ICYMI:
Paul Bledsoe for The Hill: One year later, Trump's 'Big Lie' still dominates GOP

On this first anniversary of the Donald Trump-inspired insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last Jan. 6 during which five people died, we find the Republican Party speeding toward a new identity as the “ReTrumplican Party.”

What began in the late 1850s as political movement dedicated to high moral values like expanding the right to vote and opposing the spread of slavery has become a party defined by restricting the right to vote, especially for minorities, and insisting on a litmus test of lies. The party of Honest Abe has in effect become the party of Truth-free Trump.

Just hours after the armed assault on the Capitol of Jan. 6, two thirds of House Republicans — 139 in all — voted to still overturn the 2020 election results, swallowing Trump’s “stolen election” falsehood whole and participating in the subversion their constitutional duty. They were joined in this malfeasance by another eight Republican Senators.

One year later, Trump's 'Big Lie' still dominates GOP
by Paul Bledsoe, PPI Strategic Adviser
for The Hill

Washington Post: Manchin’s $1.8 trillion spending offer appears no longer to be on the table

"A $1.8 trillion package along the lines of what Manchin offered last month would be one of the most transformative, progressive pieces of legislation in modern history,” said Ben Ritz, a budget expert at the Progressive Policy Institute, a D.C. think tank. “The White House should absolutely take it if they can.”
⮕ WaPo


The Policy Times: Foreign partners are rankled with Biden’s worker-first trade policy

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


The Hill: Climate advocates hopeful after Manchin spending comments

Progressive Policy Institute strategic adviser Paul Bledsoe called divisions on those issues “smaller,” however. Bledsoe, who served as the director of communications for the White House climate change task force during the Clinton administration, also said the provisions in the bill have remained “incredibly robust.” The current language “would be, by far, the largest jump-start to the U.S. clean energy and global clean energy economy ever conducted,” he said.
⮕ The Hill

On a new episode of Radically Pragmatic, PPI’s Mosaic Economic Project examines the findings of the 2021 Greater New Orleans Startup Report.

The episode explores topics such as the growth, resiliency, and economic sustainability of New Orleans – including the effects of increased remote work options – and dives into solutions to bridge gaps in race and gender equity in critical areas from entrepreneurship to COVID relief.

On the one year anniversary of the armed insurrection and invasion of the US Capitol, what is the state of American democracy? 

Host Jeremiah Johnson explores how the GOP base and GOP officials are still in thrall to Donald Trump, the steps the GOP is taking to potentially subvert the 2024 presidential election, and how worried you should be about America's future democratic prospects.