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Progress Report
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News, events, and must-read analysis from the Progressive Policy Institute.
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** Democrats in Congress, not courts or GOP, must address climate — a good bill is waiting
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By Paul Bledsoe, PPI's Strategic Advisor
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The Supreme Court decision this week to restrict federal regulatory authority over carbon dioxide emissions from power plants should provide Democrats in Congress the last impetus they need to finally act on comprehensive climate change legislation. And they no longer have excuses for inaction, since Democrats have now, after decades of missteps, managed to create a climate plan that is both politically popular and effective policy.
For most of the last 30 years, Democrats in Congress have bungled the issue. Valuable clean energy policies have passed as half measures, but Congress has always balked at major policies needed to limit emissions and create powerful incentives for large private sector investments in a clean energy economy. Twice, in 1993 and 2010, House Democrats pursued carbon pricing, the favored policy of economists everywhere and nightmare for Democratic political operatives anywhere. But, each time, the Senate was unable to gain the needed votes for what amounted to politically unpopular energy tax hikes, and Democrats lost their large House majorities in mid-term elections following both attempts.
After the “cap and trade” carbon pricing bill and the 2010 election debacle in which Democrats lost a net of 63 House members, six Senate seats, six Governors and 720 state legislative seats, the Obama administration and its environmental allies decided to instead create complicated regulations requiring each state to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
But the regulations were expansive, viewed by many legal experts as stretching regulatory authority to the breaking point, and in 2015 they suffered an unprecedented stay by the Supreme Court without ever going into effect. Indeed, it was that regulatory overreach that prompted a even greater counter-overreach by the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court this week. The court chose not just to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority over power plant emissions, but insisted that there must be an ultra-explicit, “clear congressional authorization” for almost any nuance of rule-making, a nearly impossible standard given fast-changing realities of the complex energy marketplace, not to mention climate change dynamics.
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** PPI in the News
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Paul Bledsoe, PPI's Strategic Advisor featured in Politico: The climate clock is ticking for Dems
⮕ Politico ([link removed])
Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets featured in Nikkei Asia: Southeast Asia manufacturers sweat as U.S. mulls tougher tariff rules
⮕ Nikkei Asia ([link removed])
Arielle Kane, PPI's Director Health Care: Rethinking Health Insurance: Can Price Transparency and Cash Pay Help Consumers?
⮕ PPI ([link removed])
Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute featured in the New York Times: The Vanishing Moderate Democrat
⮕ New York Times ([link removed])
Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute featured in the Merion West: Will Marshall: Where are the Moderates?
⮕ Merion West ([link removed])
Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Funding America's Future featured in Business Insider Africa: Senate Democrats are edging closer to a deal with Manchin to resurrect Biden's economic agenda. They'll face Sinema next.
⮕ Business Insider Africa ([link removed])
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** The issue that trumps them all
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By Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute
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As the July 4 holiday approaches, Americans can be forgiven for taking a break from today’s incendiary politics of partisan hatred and performative outrage. But it’s also the right occasion for citizens to think about their duty to reinforce the rules that make our democracy work.
Polls show rampant inflation is the voters’ top concern in this midterm election year. But it won’t be the most important issue on the ballot.
More consequential than soaring prices, crime, climate change or any other pressing national problem is the resilience of our constitutional framework for self-government. If it cracks under pressure from political extremists, we can kiss our liberties and democracy goodbye.
Illiberal ideas and crackbrain conspiracy theories flourish across the political spectrum. But only one political party is colluding with a rogue ex-president’s plot to tear down our constitutional system. The Republican Party’s surrender to MAGA delusions and fanaticism is the biggest threat to our republic, trumping all other election issues.
Last week’s Supreme Court rulings on abortion and guns also underscored the GOP’s win-at-all-costs determination to use the federal government’s least democratic branch to impose rightwing dogma on the country.
Thanks to the meticulous work of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, we know that top Trump administration and campaign officials told their boss he had lost the 2020 election. He schemed to nullify the people’s verdict anyway, cynically asking one of them, “What do I have to lose?”
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Listen Up
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RADICALLY PRAGMATIC:
Dueling Decisions the
Fight for Gun Safety
On a new episode of Radically Pragmatic, PPI’s Director of Health Care Arielle Kane sits down with Everytown for Gun Safety’s Legal Director Jonas Oransky to discuss the latest developments in the bipartisan movement to pass gun safety legislation. Their conversation comes as President Biden signs a new bipartisan gun safety bill into law — the first in almost 30 years — against the backdrop of horrific mass shootings and a dangerous reversal of commonsense gun laws from the U.S. Supreme Court.
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THE NEOLIBERAL PODCAST:
Should we build more public housing?
ft. Paul William
Left-leaning housing activists often discuss public housing as a solution to the housing shortage, but is this a good idea? Jeremiah and public housing advocate Paul Williams debate the role public housing should play in our response to the housing crisis. Does public housing have advantages over private housing? Is public housing usually lower quality than market-rate housing, and if so who's to blame? Can we build public housing in a cost-effective way? Are subsidies for private housing preferable if we want to help low income people? We discuss all this and more!
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