Emotions and develop his personality. I met him. Hes a great young man, but like so many parents, she is worried. She is worried about her job as a dental assistant and not seeing changes in what she has to do to make things work. Shes noticing changes in noahs behavior since he hasnt been in school. Where are my teachers . We are in his classroom. Parentsd to lean on her , which many people have to do to help her get through it. It is really tough. Parents like sarah, places like the center, and the caregivers and educators who work here also give me a great deal of hope. Determination i am pushing for over two years to triple the amount of money for title i schools in districts like this one, where every child, every child in a title i district is able to have the benefits of an education at three and four years of age. That is why i couldnt think of a better place to talk about the third plank of my plan for the economy. This is about the squeeze on working families who are raising their kids and caring for aging loved ones at the same time. Sometimes separately, but many times, together. Its about creating jobs with better pay and Career Pathways for caregivers and showing them that dignity and respect that they deserve. But i know its hard. I know its hard to think of the future when youre just trying to get through the crisis at hand. I know that the case of child care facilities across the nation is dire. People are looking for help desperately and theyve had to close their doors and lay off staff and theyre not getting the protective equipment they need to reopen. And the virus hotspots where they exist, and they exist all over the nation, they cant reopen at all. And were in a child care emergency. And didnt have to be this way. Thats why im calling on the president to get the facilities and the resources and the equipment that are needed and get them to them now. Enough. Each day, the pandemic death toll grows. Each day, in some states, more people test positive than the day before, and each state, too Many American workers are still out of work and losing hope. Its been reported by the president s staff that the president is, quote, not really working this anymore. He doesnt want to be distracted by it. Doesnt want to be distracted by it. His own staff admits that donald trump fails the most important test of being an american president. The duty to care for you, for all of us. You know, its also been reported that hell block any funding for more testing and tracing. In the next covid relief bill which is being discussed right now on the floor of the United States congress. Just as states report record cases and hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise. This man simply doesnt understand. He cant deal with our economic crisis without serving and saving and solving the Public Health crisis. For all his bluster about his expertise on the economy, hes unable to explain how hell actually help working families hit the hardest. You know, hes quit on you. And hes quit on this country. But this election is not just about him. Its about us. Its about you. Its about what well do, what a president s supposed to do. A president s supposed to care, to lead, to take responsibility, to never give up. Thats what president s are supposed to do. Over the last two weeks, ive shared my agenda for economic recovery. I call it build back better. Because we cant just build back to the way things were before. We have to do it better. And the first plank of my build back better plan rejects the defeatist view that automation and globalization mean we cant ensure American Workers lead to a future made in america. Made in america. The second plank helps us outcompete the rest of the world and tackle climate change. Put millions of americans to work in good union jobs, modernizing infrastructure, while building a clean energy future, increasing jobs. Today, im outlining the third plank of my build back better program. Mobilizing a 21st century care and elderly childhood education work force to deal with the care giving crisis, and its a crisis, in this country. If we truly want to reward work in this country, we have to ease the financial burden of care that families are carrying. We have to elevate the compensation of those providing the care. The benefits and dignity of care giving workers, and Early Childhood educators. Even before the pandemic, millions of working families were faced with enormous financial and personal strains, trying to raise their kids and care for their parents or loved ones who were living with disabilities. This is the socalled sandwich generation. It includes everyone from an 18yearold daughter caring for her mom who suddenly gets sick, to a 40yearold dad raising his child and caring for his own aging parents. The joy and love are always there. But its hard. I know its hard. Its really, really hard. Families are squeezed emotionally and financially. They need help, but too often they cant afford it. And the professional caregivers out there, the Home Health Care workers, child care workers, are more often women, women of color and immigrants, are too often underpaid, unseen, and undervalued. The pandemic hits and squeezes and tightens on everybody. Nursing homes have been hit hard. If youre a front line worker, you struggle to find safe child care for your kids. Others of you become unexpected 24 7 caregivers, trying to keep your children safe and learning while you continue to work remotely from home. If you had to put your career on hold indefinitely or seen your hours cut or your job lost, the confusion, the confusion over School Reopening only makes things worse. You know, in the last few months, its only underscored how vital it is for families and Older Americans to have more home care and Community Care. Choices that fit their real needs. Were trapped in a care giving crisis, within an economic crisis. Within a health care crisis. Youre doing everything you can, but this president is not. If im your president , heres what i would do. First, lets start by caring for aging relatives and loved ones with disabilities, helping them live independently. Heres an example. Right now, there are 800,000 people who are eligible for home and Community Care through medicaid, who have already signed up for it, but theyre waiting for a phone call. A phone call back. For some, the wait is five years. Five years. My plan makes a bold investment so states can clear the waiting list, to make sure we ease the financial burden for more families going forward. We have to make a longterm federal investment. Well have a Major Innovation Fund that allows states to test and expand successful ways to improve home and Community Care. And increase prevention and reduce the cost of hospitalization. Think of expanded Vital Services like rides to appointments, meals, day programs for seniors. Making their homes safer for them. It builds on an innovative and creative provision under the Affordable Care act. The very program the president ceaselessly is trying to gut. For example, there was a Pilot Program now in 27 cities and 16 states where a nurse, an occupational therapist, and a handyman come to the home of an aging family member. They might not be able to care a moms alzheimers, but they can make sure she doesnt break her hip. So they walk through the house, this is whats going on now, and they install handrails in the right spots in the house, in the bathroom, where they fix the door thats stuck, so she doesnt trip while she tries to open it. It initially found that about 3,000 in Program Costs yield more than 20,000 in savings to the government. From hospitalization to other reasons. Simple steps to save lives, save money, and provide critical peace of mind. Heres another example. Whether you live in Rural North Carolina or central philadelphia, people of color or economically distressed communities face punishing Health Disparities from a system of systemic discrimination. They dont have health insurance. They dont see a doctor. Sometimes language is a barrier, and they slip through the cracks. Slip through the gaps so their treatable condition, because they cant afford to go to the doctor, becomes a chronic condition. Thats why Community Health workers are real heroes. They go into these communities, they make sure folks are getting the care they need. My plan puts to work 150,000 more of these workers in our communities throughout the country. These are the things we can do now. Secondly, we can also make high quality child care affordable and accessible. My child care plan is straightforward. Straightforward. Every 3yearold and 4yearold child will get access to free, highquality preschool, like students have here. And low and middle income families wont spend more than 7 of their income on child care for children under the age of 5. Most hardpressed working families wont have to spend a dime. Heres how it works. They can either decide to get up to an 8,000 tax credit for child care, for middle class family with a couple of young kids spending 300 a week on child care, that means an annual savings of 8,000 in their pocket. Because its a tax credit. It means everything for working families living paycheck to paycheck. Where the federal government would send funding to states which then work with Child Care Providers to cover the cost for working families with young children, over 7 of their income would not have to be spent. So, say both parents are working and need child care. You go to childcare. Gov, which is created under the Obamabiden Administration to help Fund Child Care that works for you, under my plan it takes you to your state website, local Child Care Centers pop up. You can call or fill in your information. You apply to which one you want to go to. The state then sends you a letter saying youre approved and lays out the amount youre going to pay. The state sends that information to the Child Care Provider and then the state reimburses the Child Care Center on the back end. You just pay what youre supposed to pay. Not a dime for some working families, and no more than 7 for anyone else. You can do that. This would save families thousands of dollars. But more importantly, give them peace of mind. Theres other common sense steps we can take, like expanding tax credits for businesses to build child care facilities onsite. So you can go to work with your child, put them in a Child Care Center that the company got money for, a tax credit for building. Supporting more and more and giving peace of mind to families. When you finish work, take that child home. Supporting more aftercare, weekend and summer care for programs for families. Third, we expand access to care giving. We need to pay and support caregivers beyond what they are now. Theyre doing gods work, but home Health Workers arent paid much. They have few benefits. 40 are still on snap or medicaid. So my plan is direct. It gives caregivers and Early Childhood educators muchneeded raise. No one should have to work more than one job to make ends meet. Under my health care plan, that defends and expands obamacare, there will be more Affordable Health insurance. Ill make sure these workers have an effective way to unionize and collectively bargain and protect their rights and earn benefits. This plan will help workers, especially those without a college degree, help them gain new skills in goodpaying Industries Like health care. It provides new pathways to advance their careers. For example, a Home Health Care worker can have access to training needed to become an e. M. T. Or a nurse or a physicians assistant or even a doctor. An Early Childhood educator can receive coaching to keep getting a highquality learning experience. We can do this. The bottom line is that a mobilized care giving and Early Education work force would save families time and money, get their loved ones the care and Early Childhood education they need and put more people to work. Allowing husbands and wives to go back to work and provide many people the opportunity to get a job thats a decent job, caring. It keeps seniors in their homes. Its a triple win. If they choose that. And recognize the realities facing modern families and provides them the muchneeded economic support in the middle of a pandemic. Just imagine. If we can put three million americans to work in new care and Early Childhood education, and combined with my proposal to provide families with up to 12 weeks of paid family leave and medical leave, we can free up millions more people to join the paid labor force, increasing Economic Growth. Meaning at least two million additional jobs, more Economic Growth for the nation. This is a fresh, bold way to build a critical part of the labor force and help us recover faster and stronger. We usually talk about jobs packages, theres a big push on shovelready jobs. Im the guy you may remember managed the recovery act of 800 billionplus. I always focused on shovelready jobs. What we can do immediately to get the money out in communities. But thats what care jobs are. They are shovelready. The workers are ready now. These jobs can be filled now. Millions of people, primarily women, to get back to work now. Allowing millions of people, primarily women, to get back to work now. Increasing the growth of the g. D. P. And family income. Its the right thing to do for our families and our most essential workers, and its a smart thing to do for our economy. Today, millions of our people cant fully pursue the jobs and careers they dream of due to the care giving squeeze. That means tens of billions of dollars less in wages each year for our working families. It means more disruption for our businesses, fewer jobs, and growth in our economy. Slow. This is both an economic and moral imperative for our nation in my view. The way we pay for it is by rolling back unproductive tax cuts. The tax cuts the president put through, closing loopholes. Unproductive tax cuts for high income Real Estate Investors while ensuring high income earners pay their tax bills. We invest that, that would add up to 775 billion over 10 years. We invest that in building our economy back better than it was before. Growing the economy stronger and tomorrow, ill be joining a virtual town hell townhome ill be joining a virtual town hall with sciu members, home care workers, fast food workers, janitors, to hear directly from them about why this matters so much to them. Because, you see, this is about something bigger. This is about dignity and respect for working people. Thats precisely what this election is all about. Dignity and respect. The American People know theyre not being afforded dignity and respect in many of their jobs. And the american president has a duty to care for all of us. To see people where they are. To understand what theyre going through and what they want to be. As many of you know, i was a single parent for five years after my wife and daughter were killed and my two boys were badly injured. Even though i had a lot more support than a lot of people going through tough times today, it was hard. It was hard. If i didnt have my mom, my sister, and my brother, i dont know how id been able to afford it. Then, six years later when jill and i got married, i saw how difficult it was for her to start her teaching career while being a new mom with two kids in school. We cared actually, they werent in school yet. Now that i think about it. We cared for our parents at the end. My dad was months in hospice in our home. Same with my mom. Our entire family was there for and our son beau when he came home from a year in iraq with a cancer that wasnt whether hed live, it was just how long he would live. We know what its like. Months upon months. We know so many of you are going through the same thing without the kind of help i had. But now everything, everything feels different. Theres just that feeling. That sense. Where you just dont know if everythings going to turn out ok. But im here to tell you that it can be and it will be. You know, my dad was an honorable, decent man. His great regret he never got to go to college. My dad, like many of your parents, got knocked down a few times. But he always got back up. He worked hard to build a great middle class life for our family in mayfield and claremont, but he used to have a saying. He said, joey, i dont expect the government to solve my problems. But i sure expect them to understand my problem. I understand to my very core, and i also know that together, we can do this. This is america. We dont settle. We aspire and we succeed. So lets get the heck up and get it done. Lets get to work. Youve heard me say this many times. I went to my grandpops house in scranton when my dad lost his job, we lived with my grandpop. Every time we would walk into the house, he said, joey, keep the faith. My grandma would yell, no, joey. Spread it. Lets go spread the faith. We can do this. Theres not a single thing we cannot do. Thank you for listening. I look forward to having your questions at another time but im off to another event. Thank you, principal. Thank you for having us here. I appreciate it very, very much. Thank you, senator. [applause] cspans washington journal, every day, we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we will discuss policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, Pennsylvania Republican congressman glenn thompson, a member of the house education and Labor Committee will joined join us to discuss the next Coronavirus Relief bill. Oregons democratic congressman will be on to talk about the federal response to the antiracism protests in portland. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. Join the discussion. Live wednesday on the cspan networks, the house returns at 9 00 a. M. For morning speeches. At 10 00 a. M. , legislative work begins including a bill to remove a confederate bust from the u. S. Capitol and replace it with a bust of the Late Supreme CourtJustice Thurgood marshall. On cspan two, the senate is back at 10 00 to continue work on the 2021 defense programs and policy bill. At 9 00 a. M. On cspan three, the fema administrator testifies peter gaynor testifies to the Homeland Security committee on the response to the pandemic. At 2 00 p. M. , the Foreign Relations committee looks at u. S. Competition with china. From publicdents, affairs, available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president , organized by the rankings by noted historians from best to worst and features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership styles. Cspan. Orgebsite, the president s, to learn more about each president and historians featured an order your copy today, wherever books and ebooks are sold. 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