5 days agoWe Need a Medium-Term Plan for Our Energy SupplyGovernment intervention to get us through the in-between Americans are feeling the squeeze of record-high gas prices. The average price of a gallon of gas in the United States is kissing $5.00, with little sign of significant easing on the horizon. And that’s in turn driving up inflation for all…Politics7 min read
Jun 13How Biden’s Student Debt Plan Will Lower InflationA spoonful of forgiveness sugar helps the repayment medicine go down President Biden is reportedly considering instructing the Department of Education to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for each borrower (limited to individuals earning under $150,000 and married couples earning under $300,000). Critics have blasted the plan, arguing that…Biden6 min read
Jun 1What if Joe Manchin is a secret supply-side progressive?Democrats, pivot to the supply side to achieve electric vehicle abundance It’s no secret that Senator Joe Manchin essentially gets to decide whether President Biden’s legislative agenda lives or dies. And since December, the bill formerly known as Build Back Better seemed to be essentially flatlining as Manchin soured on…Politics12 min read
May 4Should Democrats compromise on the Child Tax Credit?The expanded Child Tax Credit wasn’t supposed to be a one-and-done program. Weeks after he took office, Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan funded an American child allowance for one year — but the program’s advocates all expected it to be extended beyond 2021. Monthly checks to families lifted 3 million…Politics6 min read
Apr 22The Great Recession comes for Millennials againMillennials just can’t get out of the shadow of the Great Recession. The 2008 housing crash led to a global financial crisis, triggering the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The economy cratered, and unemployment soared to 10 percent — just at the time many millennials were graduating college…Housing7 min read
Published in GEN·Dec 17, 2021How To Save the Child Tax Credit — and Build Back BetterPresident Biden’s Build Back Better agenda is in deep trouble. Negotiations with pivotal fiftieth Senate vote Joe Manchin ran into a ditch this week, effectively shelving the bill until 2022 at best. Mixed reports have suggested that Manchin particularly objects to extending the Biden Child Tax Credit. This is alarming…Politics6 min read
Oct 29, 2021How Democrats can still cut prescription drug pricesDemocrats in Congress are closing in on a deal to enact major parts of the party’s economic and social agenda. Missing from the deal’s framework, however, is any new authority to tackle high prescription drug costs. As The Hill reports: “The framework of a deal on President Biden’s social spending…Politics5 min read
Sep 23, 2021The Return of the Broccoli HorribleEarlier this month, President Biden announced that OSHA was developing a new rule to require all employees (at companies with at least 100 workers) to either get the COVID-19 vaccine or undergo weekly testing. The White House explained that this vaccine mandate will require employers “to ensure their workforce is…Law4 min read
Sep 14, 2021Work requirements for the Child Tax Credit must be a line in the sandAs congressional Democrats begin their internal haggling over how much of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda to enact via budget reconciliation, pivotal Senator Joe Manchin seems intent on making one of the administration’s signature achievements worse. On Sunday, Manchin floated the idea of attaching a work (or education) requirement…Politics5 min read
Mar 12, 2021The American Child Allowance: A (very partial) historyI was a sophomore in college in 2009 the first time I learned that a “child allowance” is a thing that exists in the world. I was getting ready to study Dutch social policy during a summer study abroad program at the University of Amsterdam. To prepare, I was reading…Politics13 min read
