In less than six months since his inauguration as US President, Joe Biden’s administration has staked out a new agenda for US policymaking, breaking with the previous four decades of Republican and Democratic domestic economic policy to focus deliberate government action on job creation, addressing racial equality, environmental goals, and rebuilding American manufacturing industry. A dramatic expansion in trade union rights, pushing back on four decades of draconian restrictions on workplace organising has been pledged, and over $6tr of public spending is lined up, to be funded mainly by taxes on the richest Americans and the biggest corporations.
The UK equivalent for the whole programme (using share of 2020 GDP as the baseline) would be £560bn: £170bn for immediate coronavirus relief; £240bn for investment and business support; £150bn for welfare and education.
Surprising many with the scale and scope of its ambitions, the Biden Administration’s domestic economic programme has raised the bar for progressive governments across the world. This briefing breaks down the emerging details of the programme for a UK audience and lays out the main political conclusions.
