Democrats: Don't just declare a climate emergency — make clean energy a winning campaign issue

The decision by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to walk away from more than a year of negotiations over a landmark clean energy legislation is a bitter pill for President Biden and other Democrats who made passing effective climate change legislation a leading promise to voters. But they shouldn’t give up. After decades of pushing politically problematic policies like energy taxes that lost them elections and couldn’t get enacted, Democrats have actually finally produced the right climate policy approach: large, direct clean energy tax breaks for consumers and businesses that are hugely popular with voters.

But with Americans preoccupied over record inflation, COVID-19, and an uncertain economy, climate change itself is the top concern of only 1 percent of voters. This means that, if they can’t pass the bill before November, Democrats must make the anti-inflationary, job creation and other economic benefits of clean energy legislation a major campaign issue in the upcoming midterm election to increase their majorities in Congress — and pass a major clean energy and climate bill in January.
 

Making Sense of America's Chronic Disease Epidemic 

President Biden and lawmakers in both parties recently laid out proposals to slash Americans' out-of-pocket spending on insulin, which millions of patients -- especially seniors -- rely on to manage their diabetes. Diabetes affects about one in four U.S. adults over 65, and access to insulin is a matter of life and death for many of those patients. So, these proposals could offer literally lifesaving relief to many Americans.

These cost-reduction measures for insulin are immensely promising. But they raise a key question: Why limit the co-pay price caps to just insulin? Six in 10 U.S. adults live with at least one chronic condition and four in 10 are living with two or more. For seniors on Medicare, chronic disease prevalence is even higher and, for millions with fixed incomes, out-of-pocket costs are increasingly problematic.

If the proposed $35-a-month co-pay cap makes sense for insulin — and it does — why not implement the same policies for medicines that treat asthma, hypertension, and other common chronic conditions and focus on Medicare where chronic diseases are so prevalent?