Looking Back on Yet Another Difficult Year
A 2021 Year in Review & Plans for 2022
This year felt—in many ways—like a continuation of 2020, though there were also many instances of returning to some semblance of “normalcy”, for better or for worse. I wanted to take the opportunity to close out the year with a look back at what changes we saw in the political economy, and also look forward to 2022.
Progress Report for a New Congress and New Administration
It is frequently argued—even by President Biden himself earlier this year—that our very democracy is at stake. Recall the speech I quoted in July, when Biden said:
There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today — an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections, an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an assault on who we are — who we are as Americans.
The stakes are so high that even the president publicly acknowledges that we risk losing the very foundation of the United States. We also know for a fact that the Republican party’s strategy was one of pure obstruction, given Senator Mitch McConnell and others making remarks like these:
“Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”
—Senator Mitch McConnell, October 23, 2010
“100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration.”
—Senator Mitch McConnell, May 5, 2021
In case their strategy isn’t clear, Republican Representative Chip Roy spelled it out during a video which surfaced earlier this year:
“…right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022, and then get in here and lead.”
“… ‘18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done.’ That’s what we want.”
—Representative Chip Roy, June 29, 2021
This strategy is nothing new; there are essentially no real consequences for Congressmembers abdicating their Constitutionally mandated duty to “promote the general Welfare” of their constituents. Even though many of Biden’s policies have broad support from the majority of voters, including Republican voters, Republican politicians are united in opposition to the Build Back Better Act.
You’re undoubtedly well aware of the predicament we’re in. But how has the party who was elected to do something about it fared in their first year of controlling both the Executive and Legislative Branches?
The first year of the Biden administration and Democratic majority in Congress began with more optimism, and delivering more progress, than how we unfortunately appear to be ending the year. The American Rescue Plan was a great start—despite unnecessary compromises made throughout its drafting—but the Democratic establishment has since resumed undermining the Biden agenda with little to no pushback from the White House.
“Nature is healing”, as it were. We’re unfortunately returning to the good old days of the Obama presidency, when broken promises and negligent incompetence paved the way for Trump to play pied piper all the way to the White House.
Of course, Congress is not standing in the way of everything that the Biden administration could do; there are several things which Biden campaigned on delivering that he shows no sign of enacting. The American Prospect has a live executive action tracker which monitors 77 different actions the Biden administration could take without needing Congress to send a bill to the president’s desk.
However, at the time this was written, only 15 executive actions have been taken, 11 have “partial” actions taken—such as the executive action ordering a review of the unconstitutional Guantanamo prison, but still not closing it yet—and 6 that Biden now refuses to do.
Some of these refusals are a direct contradiction of Biden’s campaign promises. He specifically campaigned on relieving $10,000 worth of student debt for each borrower, yet after being elected, he pretended that he didn’t have the authority to relieve a single penny of student debt.
The truth is that the Department of Education has several paths towards relieving student debt. Without going into too many esoteric details, they could, for instance, simply stop collecting public student debt indefinitely, effectively relieving all of it; they have already done so in certain cases and could do so more broadly. Still, student debt payments—which stopped being collected earlier on in the pandemic—were set to resume in February 2022 until public outcry caused Biden to extend the pause another 90 days on December 22.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Corporate Democrats, in my estimation, just want to campaign on popular policies and then feign incompetence and impotence once elected, only to turn around and blame the voters for not enthusiastically showing up to the polls to reelect such liars. To be clear, I vote in every election I can, and encourage you to do the same as well, but perhaps giving voters something to vote for would be more effective than simply trying to scare them into voting against the alternative.
My cynical assessment of the Democratic party’s feckless leadership aside, I want to give some credit where it is due by looking at what legislation did pass this year. I will, however, resume lamenting what could have been shortly thereafter when I reflect on what important legislation did not pass.
Notable Legislation That Passed
The American Rescue Plan Act
Although the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) enacted many beneficial provisions, many of which were continuations of programs started by the CARES Act of 2020, far too many of these programs were ultimately fleeting and short lived. At the time of ARP’s passage, I argued that:
…while I will contend that the American Rescue Plan is a great step in the right direction, we have a long way to go before we reach the levels of fundamentally transformative legislation delivered by FDR’s New Deal.
The ARP took steps in the right direction to mitigate the economic and public health downturns caused by what a recent House Subcommittee Report calls:
…the Trump Administration’s deliberate efforts to undermine the nation’s coronavirus response for political purposes.
These ARP provisions—which included Economic Impact Payments or “stimulus checks”, an extension of expanded unemployment benefits, tax breaks for working- and middle-class families such as the expanded Child Tax Credit, housing assistance, small business relief, and other beneficial programs—provided a lifeline for many people who were already in dire straits even before the pandemic hit.
It is important to acknowledge the time that the ARP bought for our most vulnerable neighbors, friends, and family, but it is likewise important to acknowledge that Congress and the White House allowed these benefits to expire while the pandemic continues its path of devastation.
Unemployment benefits expired on Labor Day; the eviction moratorium expired a few weeks later; the final checks from the expanded Child Tax Credits likely went out on December 15th, given Senator Manchin’s unwavering opposition to Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda. Extending the Child Tax Credit payments for at least another year was a top priority in drafts of the Build Back Better Act, but now, unfortunately, families’ budgets are about to get tighter during an election year.
The Democratic Party chose this outcome.
In so choosing, most House Democrats fell for Manchin’s lie that he would support the Build Back Better Act if only the two bills were decoupled, if Manchin were also allowed to gut the Build Back Better Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure deal passed the House in exchange for a (meaningless, unenforceable) super special Senate pinkie promise.
This brings us to the next piece of legislation that actually passed this year.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
As I mentioned in my November update, the two infrastructure bills were decoupled when the House passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 without simultaneously sending the Build Back Better Act to President Biden’s desk. The latter bill also passed the House, but Lucy predictably pulled back the football as Charlie Brown went to kick it, and the Build Back Better Act no longer appears to have a path to 50 votes in the Senate.
This bipartisan deal invests in transportation, water, power, and broadband internet infrastructure projects. However, without passing the budget reconciliation bill as well, this bill essentially maintains an unjust status quo.
What the bipartisan deal does not provide is any additional protections for the workers in these and other industries when they try to organize a union; it does not provide them with any paid medical or family leave; it does not significantly mitigate the impact on the climate that our current transportation system inflicts; it does not expand Medicare or home and community-based care services. For these types of investments, we would have needed the Build Back Better Act.
For more details on what these infrastructure deals included, and a reminder of why I advocated for solidarity and warned against decoupling the two bills—united we bargain; divided we beg—see my article from August below.
Although the Build Back Better Act was blocked by politicians spouting specious excuses about how we “can’t afford” to invest in projects and policies which reduce costs born by working families across the United States, there is always more money for one bloated institution: the Pentagon.
The National Defense Authorization Act
When President Biden asked for an even larger military budget for 2022 than this year’s exorbitant budget, Congress not only gave him every penny he asked for—they gave him $25 billion more than he requested. This brings the topline total to $768 billion for just one year of “defense” spending, a figure which could easily reach $8 trillion in cumulative spending this decade if the annual budget continues to grow at this pace.
Where are the Corporate Democrats and their infantile arguments when it comes to spending $8 trillion enriching military contractors over the next decade? Apparently they save their ire for when we dare to try and draft legislation that would spend $3.5 trillion—no, wait, $1.75 trillion—on the American people throughout the next decade. Then, suddenly, Senator Manchin worries about how investing in the people might impair our ability to respond to future (real or imaginary) threats.
Unsurprisingly, the National Defense Authorization Act passed with overwhelming support—316 to 113 in the House, and 84 to 15 in the Senate—and not a single objection raised by the Corporate Democrats.
This $768 billion budget, by the way, comes in the year after President Biden ended (one of) America’s longest wars: the war in Afghanistan. (For the record, although Biden was simply following through with a plan initiated by the Trump administration, I think this is one of the few overall good things the Biden administration has done.)
Of course, for some reason, our drone presence in the region is going to linger indefinitely, but this has already had disastrous consequences. At least the Pentagon admitted that an August 2021 drone strike left 10 innocent civilians dead—seven of whom were children—and even apologized for doing so, but I can’t help but think that this tragedy is so emblematic of our nation’s inability to properly prioritize.
Maybe I’m idealistic in thinking that we shouldn’t be using our resources for murdering innocent children around the world, and that just offering an apology isn’t good enough.
Since we can’t turn back the clock and prevent disasters that have already happened, perhaps as we move forward we could start to reevaluate our priorities and invest some of the $2 billion we spend on the military every day on our people instead. I’m not saying that the U.S. military has no legitimate purpose or that it cannot be a force for good under the right circumstances, but there is a long road ahead of us if we are to begin righting so many wrongs.
With so many crises to address, wrongs to right, and problems to solve, it is important to not only discuss what did pass this year, but also legislation that the Biden administration—and the Democratic Party he ostensibly leads—failed to pass.
Notable Legislation That Did Not Pass
The Build Back Better Act
I could, and likely will in the future, write an entire article going in depth about the Build Back Better negotiations. However, for the moment, the latest news is that Senator Manchin appeared on Fox News this past Sunday to confirm what readers of this newsletter already knew: that he has not been negotiating in good faith, that he lied about his willingness to vote for the Build Back Better Act if the House voted for the bipartisan infrastructure deal first, and that no one needs to believe any promises from Manchin (or Biden) any longer.
In the meantime, you can read more about major milestones in the process throughout my Infrastructure Investments collection below.
The For the People Act
Both the For the People Act, and its narrower version called the Freedom to Vote Act, were blocked by the unconstitutional filibuster from even being debated on the Senate floor this year. Time is running out to defend against partisan gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the legalized corruption enabled by our campaign finance laws. If we fail to act, we will continue to see the Joe Manchins of the world put their corporate donors before both their party and the constituents they are supposed to represent.
Read more details throughout my For the People Act Analysis collection below.
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act
While parts of this legislation could have made it into the Build Back Better Act, other provisions would likely be blocked by the filibuster. To get an idea of what the PRO Act could mean for workers who want to organize for better working conditions, I wrote a brief overview earlier this year.
The Ban Conflicted Trading Act
Despite a report that, since early 2020, there were at least 182 violations of existing insider trading laws covering members of Congress and their staff, House Speaker Pelosi apparently sees nothing wrong with such rampant corruption. When recently questioned on the matter, Pelosi said:
This is a free market, we are a free market economy. [Members of Congress] should be able to participate in that.
Although I advocated for enacting stronger preventative measures by passing the Ban Conflicted Trading Act—let alone enforcing existing regulations under the STOCK Act of 2012—Pelosi seems to like the economy just the way it is. Indeed, when Pelosi’s wealth grows more in a single year than many Americans are paid throughout their entire lifetimes, what incentive does she have to restrict her ability to profit at our collective expense?
I wrote about members of Congress playing the stock market with non-public information and what we can do to stop it in the article titled Politicians, and Their Spouses, Should Not Be Allowed to Trade Individual Stocks below.
Other Legislation, Reforms, & Policies Not Implemented
$15 per hour federal minimum wage—federal employees and contractors now have a $15 per hour minimum wage, but making this the law of the land unfortunately had bipartisan opposition (including Senator Sinema’s infamous thumbs down) throughout the American Rescue Plan negotiations
Medicare reforms—personally, I would like to see Medicare for All implemented, but with the Build Back Better Act failing to pass, we haven’t even added dental, vision, or hearing coverage to Medicare, nor have we succeeded in allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices yet
Cannabis reforms—while Biden could read the room and take steps towards legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, and subsequently taxing and regulating cannabis, it currently remains a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance alongside heroin
$2,000 relief checks—instead, we got $1,400 and some tortured logic
Codify Roe v. Wade into law—the House passed a bill that would make the 1973 court case’s precedent into a more concrete law, but I still do not see how this will get past the filibuster in the Senate; meanwhile, courts packed with partisan judges across the country are likely moving to dismantle several fundamental rights
Extended unemployment insurance expansions—they expired on Labor Day
Student debt relief or forgiveness—however, public outcry pushed Biden to extend the payment pause until May 1, 2022
The Biden administration has been reactive, rather than proactive, in trying to contain the spread of COVID-19
Rather than taking steps to mitigate the spread of the virus in the fall, the Biden administration waited until the first day of winter to release a statement, when cases were already surging
Despite Biden’s press secretary practically mocking the idea of mailing out free COVID-19 tests—you know, like other developed countries do—the federal government will finally begin mailing out free tests… in January 2022… Not January 2021, but a year later, when the damage is already being done
Biden also has yet to fulfill a campaign promise he made to healthcare activist Ady Barkan, and the entire world, that he would not enforce patent protections for the COVID-19 vaccines developed with significant assistance from our public funds
The Biden administration is almost as bad as the Trump administration on addressing climate change
Analysis shows that more fossil fuel drilling permits have been approved under Biden each month than in similar periods throughout the Trump presidency, despite Biden’s campaign promise to end drilling on public lands
Biden has essentially done only the bare minimum thus far by rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and little else
This is happening as unseasonably brutal tornadoes devastated states like Kentucky, which suffered at least 70 deaths, and also caused 6 deaths in an Amazon warehouse in Illinois
Many Trump administration policies have not stopped, and Trump appointees have not been replaced
Title 42 immigration policy remains intact under Biden, despite public outcry for Trump’s use of the policy
Louis DeJoy remains the Postmaster General despite his multiple conflicts of interest and ongoing attempts to dismantle the USPS
Trump, his lackeys, and his enablers have not been properly held to account for the attempted coup of January 6, 2021—the January 6th Committee is slowly but surely (far too slowly considering the gravity of this situation, in my opinion) making progress, though I can’t help thinking that this situation exemplifies the two unequal systems of justice in this country: one for the wealthy, politically-connected elites, and one for the rest of us
The list goes on, but this should give you an idea of why Biden needs to start doing the job he was elected to do.
What Should the Biden Administration Be Doing?
“Sure, it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but what would you do in Biden’s shoes?” is a fair question to ask this writer, given my scathing criticism of the current administration. My suggestions are undoubtedly easier said than done, but if our democracy is at stake, the same tired excuses and incompetence from the Democratic party’s leadership are frankly unacceptable.
President Biden and Vice President Harris could have, for example, shown the same initiative they demonstrated during the American Rescue Plan negotiations. Harris appeared in a local West Virginia TV interview when Manchin was trying to obstruct and dismantle the ARP. Where was that confrontation during the Build Back Better negotiations? The White House waited until December to even issue a statement; this type of confrontational statement should have been sent out last spring, not in the final days of autumn.
Like I mentioned throughout previous sections of this article, several issues could also be addressed through executive orders. Others have pointed out that Biden could even threaten executive action unless Congress sends legislation to his desk which addresses the underlying issue.
Democratic leadership could also have threatened Manchin and other obstructionists with removal from key committee positions. Instead, there are virtually no consequences for opposing the Democratic party’s platform. If anything, doing so probably serves as a beacon for corporate lobbyists looking to shower obstructionists with more bribes campaign contributions.
In short, Biden should have proven his campaign trail bluster about being uniquely capable of negotiating deals in Washington and making the government work again. Unfortunately, Biden can’t even get his party to work together most of the time.
If the Biden administration does not act soon, and the Democratic party’s broken promises cause the 2022 midterm elections to result in an electoral defeat similar to the 2010 blowout, it could take another decade before we get another chance to bring amount meaningful change.
Like Biden himself (or his staff) wrote in early 2020:
The next U.S. president will have to address the world as it is in January 2021, and picking up the pieces will be an enormous task. He or she will have to salvage our reputation, rebuild confidence in our leadership, and mobilize our country and our allies to rapidly meet new challenges. There will be no time to lose.
If our democracy is at stake, we don’t have a decade to wait around. The Biden administration needs to lead, it needs to whip votes in Congress to support Biden’s agenda, and it needs to fulfill its promises to the American people.
Although 2021 had its highs and lows, I remain optimistic about the labor movement that continues to show positive signs for workers seeking better working conditions and compensation. In addition to covering unionization efforts, strikes, and negotiations as they progress, I want to wrap up my final article for the year by looking forward to other topics I want to cover throughout 2022.
Plans for The Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter in 2022
As I did (or at least attempted) throughout 2021, I want to continue holding politicians accountable, providing critical commentary on the political economy, and showing readers that the field of economics is not a pro-Wall Street, anti-worker monolith. On the contrary, many economists and experts advocate for workers’ rights, and they demonstrate how we could all benefit from doing so; I want to continue amplifying these voices.
I also want to continue elevating causes to support, legislation that can address systemic problems, and otherwise advocate for taking meaningful steps towards a more just economy. There is no shortage of criticisms for our current political and economic systems, but viable paths towards addressing the root causes of such problems are less ubiquitous. I may not have all the answers, but I try to research important issues and share my findings with you.
In doing so, I try to maintain a consistent set of criteria by which I examine events and actions taken (or inaction) by politicians, regardless of political party. I make my biases clear and do not feign complete objectivity, but I also strive to remain data driven in my analyses and avoid seeking out evidence to support a forgone conclusion. Earlier this year, I even dedicated an entire article to correcting a misstatement once new evidence arose.
I aim to maintain this standard for my writing, and hope you readers will help hold me to this standard should I overlook or miss something. The world is complicated, and offering a nuanced view of certain issues is often more difficult to grasp and less persuasive than reductive statements, but I want to produce content that I am proud to stand behind now and for years to come.
At the very least—even if I don’t change as many minds as I’d be able to in an ideal world—I decided that, after the 2020 election, I would at least try to effect the change I want to see in the world. During what feels like an all-hands-on-deck moment in our democracy, the least I can do is try to inform myself and anyone willing to listen to my thoughts.
For that, I want to thank all of you for reading the Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter throughout 2021, and I hope you will continue to do so next year.
I plan to publish an article each month throughout 2022 focusing on topics central to the U.S. midterm elections. One topic I will revisit is inflation, since it is already a big talking point amongst politicians, and I don’t expect that to change soon. Although I initially planned to write a series of articles on inflation this year, I spent far more time reading about inflation than I spent writing about it. I intend to write a more comprehensive article on the subject now that we have more data available.
In addition to covering election topics, I want to discuss the books I’ve been reading and plan to read throughout 2022. I finished three books earlier this year, including:
The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy by Stephanie Kelton, a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University
The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University
Thanks to your generous support, I also added two new books to my collection, and I plan to discuss what I learn from them throughout 2022:
The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans: For Union Organizers and Employees by social policy analyst James W. Russell
Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate by Adam Jentleson, former deputy chief of staff to Senator Harry Reid
The latter will provide more details about how and why the unconstitutional filibuster came to pervade the Senate and subvert our democratic republic. You’ll recall from earlier sections of this article, given how many times I brought it up, that the filibuster has been used to obstruct many important pieces of legislation this year alone.
The former, on the other hand, relates to subjects about which I have been asked by multiple readers and acquaintances alike: retirement plans.
I’ve had my share of accounting courses which dealt with pension accounting—and even got a crash course in actuarial science in the process—and I’ve also studied the tax law surrounding different plans, but I still have a lot to learn about how and why our current retirement plans came to be. Perhaps I’ll learn something about how other countries handle their pensions and get a better understanding of what we could improve here in the U.S.
Another topic I plan to cover next year is a more in-depth analysis of how corporate media distorts public perceptions of the legislative process, including the negotiations surrounding the Build Back Better Act, and how that likely helped lead to the decoupling of the two infrastructure bills. I may also extend my analysis to cover the ways independent media can be susceptible to similar market forces, but with their own share of unique differences associated with being internet, rather than television, media.
Like I mentioned earlier, I want to continue covering unionization efforts, strikes, and negotiations as they progress, but I’ve had some ideas about other ways in which I might be able to help the ongoing organized labor movement to continue growing.
I might experiment with some articles focusing on financial statement analysis of some of the companies who pretend that they “can’t afford” to pay their workers more, or provide better working conditions, while simultaneously paying exorbitant executive salaries. I’ll let you know when I have a clearer vision of where to focus my efforts.
I plan to update the Coming Soon page linked below as new articles enter the pipeline, so I encourage you to check back periodically to see what I have planned!
If you have any thoughts on what you’d like me to cover next year, feel free to leave a comment or otherwise reach out to me. Thank you again for reading the Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter, and I look forward to keeping you informed throughout 2022 as well!
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year!
Thank you for reading my newsletter and taking the effort to learn about making the world a better place. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can make progress towards a more just economy.
-JJ
Updated 12/23/2021 - Fixed preview image; removed message to email readers