Opponents of President Biden’s jobs plan say that it will cost too much, raise taxes unfairly and is more than “infrastructure.” They do not say that the proposals are unneeded or impossible to get done.

We still depend on Roosevelt’s New Deal, which prepared us to win World War II and gave us the Grand Coulee dam with the Columbia Basin wealth, Roosevelt’s Marshall Plan and G.I. Bill, Eisenhower’s freeways, and Johnson’s Medicare and Voting Rights Act. For the half-century since these things were done we have been putting off needed repairs and updates as if these things were just to be taken for granted and will last forever.

We owe our children the same advantages of investment as we benefited from those who went before. Not only can we do this, these investments will give a lift to the poor, the homeless and others of us who have been left behind. These investments will pay for themselves many times over in cash returns.

The time has come for us to stand up to congressional obstruction and do what needs doing for now and for the future of America.

Allan deLaubenfels

Spokane Valley