A bridge to equality and prosperity

Before there were bridges, there was danger.

During America’s earliest days as a nation, our dreams of westward expansion were crushed by the realities of geography. The Midwestern terrain was vast and uncompromising. And while an ox pulling a wagon could carry a small shipment from New York to Ohio, it certainly couldn’t bear the weight of a fledgling national economy.

Then came the Erie Canal. When its builders first broke ground in 1817, they not only unearthed the nation’s first transportation and shipping network into the frontier; they unearthed a new era of American prosperity.

That ambitious project, derided by some politicians at the time as a needless boondoggle, laid the foundation for our nation’s modern economy. It fueled the advent of new industries, which created jobs, which provided a vital source of stability to American families and communities.

Now, two centuries later, it’s time to lay a new foundation for American prosperity. 

Last month, during his first joint address before Congress, President Biden outlined his vision for America’s future: the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan.

If passed into law, both plans, like the Erie Canal before them, will achieve much more than merely building new roads and waterways. They will unleash an economic force in which working- and middle-class families are at the center of our nation’s growth.

I can think of no better moment for this once-in-a-generation investment in our workers, our families, and our children.

Over the past year, the pandemic has revealed a sobering truth that working Americans know intimately well: our national fabric is fraying under the stress of inequality. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs since last March. Working parents have been thrust into the dual, full-time roles of breadwinner and caregiver. And millions of schoolchildren have been unable to carry on their studies at home due to a lack of broadband connectivity. Meanwhile, the 650 wealthiest Americans increased their net worth by $1 trillion. Our economy is failing to reward middle-class Americans, and is instead lavishing the well-to-do with even more wealth.

This is not a new story, but it’s one the pandemic has laid bare.

At the same time, the past year has revealed another, more heartening truth: our nation is still capable of achieving awesome logistical feats. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve already received your first vaccine against COVID-19. But just one year ago, some experts predicted it would take more than a decade to distribute vaccines across America. Today, nine in ten Americans live within five miles of a vaccination site.

Under the leadership of President Biden, we have marshaled the resources, skills, and technologies of America to save countless lives. Now, we can do it once more to build a more equitable and prosperous nation.

And unlike the COVID-19 vaccine, we don’t need to conduct months of clinical trials and studies to understand how we can eradicate the disease of inequality. While the coronavirus may have first appeared a little over a year ago, the inequalities plaguing America today have been with us since the beginning. In 2021, they are found in the form of transportation deserts, which leave millions of Americans without a reliable, efficient way to get to and from work. Or in the form of the exorbitant costs of child care, which stop working parents from having a safe place to leave their child while they’re at work. These injustices also manifest in the form of lead pipes and service lines, which continue to threaten the safety of our drinking water and health and development of our children — especially Black and brown children in cities like Chicago.

Like the early days of the American frontier, our economic landscape today is grueling and uncompromising. A person’s grit and determination can only get them so far. Many Americans who work a full time job, 40 hours a week, still cannot afford the costs of housing, child care, transportation, and health care. Working families are living on the knife’s edge of America.

We must once again transform this challenging land into traversable terrain. And we can do it by not only building new transportation networks, but by building new bridges to equality and prosperity. The American Jobs Plan will put people to work building sustainable, energy efficient homes, creating good-paying jobs, and easing the skyrocketing costs of housing. The American Families Plan will make universal, high-quality pre-school a reality for every American.

And this is just the beginning. If fully implemented, the American Jobs and Families Plans will lay the foundation our nation needs to win the 21st century, just like the Erie Canal and other early infrastructure projects did in the 19th century. They will set America on course to own the clean-energy economy, so we can export our American-made electric vehicles and batteries to markets across the globe, and lead the world in addressing the greatest existential threat facing us all: climate change.

President Biden has proposed an ambitious undertaking that is rooted in a great American tradition: cultivating our nation’s potential. Centuries ago, that potential was defined by the wealth of resources hidden beneath our land, or growing from our soil. Things have changed.

Today, our nation’s greatest resource is the American people. But they are struggling to keep pace in a rapidly changing world. We can fix that. We can replace our crumbling foundation with a new one. And we can confront longstanding racial and economic inequities in the process.

With the American Jobs and Families Plans, we can build a nation that puts working families first.

Durbin is the senior senator from Illinois and the Senate majority whip.