On the recordJune 15, 2021
I appreciate Congressman Bowman's organizing this on behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which I am so proud to be a member of, and I really am grateful to him. Let me just say this in no uncertain terms. Care infrastructure is infrastructure, and it is especially true for women whose opportunities are often limited because we don't really have a working care economy right now. Every single day nearly 10,000 people turn 65 years old in the United States of America, and yet we do not have in the United States a long- term-care policy. Think about it. The United States of America does not have a real long-term-care policy. Every family tries to figure out for itself, What are we going to do when grandma and grandpa get older? What are we going to do when I get older? What is the plan? Most people when they retire or have to retire actually don't have enough money to really make the kinds of decisions that they need to and will come up. Of the people who turn 65, between 50 and 70 percent at that time need some sort of support or care. Where does that come from? Let me be clear; it mostly comes from women. There is a sociologist who says many countries have a safety net; the United States has women. Paid and unpaid caregivers are women. Let's talk about the paid caregivers first. People who work in nursing homes, people who work in home care. They make an average of about $12 an hour, with no benefits. You can't live on that.…
