New: Battleground Poll Highlights Reconciliation Challenges

As House Democrats start work on a massive, $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, a new Expedition Strategies poll offers timely insights into how a pivotal group of voters view President Biden’s ambitious “Build Back Better” agenda.

The findings suggest Biden and Congressional Democrats should focus public attention on the broad economic benefits of the reconciliation bill rather than social equity and be flexible about the ultimate size and cost of the spending package.

Commissioned by the Progressive Policy Institute, the poll surveyed voters in 44 battleground House Districts and eight states likely to have competitive Senate races in next year’s midterm elections. “What happens in these critical swing districts and states will determine whether Democrats can enlarge their slender House and Senate majorities or yield control to the Republicans,” said PPI President Will Marshall.

“There’s encouraging news for President Biden and the Democrats here, but also grounds for proceeding cautiously on the reconciliation spending package,” he added. “Battleground voters are worried about piling up debt on young working families.”

Battleground Poll Highlights Reconciliation Challenges
PPI Press

On this week’s Radically Pragmatic Podcast, Dr. Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), sits down with Representative Bill Foster (IL-11), to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of work.

Dr. Mandel and Representative Foster discuss the diffusion of technological innovations for individual consumers and small businesses, the role of government in privacy, and the work Congress is doing to advance pro-growth policies that will help spur innovation. In particular, they underscored the urgent need to help small businesses adopt AI and meet the numerous challenges they face.

With gigantic infrastructure bills making their way through Congress, Neoliberal Podcast host Jeremiah Johnson outlines a vision of what a neoliberal infrastructure package should look like.

Which types of "hard infrastructure" are most valuable? What about the "soft infrastructure," or new social welfare spending? Which parts of these bills deserve even more funding, and should any parts be dropped? And how should these bills be paid for?

All that and more as the podcast lays down how neoliberals should think about infrastructure spending.