Friday, January 17th, 2020

Op-Ed: Pragmatic Democrats Find Their Voice Will Marshall, PPI President It’s time for straight talk with Democratic voters: If you want to dump Trump, your job isn’t to choose your ideological soulmate, it’s to vote for the candidate who has the best chance of beating him in the Electoral College. Such political realism has been in short supply since the debates got underway last June. READ MORE

Democrats Finally Debated The Deficit. What Did They Say? Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Funding America's Future, for Forbes The discussion finally started after moderator Abby Phillip asked Sen. Bernie Sanders how he would finance his proposals to double existing federal spending. Several candidates weighed in, offering insight into how their management of the federal budget would differ from one another, as well as with President Trump. How Would the Democratic Candidates Re-Invigorate Entrepreneurship? Dane Stangler, Director of Policy Innovation Democratic candidates should be asked to speak about the economic—and social—importance of entrepreneurship in American history. How, at the very moment that the American entrepreneurial spirit appears to be in trouble, would they reinvigorate that legacy?

2019 Was Officially Trump’s First Trillion-Dollar Deficit. Will Democrats Debate It? Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Funding America's Future, for Forbes It’s official: the Trump administration spent $1 trillion more in 2019 than it raised in revenue. That deficit is 50% larger than the deficit in 2017, which was President Trump’s first year in office, and represents the first calendar-year deficit to top $1 trillion since 2012. READ MORE

Flashback Friday: The first Democratic debate of 2020 is next week: Guess what won’t be talked about? Dane Stangler, Director of Policy Innovation Because the United States is enduring what some researchers call a “startup deficit.” Business creation, by most measures, is at historically low levels. High-growth firms — which contribute disproportionately to job creation, productivity, and innovation — have grown rarer. READ MORE

New Report: The Slowdown in American Entrepreneurship: How Would a Democratic President Respond – And What Should Be Done? During the December debate, entrepreneurship was mentioned roughly zero times. The sole mention of business creation was by Sen. Elizabeth Warren in talking about her plan to erase most student loan debt. The only time the word “entrepreneurship” was actually uttered was when Andrew Yang talked about serving as “an ambassador of entrepreneurship” during the Obama administration. READ THE NEW REPORT

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