Baby bonds is bipartisan

As officials in Washington gear up for partisan warfare over recent budget proposal, a remarkable  has persisted. Both sides are pledging to protect two of the nation’s most critical anti-poverty programs, Social Security and Medicare, acknowledging that these programs, , have been essential to protecting the well-being of millions of Americans. 

That’s good news, and it mirrors the way Congress has found bipartisan agreement in another area: infrastructure spending. Now, as the budget negotiations begin in earnest, Congress should come together over an opportunity to include plans for reducing long-term poverty with an infrastructure-type approach.

The idea is this: Lawmakers of both parties already support spending on investments in our physical infrastructure, like roads and bridges, because this spending yields big benefits for everyone down the line. So, therefore, Congress can also support investments in our social infrastructure — the Americans who will make up our nation’s future taxpayers and workers. That’s the core of the “Baby Bonds” proposal included recently reintroduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). They’re a critical tool for reducing intergenerational poverty, and they deserve bipartisan support.