Update 510 — In Tanden’s Wake:State of Noms for OMB, SEC, CFPB Late last night, President Biden withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), leaving an opening at an agency that will play a crucial role in defining the Biden economic agenda. Reports suggest that Shalanda Young, …
Update 509 — Regular Disorder on the Hill:House to Vote on Wage Hike Nixed in Senate Late last night, the Senate parliamentarian ruled the Democrats’ bill to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour ineligible for the $1.9 trillion reconciliation package. The House is expected to vote on the package tonight, with the wage hike, adopt …
Update 508 — Recovery Still “Uncertain,”Powell Reminds Congress, Citing Jobs Lag In his first appearance before the 117th Congress, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell presented the semi-annual Monetary Policy Report in hearings before Senate Banking yesterday and House Financial Services today. Powell depicted an economy still suffering from the pandemic and warned of risk of …
Update 507 — Don’t Improvise, FiscalizeThe Politics of the Minimum Wage Hike A long-awaited, much-debated provision in President Biden’s stimulus package, raising the minimum wage to $15/hour after a decade of stasis, has emerged as a sticking point in negotiations in Congress. Last week, the House Education and Labor Committee successfully inserted the provision in …
Update 506: Ask Students, Is Debt Certain? Now for Something Completely Academic… Amid the impeachment trial in the Senate — with the defense just having rested its case — and unrelenting and unaddressed pandemic needs unabated in the country, we stop to look at a now-endemic economic crisis: the student debt burden. A $1.7 trillion problem, …
Update 505 — The 117th Congressand Democrats’ Harmonic Majorities For the first time since 2010, Democrats have full control of Congress and the White House — an opportunity that doesn’t come often but comes at just the right time. Last time around, the Obama Administration was able to pass the Dodd-Frank Act and landmark legislation …
Update 504 – Recovery Robust or Go-Bust?What’s at Stake in $1.9 Tr. Covid Relief Bill On Wednesday, the House passed a budget resolution for fiscal year 2021, and this morning, following an all-night ‘vote-a-rama,’ the Senate advanced the resolution. These are the first steps in the reconciliation process allowing Democrats to pass President Biden’s $1.9 …
Update 503 – Democrats’ Trifecta:The Healing Power of Reconciliation With a Democratic trifecta of now-unified majorities in both chambers of Congress and control of the White House, the new administration has political math on its side in efforts to deliver legislative results and needed COVID relief for weary and sceptical Americans. Democrats will rely on …
Update 502 – 2020 GDP Drop of 3.5%Really Hits Home… Owners & Renters The economy shrank by 3.5 percent in 2020, the largest contraction since 1946 and the first annual decline since 2009. Consumer spending specifically took a major hit, decreasing from Q3 to Q4 — an alarming anomaly and a reminder that disposable income, …
Update 501 – H.R. 1/S. 1’s Case for Primacy:Democracy Distorted, Thwarted is Denied The gold standard in democracy is one person one vote and a legislature where 50 percent-plus rules. But recent outcomes in our elections have violated these principles with distorted consequences. In the most egregious case, House Democratic candidates won more than a …
