself.

The bill is a statement about the role of the government. Rather than trying to free individuals from the burdens of supporting an active government by cutting taxes and services—as Republicans since Reagan have advocated-- this bill uses government power to support ordinary Americans. It is a return to the principles of the so-called liberal consensus that members of both parties embraced under the presidents from Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, to Jimmy Carter, who left the White House in 1981. ... [My emphasis.]

Sure, it's not perfect. It does nothing about the minimum wage which is stuck at $7.25/an hour. On Twitter this afternoon I was already seeing what seems a solid prescription for activism: 

1) see whether recalcitrant Democratic Senators can be corralled to vote for any increase in the minimum such as $12/an hour;

2) get the $15 minimum on state initiative ballots -- in practice it wins; 

and 3) where we've got a chance to win Senate seats in 2022 (off the top that's WI, OH. PA, and NC), get commitments to $15 during the campaigns.

But let's give Senate Dems some credit. They did some of what we elected them to do; victories build for further victories.