On the eve of his 100th day in office, President Joe Biden gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress and proposed trillions of dollars in new economic measures. He unveiled his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which includes $1 trillion in new spending and $800 billion in tax credits aimed at expanding access to education and child care.

He also called on lawmakers to support his plan to invest heavily in the country’s infrastructure and to expand the social safety net in part by funding it with $4 trillion in taxes on the rich and corporations. Economist Jayati Ghosh says Biden’s spending plans are “unexpected” but much needed.

“It’s very important to turn the direction of the nature of public intervention away from protecting the interests of the rich and of large capital to protecting the interests of people,” Ghosh says. “This has not been the aim of government policy across the world, and especially in the U.S., for the last three decades.” We also speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, who said Biden’s speech “was an explicit rejection of the neoliberal framework.”

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