Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category

Progressives Wish List for Biden Starts With Warren and Sanders – The New York Times

Still, some of the people on the list are sure to cause consternation in the partys moderate wing.

Among the leaders the groups are pressing Mr. Biden to appoint, for instance, are Ms. Warren as Treasury secretary and Mr. Sanders as labor secretary both standard-bearers of the progressive movement whose policies are viewed by some Democrats as too extreme.

Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders are both said to be interested in the jobs. But appointing them to top government posts would be complicated by the fact that the states they represent, Massachusetts and Vermont, are led by Republican governors, and Democrats would want to make sure that any replacements would caucus with them to keep the balance of the Senate intact.

Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont said last month that if Mr. Sanders were appointed to the cabinet, he would choose an independent who would caucus with the Democrats as a replacement. And progressives have argued that the Democratic-controlled legislature in Massachusetts could try to change state law to ensure a Democrat would temporarily replace Ms. Warren.

Also on the groups list are:

Representative Barbara Lee of California for secretary of state

Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, for attorney general

Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, one of the four congresswomen known as the Squad, for secretary of housing and urban development

Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, for secretary of health and human services

Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico for secretary of the interior

Representative Chuy Garca of Illinois for secretary of transportation

Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine for secretary of agriculture

The economist Joseph E. Stiglitz for director of the National Economic Council

Darrick Hamilton, an economist and the executive director of the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State University, for chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

Mustafa Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

As part of their list of recommendations, the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats are also urging Mr. Biden to create a new White House Office of Climate Mobilization to coordinate climate efforts across the government, and to appoint as its leader either Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, whose presidential campaign last year centered on climate change; Gina McCarthy, an E.P.A. administrator under President Barack Obama; or John Podesta, the founder of the Center for American Progress who was an adviser to Mr. Obama on climate change. The proposal for the office was part of a sweeping set of recommendations put forth by Biden-Sanders joint policy task forces over the summer.

In addition to their top choices for each high-level position, the groups also provided alternative options, including Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served as deputy secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Obama, for Treasury secretary; Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey for secretary of agriculture; Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants union, for secretary of transportation; and Representative Ro Khanna for secretary of state.

That the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats, the two groups that perhaps most represent the next generation of left-wing activists, have publicly offered their recommendations just days after Mr. Biden was declared the president-elect with a victory in Pennsylvania reflects the urgency with which progressives are now approaching the soon-to-be Biden administration.

Also on Wednesday, the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nations largest advocacy organizations for L.G.B.T.Q. people, is releasing a 24-page blueprint for administrative action.

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Progressives Wish List for Biden Starts With Warren and Sanders - The New York Times

Progressives Suffered Big Losses on California Ballot Issues – New York Magazine

Prop 16, aimed at restoring affirmative-action programs, lost decisively. Photo: Allison Zaucha for The Washington Post via Getty Images

California progressives entered the 2020 election cycle with high hopes for success in the states famously expensive and complex landscapes for ballot initiatives. It would be, after all, a high-turnout presidential year with no major statewide races to distract voters and presumably the effort to eject Californias least-favorite politician, Donald Trump, would drive Democratic participation. So progressives chose 2020 as the right time to push a number of high-priority initiatives they knew would be a tough sell, particularly a long-planned effort to remove commercial property from the assessment and rate protection of the ancient and untouchable Proposition 13 and a drive to revoke an earlier initiative banning affirmative-action preferences in college admissions and state employment and contracting. At the same time, progressives were trying to ward off conservative ballot initiatives cracking down on criminal-justice reforms and, in the most expensive campaign in national ballot-initiative history, exempting gig workers from protections and benefits extended to employees.

As it happened, both the split roll initiative on commercial property taxes, Prop 15, and the affirmative-action initiative, Prop 16, went down to defeat, as did progressive initiatives expanding local-government rent-control authority, abolishing cash bail, and allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primaries prior to general elections for which they are qualified to vote. Meanwhile, the gig worker initiative, Prop 22 massively financed by Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash, and other companies utilizing cheap drivers and services comfortably passed on a wave of misleading ads. All in all, seven of 12 ballot initiatives went down to defeat, with two others still too close to call. And its entirely possible a generally negative climate driven by COVID-19 and wildfires alongside voter confusion spiked no votes regardless of party or ideology.

But excuses aside, it was a disappointing result for the progressives who in recent years helped Democrats gain supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature (which they retained on November 3). Perhaps a leading indicator was the surprising failure of a state bond initiative to benefit both K-12 and higher education, which was on the ballot in this years March 3 primary, just before the pandemic really hit. But COVID-19 certainly didnt help: One of the most effective arguments made against Prop 15 was that it was absolutely the wrong time for California to raise taxes on businesses that were generally struggling during a partial shutdown of the economy.

And the general atmosphere of crisis probably did boost no votes across the board. Prop 14, authorizing bond proceeds to fund a state institute on stem-cell research, sounded pretty innocuous, but the results are too close to call. The same is true of Prop 19, a veritable Christmas tree of an initiative that hands out real-estate-tax goodies to seniors while closing loopholes benefiting nonresident rich people and also cutting in victims of wildfires. A narrower initiative just focused on seniors barely lost in 2018, without the sweeteners, but this year Prop 19 is too close to call.

The no trend helped progressives, however, stop Prop 20, aimed at reclassifying certain criminal sentences as felonies rather than misdemeanors, and didnt stop passage of Prop 17, restoring voting rights to felons on parole.

Its unclear at this point whether some of the defeated progressive causes will make a comeback in the near term. Some, like the reinstitution of affirmative-action programs, seem to simply represent a consistently unpopular position.

No one should interpret the 2020 California elections as some sort of triumph for conservatism. Yes, Republicans may claw back a couple of the U.S. House seats they lost in 2018. But Democratic power in the state legislature will be undiminished in 2021. Most important, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump here by better than 30 points, which is why the junior U.S. senator from California is about to become vice-president. But what might have been will haunt Golden State progressives for years to come.

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Progressives Suffered Big Losses on California Ballot Issues - New York Magazine

Progressives Are an Asset for the Democratic Party. It Should Treat Them That Way. – The Nation

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at the third Annual Women's Rally and March in New York. (Lev Radin / Shutterstock)

EDITORS NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvels column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrinas column here.

Join the Nation Festival for four days of essential conversation and commentary in the wake of the 2020 election.

Join the Nation Festival for four days of essential conversation and commentary in the wake of the 2020 election.

Is the growing progressive wing of the Democratic Party an asset or a liability? Do the largest citizen mobilizations in historygalvanized by the Black Lives Matter demonstrationsalienate more US voters than they bring to the polls? Before the presidential election was called on Saturday, and even as citizens filled the streets celebrating Joe Bidens projected victory over President Trump, recriminations were flying among Democrats distraught over the unexpected loss of House seats and their narrowed hopes of winning a Senate majority.

First-term Representative Abigail Spanberger (Va.), a former CIA analyst considered by many a centrist Democrat, reportedly blamed liberals who talked about socialism and defunding the police for losses in contested suburban districts. Veteran Representative James E. Clyburn (S.C.), the third-ranking Democrat in the House, reportedly cautioned against running on Medicare for All or socialized medicine.

Before Democrats continue down this road, they should consider: Many of the progressive wings big ideas enjoy greater support than most Democratic candidates.

Read the full text of Katrinas column here.

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Progressives Are an Asset for the Democratic Party. It Should Treat Them That Way. - The Nation

Progressives praise Biden’s picks for economic transition team | TheHill – The Hill

President-elect Joe BidenJoe BidenFeds charge Staten Island man over threat to Schumer, FBI Pence cancels vacation in Florida: report Romney shoots down serving in Biden Cabinet MORE is earning praise from progressives for tapping a wide range of government veterans and academics to help form an economic team that will be tasked with trying to advance Democratic policies in a deeply divided Washington.

While Biden has not announced any Cabinet nominees, the scholars and economists he picked to lead agency review teams included familiar names in progressive circles.

Progressives abound on the teams that Biden has named to lead the transition process, but they, much like Biden himself, are institutionalists, not anti-establishment progressives, wrote Beacon Policy Advisors, a Washington, D.C., research firm, in a Wednesday research note.

Progressives hailed Bidens decision to tap Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to lead the transitions review of banking and securities regulators. Despite his tenure at Goldman Sachs, Genslers advocacy for tougher rules on complex financial trades has endeared him to industry skeptics.

Other members of the transition team who are favorites among progressives include AFL-CIO policy director Damon Silvers, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr and former Deputy Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Leandra English.

Biden has also enlisted leading experts on racial economic disparities and discrimination within the financial system for his agency review teams, a welcome sign for progressives who have called on Washington to play a greater role in creating a more equitable economy.

University of California Irvine law professor Mehrsa Baradaran, an expert on financial inclusion and discrimination, has joined the review teams for Treasury and banking and securities regulators. Michigan State University economics professor Lisa Cook, who has extensively studied the economic effects of racism, is also a member of the banking and securities regulation team.

I think some of this reflects that this administration, for the next two years, will likely rely heavily on administrative reform to help redirect the priorities of the nation and push more fairness and more economic reach for working families and families of color, said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

But intraparty battles could flare up once Biden starts nominating key members of his administration.

The plum post will be Treasury secretary.

Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenSenate Democrats reelect Schumer as leader by acclamation Ocasio-Cortez says Rahm Emanuel would be a 'divisive pick' for Biden Cabinet Six people whose election wins made history MORE (D-Mass.) had been the dream choice among progressives ever since she dropped her presidential bid and endorsed Biden. While she has reportedly privately expressed interest in the job, Warrens hard-line views and the deep animosity she evokes from Republicans make her unlikely to be confirmed without a substantial Democratic majority.

Instead, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard, the sole Democrat on the central banks board, is expected to be a front-runner for the top Treasury post. As a former Treasury undersecretary in the Obama administration and economic adviser to former President Clinton, Brainards deep institutional ties and public resistance to the Feds regulatory rollbacks could temper some Republican opposition without alienating Democrats.

Brainard could face competition from other potential nominees like former Fed Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson, former deputy Treasury secretary and Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson.

During the Democratic primary, Biden did not emphasize financial regulatory issues as much as some of his more liberal challengers particularly Warren and Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersSenate Democrats reelect Schumer as leader by acclamation Ocasio-Cortez says Rahm Emanuel would be a 'divisive pick' for Biden Cabinet Six people whose election wins made history MORE (I-Vt.), who expressed interest Wednesday in being Labor secretary.

As Bidens opponents sought to paint him as insufficiently tough on Wall Street, the former vice president touted his work securing passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the sweeping post-crisis financial reform law signed by former President Obama in 2010.

Biden sought to bridge divides within the Democratic Party between moderates and progressives and created a task force with Sanders to negotiate a set of shared principles many of which marked a significant step to the left for the party consensus on financial regulations.

That task force called for the creation of a government-run banking system set up through the Federal Reserve and Postal Service, strengthening Dodd-Frank regulations, and imposing greater separation between commercial and investment banking services.

Accomplishing some of those goals will be nearly impossible without sturdy Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. But Biden has already earned a small victory among progressives in the party with his picks to lay groundwork for that mission.

It's good news, but its not stunning that there's a lot of labor and progressive economists across the board, said Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project.

Hauser said that despite Bidens reputation as a moderate, he has been open to input from the left.

The progressive tilt of his transition team is now troubling some financial sector lobbyists who enjoyed steady regulatory rollbacks under the Trump administration.

The industry is bracing for Biden to appoint a Warren acolyte to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meaning an exit for Trump-appointed Director Kathy Kraninger.

The most frequently mentioned and feared choices among financial sector advocates include Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), COVID-19Congressional Oversight Commission member Bharat Ramamurti and Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin.

What he has to do is appoint someone who is fair and balanced across the board, understands how banking works, understands how consumers need certain priced products to make ends meet," said Richard Hunt, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association.

You should not appoint a director who believes a bank may be guilty before any examination ever occurred, he added.

When asked if he trusted Biden to do so, Hunt demurred.

My guess is he just wants to make it sensible and an industry that works and not hindered by over-regulation, he said. We're anxiously awaiting his appointments.

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Progressives praise Biden's picks for economic transition team | TheHill - The Hill

Treasury Secretary Warren? Progressives Line Up to Press Their Agenda on Biden – The New York Times

They have an extensive blacklist for possible Biden appointees they do not like. They want to elevate allies like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to premier government posts. And they are even considering the possibility of bypassing Senate approval to fill executive branch roles.

As progressives have watched the Senate potentially slip out of reach this week, they have begun preparing to unleash a furious campaign to pressure President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. over personnel and priorities even as they wrestle with the results of the election and the possible need to be more realistic about expectations over the next two years.

For those of us who focus on governance and economic and social justice, this election is a dismal rubber stamp of the unacceptable status quo, said Larry Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolution, a progressive group. Black, brown and white working Americans see their hopes of real reform evaporate for now, even while cheering the victory over Trump.

The left is now pinning its hopes on the Democrats winning two Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. Progressive groups including the Sunrise Movement, an organization of young climate activists, are already drawing up plans to mobilize their networks and provide organizing muscle to the Democratic campaigns there.

But as election results have trickled in, excitement in progressive circles for their federal agenda has given way to disappointment and even anger. Despite the surging energy on the left, a moderate is poised to sit in the White House. And unless Democrats can pick up both Georgia seats, Republicans will almost certainly hold the Senate, which may drastically limit what a Biden administration can accomplish in terms of legislation, presidential appointments and judicial nominations.

Far from the mandate they had sought, progressives are now trying to figure out whether they can achieve even their less ambitious policy goals.

Everythings harder with a Republican Senate, said Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Theres just no question about that.

Since the polls closed last week, frustration on the left has at times spilled into the open. Some progressives have second-guessed the Democratic establishments messaging strategy and its approach to Senate races, which revolved around backing moderate candidates who officials thought could appeal to independents and Republicans disaffected with President Trump. And there has been public questioning of Democratic efforts to court Latino voters after Mr. Bidens losses in Texas and Florida.

I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy, said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a leading progressive, in an interview with The Times. And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for all is not the enemy. This isnt even just about winning an argument. Its that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, theyre just setting up their own obsolescence.

Since the race in Pennsylvania was called for Mr. Biden on Saturday, clinching the election, some groups have already warned him about backsliding on his commitment to progressive policies.

Still, most liberals recognized that Mr. Biden was almost certain not to support all of their priorities or accept all of their proposals, regardless of the outcome in the Senate. They were, for instance, under no illusion that he would appoint progressives to every cabinet position or pass policies like Medicare for all.

Yet their more downbeat mood is a drastic shift from just days ago. Buoyed by a new class of progressives heading to the House of Representatives including Jamaal Bowman, in a New York district that includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, and Cori Bush in St. Louis the partys left flank was planning a three-pronged strategy to push Mr. Biden, should he win, on personnel, legislation and institutional change.

They were envisioning a wide-ranging legislative agenda that included plans to expand access to health care, create jobs and combat climate change. They also dreamed of structural changes to the political system such as statehood for Washington, D.C., eliminating the legislative filibuster and increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court.

Many had been cautiously optimistic that Mr. Bidens administration would at least be receptive to their proposals, pointing in particular to his leftward shift since the primaries on issues like climate, health care and education. Progressives also believed that the coronavirus crisis made Mr. Biden more inclined to consider a broad agenda that responds to the extraordinary circumstances.

But as they adjust to the possible new reality of divided government, many progressive groups and leaders are focusing their attention on Mr. Bidens executive branch appointments with intense urgency, viewing these positions as gatekeepers, in effect, for vast numbers of policy.

In recent weeks, they have called on Mr. Biden not to appoint any corporate lobbyists or c-suite corporate executives to executive branch positions. A group called the Revolving Door Project is already drawing up a blacklist of possible Biden appointments that progressives may view as problematic.

We want appointees who will wake up trying to figure out, What can I do to make this government work for people? said Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the Revolving Door Project. There are allies who focus more on who they do want. We focus on who we dont want.

Some on the left, including Mr. Hauser, have already expressed opposition to two of Mr. Bidens potential choices for Treasury secretary: Lael Brainard, a Federal Reserve governor, in part for her record on trade and currency manipulation in China; and Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, a former venture capitalist, whose overhaul of her states public pension system made her deeply unpopular with some labor unions.

Nov. 11, 2020, 11:06 p.m. ET

Instead, many liberals are pushing Mr. Biden both in private and public to name Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to the position a post that Ms. Warren herself wants, according to a person familiar with her thinking (a spokeswoman for Ms. Warren declined to comment). Others on the progressives shortlist for the position include Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served as deputy secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama, and Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve.

Mr. Sanders is interested in serving as labor secretary, according to a person close to the senator, and his camp and Mr. Bidens team have seriously been discussing the possibility since the Vermont senator dropped out of the presidential race in April. There is no deal between the camps, and it is still unclear what role Mr. Sanders may want to play in a Biden administration.

Appointing progressive senators like Ms. Warren or Mr. Sanders to his cabinet could complicate things for Mr. Biden because both come from states led by Republican governors; Democrats would want to make sure that any replacements would caucus with the Democrats to keep the balance of the Senate intact.

Mr. Sanderss operation has also offered the Biden transition team lists of preferred names for cabinet positions and prominent jobs in the administration, including Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, for U.S. attorney general and Julin Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, for housing secretary, a position he held in the Obama administration.

Other measures are in the works as well. The Sunrise Movement is planning to push Mr. Biden to form a new position, reporting directly to the president, that will be responsible for coordinating and mobilizing government agencies to address climate change.

Progressives are also compiling extensive lists of recommendations for a vast array of other key posts. The Progressive Change Institute, in collaboration with roughly 40 public interest, environmental and racial justice groups, has been assembling an extensive database of personnel who could stock a potential Democratic administration.

The database, which now has from 500 to 600 names, covers everything from cabinet positions to under secretary posts in more obscure executive-branch offices and bureaus, like the president of the Export-Import Bank and the director of the Patent and Trademark Office. The group hopes to deliver the list to the Biden transition team by the end of the week.

Progressives recognize that their work on appointments and policy may be much harder if there is a Republican Senate, as appears increasingly likely. It may not confirm appointments to key government posts whom Republicans view as too far left, a course of action that Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has already suggested he would pursue.

And without enough Democratic allies in the Senate, there is almost no chance that the chamber will pass even the agenda that Mr. Biden supported in the run-up to the election, such as lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 60 from 65.

If Mitch McConnell was ultimately to control the Senate, it would dramatically lower the ceiling of whats possible legislatively and increase the urgency of appointing good people to the executive branch to make things happen there, said Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a sister organization of the Progressive Change Institute, and an ally of Ms. Warrens.

Progressives have not abandoned hope of passing legislation, either, even if a Republican Senate makes doing so much more difficult. They are optimistic that there is broadly palatable legislation that the Senate may still pass, including a coronavirus relief bill, a $15 federal minimum wage and investment in infrastructure.

I believe that if Joe Biden is in the White House, it changes the dynamic where people know that there will be a president who will sign these things into law, Ms. Jayapal said. And that will help us a lot.

Thats the question: Are Republicans going to continue to be enablers of an outrageous Trump agenda even when hes out of the White House? she added. Or are they actually going to start speaking for their constituents?

But if election results have dashed progressive hopes on some issues, there is still a sense of resolve.

Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for the insurgent liberal group Justice Democrats, said it was critical for Democrats and Mr. Biden to govern like they just won a majority of the popular vote rather than seeking to appease Mr. McConnell and other Republicans. He warned that going after small-ball deals with Mr. McConnell could depress Democratic enthusiasm in the 2022 midterm elections. And he noted that Mr. Trump had appointed several people on an acting basis to positions that traditionally required Senate confirmation.

Basically, Joe Biden should use every tool at his disposal to appoint an administration that will deliver for the voters who elected him, he said. Theres going to be a lot of efforts to push on the executive and what the executive can do.

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Treasury Secretary Warren? Progressives Line Up to Press Their Agenda on Biden - The New York Times