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**OCTOBER 13, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

The Good News in the Bad News

How Joe Biden and the Democrats can still seize this moment

You have to wonder if God has it in for Joe Biden and the Democrats.

After a terrific first six months when normally fractious Democrats
grasped the stakes (losing Congress in 2022; Trump president again; end
of U.S. democracy), the self-indulgent corporate splinter of the
Democratic Congress is still holding Biden hostage; Republicans who
block everything are getting a free ride in the media; and Biden's
approval ratings are tanking.

It's a bad sign that Rep. John Yarmuth, a rare progressive chair of
the House Budget Committee, has announced early retirement. Sounds like
a man worried that Dems will lose control of Congress.

Now, in case we needed more bad news, inflation keeps accelerating. That
will cause the stock market to fall, producing more stories of a stalled
recovery and a failed presidency.

There are new bottlenecks of supplies raising prices to producers and
consumers. One of the sharpest price hikes is in energy, which is the
result mainly of logistical problems. This in turn will produce a
backlash against conversion to a post-carbon economy, just in time for
the Glasgow climate meetings.

Uh, so where's the good news?

First, with all the focus on messed-up supply chains, anticipated in the
superb White House report

of last June, Biden will have a lot more credibility when he moves
proactively to reshore U.S. industry and regulate ports.

The supply chain crisis also makes the case for a better-regulated
economy. There were no such bottlenecks when trucking was regulated and
teamsters were well paid. Shortages of truck drivers were unheard-of.

Inflationary worries also make it less likely that Jay Powell will be
reappointed to chair the Fed. Biden needs a true monetary and
full-employment dove, who happens to be Lael Brainard.

One more bit of hope: A hanging concentrates the mind. Maybe now the
handful of corporate Dems who are holding up Biden's program will get
serious about a final bargain.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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The Undignified Demise of Centrism

Centrist Democrats may force changes to the Build Back Better Act, but
their rationale as a political orientation has disintegrated. BY
ALEXANDER SAMMON

Will Congress Tax the Rich to Finance Build Back Better?

How to pay for Biden's program is as important as how much we spend
and what we spend it on. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

The Restaurant-to-Cannabis Pipeline
For many
service workers, COVID-19 provided the opportunity to leave food retail
and take up employment in the cannabis industry. BY LIZZIE TRIBONE

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