Financing the future: The perennial struggle to balance national ambition and social equity

“ Today, the alternatives available for exploration systems are severely limited because of the lack of a strategic investment in technology development in past decades. NASA now has an opportunity to develop a technology roadmap that is aligned with an exploration mission that will last for decades. If appropriately funded, a technology development program would re-engage the minds at American universities, in industry and within NASA. The investments should be designed to increase the capabilities and reduce the costs of future exploration. ”

“ We need to focus on salient problems that are holding back economic and social development and making it difficult to improve people's standards of living, and we should integrate efforts to undertake major projects set out in the 13th Five-Year Plan with efforts to strengthen areas of weakness. We should act faster to raise the capacity of public services, infrastructure, innovation-driven development, and resources and the environment to sustain development. ”

“ At any rate, people will demand that useless expenditures shall cease and that an ample return for the increased taxation shall be shown in a margin of profit for social betterment. A balance between social enterprise and individual effort must be secured. ”

“ Unless we subordinate class interests and class feeling to a broader conception of social progress, unless we take pains to come in contact with the surging and diverse peoples who make up the nation, we cannot hope to attain a sane social development. We need rigid enforcement of the existing laws, while at the same time, we frankly admit the inadequacy of these laws, and work without stint for progressive regulations better fitted to the newer issues among which our lot is cast ”

“ Yet what can be more conducive to Progress? A financial system which promotes the one, conduces, by the very same excellences, to the other. Economy, for example, equally preserves the existing stock of national wealth, and favors the creation of more. A just distribution of burdens, by holding up to every citizen an example of morality and good conscience applied to difficult adjustments, and an evidence of the value which the highest authorities attach to them, tends in an eminent degree to educate the moral sentiments of the community, both in respect of strength and of discrimination. ”

“ To whom much is given, much will be expected by the New Society. We shall propose to national business and industry the creation of a social ameliora­tion fund that will encompass housing, education, medical and pension plans for their workers.
This acceptance by the rich of their social responsibility must include their willingness to democratize the crucial sectors of the economy. We shall urge corporations engaged in the public utilities and the exploitation of natural resources to broaden their ownership. ”

“ We categorically reject inflation as a way of financing government development projects: the sources of funds must come from savings in the form of taxes.
We should, however, spare the low-income group from any additional tax burdens. The burden of taxation must fall on those who can afford it. The price of progress must be paid primarily by the wealthy, rather than by the poor. Moreover, our efforts to increase tax revenues at home will increase our inter­national credit standing. ”

“ If the cost arising from the purchase by a power grid enterprise of electricity generated by using regenerable energy resources at an on-grid price fixed under Article 19 hereof is higher than the cost as calculated according to the average on-grid electricity price for electricity generated by using conventional energy resources, the difference shall be covered by collecting additional charges to the price of electricity generated by using renewable energy resources in the sale of electricity around the whole nation. ”

“ The great question which continually presents itself, whatever department of social work we turn to, is, Shall we attempt to hasten improvement by legislation, or shall we trust to the resources of freely acting individuals to modify things in their own interest and to their own advantage? ”

“ SUMMARY REPORT of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee
The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources. Space operations are among the most complex and unforgiving pursuits ever undertaken by humans. It really is rocket science. Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations. ”

“ The cost of exploration is dominated by the costs of launch to low-Earth orbit and of the in-space systems. It seems improbable that significant reductions in launch costs will be realized in the short term until launch rates increase substantially—perhaps through expanded commercial activity in space. ”

“ Americans pay too much for the internet – much more than people in many other countries – and the President is committed to working with Congress to find a solution to reduce internet prices for all Americans, increase adoption in both rural and urban areas, hold providers accountable, and save taxpayer money. Reenergize America’s power infrastructure:
As the recent Texas power outages demonstrated, our aging electric grid needs urgent modernization. A Department of Energy study found that power outages cost the U.S. economy up to $70 billion annually. ”

“ When the congestion of which they complain is relieved, the whole country will share the good results. . . . It is not possible to frame so large a plan. . . for the control of our rivers without taking account of the orderly development of other natural resources. . . . The cost will necessarily be large,. . . but it will be small in comparison with the $17,000,000,000 of capital now invested in steam railways,. . . [which] investment has been a constant source of profit to the people, and without it our industrial progress would have been impossible. ”

“ Social progress is necessary to trade, and we give to mankind the powerful security of self-interest that we will raise the condition of the people, and, by means of improved communications, open the door to civilization. ”

“ We should fast-track funding for the thousands of ready-to-go projects across the country that can quickly put people back to work and lay the foundation for long-term growth.
In the longer term, we are calling for the creation of a new National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will help us make the investments we need to build a 21st century transportation system – while creating jobs and taking the politics out of infrastructure spending. And it has the added benefit of making American business more competitive in the world. ”

“ To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes. ”

“ Modernize America's Aging Infrastructure Build-in Security: Ensure that security is considered and built into the design of new infrastructure, so that our critical assets are protected from the start and more resilient to naturally-occurring and deliberate threats throughout their life-cycle. Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank: Address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank of $60 billion over 10 years, to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. ”

“ For expenses necessary for the operation, maintenance, and care of existing river and harbor, flood and storm damage reduction, aquatic ecosystem restoration, and related projects authorized by law; providing security for infrastructure owned or operated by the Corps , including administrative buildings and laboratories; maintaining harbor channels provided by a State, municipality, or other public agency that serve essential navigation needs of general commerce, where authorized by law ”

“ On savings, I have already instructed the Budget Commission to effect a reduction in the current year’s program of expenditures as well as to reduce by P200 million what had been originally programmed for FY 1969-1970. But we can go only so far in this area because we started in the first place with an attitude of spending only for the bare essentials. Our people rightly look up to us to provide them the services which they need. These consist of social overhead facilities or infrastructure as well as current services, such as those of education, health, and peace and order. ”

“ No appropriation, funds, or authority made available by this title for the Department of Energy shall be used to initiate or resume any program, project, or activity or to prepare or initiate Requests For Proposals or similar arrangements (including Requests for Quotations, Requests for Information, and Funding Opportunity Announcements) for a program, project, or activity if the program, project, or activity has not been funded by Congress . ”

“ Appropriate trade-offs among cost, schedule, and performance objectives have been made to ensure that the program is affordable when considering the per unit cost and the total acquisition cost in the context of the total resources available during the period covered by the most recent stockpile stewardship and management plan and the future-years nuclear security plan submitted during the fiscal year in which the certification is made. ”

“ The redirection of credit to priority areas in agriculture, agrarian reform, exports and small scale industries, created for monetary policy a progressive new role in social and economic reform.
Today, a significant part of growth is steadily being channeled towards further economic activities. Domestic and foreign investors continue to have a strong confidence in the growth prospects of the national economy.
Now let me go to social equity.
In the fulfillment of our development vision, we make it a precondition that the security and well-being of our people must come first. ”

“ Home Energy: In Massachusetts, an average low-income family spends 6–8% of their income on home energy costs forcing tough choices between paying energy bills and buying food, medicine or other essentials. The American Jobs Plan will upgrade low-income homes to make them more energy efficient through a historic investment in the Weatherization Assistance Program, a new Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to finance building improvements, and expanded tax credits to support home energy upgrades. ”

“ The middle class will be asked to make a contribution but a very modest one. A family of four with an average income of $50,000 will be asked to pay about $50 a year in an energy tax, that's less than $1 a week, to help ensure the future of our children and our grandchildren. ”

“ The average family will pay only one tax, less than a dime a day in an energy tax devoted entirely to deficit reduction. That's about $33 a year for a family of four with an income of $40,000 or $50,000 a year. I think that's a modest and fair price to pay for the change we seek and the progress we're making. We pledged to have the lightest possible burden on the middle class; and I thinkthat, we have done.
Because we need the private sector to grow, the plan provides investments in job-creating capacities of American business and in the education and skills of our people. ”

“ Policy. To secure an equitable economic future, the United States must ensure that environmental and economic justice are key considerations in how we govern. That means investing and building a clean energy economy that creates well-paying union jobs, turning disadvantaged communities—historically marginalized and overburdened into healthy, thriving communities, and undertaking robust actions to mitigate climate change while preparing for the impacts of climate change across rural, urban, and Tribal areas. ”

“ We need to ensure that investments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, workforce development, and our care economy are made — are made at the scale we need and are made in every single community in America.
And as the President has — has led us to — is leading us to build back better, that means we need to do so more inclusively and ensure that these investments that we are making — in broadband, in housing, in the care economy, in water — are in every community in America: rural, tribal, urban, communities of color, and reaching everyone across America. ”

“ Increasing energy supplies is not enough. We must take additional steps to cut long-term consumption. I therefore propose to the Congress: legislation to make thermal efficiency standards mandatory for all new buildings in the United States; a new tax credit of up to $150 for those homeowners who install insulation equipment; the establishment of an energy conservation program to help low-income families purchase insulation supplies; legislation to modify and defer automotive pollution standards for 5 years, which will enable us to improve automobile gas mileage by 40 percent by 1980. ”

“ The more difficulties we face, the greater attention we should pay to ensuring people's well-being and promoting social harmony and stability. We will continue to ensure that maintaining and improving people's lives is always the starting and end point of our economic work. We will implement an even more proactive employment policy and closely integrate efforts to stimulate growth with efforts to expand employment and improve people's lives in order to ensure that all of the people share in the fruits of reform and development. ”

“ In support of economic efficiency and greater productivity, we shall seek from the Batasan legislation to over­haul economic incentive including fiscal privileges in order to reduce fiscal losses to the government and induce better performance.
In our productivity program social equity is our essential objective. We can only develop as a nation to the extent that we invest in our youth and in the well­being of our millions. No development can arise save from the talents, the energies, and the labors of our human resources. ”

“ And without going to the very bottom of the social scale, economic progress is necessary for a good education, for a tolerable existence for women, and for that breadth and freedom of outlook upon which any solid and national advance must be based. It is not the most oppressed or the most ill-used who make an effective plea for social justice, for some reorganization of society which shall give less to the idler and more to the common man. ”

“ It seems to me, apart altogether from the question of the labourer's interest, that these are not conditions which furnish a solid basis for a progressive social state; but having regard to that interest, I think the considerations adduced show that the first and indispensable step towards any serious amendment of the labourer's lot is that he should be, in one way or other, lifted out of the groove in which he at present works, and placed in a position compatible with his becoming a sharer in equal proportion with others in the general advantages arising from industrial progress. ”