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Finding A Budget Compromise Despite Republican Extremism
By Ben Ritz
Director of PPI's Center for Funding America’s Future
For Forbes
Republicans have refused to raise or suspend the debt limit – which multiple independent forecasters have warned could cause the government to default on its debts for the first time in history as soon as June 1st – unless “substantive reforms” to federal spending are made. Biden spent most of this year refusing to indulge in the GOP’s hostage-taking but agreed to negotiate on a broader budget deal once Republicans made an opening offer. After Republicans coalesced around a position by passing the Limit, Save, Grow Act through the House, both sides began negotiations this week in the hopes of striking a deal that Republicans could claim is a precursor to raising the debt limit and Democrats could claim is independent.
Part of the challenge is that Republicans have entered into the negotiation with extreme positions that no Democrat could ever accommodate. The GOP’s bill would raise the debt limit through early next year and pair that increase with $4.5 trillion of spending cuts over the coming decade and other conservative policy changes. Cuts of this magnitude might make sense in the context of a balanced and comprehensive package that addresses all areas of the budget, including raising new revenues – particularly at a time when inflation remains high and our projected long-term debt growth is unsustainable. But the conditions Republicans have imposed to target these cuts are unrealistic at best and economically ruinous at worst.
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New from the Experts
Left-leaning think tank calls for high schools to prioritize vocational training: ‘bipartisan issue,’ ft. Taylor Maag, PPI's Director of Workforce Development Policy
⮕ The College Fix
A very theatrical Bitcoin bet collapses, ft. Jeremiah Johnson, Co-Founder of the Center for New Liberalism
⮕ Politico Digital Daily Future
Albanese cooks up tasty recipe for revival, ft. Will Marshall, PPI's President and Founder
⮕ The Sydney Morning Herald
Outside voices: ‘Worried reactions’ to the administration’s global-economy vision, ft. Ed Gresser, PPI's Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets
⮕ World Trade Online
Trade Fact of the Week: Korea, the world’s most robotic country
⮕ PPI's Trade Fact of the Week
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The National Security Advisor's Disquieting Global-Economy Speech: Some Worried Reactions from a Friend
By Ed Gresser
Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets
First published in POLITICO's Weekly Trade Newsletter:
The Biden administration has not yet convinced its allies in Washington or foreign capitals that an international economic agenda that embraces industrial policy over free trade is the right model for decades to come, contends Ed Gresser, vice president at the Progressive Policy Institute.
Gresser, who worked at USTR from 2015 to 2021, is out today with a lengthy rebuttal to national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s sweeping remarks last month in which Sullivan rebuked the effects of globalization and instead outlined a vision for a “new industrial strategy.”
Gresser calls Sullivan’s address “an odd piece at an important time” given Biden is gearing up for an election that could once again pit him against former President Donald Trump. Rather than draw contrasts with Trump, who angered allies and shunned multilateral organizations, he said, Sullivan’s speech “seems to be politically out of tune and picking the wrong targets.”
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ICYMI: POLICY BRIEF
Strengthening America's Workforce: The Path to 4 Million Apprenticeships
By Taylor Maag
Director of Workforce Development Policy
Apprenticeships have long been ingrained in America’s history, but today, America falls drastically behind other advanced nations despite the benefits the program brings to workers and employers alike. Apprenticeships — a training model that allows people to work and earn while they are learning the critical skills needed for the industry — are especially important today when most U.S. jobs require at least some postsecondary education and training, and there is a serious shortage of skilled workers in many fields.
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RAS REPORTS:
What's Next: The Future is Now! ft. Janelle Wood
PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools (RAS) Project has a new podcast series on titled "WHAT NEXT: The Future is Now!" recorded at the SXSW Education conference in Austin, Texas. In the fifth and final episode of this five-part series, RAS co-director sits down with Janelle Wood, Founder and CEO of the Black Mothers Forum.
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THE NEOLIBERAL PODCAST:
The Posting-to-Policy Pipeline ft. Chief Neoliberal Shill Matt Darling
Newly elected Chief Neoliberal Shill for 2023 Matt Darling joins the show to talk about how he sees politics, posting, and much more! He and Jeremiah discuss how ideas migrate from online discussion and think tanks to the actual halls of power.
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Don't Miss These PPI Reports
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Staff Spotlight: Ed Gresser
Ed Gresser
Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
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