Editorial

Go Big or Go Home

Joe Biden hit the ground running Jan. 20, finding a stack of executive orders on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office waiting for his signature to start reversing Donald Trump’s policies.

Biden started with orders to organize the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. He required masks on all federal grounds and instructed agencies to extend moratoriums on evictions and on federal student loan payments. He urged Americans to wear masks to prevent COVID-19 infections for at least 100 days while his administration puts together a plan to distribute vaccines across the nation.

Biden also resurrected a global health unit in the National Security Council that Trump had disbanded. Biden reversed Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, rejoined that group as well as the Paris climate agreement and he froze approval of rules advanced in the final days of Trump’s presidency.

In the first three days, Biden also accelerated the manufacturing and delivery of supplies for vaccination, testing and personal protective equipment to fight COVID and he directed FEMA to expand reimbursement to the states to cover the cost for National Guard personnel and emergency supplies. He directed FEMA to create federally supported community vaccination centers and he called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide clear guidance on COVID-19 in workplaces, decide whether to establish temporary standards, and he directed OSHA to enforce worker health and safety requirements.

On the economy, Biden signed an order to restore collective bargaining power and worker protections for federal workers and lhe aid the foundation for setting a $15 minimum wage. He called for assistance to those who are struggling for food, including those who missed out on stimulus checks or are unemployed.

Biden also required that non-citizens be included in the Census and apportionment of congressional representatives; fortified DACA after Trump’s efforts to undo protections for undocumented “Dreamers” who were brought into the US as children; and reversed the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for residents of seven Muslim-majority countries. He also halted construction of the border wall by terminating the national emergency declaration used to fund it. He paused oil leases on federal lands and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas refineries.

Biden directed the Office of Management and Budget director to develop recommendations to modernize regulatory review and undo Trump’s regulatory approval process.

The Biden administration also started the work of prying out Trump loyalists who had been “burrowed” into the bureaucracies in the closing months of the Trump administration.

Biden accomplished a lot with the 30 executive orders he signed in the first three days. But new initiatives will need to get through the House and Senate. In the House, Democrats hold a narrow 221-211 majority, with three vacancies, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be able to hold that majority to pass priority items. The tougher nut will be the Senate, where two new Democrats from Georgia made the 50-50 tie, making Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaker which gave Democrats the majority.

Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is the new majority leader, but nothing will come easy with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blocking as much as he can. McConnell finally cleared the way for Democrats to take control of the Senate Jan. 25, after demanding Dems give up on eliminating the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass a bill.

McConnell said he would agree to a power-sharing deal, allowing Democrats to take charge of committees, after two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — publicly reiterated their previously stated opposition to eliminating the filibuster.

Before McConnell threw in the towel, Schumer insisted the Democratic caucus was united: “We must get big things done,” he told Rachel Maddow. Now, if Republicans want to keep the filibuster, they need to commit to work with the Democratic majority for the common good, or the GOP must block those bills in full public view.

Democrats probably will use the budget reconciliation process to pass much, if not all, of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, if they cannot get Republicans to buy in.

Budget reconciliation is filibuster-proof and requires only a simple-majority vote to pass the Senate, but it has some restrictions.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the new chair of the Budget Committee, said he is prepared to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the coronavirus package and include some legislation that addresses other key priorities, from the climate crisis to prescription drug prices.

Budgets passed under the reconciliation process are not supposed to increase the deficit, but Democrats could find savings by repealing large portions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Republicans passed on party-line votes in December 2017 using the reconciliation process. The act initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but automatic tax increases were built in, starting this year for families earning less than $30,000. By 2027 taxes would increase for nearly everyone, except those at the top of the economic heap, to keep the estimated $2.3 trillion cost of Trump’s tax breaks within bounds. All taxpayer income groups with incomes of $75,000 and under — about 65% of taxpayers — will face a higher tax rate in 2027 than in 2019 under the GOP plan.

To pass other bills, such as the “For the People Act, which House Democrats passed in 2019 and would protect and expand the right to vote, Democrats will have to find at least 10 Republican senators who will sign on, if the filibuster remains in place. But Republicans seem headed in the other direction. After failing to stop Democrats from voting by mail this past November, which helped elect Biden, statehouse Republicans plan to restrict that option for 2022.

Democrats must produce benefits for working people and the middle class in the next two years if they want to hold, or bolster, their narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

Democrats will have an advantage in the 2022 Senate lineup, as 20 of the 34 seats up for election are now held by Republicans, while 14 seats are held by Democrats. The most vulnerable seats are split evenly between those currently held by Republicans in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and those held by Democrats in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire. Two of those Democrats (Arizona’s Mark Kelly and Georgia’s Raphael Warnock) just won special elections and will be fighting for full terms in 2022. Trump might help if he supports primaries for Republicans.

But Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania announced he won’t run again in 2022. North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr said in 2016 his current term will be his last. And Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said during his 2016 campaign that he would not seek a third term — although he has hedged on that promise. The battlefield could expand to other states, including Iowa (if Chuck Grassley, who will be 89 on Election Day 2022, doesn’t seek reelection) and Ohio (where Rob Portman announced he would not seek re-election).

If Democrats can hold the House and gain a couple more seats in the Senate, they might be able finally to get rid of the filibuster in 2023 and pass some real game-changing bills. — JMC

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2021

Populist.com