ICYMI – Ben Ritz for the New York Times:
Joe Manchin Has Given Democrats a Chance to Save Their Agenda

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia seemingly dealt a terrible setback to President Biden’s agenda on Sunday, when he told Bret Baier of Fox News that he could not support the version of the Build Back Better Act passed by the House last month. Although Democrats were rightfully frustrated by the way in which Mr. Manchin expressed his concerns, he was raising a valid critique: This bill was deeply flawed, and the “compromises” his colleagues made did nothing to address the concerns he has been consistently raising since this summer.

Other Democrats may not realize it, but Mr. Manchin may well have given them a gift. They should’ve gone back to the drawing board months ago, when it first became clear that their budgetary gimmickry was turning the bill into a confusing mess. Now, they will have to — and if they revise the bill to cut the number of programs they propose while making the ones they do propose permanent and easier for Americans to navigate, it could deliver Democrats both lasting policy change and the political victory they so desperately need.

Joe Manchin Has Given Democrats
a Chance to Save Their Agenda
by Ben Ritz, Director of PPI's 
Center for Funding America's Future 
for The New York Times

WSJ: Biden’s Worker-First Trade Policy Rankles Foreign Partners

The pursuit of the worker-centric policy could come at the expense of establishing U.S. global leadership on trade, said Ed Gresser, a former senior policy official for the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office during the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations.

“The administration wants to show America’s back,” said Mr. Gresser, now vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank. “It will be much harder to achieve that if what we’re seeing is the U.S. not participating in trade policy discussions and remaining in more nationalistic and more fearful mode.”

⮕ WSJ


Insider: Biden wanted to build back better, but Manchin shot down his signature $2 trillion bill, preserving America as it is for now

"Democrats have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve American society, not just for a few years, but permanently," Ben Ritz, a budget expert at the centrist Progressive Policy Institute, wrote in a New York Times op-ed. "Doing so would give them some clear victories they can point to with voters that lay the groundwork for future success."

⮕ Insider


The Hill: Democrats look to scale back Biden bill to get it passed

Democratic lawmakers, lobbyists and experts at think tanks believe Manchin might be won over if the bill is revised to include fewer programs for a longer period of time.

“That is the way forward here,” said Ben Ritz, director of the Center for Funding America’s Future at the Progressive Policy Institute, who has advocated for a bill with fewer items. 

“Most of the party is starting to come around to that,” Ritz added.

⮕ The Hill

ICYMI - On this Radically Pragmatic episode, Paul Bledsoe, author of a new PPI report titled "The Role of Natural Gas in Limiting European Union Emissions: Key Opportunities to Cut Methane, Coal and CO2" sits down to explain the major implications for U.S. and global climate policy, as well as some of the key recommendations from the report. 

What exactly are Organ Procurement Organizations? And how are so many of them failing and stopping Americans from getting the organs they need?  Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-8) and Jennifer Erickson join the podcast to talk about reforming America's system for organ donation. When 90% of Americans approve of organ donation, why do we still have critical shortages of so many organs? And what can we do to change things? Listen to find out!