Progressives Urge Joe Biden To Think Big After Senate Wins

LOADING ERROR LOADING Progressive activists and experts are calling on President-elect Joe Biden to expand his policy ambitions after two Democratic Senate victories in Georgia on Tuesday. Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative West Virginia Democrat, who is due to hold immense veto power as a critical swing vote in a 50-50 Senate, told The Washington Post on Friday that he disagrees with Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s insistence that the Senate prioritize $2,000 payments to low- and middle-income households. Justice Democrats, the climate-focused Sunrise Movement and their allied think tank, Data for Progress, and media firm, New Deal Strategies, have also sought to counter claims that Democrats’ disappointing performance in November’s congressional races is due to left-wing activists’ adoption of unpopular slogans like “defund the police.” Instead, they argued in a joint memo that Democrats failed to adequately articulate the ways they planned to materially improve voters’ lives, noting, for example, that two losing Democratic Senate candidates failed to use the words “jobs” or “economy” in any digital ads. Green suggested that Biden use one of the reconciliation bills to pass the $2-trillion clean energy jobs plan, which the PCCC co-founder called the “centerpiece of Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ agenda.” “We should raise because rich people should have less wealth and power.” - Marshall Steinbaum, economist, University of Utah Marshall Steinbaum, a progressive economist at the University of Utah, favors using one of the reconciliation bills to repeal all of the Trump tax cuts. “Joe Manchin might not support filibuster reform on Day One, but if Republicans try to obstruct coronavirus relief on Week 3, he might support filibuster reform on Week 4,” Green said.