Biden — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday to improve access to care for children, the disabled, and the elderly.
As Biden prepares to run for a second term, the choice underscores the urgency and significance of the problem.
A call to arms
President Joe Biden has asked virtually every government department to improve care alternatives without resorting to expenditure through more than 50 executive orders.
Biden has always advocated for lower health-care costs.
However, Congress has mainly stymied his objectives throughout his first term.
Before signing the executive order, Biden addressed from the Rose Garden, saying:
“We’re using the power of the federal government to get companies to do what’s good for workers and, I might add, good for business, as well.”
“And folks, care workers deserve to make a decent living and that’s a fight I’m willing to have.”
Opposition
Many of the Republican-majority House’s social-spending measures meet stiff pushback from the White House.
In his budget proposal last month, Biden requested $750 billion in financing for care over the next decade from Congress.
The president’s plan is a variant on one he promoted during his campaign to build a “21st Century Caregiving and Education Workforce.”
However, during Biden’s first two years as President of the United States, the government failed to pass a radical reinvention of dependent care.
The failure can be attributed to Democrats’ opposition to the extra taxes and expenditure required to make it happen.
According to the White House, campaigners, and congressional Democrats, the measures will stimulate the economy by creating employment and giving people with dependents greater work flexibility.
A senior administration official briefed reporters on the unilateral action on Monday.
According to the official, President Biden is doing everything he can to increase his own access.
“This is a case where the president is working hard on the investment angle, has worked hard with Congress – that has not worked out quite as well,” said the official.
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Costs
According to White House figures, the expense of elderly and disabled care has increased by 40% in the previous decade.
Child care costs increased by 26% over that time period.
Child care prices have increased by more than 200% over the last three decades.
The White House also cited research from Boston Consulting Group, which forecasts that if the care problems are not addressed, economic production might plummet by $290 billion per year by 2030.
Furthermore, even before the worldwide epidemic, 76% of parents had difficulty accessing inexpensive, trustworthy care, according to the White House.
A second term
Biden’s choice to proceed without congressional legislation demonstrates the significance of the issue ahead of his projected reelection effort.
Regardless of how irritated conservatives are with prices, the White House has long maintained that Biden’s social-policy agenda is popular with the American people.
With a second term on the horizon, there may be signs of a renewed emphasis on carrying out many of the promises he was unable to fulfill with his ambitious Build Back Better program.
The program was too tough to implement even while Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.
Although the Democratic-controlled Congress supported several aspects of Biden’s comprehensive social-spending package, it did not support a few of measures, notably the ambitious child-care program.
Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, stated on the call:
“Too many families are struggling to afford or access high-quality care, and too many care workers are struggling to make a living doing this critically important work.”
“The president’s not going to wait to take action to address our nation’s care crisis.”
Order
President Joe Biden directed Cabinet-level departments to identify grant programs that may be utilized to support child care and long-term care for government project employees in the executive order.
The proposal also outlines how they can enhance veterans’ access to in-home care, encourage care worker unionization, raise compensation for early childhood educators, and improve the job quality of caregivers.
In addition, the White House is considering mandating firms seeking government assistance for job development to have broader access to workers’ health-care coverage.
In March, the Commerce Department required firms seeking financing from the $52 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research program to determine how they would help their employees get child care.
