By Louis Chan, AsAmNews National Correspondent
President Joe Biden released a framework for his plan to rebuild the economy while uplifting Asian American, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
The fact sheet is largely a repeat of campaign promises the Democrat made leading up to the 2020 election with specific references added about how it will impact the AANHPI community.
“The President has talked about tackling poverty as a theory that undergirds his approach to governing,” Howard Ou, Associate Director for the White House Office of Public Engagement, said to AsAmNews. “So the ethos of the president is that we are all created equal and deserving of dignity, opportunity and the ability to provide for ourselves and family.”
The White House indicated that 42% of three and four-year-old Asian Americans are not enrolled in preschool or kindergarten programs. The President’s aim is to lower child care costs and to establish universal preschool.
He also announced his goal of establishing two years of free community college. Ou says that 40 percent of AANHPIs have attended community college.
No specific details of how the President hopes to achieve these goals were made available.
One goal he’s already achieved is to lower taxes.
9 percent of Asian American families and 16 percent of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander families currently live below the poverty line.
This past week, the second installment of the President’s increased Child Tax Credit showed up in many bank accounts. Biden eventually hopes to expand the tax credit beyond next year.
Republicans are not impressed.
“As Democrats unveil their reckless tax and spend spree today, Americans are reminded just how out-of-touch Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi are from the struggles everyday Americans are facing,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement sent to AsAmNews. “From skyrocketing prices, to an out-of-control border crisis, to rising crime across the country, voters will hold Democrats accountable for abandoning working families in order to desperately push their radical left-wing agenda.”
The release of the fact sheet comes just more than a week after the President met at the White House with leaders from the Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian communities.
It also comes after the President passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill in the Senate. That bill is now in the House where the President is being challenged by progressive Democrats to do more.
It also comes just as the Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan and the President is coming under intense criticism about how he handled the pullout of U.S. troops.
Ou stressed that the framework just released has been in the works for weeks and that outreach to various communities is ongoing.
The framework also includes his goals of lowering health care costs, creating jobs and more affordable housing.
“It’s something that he ran on in his campaign and that he introduced in his first days in office, and obviously now we’re entering the part two stage and these are kind of all the details that we’re ensuring, you know, Congress will include (in upcoming legislation),” Ou concluded.
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