President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden traveled to Virginia on Monday to tout the American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion proposal that the White House says would invest in the future of children, families and higher education.
The Bidens were greeted by Virginia lawmakers Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Bobby Scott, both Democrats, before heading to meet Harlan “Skip” Krepcik, who teaches about HVAC systems at Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth.
The visit held special significance for the couple, but in particular for Dr. Biden, a longtime community college professor, who is continuing to teach at Northern Virginia Community College during her time as first lady.
Dr. Biden on Monday said all community college students share a similar desire, which is “the chance to work hard and build a good life for themselves and their families.”
“And that’s exactly what community colleges like Tidewater give them,” she continued, later adding: “[Community colleges] offer classes that are flexible so students don’t have to choose between work and school. They train for real-world jobs, like I just saw in the lab.”
The first lady went on to say that the government “must provide support and resources so that our students can make it across the finish line,” joking that she tells her husband the same “every single day.”
Biden himself has long been an advocate for free community college, something former President Barack Obama proposed in 2015 — but his plan went nowhere in Congress.
Biden is reviving a similar proposal as president in his American Families Plan, which allocates $109 billion for two years of free community college, as well as billions in investments toward Pell Grants for low-income students, college retention and completion rates.
The plan also provides $62 billion for “to invest in evidence-based strategies to strengthen completion and retention rates at community colleges and institutions that serve students from our most disadvantaged communities,” per the White House.
Biden on Monday called the proposal a “once-in-a-generation investment in our families and our children that addresses what people care about and what people most need: The investment we need to win the competition with other nations in the future.”
“We’re in a race, and it all starts with access to a good education, as you all know,” he added.
The American Families Plan also includes $200 billion to provide free preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds, an investment Biden said is needed for various reasons — not the least of which being “twelve years [of public education] is no longer enough to compete in the world in the 21st Century.”
“That’s why my American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America, starting as early as we can,” the president said, later adding: “I’ve often said that children are the kite strings that keep the national ambitions aloft … So we’ve got to invest in them, invest in our children to invest in the future.”
The president wants to pay for his massive spending package in a number of ways, the first by increasing IRS enforcement funding to audit wealthier taxpayers and mandate that financial institutions report earnings from investments and business activity in ways similar to wages.
Biden is also proposing an increase to the top tax rate on the wealthiest Americans from 37% to 39.6%. Additionally, taxpayers earning $1 million or more a year, the top 0.3%, would no longer pay a 20% rate on income from capital gains such as the sale of a stock or other asset. They would pay 39.6% instead.
“To the folks at home, I’d like to ask a question: Do we want to give the wealthiest people in America another tax cut, or do we want to give every high school graduate the ability to earn a community college degree?” Biden asked on Monday.
Still, the president will be hard-pressed to sell fiscally conservative Republicans on his proposal, or on the methods to pay for it.
When combined with Biden’s separate infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan, the White House is proposing a total $4 trillion in spending for wide-ranging issues that span from traditional infrastructure fortification to expanding broadband access.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
