Hi friend --

“Trump strips Biden’s options to boost the economy.”

That’s the recent POLITICO headline that caught our eye. It made us want to read more -- and the summary? Trump is having his Treasury Secretary end the emergency lending programs started during the coronavirus before Biden takes office. That means Biden’s administration will only have a tiny sliver of funds to work with -- as POLITICO reports, “[Trump’s Treasury Secretary] Mnuchin has now moved to significantly reduce the pot of money that’s going to be available to lend.”

Biden can still help the country heal. President Obama succeeded in passing a massive stimulus even though he took over from a Republican president who didn’t share his economic ideology. But even then, George W. Bush left it up to President Obama on how best to handle the relief; Trump is outright sandbagging any option Biden might have.

And that’s not all. Per POLITICO, “Biden's problems will be compounded by the scheduled expiration of millions of Americans’ unemployment benefits at the end of the year, including many who were spared from eviction by a moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that runs out at the same time.” The blame should fall on the GOP Senate that failed to extend these benefits during the election -- but instead, it’ll probably fall on Biden’s shoulders.

When you combine that with the unprecedented levels of gridlock Biden is likely to face, you get a recipe for disaster. We want to work to dismantle all the obstacles that Republicans have built to try to dishearten, discourage, and disarm our president-elect -- but our work to push for progressive legislation and leaders goes much further when we have the funding to match.

Right now, we don’t. That’s why we’re reaching out to you. No president should have to start from behind the 8-ball -- but that’s exactly the position Trump and his allies have put Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in.

 

Please, will you chip in whatever you can to help us dissolve the barriers to progressive change that Republicans have been furiously building ever since they learned Biden was going to be our next commander-in-chief? Let’s level the playing field -- for our next president, his policy agenda, and all the Democrats working with him in Congress -- and not let the GOP declare the Biden presidency over before it begins. There’s still so much good we can do in the next four years. All of us just need to do our part in accomplishing it.

 

 

Thank you so, so much for doing yours.

Progressive Majority

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