What does the American Jobs Plan mean to Latter-day Saints in the US?
This week, President Biden unveiled his American Jobs Plan (found here). While we’re not saying that all Latter-day Saints in the US have to support the plan, we find much in it that is “praiseworthy…of good report.” As we have said, Joe Biden values our values, and we see President Biden’s commitment in the way the American Jobs Plan values the laborer, encourages provident living, and promotes responsible stewardship over our shared creation, helping create a better world for our families.
(Have something that should be added to the list below? Email us at LDSForBidenHarris AT gmail DOT com.)
We know that the laborer is worthy of their hire.
The plan protects the right to push together for higher wages — many of us live in so-called “right to work” states where employers set wages at the level they choose to pay rather than the value of the labor workers provided. As many workers have noted over the decades, these laws are better known as “the right to work for less.”
Improving infrastructure increases our ability to return home safely from a day at work or school — the United States has a traffic fatality rate that is twice as high as Canada’s and four times higher than Europe’s.
The plan expands Americans’ ability to find a safe, affordable dwelling — millions of families pay more than half their income on rent, many struggle to purchase their first home, and high energy costs are a significant concern to renters and homeowners.
We know that provident living involves a community-based approach to preventing disaster and allowing the pursuit of education and job-training by all.
President Biden’s plan invests in dam safety, the protection of major land and water resources, water efficiency and recycling programs to address the western drought crisis, and protections against extreme wildfires.
The plan includes a bipartisan tax credit that helps families of modest means and small businesses build storm-and-disaster resilient ways.
It also makes a historic investment in expanding access to broadband internet and lowering costs for families, opening up new opportunities in education, job-training, and family togetherness.
It invests public money in building and modernizing school buildings, community colleges, and child care facilities, improving health and learning.
We know that we have a duty to promote responsible stewardship over creation and to protect the health of all.
A major component of the plan expands clean, safe drinking water to all communities. An estimated six to ten million homes still receive drinking water through lead pipes and service lines that need to be replaced. Other American communities are dealing with aging pipes and treatment plants or other pollution that is endangering children and public health.
The plan speeds the arrival of a future where all families can afford American-made electric vehicles, an investment in better stewardship of our shared Earth.
The American Jobs Plan directs our nation’s government to purchase electric vehicles, charging ports, and electric heat pumps to jump-start clean energy innovation, manufacturing, and production, leading to a more sustainable and stewardship-minded platform for the economy of our shared future.
