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    Biden's Policy Agenda Rests Heavily On Senate Outcome: Jim Tankersley Fri, 13 November 2020, 4:06 Am GMT+8

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    - Biden's policy agenda depends heavily on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. If Democrats win both seats, Biden will likely push for a large stimulus package and be able to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. However, if Republicans win even one seat, Biden will have to rely more on executive actions and compromise with Senate Republicans. - A Democratic Senate majority would allow Biden to enact much of his agenda, like infrastructure spending and health care expansion, through the budget reconciliation process. Without that majority, Biden's agenda would likely be more limited. - Biden's transition team is preparing contingency plans depending on the Georgia results and economic conditions, but much of his domestic policy proposals would require congressional approval that

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    Biden's Policy Agenda Rests Heavily On Senate Outcome: Jim Tankersley Fri, 13 November 2020, 4:06 Am GMT+8

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    - Biden's policy agenda depends heavily on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. If Democrats win both seats, Biden will likely push for a large stimulus package and be able to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. However, if Republicans win even one seat, Biden will have to rely more on executive actions and compromise with Senate Republicans. - A Democratic Senate majority would allow Biden to enact much of his agenda, like infrastructure spending and health care expansion, through the budget reconciliation process. Without that majority, Biden's agenda would likely be more limited. - Biden's transition team is preparing contingency plans depending on the Georgia results and economic conditions, but much of his domestic policy proposals would require congressional approval that

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    - Biden's policy agenda depends heavily on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. If Democrats win both seats, Biden will likely push for a large stimulus package and be able to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. However, if Republicans win even one seat, Biden will have to rely more on executive actions and compromise with Senate Republicans. - A Democratic Senate majority would allow Biden to enact much of his agenda, like infrastructure spending and health care expansion, through the budget reconciliation process. Without that majority, Biden's agenda would likely be more limited. - Biden's transition team is preparing contingency plans depending on the Georgia results and economic conditions, but much of his domestic policy proposals would require congressional approval that

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    50 views5 pages

    Biden's Policy Agenda Rests Heavily On Senate Outcome: Jim Tankersley Fri, 13 November 2020, 4:06 Am GMT+8

    Uploaded by

    galatians
    - Biden's policy agenda depends heavily on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. If Democrats win both seats, Biden will likely push for a large stimulus package and be able to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. However, if Republicans win even one seat, Biden will have to rely more on executive actions and compromise with Senate Republicans. - A Democratic Senate majority would allow Biden to enact much of his agenda, like infrastructure spending and health care expansion, through the budget reconciliation process. Without that majority, Biden's agenda would likely be more limited. - Biden's transition team is preparing contingency plans depending on the Georgia results and economic conditions, but much of his domestic policy proposals would require congressional approval that

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    of 5

    Biden's Policy Agenda Rests Heavily on

    Senate Outcome
    Jim Tankersley

    Fri, 13 November 2020, 4:06 am GMT+8

    Democratic U.S. presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden smiles as he pulls off his face
    mask to speak about the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election during an appearance in
    Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 4, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE
    DAYMore

    WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team is preparing


    multiple sets of policy proposals for the economy, health care, climate change
    and other domestic issues, including the ambitious agenda Biden laid out in his
    winning campaign, while acknowledging it may have to be pared back in
    recognition of divided government.
    Where the incoming administration lands depends heavily on two Senate runoffs
    in Georgia in early January.
    If Democrats win both races, close aides to Biden and economists who helped
    advise his campaign say the president-elect will try to push through a large
    stimulus plan for the flagging economic recovery — most likely along the lines of
    the $2.2 trillion that House Democrats approved this fall. His stimulus plan under
    such a scenario would include hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local
    governments that have lost tax revenue amid the pandemic recession, extended
    unemployment benefits for people who lost jobs during the crisis and a new
    round of aid for small businesses.
    Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
    His team is also developing a government employment program — called the
    Public Health Jobs Corps — that would put 100,000 Americans to work on virus
    testing and contact tracing.
    A narrow majority in the Senate would also give Biden the chance to push
    through his proposed tax increases on corporations and the rich — tax hikes that
    would be used to fund the president-elect’s more ambitious plans like rebuilding
    roads and bridges, speeding the transition to a carbon-free energy sector and
    helping Americans afford health care.
    But if Republicans win even one of the Georgia seats, Biden will most likely need
    to settle for a wave of executive actions that would bring more incremental
    progress toward his policy goals, while trying to cut compromise deals with Sen.
    Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader.
    Tax increases, even for the ultrarich, would almost certainly be off the table, as
    would be expanding the Affordable Care Act to give Americans the ability to buy
    into a government insurance program like Medicare. Biden would continue to
    push for infrastructure and health care bills, economists around him say, but he
    would be unlikely to win support for his full agenda in those areas.
    In order to extend as much economic aid to people, businesses and state and
    local governments as his team believes is necessary to sustain the recovery,
    Biden could be forced into a creative reshuffling of unspent money from the
    previously approved stimulus package — the sort of move that Democrats
    criticized when President Donald Trump acted this year to repurpose federal
    disaster funding for a supplemental unemployment benefit.
    Biden’s aides say his transition team is working on a variety of contingency plans
    depending on economic conditions, including whether the recent surge of virus
    cases chills consumer spending, and on party control of the Senate. The team is
    also moving ahead with finalists for appointments to key Cabinet positions and
    other posts, many of which will be announced before the Georgia runoff.
    “President-elect Biden’s transition team is filled with experts who are, at this very
    moment, engaged in the work of fleshing out the Biden-Harris campaign policy
    proposals into actionable executive actions and legislative proposals,” said Stef
    Feldman, Biden’s campaign policy director. “The Biden-Harris administration will
    be prepared to act on Day 1 in all scenarios, including the different possible
    outcomes of the Georgia runoffs.”
    Georgia is headed to a runoff because none of the candidates running for the
    two Senate seats won 50% of the vote, a legal threshold set by the state. On
    Jan. 5, the state will hold another election, with Sen. David Perdue, a
    Republican, up against Jon Ossoff, a Democrat; and Kelly Loeffler, a
    Republican, up against the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.
    The races will be competitive and expensive, reflecting Georgia’s newfound
    status as a battleground state and the high stakes of the outcome. The
    presidential race there is still undecided, with Biden currently leading Trump by
    just over 14,000 votes in the state, which has voted Republican in every
    presidential election since 1992. On Wednesday, Georgia’s Republican
    secretary of state authorized a hand recount of the election — a move
    championed by Trump but one officials have said is unlikely to erase Biden’s
    narrow lead.
    “A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate would be the biggest difference maker
    to help President-elect Biden deliver for working families across the country,”
    said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader.
    Such a majority would give Democrats the ability to pass certain legislation
    without running the risk of a Republican filibuster by employing the same
    parliamentary maneuver that Trump and his party used to pass sweeping tax
    cuts in 2017 without a single Democratic vote. It would almost certainly be the
    vehicle for Biden to achieve most of his ambitions in areas like infrastructure,
    education and climate change. And it would allow him to raise taxes on
    companies and the rich, which Republicans would otherwise almost certainly
    block.
    “It seems like it’s everything,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former Labor Department
    economist under President Barack Obama who is the policy director at the liberal
    Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “If it’s 50-50 in the Senate after the
    Georgia races, then the Democrats will be able to push something substantial
    through that will be a really key thing for boosting the economy. If not, it just
    doesn’t seem possible.”
    While Biden’s campaign platform was less expensive and expansive than his
    Democratic primary race rivals’, it featured more new government spending and
    targeted tax increases — in dollar terms — than any Democratic nominee before
    him.
    Much of Biden&aposs campaign’s domestic policy agenda would require acts of
    Congress, including many of the economic policies that Biden’s transition team
    has highlighted in recent days.
    That list starts with a stimulus proposal that hews closely to the multitrillion-dollar
    package that House Democrats approved this fall, though they could not reach
    an agreement with Trump administration officials and McConnell in order to pass
    the bill into law.
    Biden’s bigger-picture agenda also calls for new legislation. He wants to pass an
    infrastructure bill that includes expanding broadband internet to rural areas and
    increasing federal spending on clean energy research. He would fund universal
    prekindergarten, enhanced Social Security benefits and expanded tax credits for
    health insurance coverage. He would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an
    hour from $7.25 and make it easier for workers to form a labor union.
    To offset that new spending, Biden would seek congressional approval to raise
    taxes on businesses, particularly multinational corporations, and individuals
    earning more than $400,000 a year.
    Slivers of that agenda would remain possible for Biden without Senate control.
    Business groups remain hopeful that he and McConnell could reach agreement
    on a slimmed-down stimulus bill and a compromise infrastructure package,
    perhaps in the form of a new highway bill.
    Biden could also push executive actions to reshape trade, financial regulation
    and energy policy, among others. His Treasury Department could use its
    regulatory authority to nibble at the edges of tax policy, including shifting
    enforcement efforts to focus more on high earners and companies that dodge tax
    liability, said Kimberly Clausing, an economist at Reed College in Oregon who
    provided tax policy advice to Biden’s campaign.
    Biden’s campaign platform included a wide range of potential executive actions,
    such as placing new requirements on firms bidding for federal contracts to
    promote higher pay and racial equality. It also included a plan to direct $400
    billion of federal procurement to products made in the United States and to
    impose strict new fuel economy standards to combat climate change. Transition
    advisers are also exploring how Biden might repurpose previously allocated, but
    unspent, stimulus funds to help people and businesses.
    Liberal economists and many progressive activists fear that scenario would
    expose the economy to the risk of a sluggish recovery early in Biden’s term.
    “Just being totally realistic and honest, it’s huge” for the fate of Biden’s agenda,
    said Michael Linden, the executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative,
    which promotes progressive policies. “That doesn’t mean that if Democrats win
    the Senate, they get all their wildest dreams. It does mean that instead of having
    to give everything they need to Mitch McConnell to get him to think about doing
    something, you could actually get some things passed to improve people’s lives.”
    But business groups and many consultants in Washington are welcoming the
    possibility of a divided government with little threat of corporate tax increases.
    “We have to lower the ceiling of expectations in that scenario” for Biden’s
    agenda, said John Gimigliano, a former Republican tax policy staff member in
    the House who is now at KPMG in Washington. “We’re looking at more modest,
    more bipartisan stuff. And to be honest, maybe that’s not the worst thing.”

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