Sunday School 1/17/21: Extra Credit

For your Extra Credit today, I spent some time in the Fox News Sunday classroom, where Chris Wallace chatted with the Biden administration's top economic advisor Brian Deese, who'll be the director of the National Economic Council starting this week. 

Wallace wondered if they really need $1.9T in COVID relief, and Deese made the case for it: 30M Americans without enough food; a negative jobs report in December; dealing with the pandemic; getting schools open and parents back to work... It all adds up to "an acute economic crisis and human crisis" that require "decisive action."

Wallace outlined a number of criticisms of the bill, including not targeting direct financial aid to people who need it; $20B for public transportation; $9B for cybersecurity; raising the minimum wage to $15. He asked, "whether those last items, Brian, are a good policy idea or not, are – can you really say that they are part of emergency COVID relief?"

Deese explained how they all fit. The cybersecurity stuff? Well, we just had a major hack, and not only that, but much of what's getting done now is getting done on line because of COVID, so those resources are needed. And, all across the country, in both red and blue states, transit systems are in trouble, and the point of giving relief now is to prevent service reductions and support once we start climbing back out of the pandemic crisis. And the $15 per hour is a "concrete and direct way" to support the front-line workers, who have been providing the rest of us services throughout the pandemic.

Next, Wallace questioned whether they'd be able to get 60 votes in the Senate and avoid a filibuster, and pointed out the reticence of the Rs to go over $1T for COVID relief when they had control. Deese mentioned an analysis by Moody's suggesting that if Biden's plan was acted on quickly, it could lead to 7.5 million jobs just this year. Not only that, but there was good bipartisan support for $2K in stimulus. Expanding the child tax credit, vaccination efforts, efforts on education -- all of that, too, has bipartisan support with governors and mayors.

I think there's a lot of -- there's a lot of support for taking these actions. So we -- we're -- we see every reason why Congress should move out and should move out in a bipartisan way.

And if the Rs were to block it, to filibuster the bill, would Biden ask the Senate to get rid of the filibuster?  Deese pointed to recent skepticism, about Biden being able to win by calling for unity and working together, or that Congress could pass a bipartisan COVID bill in December. Both of those things happened, 

So let's see where we can get here. There is a lot of, again, a lot of elements of this plan that have support across the board, both in Washington and in state capitals and around the country. But we need to act. We need to act quickly. And that's what the economy is telling us. That's what the experts are telling us. And so that's our priority.

So, I guess that means one thing that's off the table is talking about ending the filibuster... 

Moving on to the upcoming-at-some-point second impeachment trial, and the hope that it could be scheduled to have the Senate do necessary work part of the day - including confirmations of Biden's cabinet - and the trial part of the day, Wallace wondered what happens if they can't get that kind of deal? Would Biden try to delay the trial until some of his stuff moves? Deese's answer?

So that's going to be our focus is trying to get an agreement and a structure that will allow that to happen. And we're able to move out on these multiple fronts and -- and make progress on these multiple priorities.

Final two questions. First, Wallace wondered if "raising taxes and increasing regulations" are the right things to do to get back the pre-pandemic economy.

Deese's answer? He pointed again to the Biden win, and suggested that wouldn't have happened if the economy was working for everyone. 

One of the things we've learned in crises is that acting decisively will put us on a path to have a stronger economic recovery coming out of this. So that's going to be our -- our focus, our immediate focus. Let's get decisive action. Let's put the economy on a stronger trajectory. That will be the best thing for American people, American workers.

And the last question was about Deese himself, not about Biden. Wallace mentioned the pushback from the left wing of the Dems because Deese was "too conservative" when he worked in the Obama administration, even going so far to call for reduced spending - the horror!  So, Wallace wondered, were the lefties wrong, or has Deese had a change of heart?

Well, look, the -- the -- the president-elect has a clear vision for making this economy work for working Americans again. That's a vision that I share and that we're going to wake up every day trying to move forward. It involves addressing some of the significant structural inequities in our economy that have left out too many Americans, including black and brown Americans around this country who have not had a fair shot, and that's going to be our focus. It's going to be my focus. That's been my animating focus across the last decade or more in public life and private life and I think that that's going to be what the president-elect expects of us and certainly that's what I and the team will carry forward.

Was that a teeny little filibuster there?

See you around campus.