Thoughts on Addressing Economic Disparity

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member. I am so delighted to have been appointed to the Select Committee.

The Speaker, of course, said that we should make proposals that make our economy grow for everyone, empowering American economic growth while ensuring that no one is left behind in the 21st century economy.

It is no secret that our country is marred by unequal access to good paying jobs, healthcare, housing, high quality education, childcare, and many other things. I can't dwell on all those things in this short period of time. These disparities impact the ability of many communities to escape poverty, and especially people of color.

I do want to dwell on a couple of things, proposals that I think are extremely important to close the economic gap, the wealth gap, and the housing gap.

First of all, I think that all of our workers deserve paid family leave, a universal comprehensive paid family and medical leave program. Only about a third of Americans in the highest quintile in the country receive any kind of paid family leave, while 92 percent of workers in the lower quintile have no paid family leave.

I think that we should enhance the child tax credit and the earned income tax credits. These are things that, while there is a very high cost of poverty, there is a big, huge outcome and harvest from investing in our children. People around the globe have noted that it really creates better workers, better educational outcomes, and better healthcare outcomes.

We also need to address the uncompensated care that so many family caregivers, especially women, are providing, about a half-trillion dollars a year in uncompensated care, and we need to address that. So I think if we boost the CTC, the earned income tax credit, provide paid family leave, we will begin to see the beginnings around the edges of reducing some of the disparities.

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