Joe Biden’s presidential administration focused significantly on growing the middle class. That was, in fact, the throughline of President Biden’s political career. He came from the middle class and saw a strong middle class as the engine of a successful economy and an opportunity for Americans to access housing, healthcare, food security, and education while still having enough money left over for a summer vacation and the occasional emergency car repair.
Without going deeply into the weeds of the Biden legacy, I can point to three key policy areas where he expanded points of entry into the middle class: the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, his student loan forgiveness efforts during his presidency, and his commitment of DEIA principles in federal hiring and contracting.
Biden’s On-Ramps on the Road to the Middle Class
Health Insurance Access
The most significant reforms of the Affordable Care Act addressed access to health insurance. Prior to ACA, insurance companies were free to deny coverage to individuals. They were legally permitted to refuse to issue policies based on prior health history, exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions, and impose annual and lifetime caps on coverage.
The result was an insurance system where many individuals could only acquire health insurance coverage under an employer-sponsored group plan. Leaving a job would mean leaving behind health insurance, resulting in obstacles to job mobility and entrepreneurship. Increasing access to individual insurance policies reduced so-called job lock, where people stayed in jobs simply to keep their health insurance. It enabled people to make different career choices and take more professional risks while still being able to get adequate health insurance.
Affordable Higher Education
College education is probably the single most direct path to the middle class. Unfortunately, the cost of college education has grown astronomically. Students and their families have access to both federal and private loans to defray costs and many take advantage of these programs. Loans make college possible but debt repayment often takes decades, with borrowers paying back many times their loan principal in interest and other fees. Even people in well-payed jobs feel a budget pinch due to their monthly loan payment obligations.
Forgiving loans after paying back a designated amount of principal and interest still makes lenders whole, but it changes the monthly budget picture for borrowers. For many borrowers, completing student loan payments is the equivalent of getting a massive pay raise.
Federal DEIA Principles
The federal government is the largest employer in the United States. Federal jobs are stable, well-paid, and come with robust benefits. In addition, the federal government contracts with private sector vendors to provide goods, services, and labor, and those contracts constitute a reliable, competitive revenue stream. As an employer and client of private employers, the federal government drives hiring for skilled workers into stable, middle-class jobs.
DEIA programs represent a mindful approach to ensuring that all Americans have access to federal job and contract opportunities. Initiatives can include efforts as simple as expanding where the federal government advertises job and contracting opportunities so they reach a broader applicant pool. Other initiatives include mandating a certain number of contracts go to qualified minority-owned businesses. The intended result is to ensure that more people can take advantage of federal employment and contracting.
Trump’s Roadblocks on the Road to the Middle Class
In contrast, the Trump administration appears to be on a direct path to shrink or eliminate the American middle class. And, honestly, it doesn’t seem like that’s an unintended effect.
In early February, the Trump administration tasked Elon Musk and DOGE with slashing the size of the federal workforce. Firings have already rocked the federal workforce. Last week, OPM issued a memo directing agencies to begin reducing workforce and cutting programs. That effort could result in tens of thousands of jobs being eliminated.
Cuts to spending on federal grants and contracts are also leading to widespread layoffs and loss of services. As the cuts continue, thousands of skilled workers who relied on contracts and grants from agencies like the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and National Institutes of Health will find themselves cut off.
This is not just a temporary problem; without the government as an employer or client, the demand for millions of skilled jobs will vanish. An entire segment of the middle class will be both unemployed and unemployable as Trump and Musk erase the massive swath of the economy powered by federal spending.
Trump and Congress are also weighing policies that will reduce access to higher education. Trump is hostile to loan forgiveness programs. He has halted applications for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which are an initial step in applying for long-standing loan forgiveness programs like the Bush-era Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
The House Budget Resolution passed this week and includes more changes to student borrowing, including:
- Capping Pell Grants at the median cost of attendance.
- Sunsetting Grad And Parent Plus Loan
- Limiting eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program
Reducing federal student aid makes it harder for students to afford college, more likely to need loans from private institutions, and less likely to be able to get out from under student debt. The debt repayment issue is especially stark in light of the loss of job prospects for so many graduates who would have made careers in public service or as federal contractors.
The third leg of the middle-class tripod is access to health care. The House has all but guaranteed cuts to Medicaid over the coming years, with the directive to the Energy and Commerce Committee to find over $800 billion in savings over the next decade.
A portion of the subsidies that help millions of people afford health insurance are set to expire in 2025. If Congress doesn’t extend them, ACA enrollees could face premium increases of 75-100%. That could also affect the group market, with insurers raising premiums on employer-sponsored plans to offset changes to the ACA and Medicaid markets.
Increased health insurance costs to employers have been a consistent problem for years. Costs rose by an average of 8.5% in 2024, compared to just 4.5% in 2022. These step increases result in reductions in benefits and higher out-of-pocket costs to employees.
What’s the New Destination?
Historians and fans of dystopian fiction can all see the framework of serfdom in the Trump/Musk machinations. Reducing the middle class frees up money so oligarchs like Musk can grab it for themselves. Musk is open about wanting to replace federal workers with AI systems – presumably systems he will own and from which he will profit.
The remainder of displaced workers and new graduates may be able to find employment with major tech firms that win contracts to provide services once offered by government. Those workers will be locked into those jobs by the unafforability of health insurance and the need to pay back student loans.
Limited college options for rising high school graduates takes them off the path to middle class adulthood. The low-skill, low-pay, hourly jobs left over after the AI takeover may seem like the best option to young adults who can’t afford college. That sets them up for a lifetime of a paycheck-to-paycheck existence and limited advancement options.
I write this all with a sense of growing despair. I am a middle class parent of children who aspire to middle class futures. I want to hand them the New Deal promises of Frances Perkins, FDR, and Joe Biden, not the techno-feudalism of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
Protecting the middle class will take a herculean effort. We need to raise awareness of what’s happening, as well as fomenting resistance to the billionaire-aligned majority in Congress, the White House and the Judiciary. It starts with demanding that leaders protect access to healthcare, education, and stable jobs. Calls, emails, protests, and rallies are making a difference but we can’t stop now. Our whole future is at stake.
Civic Action Hub of Maryland 