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The Trump Budget Would Be
an Economic Calamity
President Trump’s 2021
budget could push
the American economy to the brink of recession, Roosevelt Fellow
Michael Linden argues in an op-ed for CNN Business. But the greatest
concern is the long-term damage that massive public spending cuts and
deepening inequality will wreak. American workers and consumers “need
public support and strong foundations to ensure that private
concentrations of wealth and power don't distort the economy to the
advantage of the ultra-wealthy,” Linden writes. “Trump's budget
slashes at those very foundations: education, health care, research
and development. The result would be both a less productive workforce
and less consumer demand, producing a weaker economy overall, with the
already-rich capturing most of the gains.” Read
on.
- Another angle:
“We don't see an investment boom. We're not seeing innovation. New
businesses are at their lowest rate on record,” Roosevelt Vice
President of Strategy and Managing Director for Climate and Economic
Transformation Nell Abernathy said on CNBC’s Squawk Box this
week. “I think we would do well to see some serious rethinking of how
we govern corporate America.” Watch
here.
- New
progressivism: Our 21st century economy needs big ideas to
equalize power. As a New York Times piece explains,
economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez have changed the 2020
policy landscape with their work on wealth
taxes, which they say would reduce inequality and
help fund public goods like universal health care and free college.
“It’s a very different debate, and now we’re having it on Saez and
Zucman’s terms,” Roosevelt President & CEO Felicia Wong tells the
NYT. Read
on.
 The Flawed
Economics of PAYGO
Facing once-in-a-generation
challenges, including the climate crisis and crumbling infrastructure,
the US must also tackle a major budgeting roadblock: PAYGO (or “pay as
you go”). As the Roosevelt Institute and Congressional Progressive
Caucus Center write in a new factsheet, this congressional budget rule
“requires any legislation that raises spending on entitlement programs
or cuts taxes to be offset with either tax increases or spending cuts
elsewhere in the budget”—a misguided approach to debt and deficits
that “make[s] it harder for policymakers to deploy expansionary fiscal
policy, even when the economy desperately needs more demand.”
Read
more.
 Clean Slate for Worker
Power
In a New York Times Magazine piece, Emily Bazelon charts the history of
the National Labor Relations Act, the National Labor Relations Board,
and business attacks on unions. The solution: a
worker power agenda. “In January, Clean Slate for Worker Power, a coalition of more
than 70 participants from labor, academia and nonprofit organizations
brought together by Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program,
released proposed reforms that would extend the NLRA’s protections to
agricultural and domestic workers as well as independent contractors
and also give all workers a say in how companies are run.”
Read
on.
 How the Black Panthers Paved the Way for New
Progressivism
As Roosevelt Fellow Naomi Zewde writes
for the blog, new progressivism owes much to the trailblazing example
of the original Black Panther Party’s 10-point
program. From a
federal job guarantee to universal basic income, many current
progressive policy priorities trace their origins to the 1960’s and
'70’s movement. “As we should remember this Black History Month—and
every month—Black Americans have had a remarkable vantage point from
which to view the importance of equity, good society, and reliable
social programs. New progressivism in the 21st century would not be
the same without their historic leadership.” Read
more.
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