In the United States, the typical white family has nearly eight times the wealth of the typical Black family. Wealth serves as an enabler of opportunity, such that racial disparities in education, income, housing, retirement and other outcomes can be traced in part to the persistence of the racial wealth gap.

The U.S. economy is again facing the grave threat of a breach of the debt limit. Past debt-limit brinkmanship crises inflicted substantial uncertainty on businesses, drove huge declines in the stock market and consumer confidence and led to higher borrowing costs for taxpayers and consumers. Debt-limit brinksmanship resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and cost the country billions of dollars in lost economic activity, even though a default was ultimately avoided.

Strong labor force participation is a key input to economic growth, but the labor force participation rate in the United States among both men and women has fallen in recent decades. While women’s labor force participation had increased dramatically over the course of the second half of the 20th century as gender norms changed, women pursued more education and wage stagnation necessitated two incomes to support household income, it stalled and even declined after 2000. A critical cause of this decline is the lack of structural support for women’s full economic participation.

The recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) review of the Thrifty Food Plan will result in increased benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), helping 42 million people afford food. This review, mandated under the bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill, will permanently increase the maximum SNAP benefit 21% above pre-pandemic levels. The increased benefit levels will result in an estimated $31.8 billion annually in additional economic activity, helping small businesses and local farms.

Emergency food programs enacted during the coronavirus pandemic were vital to working families who lost jobs through no fault of their own, and SNAP is projected to keep almost 8 million people out of poverty in 2021. Permanently increasing benefits under SNAP will benefit the whole economy as it helps individuals, working families, seniors and disabled people, and provides long-term benefits for low-income children.