issue: Politics

Marshall for The Hill: U.S. Democracy Just Dodged a Bullet

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall, President of PPI
for The Hill 

Even as Republicans take narrow control of the House of Representatives, Democrats are still aglow over their political gravity-defying performance in the midterm elections. More gratifying than the partisan scorecard, however, is the big civic takeaway: Anti-democratic extremism mattered to America’s voters.

They can’t abide it and they voted against candidates who embraced it. This despite the punditocracy’s herd-like certitude that Americans can’t see beyond their kitchen table and would mainly vote their pocketbooks.

Many did – inflation was the top issued cited by voters, and those who gave it priority voted overwhelmingly for Republicans. But many didn’t, turning what would normally be big off-year election gains by the out party into a rebuke of Trumpism.

Consequently, U.S. democracy dodged a bullet this month, giving Americans something else to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Read the full piece in The Hill. 

Marshall: Pelosi Has Served Her Country with Consummate Skill, Integrity and Patriotism

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

Progressive Policy Institute President Will Marshall released the following statement in reaction to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that she would step back from leadership in the 118th Congress:

“The Progressive Policy Institute is glad to join in today’s outpouring of tributes to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“She was the first woman to be elected to the nation’s third highest constitutional office. Over the course of two decades as Speaker, she has served her country with consummate skill, integrity and patriotism.

“At the same time, she has also been a highly effective party leader: smart, disciplined, fair, open-minded and, when the occasion demanded it, tough as nails. In good times and bad, she helped to keep her often fractious party united and focused on doing the people’s business.

“It’s not easy to combine these roles, but for Nancy Pelosi public service and Democratic politics are family traditions. She was born Nancy D’Alesandro in Baltimore, where both her father and brother served as Mayor.

“We won’t forget, and we don’t think the American people will forget, the courageous way Speaker Pelosi defended our democracy when it came under attack by a deranged and lawless president on Jan. 6, 2021.”

PPI Hosts Midterm Analysis Event to Discuss the Key Lessons and Major Takeaways Moving into a Divided Congress

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute
Event featured Rep. Cheri Bustos and leading policy and political experts

Today, the Progressive Policy Institute hosted a panel discussion diving deep into the 2022 midterms, analyzing the political and policy implications of a divided Congress and the messages that moved voters to the polls and delivered a surprisingly strong midterm election for the Democrats. The event featured an all-star lineup of thought leaders and policymakers, including: Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-IL); PPI President Will Marshall; Ruy Teixeira, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-editor of The Liberal Patriot Substack; and Elaine Kamarck, Director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution.

“The most gratifying part of this outcome for me is that extremism and democracy did matter, contrary to the punidtocracy’s very categorical certitude that nobody in America could look beyond their kitchen table to these esoteric issues, like the state of our democracy. That proved not to be the case,” said Will Marshall, President and Founder of the Progressive Policy Institute during the event. “Certainly abortion — the extreme anti-abortion tribe on the right, was a huge issue. We saw anti-abortion crusaders go down, we saw election deniers and conspiracy theorists go down in flames. It was the cherry on the pie that Donald Trump got the blame for the Republican losses, and he got a presidential rival in Gov. Ron DeSantis. So this split decision turns out to be the best midterm result I’ve seen since 1998.”

The event included thought-provoking discussions on what led voters to the polls — including access to abortion, inflation, crime and protecting our democracy, how the midterm elections will determine the future platform and leadership of the Democratic party, and the challenges the White House will face with a likely divided Congress.

See photos and clips from the event on PPI’s Twitter:

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow PPI on Twitter: @ppi

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Aaron White; awhite@ppionline.org

Marshall for the New York Daily News: Build on this, Democrats: How the party can capitalize on Republicans’ midterm fizzle

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall
President and Founder of PPI
For New York Daily News

Last week’s delightfully abnormal midterm elections left Democrats elated and Republicans wondering how they failed to parlay President Biden’s dismal approval ratings and public consternation over soaring prices into big political gains.

The answer has three overlapping parts: a deeply unpopular stance on abortion, a bad habit of indulging anti-democratic extremism, and a raft of terrible candidates — all of which Republicans inflicted upon themselves. But for Democrats and Biden, dissecting the results and capitalizing on them are two very different matters. To hear voters’ 2022 message and win over many more in 2024, the party must decisively reoccupy the center, with pragmatic solutions that speak to voters’ everyday concerns.

As it happens, most voters (31%) did say inflation was the issue that mattered most to them. But contrary to the media’s claims that abortion was no longer a salient issue, it came in a close second (27%), followed by crime, guns and immigration. Those who chose abortion overwhelmingly backed Democratic candidates.

Read the full piece in the New York Daily News.

Five Trends in American News Consumption

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

By Malena Dailey (Progressive Policy Institute) and Rosie Beacon (Tony Blaire Institute)

The relationship between the media and democracy has historically been symbiotic: Changes in how society consumes media tends to alter the ways in which citizens engage with democracy. The ascendancy of populist politicians highlights the real-world impact of these trends, with social media providing a new medium for consumption of information as well as means for political figures to engage with the public.

In a moment defined by rising political tensions and differing perceptions of truth — exacerbated by conflicting spins on current events by partisan news organizations and misrepresentation of the truth online — understanding media consumption provides a path to understanding trends in American politics. Media provides information and ultimately influences people’s voting intentions, especially in a news environment that is already very politically charged. In order to understand the full picture of the trajectory of American politics, we must understand how Americans engage with news.

As we leave another election period, it is worth reflecting on what the evidence actually says about where and how most Americans get their news and what this says about modern digital led democracies.

1. Digital devices are the main way people access news, but social media is not the most popular way of accessing it — news brands are still important

Before social media, the day’s news agenda was largely decided by a small editorial elite at major news outlets. Whereas now, the prevalence of social media as a news source demonstrates that editorial narratives are decided as much by social media algorithms as they are the traditional purveyors of news. But irrespective of whether people get their news from news websites, search or social media, the role of news brands is still significant for readers.

The role of traditional news providers as producers of news has not diminished as much as their role as editors and curators of the agenda. The substance of newspapers is still important in what people consume, but the kind of news people see is no longer solely decided by newspapers.

Though digital devices are by far the most common way Americans access their news, where they get that news on their devices is divided among a number of different pathways. News websites, apps, and search engines are the digital pathways most Americans get news from at least sometimes. 63% at least sometimes get news from news websites or apps, 60% from search and 50% from social media, according to an analysis done by Pew Research. In the U.S., nearly a third of Americans regularly get news on Facebook (31%), and this outpaces all other social media sites.

Most individuals using social media are not doing so with the purpose of consuming news, though less than half of users on Facebook, and roughly a third of those on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok regularly get news from the site. This is closer to half for Twitter. Consuming such news via social media can be thought of in two main concepts. First, “incidental exposure,” where people are shown news articles when they are using social media platforms for other reasons. And second, “automated serendipity,” where algorithms surface news from outlets people would not normally use.

2. Individual journalists are now more significant than in a pre-internet age, and these journalists are generally partisan 

Explicitly opinionated and partisan journalists carry an enormous amount of influence in the U.S. media landscape, especially in comparison to other countries. In the U.S., the most mentioned journalists by people are all partisan journalists (74% are political), in contrast to the U.K. where they are generally independent or impartial (38% are political). News brands still galvanize more attention (37%) online, but 21% — a fifth — pay most attention to journalists.

In a pre-internet era, journalists’ careers were tied to the outlets they worked for, but the rise of social media has allowed many individual journalists — and other varieties of “political influencers” — to build their own profiles independent of particular news brands.

This highlights the contrast with countries that have strong national media brands with strict impartiality rules — such as the BBC in the U.K. or ARD News in Germany. Whereas in the U.S., news is much more of a commercial venture, with business models that are somewhat reliant on controversy and strong journalistic personalities. The U.S. is also unable to enforce impartiality due to the Constitution. This is similarly compounded by social media platforms, whose business models and algorithms reward engagement thus giving a stronger platform to contention.

This also demonstrates the importance of cable TV in engaging Americans with news personalities. They may follow up these interests through digital channels, but cable personalities remain memorable to audiences and likely create the interest in the first instance. When asked to name journalists they regularly pay attention to, 74% were from broadcast TV or radio, 17% from online/other and only 9% from print, according to Reuters.

3. The media is politicized, but not completely polarized

While it is true that the U.S. has a higher level of news polarization than the U.K., Germany, or Norway, Reuters also found that it has barely increased since 2016 despite the turbulent political landscape. It has not increased substantially, if at all, in the last six years.

Political polarization is often characterized as one of the major problems democracies face in an increasingly digital landscape. Indeed, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index identified political polarization as the biggest threat to U.S. democracy — differences of opinion in the U.S. have evolved into political sectarianism and institutional gridlock. It would therefore be logical to assume this is also reflected in news consumption patterns, given the ascendancy of partisan news media in the U.S. in particular.

But across all four countries, news audience polarization has changed by 3 percentage points or less since 2016, indicating only minimal shifts in audience behavior. What’s more, Reuters calculated a “theoretical maximum” of news polarization. This found that even in the U.S., news polarization is far from the theoretical limit (34%). This should not foster any complacency however, Germany is at 10% of the theoretical limit.

The main difference in the U.S. is that there is no large outlet that appeals to the average political leaning of the population, whereas Germany, Norway. and the U.K. all have public service media, such as the BBC, to anchor their news landscape. Most of the major news brands appeal more to left of center-leaning audiences (New York Times, CNN), with Fox News being one of few outlets on the right.

4. While news polarization is not growing, it has exacerbated pre-existing differences of opinion on particular policy areas — such as climate change

Of all the markets Reuters studied across the world, the U.S. expressed the lowest interest in climate change news. Polarization is considered, at least in part, to drive this relative disinterest. There is a 41 percentage point gap between those on the left interested in climate change news and those on the right. This is quite the contrast to countries with high levels of interest, where there is significantly less left-right polarization.

In the U.S., 55% of those with a left political leaning are interested in climate change news, versus only 14% of those with a right political leaning. Whereas within countries with the highest levels of interest, there is less left-right polarization, such as Greece (a 16 percentage point gap) and Portugal (10 percentage point gap).

This is one issue that could be particularly impacted by a political shift in the House of Representatives. Though climate policy garners widespread support across congressional districts, legislation meant to address it remains quite partisan — meaning a shift to a Republican majority would jeopardize the ability for Congress to enact pro-climate policy.

Interest is highest in several Latin American, Southern European and Asia Pacific markets. Just over half of respondents in Greece (53%), Portugal (53%), Chile (52%) and the Philippines (52%) say they are interested in news about climate change and the environment. Interest is lower in Northern and Western European markets such as Norway (33%) and France (36%), whereas the U.S. has 30% interest. Compounded by the economic climate, it is therefore not surprising that climate has not been a prevalent issue in regards to voting intention in this election.

5. There are generational disparities in what is perceived as a trusted source of information

For the average American adult, trust in major news sources has declined since 2016, but trust in news obtained on social media has remained roughly the same. According to a Pew Research study, in 2022, 71% of U.S. adults said they trust local news organizations, 61% trust national news, and 33% trust news from social media sites. However, for Americans under 30, this gap closes considerably, with 56% trusting national news sources and 50% trusting social media.

This is intuitive when looking at the medium of choice for news consumption across age groups. When surveyed, 44% of American young adults (ages 18-29) say that they get news from television, compared to 74% of adults aged 50-64. And, while digital sources are a popular medium across age groups, there are additional differences in what generations mean when they refer to digital platforms. When looking at all age groups, a higher percentage of American adults over 30 get news from websites or apps of news organizations than on social media or other digital platforms such as search engines or podcasts. For the 18-29 year old demographic, the most common digital media for news consumption is social media, with 76% of respondents saying they use social media for news.

To some degree, this is reflective of what different generations expect from informative content. A 2019 Reuters study found that in contrast to the mentality of traditional media which seeks to inform based on what you “should know,” younger audiences see news as what is useful, interesting, or fun to know. Social media allows for this while also curating news to the type of content which is relevant to the lives and experiences of young people, cutting out the perceived need to seek out news elsewhere when it can be integrated into the experience of interacting with friends and online communities.

Research note: We obtained much of the data and analysis included in this article from Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022 and Pew Research Center. 

Malena Dailey is a Technology Policy Analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute. Rosie Beacon is a Policy Analyst at the Tony Blaire Institute, and is based in London. 

Marshall for The Hill: What Does a Midterm Split Decision Mean for Democrats?

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall, President of PPI
for The Hill 

The votes are still being counted, but Democrats could yet win a split decision in the 2022 midterm elections. So much for the Red Tsunami giddily forecast by conservative commentators in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

There’s little doubt the Republicans will take over the House of Representatives, albeit by a much narrower margin than they expected. But control of the Senate will be decided in exactly the same place and manner as it was in the 2020 elections — a high-stakes run-off election in Georgia.

On Dec. 6, Sen. Ralph Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, will face off again against his Republican challenger, Hershel Walker. It’s a strange reprise that tells us several interesting things about U.S. politics.

Read the full piece in The Hill. 

Lewis for Medium: I drink my beer from a can, don’t take away my choices

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By: Lindsay Mark Lewis, PPI’s Executive Director

Over the last several weeks, there has been increased focus and attention on the competition and antitrust debate in Washington. There has been a debate about the connection between these policies and efforts to address historically high inflation. With real consequential decisions looming for consumers, it’s perplexing why the administration chooses to focus on industries that provide consumers with more choices of quality products at competitive prices, such as the beer industry.

Yet, the Biden administration has voiced its concern. In a February report, the U.S. Treasury claims that the beer industry is facing increasing consolidation, lessening consumer choice, and ultimately asks that regulators evaluate whether mergers in the beer industry are providing fewer options for American customers.

Read the full piece in Medium. 

Bledsoe and Sykes for the Hill: GOP killed permitting reform — giving Democrats a new campaign issue

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Paul Bledsoe, PPI’s Strategic Advisor, and Elan Sykes, PPI’s Energy Policy Analyst

Over the last two years, Congress has passed a series of landmark bills that together fund more than $500 billion in clean energy investment, by far the largest ever enacted. More importantly, generous tax incentives can spur many trillions in direct private sector investments, creating a powerhouse U.S. advanced energy sector. Yet, right now, a broken U.S. energy permitting system short circuits thousands of major projects, imposing tremendously high costs in time and money to build clean infrastructure projects, if they get built at all.

Congress had an opportunity to fix this roadblock through a permitting reform bill, but despite claiming to support reform, Senate Republicans effectively killed the measure in a nakedly political effort to deny Democrats a popular policy win. Democrats should turn the tables on the GOP, making the economic and climate costs of this hypocritical action a major campaign issue in the upcoming midterm elections.

Ironically, in the name of environmental protection, a perverse process has developed over decades whereby often unnecessary and duplicative government reviews and nuisance lawsuits have pushed average time for permitting to 4.3 years for electricity transmission, 3.5 years for pipelines and 2.7 years for renewable energy generation projects. In the mid-Atlantic and near-Ohio valley alone, more than 2,500 projects are awaiting approval, 95 percent of which involve renewable energy. In fact, a new Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) report finds that without extensive permitting and regulatory reforms, large projected economic benefits and emissions reductions from recent laws would be substantially limited, and fail to meet policy goals.

Read the full piece in The Hill. 

Marshall in The Hill: How to Beat National Populism

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall, President of PPI

LIVERPOOL, England — Brexit is done, and Donald Trump, given the boot by U.S. voters, is angrily pacing the political sidelines. But the upsurge of rightwing populism that produced them both continues to roil transatlantic politics.

Last Sunday, the far-right Brothers of Italy party, which has a fascist lineage, finished first in national elections. Its leader, Giorgia Meloni, will become Italy’s first female prime minister. She’s a socially conservative Christian who opposes immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights. Although she’s toned down her Euroskepticism, Meloni also is an “Italy First” nationalist likely to align with illiberal regimes in Poland and Hungary.

A virulent strain of national populism also is advancing in Europe’s social democratic heartland. The Sweden Democrats (SD), formerly a fringe party with neo-Nazi roots, finished a strong second in national elections earlier this month and will join a right-leaning government.

Read the full piece in The Hill. 

Marshall for The Hill: The puzzle Democrats must solve

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

By Will Marshall

Democrats’ midterm election prospects are brightening as voters’ attention shifts from high prices to abortion and the Republicans’ subservience to former President Trump and rightwing extremism.

By striking down the constitutional right to abortion, the Supreme Court has galvanized suburban women. According to liberal analyst Ruy Teixeira, Democrats now have a 27-point lead among white, college-educated women in party matchups. The ruling has thrown Republican candidates on the defensive and is spurring higher Democratic registration and turnout.

Damning testimony by former Trump White House officials in the Jan. 6 hearings, plus Trump’s inexplicable refusal to hand over top secret documents he illegally took home after leaving the White House, also seems to be moving independent voters back toward the Democrats.

House, but they now call the Senate a tossup or favor Democrats slightly to hold it. Given the usual midterm trends, a split verdict in November would be a major victory for President Biden and his party.

But one key group – white working-class voters – hasn’t budged. Democrats trail by a whopping 25 points among these voters, whose unwavering support for Trump sustains his chokehold on the GOP.

Read the full piece in The Hill.

Marshall for The Hill: Ban the culture war from classrooms

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall

As America’s children start getting back to school this month, our country needs a grown-up conversation about public education’s future. The odds of having one this fall are slim.

It’s more likely that the midterm election campaign will intensify today’s noxious trend toward politicizing public schools. That’s reprehensible, because our children, who suffered severe learning losses and emotional stress during the pandemic, deserve better than to be treated as hostages in the nation’s vitriolic culture wars.

Republicans, who seem to be at war with all of America’s public institutions, are the worst offenders. But Democrats aren’t blameless, and even as they fend off the right’s demagogic attacks on public schools, they need to come to grips with the valid reasons why parental frustration is boiling over.

Read the full piece in The Hill.

Marshall for The Hill: Where’s the progressive plan to fix government?

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall, President and Founder of PPI

 

More than 100 election deniers have won Republican primaries across the country this year. It’s a woeful reminder that former President Trump’s seditious assault on U.S. democracy didn’t end with his followers’ failed coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021.

This ominous trend makes the midterm elections much more than a referendum on President Biden’s job performance. But Republican extremism isn’t the only threat to our democracy.

A more subtle but corrosive danger is nosediving public confidence in the federal government’s ability to function effectively. According to the Pew Research Center, only 19 percent of Americans say they trust Washington to do the right thing “most of the time.” That’s near the historic low point in public confidence since Pew started measuring it in 1958.

At the same time, solid majorities of Americans believe government should play a “major role” in tackling national problems. Their qualms about government are practical, not ideological; centering more on its performance than its size.

Read the full piece in The Hill.

PPI Statement on Reconciliation and Innovation Legislation

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Funding America’s Future project at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) released the following statement:

“Earlier this week, PPI encouraged Congressional Democrats to give high priority to passing the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and a reconciliation bill that includes significant deficit reduction and clean energy provisions. Unfortunately, media accounts suggest that both initiatives are shrinking.

“We shared Sen. Manchin’s concerns about the original reconciliation bill’s overreaching and likely impact on inflation. But walking away from a bill with roughly half a trillion dollars of deficit reduction and significant investments in increasing energy supply would squander the best chance Congress has to help the Federal Reserve rein in rising prices. We hope he and Sen. Schumer will not give up on negotiating a compromise on these components of a reconciliation bill.

“Pro-growth Democrats who want to see the United States outcompete China also should be concerned about reports of a plan to vote next week on a bill that only includes funding for semiconductor subsidies. Losing government R&D funds and other key provisions in the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) would be an enormous setback for America’s innovation and scientific prowess.

“We understand that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s blindly partisan decision to withhold Republican support from a conferenced innovation bill complicates its path to passage. But retreating to a CHIPS-only approach would unnecessarily doom many higher priority pro-innovation policies. Instead, we urge Speaker Pelosi to put the full Senate-passed USICA on the floor for a vote in the House to circumvent McConnell’s obstructionism.

“Democrats must not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow the Progressive Policy Institute.

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Aaron White – awhite@ppionline.org

Marshall for The Hill: Green dreams collide with energy crisis reality

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall, President and Founder of PPI

Today’s surging oil and gas prices confront progressive climate activists with a discomfiting truth: Their campaign to vilify and suppress fossil fuel production has crashed headlong into Americans’ urgent appetite for affordable energy.

The green left is not happy with President Biden, who is pulling out all the stops to give Americans some temporary relief from punishingly high fuel prices. That includes jawboning U.S. oil companies to drill more, a widely panned proposal to suspend the federal gas tax and Thursday’s controversial visit to Saudi Arabia, whose leaders the White House has implored to boost production to stabilize world oil markets.

It’s true that high fuel prices are heightening the contradiction at the heart of the Biden administration’s climate and energy policies. If your overriding aim is to drive down consumption of fossil fuels, high prices are a good thing. But that’s a hard sell to working families struggling with $5 a gallon gas and soaring utility bills.

With the midterm elections looming, activists shouldn’t be too quick to pillory Biden — especially since it’s their premature if not utopian demands to abolish fossil fuels as soon as possible that have landed him and his party in this predicament.

Read the full piece in The Hill.

PPI Sends Memo to Congressional Democrats on Must-Pass Legislative Priorities Before the August Recess

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

Progressive Policy Institute President Will Marshall and Center for Funding America’s Future Director Ben Ritz today urged Congressional Democrats to focus on four top legislative priorities ahead of the looming August recess break.

In a memo to Democrats, Marshall and Ritz argue Congress should seize the opportunity to:

  • Protect our democracy with Electoral Count Act reform;
  • Tackle inflation, energy, and health care costs through reconciliation;
  • Help America outcompete China by passing the bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA); and
  • Fill all 77 judicial vacancies

 

With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs in the fall, this could be the last chance to pass these crucial reforms before the usual midterm losses put MAGA extremists in a position to block any national progress for the remainder of President Biden’s first term,” Will Marshall and Ben Ritz write. “By taking action before the August recess on these four urgent priorities, Congressional Democrats could compile an impressive record of progressive reform and governing competence to run on in November.

Read the memo below:

 

MEMORANDUM


TO:                Congressional Democrats
FROM:          Will Marshall and Ben Ritz, PPI
RE:                Four Legislative Priorities Before the August Recess

Under Democratic leadership, the 117th Congress has produced major wins for the American people. Nearly 70% of Americans are “fully vaccinated” against COVID and 80% have had at least one dose. The United States is enjoying its strongest job recovery ever and wages are rising. The bipartisan infrastructure law increased domestic infrastructure spending by $550 billion, the largest investment in America’s productive capacity in a generation. Congress approved President Biden’s request for military aid to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. The U.S. Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. And a determined Congress just passed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the first national gun safety bill in over 30 years.

Before they leave for August recess, Congressional Democrats should seize the opportunity to build on this solid record of accomplishment by acting to safeguard our democracy, ease inflationary pressure, expand America’s high-tech lead, create new jobs in clean energy, and lower health care premiums. With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs in the fall, this could be the last chance to pass these crucial reforms before the usual midterm losses put MAGA extremists in a position to block any national progress for the remainder of President Biden’s first term.

Therefore, we urge Congressional Democrats to focus on these four vitally important priorities over the next month:

PROTECT DEMOCRACY WITH ELECTORAL COUNT ACT REFORM

The top priority should be to reinforce the guardrails around America’s Constitutional democracy. Although his violent Jan. 6 coup attempt failed, ex-president Donald Trump continues to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections. In a blatant bid to rig future elections in advance, he’s backing MAGA election deniers running for Congress as well as governor and secretary of state in the key battleground states he lost in 2020. Congress must update the Electoral Count Act to make it impossible for defeated presidents and their accomplices to overrule American voters and steal a national election.

TACKLE INFLATION, ENERGY, AND HEALTH CARE COSTS THROUGH RECONCILIATION

Americans across the political spectrum agree that inflation is the greatest economic challenge we face today. The new, more focused reconciliation bill Democratic leaders are crafting with Sen. Joe Manchin could help reduce the cost of living while also salvaging some key elements of last year’s overreaching Build Back Better blueprint. It would cut budget deficits by roughly $500 billion, making it easier for the Federal Reserve to rein in rising prices without triggering a recession.

The new reconciliation bill also should include an ambitious set of consumer and business tax incentives for dozens of clean energy technologies, based on a $325 billion, 10-year package of clean energy tax incentive bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee last year, a version of which has already passed the House. These measures would stimulate hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector clean technology investment throughout the economy while creating millions of new jobs. They are also very popular with voters.

Congress made health insurance more affordable for over 13 million Americans this year when it increased the subsidies for plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act exchanges as part of the American Rescue Plan. But the increase was temporary, and if lawmakers let it expire, premiums will increase 53% on average. To make matters worse for Democrats, rate increase notices will be sent out in October, even if they don’t go into effect until January. It is unlikely that the full increase can be made permanent because of its high costs, but Democrats can blunt the pain and permanently fix the ACA “subsidy cliff” that existed before this year for less than $150 billion over 10 years as part of a sustainably financed reconciliation bill.

It’s essential that Democratic leaders and Sen. Manchin get to “yes” on a radically pragmatic reconciliation bill that unites their ideologically diverse party and delivers a major win for President Biden’s domestic agenda. They should resist pressure from the progressive left to enact other gimmicky giveaways that would squander these savings and undermine the bill’s inflation-fighting potential.

HELP AMERICA OUTCOMPETE CHINA BY PASSING THE BIPARTISAN INNOVATION BILL 

Lawmakers have yet to finish conferencing the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) passed last year by the Senate with the House-passed America COMPETES Act. This bipartisan innovation bill would make an historic investment in semiconductor manufacturing capacity, research and development, STEM workforce development, and supply chain resilience. By passing it, Congress would signal its determination to keep America ahead of China in the race for scientific and technological leadership.

USICA also presents an opportunity for Congress to set up a more robust and equitable system of career pathways for non-college workers. The COMPETES Act, for example, would expand apprenticeship opportunities to reach historically underserved populations, including youth and people re-entering their community after incarceration. It would also promote apprenticeships in non-traditional industries, creating nearly one million additional opportunities in new and emerging fields over the next five years.

But the House version of the bill unfortunately was larded with extraneous trade provisions that are unrelated to the bill’s core emphasis on boosting U.S. innovation and competitiveness. These should be set aside and argued out in some other legislative context. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to pull his party’s support from the conference as long as Democrats continue work on passing a budget reconciliation bill. Although there are elements of the Senate bill that could be improved in a conference committee, the best way to circumvent McConnell’s blatant obstructionism may be for House Democrats to simply vote to send the Senate-passed USICA to President Biden’s desk, negating the need for further negotiations.

FILL COURT VACANCIES FASTER

The Supreme Court’s recent flurry of deeply polarizing decisions underscores the perils of allowing Republicans to pack federal courts with far-right ideologues. Although President Biden has nominated and confirmed more temperate federal judges at a record pace, it hasn’t been fast enough to keep up the rate of judicial retirements. To fill all 77 vacancies, he and Senate leaders must pick up the pace.

By taking action before the August recess on these four urgent priorities, Congressional Democrats could compile an impressive record of progressive reform and governing competence to put before the voters in November.

Will Marshall is the President and Founder of the Progressive Policy Institute.

Ben Ritz is the Director of PPI’s Center for Funding America’s Future.

 

Download the memo here.

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The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow PPI on Twitter: @ppi

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Aaron White; awhite@ppionline.org

 

Marshall for The Hill: The Issue That Trumps Them All

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall

As the July 4 holiday approaches, Americans can be forgiven for taking a break from today’s incendiary politics of partisan hatred and performative outrage. But it’s also the right occasion for citizens to think about their duty to reinforce the rules that make our democracy work.

Polls show rampant inflation is the voters’ top concern in this midterm election year. But it won’t be the most important issue on the ballot.

More consequential than soaring prices, crime, climate change or any other pressing national problem is the resilience of our constitutional framework for self-government. If it cracks under pressure from political extremists, we can kiss our liberties and democracy goodbye.

Read the full piece in The Hill.