President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have the opportunity to make profound history, to make "2021 to be one of the greatest years of progressive accomplishment in the past century," in the words of Gene Sperling, economist, and former Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Biden's plan for pandemic recovery could cut child poverty in half in 2021—this year. It could provide health insurance to millions still without it. It would increase they pay for low-income workers and provide assistance to working-class and middle-class families. It would finally start balancing the scales of income inequality in America, potentially ending this second gilded.
"There's more Democratic unity than ever on taking bold steps on an economic dignity compact," Sperling told CNN. There's more danger for Republics, too. Many of the provisions in the $1.9 COVID-19 relief plan Congress is now drafting have been supported by Republicans, including the fulfillment of Trump's $2,000 survival check promise, cut by Republican negotiators late last year to $600. Democrats intend to send out the remaining $1,400. It provides funding to obtain and distribute vaccines, to help schools reopen, to increase testing, to all sorts of things Republicans have already voted for, with decent majorities.
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Now that all that is being pushed by a Democratic president however they're balking, and most definitely putting themselves on the wrong side of history. Nearly half a million people have died, the economy is in shambles, and millions are unemployed and hurting. The Biden package remains popular—the brand new Daily Kos/Civiqs poll gives it 54% approval, and 70% support sending at least $1,400 in coronavirus relief to most Americans (24% say the payment should exceed $1,400).
The House is planning to have their work done and on the floor by the end of next week, which gives House Republicans sometime to think about the potential consequences of their opposition to it while they're back home presumably meeting with and talking to constituents. It will also give some of those "moderate" Democrats who are considering derailing the bill—in the name of . . . unity? With Republicans?—like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin that same opportunity.
It would look particularly bad for any Democrat to get in the way of this package which has the strong support of some Republican mayors and governors. If they really need bipartisan cover to do the right thing, well there it is. "It's not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue," Jerry Dyer, the Republican mayor of Fresno California Dyer, said. "It's a public health issue. It's an economic issue. And it's a public safety issue."
It's a survival issue, in the immediate term. It's also damn smart politics to be the party that pulls off the greatest rebalancing of the economic scales in generations. There's no political or economic downside here to providing health insurance to 10 million people. To raising the minimum wage and providing a larger Earned Income Tax Credit to low-income workers. To sending families with children monthly assistance to help pay for child care, for food, for rent—for whatever living expenses families have to meet. To having a population that's more economically secure, and more productive in the long run. To start repairing the social safety net make it strong enough to catch everyone without fraying and letting people slip through.
This is a profound opportunity for Democrats, the surest way to repeat the political success the party had in the Georgia Senate races this year. Democrats are in a position to make these strides forward for the nation because they promised voters in Georgia that was precisely what they would do. Fulfilling that promise is imperative.