10 MILLION POINTS OF LIGHT
The Harris Campaign and its representation in the lives and commitment and vision of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz energized literally millions of leaders at the grassroots level to volunteer politically and cast their ballots enthusiastically -- with the hope of enacting a new agenda and social contract with America based upon ensuring the all children grow up in an inclusive and caring society, able to realize their potentials according to their abilities and dreams. This is the first election since 1964 where such a vision has truly been articulated and transformational public investments proposed to enact it.
Elections can be the culmination of broad-based movement toward higher values of social justice and inclusion -- but they ultimately require grassroots leadership to ensure they are enacted and implemented. The election showed that this movement has grown and is growing -- but is not yet broad or deep or well-recognized enough to prevail at this anxious time in America's history. As Kamala's post-election speech emphasized, however, we must persist and continue to build toward that vision. Geprge H. Bush campaigned on advancing "a knder and gentler America" and supporting "a thousand points of llght" in doing so. We had millions of such points of light, but we need to continue enlist even more. 10 million is certainly within our reach and would ensure we prevail.
This website will continue and will carry on the vision for a nurturing and inclusive society where every child is valued and supported and those we elect are committed and accountable to doing so. We thank Kamala Harris for her wisdom, leadership, and compassion in setting the stage.
About the Harris Care Agenda for Children
73 MILLION REASONS TO VOTE
There are 73 million children in the United States. Government has no greater responsibility than ensuring they have a full opportunity to realize their dreams. Kamala Harris’ care agenda – expanding the child tax credit, providing paid leave, making high quality child care and preschool affordable, and providing home-and-community-based services for children and family members with special health care needs – represents the critical federal investments to do so.
The care agenda is a core part of Harris’ opportunity agenda for America -- needed to ensure that the next generation has every opportunity to grow up healthy, safe, nurtured, and educated. This website describes and what we can do to engage, educate, and energize others around it
Harris for KidS: key points about the care agenda
THE CARE AGENDA FOR CHILDREN IN BRIEF
THE CARE AGENDA FOR CHILDREN IN BRIEF
THE CARE AGENDA FOR CHILDREN IN BRIEF
The Harris care agenda is designed to complete actions Vice President Harris helped lead and were initiated in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 but now need to be made permanent. The agenda includes five key elements to support children, their families, and those that provide care – and it pays for them making taxes fairer and the wealthiest individuals and most profitable corporations paying their fair share.
CHILD TAX CREDIT – Expands the child tax credit to $3000 per child and $6000 for a newborn for all families, meaning $170 per month more in the bank for a family with two children up to $420 per month if one of the children is a newborn. The child tax credit cuts child poverty in half, but it benefits all families with children through recognizing that households with children have more expenses than those without and the tax code must recognize those additional costs.
PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE – The United States is the only advanced nation in the world without paid family and medical leave, and the Harris plan provides public funding so parents don’t have to choose between their job and career and being at home for their newborn or a family illness.
CHILD CARE AND PRESCHOOL – The reality of the American economy is that both (or the only) parents must be in the workforce to provide economically for their family – but the costs of quality child care are outside the reach of too many families. The Harris plan provides supports to make child care affordable and available to all and to expand preschool to ensure children start school prepared for success.
HOME AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES – Upwards of 12 million families now are in the “sandwich” generation, caring both for their children and a parent or relative. Home-and-community based services are key to providing eldercare and supporting family members, including children, with disabilities. Expanding home-and-community based services relieves families of that extra social and economic stress, but waiting lists for such care are long. The Harris plan makes such care available to over 750,000 people now on waiting lists.
VALUING THOSE IN DIRECT CARE AND CHILD CARE – Currently, those providing home and community-based services and other direct care in congregate care and child care are among the lowest paid workers in society. The Harris plan provides the needed public funding to support these essential workers and ensure they are paid according to their value. In addition to ensuring the growing demand for such workers, this also increases the number of good-paying jobs and contributes to local economies.
FINANCING THE INVESTMENTS. Increasing the child tax credit is needed to make the tax system fairer in recognizing the cost of raising children, but the federal tax code, particularly with the corporate and individual tax breaks in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, has provided huge breaks for America’s wealthiest individuals and most profitable corporations. To finance the care agenda, the Harris plan pares back on the excesses in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and ensures that billionaires pay their fair share. These actions are key to making the tax system fairer and restoring more trust in government.
AN AGENDA THAT BRINGS US TOGETHER
THE CARE AGENDA FOR CHILDREN IN BRIEF
THE CARE AGENDA FOR CHILDREN IN BRIEF
Children can’t vote, but we all care about their future. In these polarized political times, we also want government to bring us together rather than divide us. The care agenda for children is something that can begin dialogues and actions to do so.
Polls show voters want government to do more to support parents and their children. Families today face new challenges and stresses which require additional supports to meet both their breadwinning and caregiving roles. Parents and grandparents see their role as parents as most important to their identity – much more than their job, gender, or political affiliation – and the Harris care plan speaks to parental and grandparental concerns.
At the same time, it is not just parents and grandparents who care. Each of the components of the care agenda has strong bipartisan voter support, including its financing. That’s because it values parents and recognizes their right and responsibility to raise their children according to their faith and values, but it also recognizes they cannot do it without supportive communities and public services.
A PRO-CHILD, PRO-PARENT, AND PRO-ECONOMY AGENDA
A PRO-CHILD, PRO-PARENT, AND PRO-ECONOMY AGENDA
A PRO-CHILD, PRO-PARENT, AND PRO-ECONOMY AGENDA
The Harris care agenda is pro-child, pro-parent, and pro-economy. It supports all families – a working class, husband and wife Christian family worrying that about the viability of their way of life in changing America … a gay couple adopting a special needs child and concerned the educational and health systems will be responsive to her unique needs … sandwich generation parents under additional stress caring for both a parent and their children. The care agenda helps ALL children and their parents – recognizing the costs and demands of raising children today.
Further, it ensures the care and education workforce behind the workforce is present so parents can be productive and advance in their occupations and breadwinning roles, while providing more good-paying jobs in care and education that contribute to local economies and build the middle class.
AN AGENDA WE CAN MAKE A REALITY
A PRO-CHILD, PRO-PARENT, AND PRO-ECONOMY AGENDA
A PRO-CHILD, PRO-PARENT, AND PRO-ECONOMY AGENDA
The Harris care agenda will become a reality if Kamala Harris is elected President and advocates and voters show this is a big reason for her election. That requires that voters know about and understand the plan.
The biggest thing advocates can do is spread the word, using our role as educators and influencers. We can provide positive messages to those who may not know about the agenda or think as we do about politics and government. Every one of us is an influencer, and we can use that influence to persuade.
STRESSED SIBLING NEW PARENT. Let her know about the Harris Agenda and how it can make her life easier.
GRUMPY UNCLE. Let him know that there is something positive that government can do and the Harris plan gets at real issues of common concern.
CARE WORKER. Let her know that you value what she does and Harris has her back with a plan that will pay her and support her better.
SKEPTICAL COLLEAGUE. Point out the Opportunity Agenda is real and can happen if we elect Harris and a working majority in Congress.
OWN PARENTS. Let them know that the Harris agenda is multi-generational and supports them and their grandchildren.
SOCIAL MEDIA FRIENDS. Let your networks know Harris has an agenda for children and families and where to get more information about it (starting here -- www.harrisforkids.com).
RESOURCES FOR HARRIS FOR KIDS INFLUENCERS
Obviously, one way to help out can be to volunteer at party headquarters or contribute hrough ActBlue to the Harris campaign and/or other key Congressional campaigns.
There also are important things onlyn you can do just as yourself -- just letting people know that there are good reasons (children and families and those who care for and about them) to vote. These include:
1. Talking up the agenda with family and friends.
2. Tweeting or instagramming or facebook posting to your contacts.
3. Writing an LTE or guest opinion about it to your local paper.
4. Making your own yard sign about it.
5. Passing out information at relevant meetings or events.
6. Contributing (money matters) to make it happen.
You don’t have to start from scratch on any of these. Click below to go to a webpage with tips, examples, and suggestions on doing each. Feel free to bend, fold, staple, and otherwise borrow and adapt from any of these. No copyrights apply and no acknowledgement is necessary.
OTHER INFORMATION AND DISCLAIMER
THE PURPOSE OF THE WEBSITE
The Harris care plan and agenda for children can be a game-changer in politics. It is both needed policy and can be good politics, if voters know about it and believe it is real. In 2021, with Vice-President Harris' tie-breaking vote, most of the provisions were initiated in the American Rescue Plan Act. and it only came a couple votes short in Congress of being made permanent. The 2024 election will determine whether there is a President and a working majority in Congress (a handful of votes) to make it happen.
Key to doing so is getting the word out about it and engaging, educating, and energizing voters around it. This website provides points for doing so -- and referring people to the website is one way to begin that engagement and education.
Many people are working hard to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz --and this website provides further information to share with the many voters who concerned about children and their future and want reasons to support candidates who truly do so, as well.
SHARING THE INFORMATION: SPREADING THE MESSAGE
We all can do something. Maybe, as Barack Obama suggested in his convention speech, it is having a new discussion with that uncle or sibling whose relationship has been strained by the polarization in the political world. Sharing the care agenda won't do everything, but it might be a good opportunity to find a little common ground.
Clearly, for those of us who are involved politically, the care agenda for children is one more messaging opportunity. The "INFLUENCER RESOURCE PAGE" of this website contains some tools (tweets, graphics, elevator speeches, talking points, etc.) that can be adapted and shared. Messaging around the care agenda is both good policy and good politics, but only if it can get above the other electoral noise and only if people see it as more than campaign rhetoric. Go for it!
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CARE AGENDA
There are many additional resources about the care agenda -- including those directed to the care comunity and directed to parents. The nonpartisan VoteKids2024 website contains further information on the care agenda, with a specific focus upon children. It provides a lot more information and evidence, not reference this to a making a particular candidate choice.
It also provides information about other organizations working to elevate the care agenda in the 2024 election. Select pieces also are on the Resources for Influencers page. Visit: www.2020visionforchildren.com for this website.
WEBSITE GENESIS AND DISCLAIMER
This website is not affiliated with or authorized by any organization, PAC, or political campaign. It is the sole effort of Charlie Bruner, with fifty years of work on child policy as a former state legislator, professor and researcher, and founding director of a child policy advocacy organization. Charlie now considers himself a FCPA (freelance child policy agitator).
Charlie developed this website because he truly believes the 2024 can be a game-changing election for America's children if we elect federal leadership that will make these critical investments in children, families, and their communities. And, he believes that voters will respond if they know about the agenda, and in particular, hear from it from people they know care about chidlren.
Charlie is a proud grandparent and produced this yard sign to adorn his and his spouse's home.