Published: 2/15/2021 6:00:20 AM
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. This is a lesson I tried to instill in my daughters from a young age. Anyone can fail at a job and give up. But to actually accomplish something? That doesn’t come easy.
Here in New Hampshire and from coast to coast, Americans have been doing all they can to end the pandemic by sheltering in place, working from home, wearing masks, and trying to remain connected from at least six feet apart. It’s not easy, but it’s what is needed in these extraordinary times.
I and many of my friends and neighbors have spent the past year volunteering to help vulnerable people in our communities. For months, we produced masks with clear windows for deaf people, interpreters, and medical providers. (Thanks to Elliott Hospital for supplying the materials.) We make regular food deliveries to both a local homeless encampment and to others in need. These were obvious needs we could address.
It is our job to do what is best for our friends, family, neighbors, community, and our state right now. The spread of COVID must be stopped. Everyone must pull their weight and act responsibly as best they can.
Congress can do its part, too.
Throughout 2020, Congress passed several bills that seemed to be a concerted effort to beat the virus and ensure individuals, families, and businesses could make ends meet. Unfortunately, time has shown these bills to be half measures. COVID has outlasted the emergency provisions, program funding, and timelines set to address both the public health and economic crises created by this virus. We now know we must do more than simply hope for the best, believing – as some did – that COVID will magically go away. It hasn’t. It won’t.
The 2020 bills did not succeed, so Congress must try, try again. Right now, they are evaluating a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that provides the systematic solutions we need, rather than the temporary band-aids of the recent past. While the cost is shocking to some, I’m more shocked it has taken this long. A year of avoiding the real problem has brought us to this point. With two known variants now burning through the country, there is no time to waste if we really want to get back to normal.
COVID has had devastating economic consequences for lower- and middle-income earners. Congress can provide targeted economic assistance to individuals and families who need it by investing in an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. This would help younger, single adults working low-wage jobs and the parents of 26 million kids who don’t receive the full Child Tax Credit because they earn too little money. These low-wage workers are doing their part keeping grocery stores open, working directly with people with disabilities or in nursing homes, and by doing other essential jobs for which they receive little compensation while risking their lives.
These credits are some of the most effective anti-poverty programs we have, and they enjoy bipartisan support. Strengthening them is a necessary investment in those currently struggling to keep the country going. Congress and the administration must act on a bill large enough to systematically address this crisis made so much worse by COVID.
Thankfully, Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen look supportive of the expansive COVID bill. That’s good – they can do the right thing, and accomplish meaningful legislative action, even when it seems like a hard or partisan vote. COVID is trying every day to infect and kill more Americans. It is much less interested in the vote count than we are. We must get this done.
(Julia Freeman-Woolpert of Concord is retired from the Disability Rights Center, where she worked as the Outreach Advocacy Director. She continues to mentor and advocate for people with disabilities as well advocating for peace as a member of the Friends Committee on National Legislation Concord Advocacy Team.)
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