No Better Adults are Going to Save Us, US(A)
Newsletter 35: Sadly, these are the leaders we have. Americans need to whip them into trying more and failing less.
There is no escaping the genuine tragedy of this moment. Nearly 50,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in this country alone--and that number is almost certainly a massive undercount. Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and even more are unsure of how they will keep food on the table or a roof over their heads in the months to come. Others are putting themselves in harm’s way in frontline industries because they can’t afford not to. Although we seem to be on track to avert the worst-case scenario for fatalities, Trump is seemingly doing everything possible to steer us off that path and onto a far more dangerous one.
Meanwhile, as the vast majority of the country suffers, the President and his friends in corporate America are doing everything they can to seize an even greater share of the pie. Republican lawmakers are eagerly donning their old deficit hawk-fits to prepare to once again impose wrenching austerity measures on the masses.
Congressional Oversight
This combination of bad circumstances, incompetence, and plain contempt is downright infuriating, but what has us feeling the most dispirited of late is the notable dearth of people in power who are fighting back. At no point have we been shy in our assessment that the new House Democratic majority has not lived up to its promise to act as a check on Trump. Its current abdication of duty, however, represents an entirely new, heretofore unimaginable, low.
Just look, for example, at the stimulus 3.5 measure the House is set to pass today. Democrats agreed to top up the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) without fixing any of its alarming flaws or winning almost any concessions on supposed “priorities.” The bill includes a modest sum for hospitals and testing, but leaves out funding for vote by mail, a post office bailout, help for state and local governments and, critically, safeguards to make sure this lawless administration actually sees that any of it gets done. And now, just as stimulus 3.5 is being finished, McConnell is signalling that a “phase four” stimulus (where House Democrats have assured us they will finally get their outstanding asks) may be a longtime coming.
Losing round after round of negotiations is apparently a time-consuming endeavor because few lawmakers are finding the time to pay attention to the astounding miscarriage of law and decency occurring daily within the executive branch and in corporate board rooms (Rep. Katie Porter, as usual, stands out as a notable exception to this dismal reality). We are doing our best to keep track of those incidents that demand Congress’ attention in this twitter thread. After only a couple of weeks, we are already fast approaching triple digits. We are also growing more and more disheartened that almost none of these problems seem to be eliciting a real response from Congress.
It would be wrong not to acknowledge the formidable obstacles facing Democratic representatives who want to do more to help regular people, through either legislation or oversight. We are not, primarily, talking about Senate Republicans’ obstinance nor the administration’s intransigence, but of the roadblocks that House Democratic leadership is erecting. Almost a month after fleeing the District with no set return date, the House still has not set up mechanisms for remote voting or remote hearings. For a brief moment, it appeared that a set of proposals for remote operations would get a vote yesterday, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi soon intervened, cancelling the vote and promising to create a bipartisan commission to settle the matter instead.
Overall, it’s getting harder and harder to avoid the conclusion that Pelosi et al. aren’t actually interested in holding the president accountable or adequately responding to this crisis. Take, for example, her decision to pass over Rep. Katie Porter (an expert in financial regulation who was actively lobbying for the job) to appoint Rep. Donna Shalala to the bailout oversight commission. Not only does Shalala lack any relevant financial regulatory expertise, but at the time of the announcement, it appeared likely that she was invested in many companies that were eligible for bailout funds. It turns out that Shalala had sold these holdings since the time of her most recent financial disclosure but that she failed to disclose these sales in mandatory transaction reports, leaving her in violation of a federal law called the STOCK Act. Needless to say, this leaves her ill-suited to serve on the oversight commission which is why we, along with Demand Progress, are calling for her to resign from the body.
By sitting on the sidelines now, Congress is not only forfeiting its say over what happens in this moment, but far into the future. The Paycheck Protection Program’s ill-conceived design will likely accelerate consolidation by speeding small businesses’ decline. The lack of real oversight over the bailout programs will allow corporations to get away with all manner of abuse. The failure to come to state and municipalities’ aid will cause deep, lasting harm and have ripple effects that we can’t fully anticipate. And the failure to challenge the Trump administration’s ever bolder encroachments (for a truly terrifying example, read this piece on a Trump appointee's desire to abolish the merit system for the civil service to replace it with an army of Trump loyalists) will have consequences we dare not even speculate on.
2020 (and Potentially 2021)
Elsewhere, Democratic nominee Joe Biden is beginning to lay the groundwork for what comes next should he win in November. At a virtual fundraiser last week, Biden indicated that transition planning was underway and had been for several weeks. He declined, however, to say who was leading the effort.
Biden’s transition team will, by definition, shape his administration and with it the country. It will make decisions about who fills spots from Cabinet-level positions on down and what priorities will sit at the top of the next administration’s to do list. These are, in other words, positions of great power that should not, under any circumstances, be shrouded in secrecy. In a recently released report, Public Citizen lays out “Six Steps to a Healthy Transition,” which includes the recommendation that,
Transition teams should promptly name all people who are brought on to do work for them, whether they are paid or unpaid, as well as those individuals’ employers and clients of the past two years. This information should be readily accessible to the public on the Internet in a searchable, sortable and downloadable database that would be maintained in perpetuity.
We couldn’t agree more!
But in the absence of such transparency, the Biden team can be sure that a growing number of progressive groups will be watching closely for clues among his donors, bundlers, and advisers (keep an eye out for more on this from us soon!). Now, perhaps more than ever, groups on the left are attuned to the old maxim “personnel is policy” and are ready to make their voices heard on this front. For those particularly interested in tech policy, check out our Max Moran’s piece in Washington Monthly on “How Big Tech is Preparing for a Biden Administration.”
Many were likely happy to learn last week that Bernie Sanders is pushing a slate of qualified names for inclusion on the Biden campaign’s new policy task forces. Among those mentioned were Darrick Hamilton, Stephanie Kelton, Gabriel Zucman, and Bonnie Castillo (who, it should be noted, was among those named in the #youthvote letter earlier this month). Most importantly, none of the names that surfaced had any compromising ties to regulated industries (another of the young progressive groups’ demands). And while we don’t yet know how the policy task forces will interface with transition efforts, it seems likely that members will be prime candidates for jobs in the next administration.
Independent Agencies
With Congress out of session, there has, unsurprisingly, been little movement on independent agency nominations. That means there’s still no one at the Merit Systems Protection Board to safeguard civil servants (who as we already highlighted, are under increasing threat). There are also, still no Democrats on the National Labor Relations Board, meaning there was no loud dissenting voice when the board chose to suspend all union elections last month (because now doesn’t seem like a good time for workers’ to demand rights, right?). And the Federal Election Commission still doesn’t have a quorum, so for the foreseeable future, election “law” is more of a strongly worded suggestion. These examples illustrate why it is so important that lawmakers prioritize filling these positions when times are placid.
The Federal Reserve is one agency moving full steam ahead amidst this crisis. Already powerful in ordinary times, the Fed has taken on new might during this unprecedented downturn. Through various lending facilities the central bank is pumping trillions of dollars into the market, and how it chooses to do so will drastically shape our economic future.
That includes, very importantly, our climate future. Oil and gas companies are among the corporations begging the Fed for a bailout. The Fed can and should refuse to send its dollars to these failing entities and should bar banks from supporting them. Propping up dirty industries with correspondingly shaky economic futures only pushes more catastrophic climate and economic collapse down the road. Unfortunately, we can express no confidence that Trump’s appointees will adequately manage these obvious macroprudential risks.
But the Fed’s role at this moment does help to underline the central role it can play in advancing a just transition in a different administration. The Federal Reserve Board’s Governors must be a priority for those interested in a greener future.
Want more? Check out some of the pieces that we have published or contributed research or thoughts to in the last couple of weeks:
How Big Tech Is Preparing for a Biden Presidency
Want to Push Biden Left? Focus on These Appointments.
Facebook Picks Up Senior FTC Official To Undermine Her Former Employees
A Larry Summers Comeback Would Threaten Climate Justice
Watchdog Groups: Rep. Donna Shalala Must Step Down From Bailout Oversight Commission
Letter: Watchdog Groups Call On Democratic Leadership To Encourage Shalala Resignation
This Time Around, Congress Must Implement Meaningful Oversight of SBA Loan Programs
Freshman Legislators Advance a Courageous Plan to Address Economic Fragility
Opinion | We’re facing an accountability emergency. Let’s fix it before it’s too late.
5 Increasingly Hardball Versions of the Next Stimulus
Eugene Scalia, rising in Trump orbit, becomes key force in coronavirus response effort
Democrats worry about stimulus oversight as Trump undercuts watchdogs
Should Dems go to war with Trump over mail-in voting? The answer isn’t as easy as you might think
Lack Of Dems Oversight Will Enrich Wealthy Donors & Possibly Trump Himself - The Majority Report with Sam Seder
Unsanitized: Donna Shalala Selection Makes a Mockery of Bailout Oversight Panel
There’s No Real Oversight Of The $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Law
Joe Biden Is the Democratic Nominee. Progressives Are Worried About His Cabinet.
An Early Look At Who Bernie Sanders Wants To Join Joe Biden's Policy Task Forces
Joe Biden’s campaign out-raises Trump by $30m in March
Unsanitized: Why Relief for Mortgage and Student Loan Borrowers Must Be Automatic