First, we are finally going to address the disgrace of the United States having the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. We are going to provide the long awaited for help that working parents all over this country desperately need, and when we do that we will substantially reduce childhood poverty in this country. We're going to do that by extending the Child Tax Credit so that families continue to receive monthly direct payments of up to $300 per child. We began that process in the American Rescue Plan. It has been enormously successful and has already helped reduce childhood poverty in our country by 61%.
Further, we will address the crisis in childcare by making sure that no working family pays more than seven percent of their income on this basic need. Making child care more accessible and affordable will also strengthen our economy by allowing more than a million women to join the work force.
And we will expand public education by providing universal pre-kindergarten to every three-and-four-year-old.
We will end the international disgrace of the United States being the only major country on earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave as a right.
We will begin to address the crisis in higher education by making community colleges in America tuition-free.
We will take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and save taxpayers hundreds of billions by requiring that Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry.
And we will use those savings to expand Medicare by covering the dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses that seniors desperately need. We will also substantially increase the number of doctors, nurses, and dentists who practice in underserved areas and expand the community health center program into new areas.
We will combat homelessness in America and address the reality that nearly 18 million households are paying over 50 percent of their income for housing by an unprecedented investment in affordable housing.
We will ensure that people in an aging society can receive the health care they need in their own homes instead of expensive and inadequate nursing homes and that the workers who provide that care aren't forced to live on starvation wages.
We will bring undocumented people out of the shadows and provide them with a pathway to citizenship, including those who courageously kept our economy running in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
We will take on the existential threat of climate change by transforming our energy systems toward renewable energy and energy efficiency. Among many other provisions, a Civilian Climate Corps will give hundreds of thousands of young people good paying jobs and educational benefits as they get to work in saving our planet.
We will make it easier, not harder, for workers to join unions in America.
My Republican colleagues are upset that we are using the reconciliation process, and only 50 votes, to pass this budget. But let's be clear: This is not a new idea. When Republicans controlled the Senate they used reconciliation to pass trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 1% and large corporations.
When Republicans controlled the Senate they used reconciliation to make climate change worse by opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
When Republicans controlled the Senate they tried to use reconciliation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and throw 32 million Americans off of the health care they had.
Today, we will also use reconciliation, but we will use it much differently than the Republicans.
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