As President Joe Biden acknowledged difficulties in selling his economic agenda to a distracted public, the White House enlisted Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday to pitch a plan that includes one idea familiar in Illinois — higher taxes for the wealthy.
On a White House-sponsored call with the media, Pritzker was joined by David Kamin, deputy director of the National Economic Council, and touted the early success of Biden pandemic relief proposals, among them allowing the state to make major investments in child care and early childhood education.
Pritzker also pitched elements of Biden’s plan for American families, which includes provisions to help pay for child care through the use of tax credits and implementing universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. The package would be paid for by reversing some Trump-era tax cuts, raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals while providing tax cuts to working and middle-class residents.
It’s not an unfamiliar argument for Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, who spent more than $58 million of his own money on an unsuccessful effort to replace Illinois’ flat-rate income tax with a graduated tax that would put a bigger levy on higher incomes.
“Well, you know I believe that we should give a break to working-class Americans, to middle-class Americans, and so it’s very important to me to try to shape a tax system that is fairer. That’s what I was trying to do,” Pritzker said Friday.
Governor JB Pritzker joined the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and community leaders to announce significant investments to expand workforce training and support Illinois’ continued economic recovery from the pandemic. The new initiatives include a $40 million workforce recovery grant program aimed to get more jobseekers back to work, while helping sectors impacted most by COVID-19. The funding will expand workforce training, job training and support services as well as covering basic expenses that are barriers to those seeking employment.
“I’m glad that the federal government is going at this. I’m glad that the president is,” he said. “I think it’s important for us to ask, especially after this very, very difficult COVID-inspired recess, that, as people are recovering, who should pay to help us recover more? Is it middle-class, working-class people or is it people who can most afford it?”
The Biden administration said its proposal would provide tax cuts to 50 million working- or middle-class Americans, with no one earning less than $400,000 paying higher taxes. The White House said the nation’s largest corporations and wealthiest individuals pay an income tax rate well below that of the average American.
Pritzker’s efforts to promote Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda came only days before the president is scheduled to visit Chicago to promote his order requiring large companies to require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested. Pritzker has been a loyal Biden supporter and will attend Wednesday’s event.
The first-term governor’s public pitch for Biden’s economic plan also comes amid serious differences over spending and priorities among progressives and moderates among Democrats, who control Congress, as well as opposition from congressional Republicans.
Kamin said outreach to supportive elected officials was “critical to getting this agenda approved but then, also implemented.”
The comments came after Biden, at a White House news conference, expressed confidence that his agenda would win congressional support though it may not come quickly. But he also appeared frustrated at his inability to sell the features of the proposals to the public.
“I’d be out making the case about what my plan contained and it’s been very much curtailed by a whole range of things,” Biden said, citing natural disasters and the resurgence of the coronavirus.
“The problem is, with everything happening, not everybody knows what’s in that plan,” he said. “For example, all those women out there who are not able to go back to work because they have a dependent grandparent or a parent or a dependent child who needs help, or they can’t find day care … There’s a solution in the proposal that I put forward.”
Pritzker said he believed child care and early childhood education are a central focus of his efforts in Illinois.
“Whether you want to support the current workforce, lower crime rates, increase high school graduation, improve the health of our people or close the gender wage gap, I’d be hard-pressed to find a better place to start than quality child care and early childhood education,” Pritzker said.
5 things to know if you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine
Know you’re protected
1. You should feel reassured about the protection that you have. Dr. Michelle Prickett, who has worked in Northwestern’s COVID-19 intensive care unit throughout the pandemic, said the vaccines all work well. She said that for vaccinated people who are hospitalized, it is primarily vulnerable populations with less severe cases. Unvaccinated people are still coming in with very progressive respiratory failure and the COVID-19 pneumonia that was so dangerous last year and continues to be. She has not noticed one vaccine or another sticking out more among hospitalized patients. “The main point I would stress is people that are vaccinated do much better than people that are unvaccinated,” she said.
Dial Hewlett, head of the division of disease control at the Westchester County Department of Health and a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America, noted that all vaccines are preventing severe disease and death; he noted that we are not seeing large numbers of hospitalizations and deaths among vaccinated populations.
In short, all the vaccines are helpful. Before the delta variant began to spread, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 66% effective at preventing COVID-19, while Pfizer and Moderna were 95% and 94%, respectively, although all three were highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death.
“I think we can say without a doubt that all three of the vaccines have been effective against the delta variant, which has been the predominant string that’s been here in the U.S. for the last probably six weeks,” Hewlett said. New studies from the CDC showed unvaccinated people were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die.
Don’t mix and match
2. Mixing and matching vaccines might be OK, but experts counsel patience. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discourages J&J recipients from getting a booster of another vaccine. Earlier guidance from the CDC said in situations where the first dose was received but the patient could not complete the series with the same vaccine, consideration can be given to vaccination with a J&J vaccine, under the supervision of a health care provider.
“I think most of us in the medical community feel that that really shouldn’t be done unless you absolutely have to,” Hewlett said. “You will get the maximum benefit,” he added, “if you use a product that is identical to the first product that your body was exposed to.”
Talk to your doctor
3. If you are immunocompromised, talk to your doctor. For right now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are only suggesting booster shots for immunocompromised people who received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
But Hewlett notes this vulnerable population, such as people undergoing chemotherapy or who have had organ transplants, are often seen by specialist physicians who can counsel them as to whether they would advise seeking out a Moderna or Pfizer booster shot.
Maintain caution
4. There’s a lot we don’t know — about transmission, for example. Hewlett said we don’t have the data yet to understand whether, for example, J&J recipients contract or spread the virus more easily than those who got the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
We also don’t know how long protection lasts, exactly, although the vaccines that were initially given out early in the year still seem to be effective. Still, these questions and more are why Prickett advises maintaining cautions in your life such as masking and social distancing.
More data is coming
5. We should know more soon. In an Aug. 18 statement from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and other officials, they said they expected more data on J&J in coming weeks and pledged to “keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots as well.” J&J data collection is different from the Moderna and Pfizer for multiple reasons; the rollout began later, and the shot uses different technology. Hewlett said he understands that people are frustrated by the lack of immediate data and subsequent guidance, but he notes that this is for good reason. The nation’s agencies have strict research protocol, and we should be reassured, he said, by a stringent — if slow — process to find out more. “I think that all of us should be very reassured with the process that we have,” he said.
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Region: Decatur,City: Decatur,Politics,Region: Central
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September 24, 2021 at 05:03PM
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