Biden Announces New Vaccine Push

By Michael Rainey

Biden Announces New Push for Vaccinations

Within three weeks, 90% of American adults will be eligible to
receive a Covid-19 vaccine shot at a site within five miles of
their home, President Joe Biden announced Monday.

Biden said that by April 19, the number of pharmacies in the
federal vaccination program will more than double, to nearly
40,000. Additionally, the federal government will open a dozen new
mass vaccination sites, with a special emphasis on reaching
minority communities, and launch a new transportation program to
provide access to vaccinations for seniors and the disabled.

Cautioning that the “war against Covid-19 is far from won,”
Biden also called on states to maintain mask mandates and pause
reopenings. “With vaccines, there’s hope, which is a very good
thing, to state the obvious. But people are letting up on
precautions, which is a very bad thing,” Biden said. “We’re giving
up hard-fought, hard-won gains, and as much as we’re doing,
America, it’s time to do even more.”

Earlier in the day, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she was feeling a
sense of “impending doom” about the latest increase in Covid cases
nationwide. “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise
and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope,"
Walensky said during a virtual White House briefing. “But right
now, I’m scared.”

Democrats Prepare for Battle Over Biden’s
Next Economic Package

The battle over the Biden administration’s next economic package
is heating up, with Democratic liberals and centrists staking out
divergent positions that could result in a long-running battle to
shape the potentially historic bill.

Progressives are reportedly discussing plans to pressure the
White House to increase the size and scope of its spending package.
One member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said that the
president should “be bold with his opening offer,” Axios
reported, and some liberals are pushing for Biden
to go beyond the $3 trillion mark that has been floated in recent
weeks.

The Sunrise Movement, a progressive group focused on climate
change, has argued that green energy will require $1 trillion per
year for 10 years, and that $10 trillion total could become the new
liberal benchmark. "Progressives feel like this package will define
Biden's presidency, and that $3 trillion over 10 years feels low,
and it may not meet the scope of what we need to do — in particular
on climate,” a source told Axios.

Sanders’ big plans: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is another
liberal figure pushing for major changes in the next spending
package, including lowering the age for Medicare eligibility to 55.
He also wants the government to have the power to negotiate the
prices of drugs that are covered by Medicare, and for the program
to provide coverage for dental work, hearing and vision care.

Sanders wants the expansion of Medicare to be included in the
multi-trillion-dollar bill that will also address infrastructure,
with the whole thing being sold as a way to address the long-term
structural problems that the American people are facing. “We’re
talking about physical infrastructure, affordable housing. We’re
talking about transforming our energy system to deal with climate
change. We’re talking about human infrastructure,” Sanders told

Politico.

Resistance at the center: At the same time progressives
are pushing for Biden to move further left, centrist Democrats are
expressing concerns about the size of the package and some of the
tax hikes being discussed as a way to help pay for the ambitious
spending plans.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who co-chairs the bipartisan
Problem Solvers Caucus,
told Axios that he was worried about how tax
increases would affect the economy. "We need to be careful not to
do anything that's too big or too much in the middle of a pandemic
and an economic crisis," Gottheimer said, adding that he wanted
Republicans to be involved in the discussions over the next bill.
“It's got to be responsible and both parties need to be at the
table. This can't just be jammed through without input and
consideration from the other side.”

One key sticking point for Democrats from the Northeast is the
state and local tax (SALT) deduction that was capped in the GOP’s
2017 tax legislation, costing homeowners in high-tax states
billions of dollars in lost deductions. Gottheimer said he wouldn’t
consider any tax package that failed to reinstate the full SALT
deduction, a move that is opposed by many progressives and many
conservatives, too, since it would benefit mainly affluent
suburbanites in blue states.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (NY), another Northeastern Democrat, has taken
the same position, telling Axios: “I'm not voting for any changes
in the tax code unless we reinstate SALT as part of the deal.”

The bottom line: Much of the attention in the battle over
taxing and spending has been on the disagreements between Democrats
and Republicans. But Biden’s next economic package may be shaped
more by the conflict between liberals and moderates within his own
party, and it could be a considerable challenge to strike a balance
that will please all participants.

Schumer Eyes Third Spending Bill This
Year

The general assumption in Washington has been that Democrats
could potentially move two substantial economic packages this year
using budget reconciliation, the legislative maneuver that allows
the Senate to avoid the filibuster and pass legislation with a
simple majority. But according to a report in
Politico Playbook Monday, Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) thinks he may have found a way to pass a third
budget bill this year, giving Democrats one more opportunity to “go
big” on the kind of investments they want to make in
infrastructure, green energy and the social safety net, without
worrying about Republican opposition.

In addition to spending packages for fiscal year 2021 – passed
earlier this as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan – and fiscal
year 2022, which begins in October, Schumer believes he may be able
to unlock a third budget bill this year by taking advantage of some
arcane language in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

What it says: Section 304 of the Budget Act states: “At
any time after the concurrent resolution on the budget for a fiscal
year has been agreed to pursuant to section 301, and before the end
of such fiscal year, the two Houses may adopt a concurrent
resolution on the budget which revises or reaffirms the concurrent
resolution on the budget for such fiscal year most recently agreed
to.”

What it means (maybe): Schumer’s staff has reportedly
presented a case to the Senate parliamentarian that the language
allows lawmakers to revise the existing budget bill for 2021 and
send a new set of instructions relating to spending, revenue and
the public debt – effectively creating at least one more spending
package that can be passed via reconciliation this year.

The bottom line: There’s been no decision yet on the
legality of the move, and Schumer hasn’t yet determined his
strategy, but if it works, it could open the door for Democrats to
pass another round of significant changes in spending and taxation
this year.

Op-Ed of the Day: Trump's Tax Cuts and the
Debt

New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz published a much-discussed piece
over the weekend on the likelihood of Joe Biden achieving a
“transformational” presidency. Levitz has his doubts, but his
analysis touches on many of the factors that will make it possible
for Biden to achieve quite a lot, if not everything he hopes for.
This passage on the dynamics of debt and tax cuts is particularly
interesting:

“Three decades ago, the Trump tax cuts would have made it more
difficult for a subsequent Democratic government to increase
spending, as that government would have felt an obligation to
reduce the deficit it had inherited. Today, moderate Democrats feel
compelled to offset a significant portion of new spending, but feel
no obligation whatsoever to pay off inherited debts. As a result,
Trump’s tax policies have expanded the bounds of fiscal possibility
by providing Biden & Co. with a large bucket of politically
painless pay-fors; between deficit spending and reimposing
2017-level tax rates on the superrich, Democrats can make a great
deal of headway toward social democracy before ever impinging on
the market incomes of their upper-middle-class constituents.”

Read
Levitz’s full argument here.

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