Building back better: It starts with us
CARLY KABOT: President Biden’s Build Back Better Framework is a vision for a renewed America that prioritizes working Americans to rebuild the middle class. This $1.75 trillion framework is a plan to “set the United States on course to meet its climate goals, create millions of good-paying jobs, enable more Americans to join and remain in the labor force, and grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out.” Though a major victory for the Biden Administration and Democrats, there’s still a LOT of work to be done to implement the president’s framework.
What is the Build Back Better Framework? Here are four takeaways to know:
The most transformative investment in children and caregiving in generations.
The largest effort to combat climate change in American history.
The biggest expansion of affordable health care coverage in a decade.
The most significant effort to bring down costs and strengthen the middle class in generations.
If I had a dime for every time I heard the phrase build back better since the pandemic began… But seriously, it got me thinking about what these three words mean. We all have a part in contributing to the change we want to see in America. Building back better starts with us— we need to advocate for what we believe is possible, fight to turn our passions into policy, and always ask how we can do better, be better as a nation.
We asked Georgetown students how America can build back better. All responses were anonymous and participants were told to be as creative as they wanted.
Here’s 25 ways America can build back better:
Invest in clean energy while simultaneously trying to control inflation
Incorporate a Green New Plan into its institutions
Hastening the transformation of our energy infrastructure to clean energy technology
Work towards improving unity and creating shared responsibility to help each other heal from the pandemic
Education equality
Medicare for all
Invest in climate resilience and clean energy regulation
Empathize with the least among us
Restructure foreign partnerships and build positive, active role in the world
Climate adaptation and mitigation infrastructure
Honor the lives of those lost to COVID-19 by investing in public health, addressing dangerous misinformation, and building a more equitable healthcare system
Minimize debt
Acknowledge our history and past mistakes and working to do better. We can not build a just and equitable future if we do not properly acknowledge the ways injustices of the past are impacting the present.
Better urban planning
Recognize the needs of marginalized communities in creating a better America.
Expand abortion rights and access
More efficient public transportation
Expand Medicare
Global climate leadership
Promote food security
Tuition community college
Prioritize working Americans
Create jobs in clean energy
Expand affordable housing
Advance environmental justice
Did this list leave you feeling inspired? We know Georgetown students will be among those on the front lines helping check the boxes on this ambitious to-do list, but we have faith in what our nation can be and what its citizens can do.
Want to add YOUR idea to this list? Fill out this form to be featured in an article later this month. If you are interested in writing a piece for this spotlight, we’d love to hear from you through this form. No experience needed, all perspectives welcome.
Carly Kabot is the Editor-in-Chief of On the Record. She is a junior studying International Politics and Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs in the School of Foreign Service.