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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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** How to stop Putin in Ukraine
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By Will Marshall, President of the Progress Policy Institute
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Six months after invading Ukraine, not much has gone right for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. But it’s dangerous for despots to admit defeat, so he’s doubling down on death and destruction in hopes of salvaging something he can call a win.

Having failed to topple Ukraine’s government or overwhelm its highly motivated defense forces on the ground, Putin is settling into a grinding war of attrition, featuring World War II-style leveling of cities and terror attacks on civilians.

His aim is to seize more land along Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders that adjoin territories already contested by pro-Russian separatists following Putin’s 2014 incursion. U.S. officials expect Moscow to declare its intent to “annex” the conquered terrain, just as it did with Crimea.

In this way, Putin would have something to show Russians for the horrendous butcher’s bill he’s running up. CIA Director William Burns last week estimated that 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far and as many as 45,000 have been wounded.

Since Ukraine is fiercely resisting its piecemeal dismemberment and occupation by Russia, the fighting could continue indefinitely. Putin shows no interest in negotiating an end to the war, either because he still believes he can break Ukraine or, more likely, because he thinks a military stalemate works in his favor.
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** New from the Experts
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PPI Statement on Final Passage of Chips and Science Act
⮕ PPI ([link removed])

PPI Statement on Reconciliation Breakthrough
⮕ PPI ([link removed])

Democrats Might Actually Pass a Climate Change Bill ft. PPI's Strategic Advisor Paul Bledsoe
⮕ VICE News ([link removed])

Fears over US energy security help unlock historic $369bn climate bill, ft. PPI's Strategic Advisor Paul Bledsoe
⮕ Financial Times ([link removed])

How Bernie Sanders and conservatives united against US semiconductor bill ft. PPI's Vice President and Chief Economist Michael Mandel
⮕ The Guardian ([link removed])

Jordan Shapiro, PPI's Economic and Data Policy Analyst: Digital Privacy in America: How does the ADPPA fit into global privacy legislation?
⮕ PPI ([link removed])

Emily Stowers, PPI's Public Policy Intern: Digital Documents as a Tool for Inclusion
⮕ PPI ([link removed])

ICYMI: PPI Statement on Reconciliation Breakthrough

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July 28, 2022

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) released the following statement on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022:

“PPI applauds Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for returning to the negotiating table and agreeing on a historic reconciliation bill that would invest in clean energy, lower the cost of health care, and modestly reduce federal budget deficits. This bill advances precisely the kind of pro-growth, innovative climate policy that PPI has been calling for throughout the process and that America needs. It will not only spur new investments, create jobs, reduce emissions, and critically lower the cost of living for millions of Americans, but also strengthen our country’s economic future for generations to come.

“This deal is a major step forward for Congressional Democrats and the American people, and while it does not include as many legislative priorities as the original framework, PPI is encouraged to see a few well-funded programs that will result in transformational change rather than a broad progressive wish list. We are also encouraged that the deal includes a plan for taking up additional legislation to reform federal permitting processes later this year, which has long been a PPI priority.

“This package isn’t perfect. It doesn’t close the Medicaid coverage gap, or permanently fix the ACA subsidy cliff. More deficit reduction would have strengthened the legislation’s inflation-fighting potential. But the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good, especially when Democrats have an ideologically diverse caucus with no votes to spare in the Senate. Democrats should take the win now and continue to work on making further progress in these areas next Congress.

“Together with the CHIPS and Science Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will cement President Biden’s legacy of the largest increase in domestic public investment in modern history. Democrats in both chambers should act quickly and decisively to advance these bills and secure a stronger future for all Americans.”
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** The government has no place in building, operating its own broadband
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By Lindsay Lewis, PPI's Executive Director
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Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous quote that “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger” is only true, at least in politics, if you learn from your mistakes. And last year was a teachable moment for Democrats.

Democratic leaders missed huge opportunities on election reform (including the all-important Electoral Count Act), climate change, police reform, the right kind of immigration reform and much else, all because their eyes were too big, packages were too ambitious and most of all because they refused to say “no” to the extremist purity tests of the party’s hard left. Build Back Better was sacrificed on that altar.

Success requires tapering untested grandiosities and selling commonsense ideas to the 70% or so of the public that reject the extremes of the hard right and the hard left.

Did Democrats learn the lesson? It’s not yet clear, but by the look of things on the one major bipartisan issue of 2021 — broadband and infrastructure — the jury is out.
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Climate Change: Congress Needs to Act Now
By Paul Bledsoe, PPI's Strategic Advisor

Re: “Climate Change Is Not Negotiable” ([link removed]) (editorial, Sunday Opinion, July 24):

Federal regulations have been a crucial part of U.S. efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions over the last 30 years. But such regulations are increasingly subject to reversal by Republican presidents and a radical right-wing Supreme Court, dramatically limiting their effectiveness.

Today, only comprehensive action by Congress can ensure the deep reductions in emissions needed for the United States to lead the world toward climate protection.

The good news is that after decades of politically problematic policies like energy taxes, which lost them elections and couldn’t get enacted, Democrats have finally in the last few days produced the right climate policy approach: large, direct clean energy tax breaks for consumers and businesses that are hugely popular with voters.
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Listen Up

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RADICALLY PRAGMATIC:

What Role Does Natural Gas Play in Meeting Global Energy and Climate Goals?

On this week's 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. The report calls for an international effort to accurately verify and monitor methane emissions from domestic and imported gas and then regulate emissions to as close to zero as possible.
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THE NEOLIBERAL PODCAST:
Russia's attack on Ukraine and Liberal Democracy
In this episode, he talks about what this means for liberal democracy globally, Russia's contempt for international norms and how they abuse claims of "genocide" or "Nazism," the international struggle between authoritarianism and liberalism, and why so many on both the right and the left fell for Russian talking points in the lead up to the invasion.

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