President Biden and Antitrust – Creates Success for Small Businesses, Workers, and Consumers
“The heart of American capitalism is a simple idea: open and fair competition — that means that if your companies want to win your business, they have to go out and they have to up their game; better prices and services; new ideas and products.”
In her January 25 article, Heather Cox Richardson pulls together pieces of Biden’s economic policies and successes. Biden wanted to make the economy more competitive for small businesses and consumers, so the President signed an executive order to promote economic competition.
“Since the 1980s, [Biden] he said, when right-wing legal theorist Robert Bork masterminded a pro-corporate legal revolution against antitrust laws, the government had stopped enforcing laws to prevent giant corporations from concentrating their power. The result had been less growth, weakened investment, fewer small businesses, less bargaining power for workers, and higher prices for consumers. “[T]he experiment failed,” he said.”’
The executive order contains 72 actions that, according to David Dayen in The American Prospect ‘“suggests that the effort has worked. Overall, Dayen concludes, the executive order of July 9, 2021, was “one of the most sweeping changes to domestic policy since FDR.”’ No more trickle-down economics but “build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”
Some successes:
- Lower-cost hearing aids
- Lower-cost Medicare Rx
- Wage negotiating power
- Unemployment at its lowest
- Inflation reduction
- 10.7 million jobs created in the past 2 years
- 10.5 million small business applications filed in the past 2 years
- Median weekly earnings rose 7.4%
- Black American’s full-time median income rose 11.3% in 2021
- Hispanic worker’s income rose 4.8%
- Young people, income rose >10%
- 16 million enrolled in ACA
- CHIPS and Science Act creating high-paying non-college degree jobs
“Greg Sargent of the Washington Post notes that much of the investment from these laws is going to Republican-dominated states even though their Republican lawmakers opposed the laws and voted against them. The clean energy investments of the Inflation Reduction Act are going largely to those states, bringing with them additional private investment. A solar panel factory is expanding into [Marjorie Taylor Greene] Greene’s own district despite her vocal opposition both to alternative energy and to the Inflation Reduction Act.”
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Things to do, read, watch, and listen to
We need just 188 more signatures to protect Ottawa County!
ACTION ITEM: Sign the petition to Elizabeth Hertel, Director of MDHHS, to state your opposition to the appointment of Nate Kelly as Administrative Health Officer of the Ottawa County Department of Public Health. He advocates against widely accepted and scientifically sound COVID-19 mitigations and medical practices. For more info and to sign the petition, click here.
Governor Whitmer: “We are eager to chase our bright future with hustle and grit.”On January 25, Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivered her 2023 State of the State address to a joint session of the Michigan legislature. According to the Michigan Chronicle, there were numerous key policy proposals:“Lowering MI Costs” – roll back the retirement tax; expand the Working Families Tax Credit; free preschool to save families an average of $10,000 a year and ensure every 4-year-old in Michigan gets a head start in education. “Make It In Michigan” – establish a sustainable funding source to reinvigorate the state’s manufacturing and supply chain sectors by returning outsourced cutting-edge projects and jobs back home. Repealing abortion ban and safeguarding civil rights protections – repeal the 1931 law banning abortion and other policy measures that restrict access to reproductive health; expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976, which “prohibit(s) discriminatory practices policies, and customs in the exercise of those rights based upon religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital.“MI Kids Back on Track” – with disruption of learning due to Covid, offer every child personalized learning support, including expansive tutoring programs to help students master critical skills sets and information. “Operation Safe Neighborhoods” – Public safety and gun control with the focus on removing the flood of illegal firearms off the streets before a violent crime is committed. She also called for enacting preventative measures such as universal background checks, extreme risk protection orders and safe storage laws. Click here for a recording of Governor Whitmer’s entire 2023 State of the State Address.
Ever wonder how much money is raised in order to get ballot measures passed?
If it’s a controversial constitutional amendment, $48,282,045! At least that was what was raised for the Reproductive Freedom Amendment. Opponents to the amendment only raised $315,028.
The Voting Rights Policy Amendment backers raised $13,751,790 and the opponents $2,940,200. The much less controversial Legislative Term Limits and Financial Disclosure Amendment backers only raised $1,349,251 and the opponents $142,299.
All passed. Source: OpenSecrets as of January 30, 2023.
Democrats 101: A Primer for Us by J.M. Purvis
By Bryan Watson and Kayla Conrad
This article is the first of two articles on the Democratic Creed, drawn from the above book.
Origin of the Democratic Creed
J.M. (Jim) Purvis wrote Democrats 101: A Primer for Us, self-publishing it in September 2021. Purvis writes that he was motivated by “the vast changes underway in this country, the challenges it faces, and the role [the Democratic] party must play.” He was waiting for someone to write something along the lines of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. When he got tired of waiting, he started writing.
What Democrats believe
In writing Democrats 101, Purvis was aware that the in-fighting among Democrats was largely a function of the multiple definitions Democrats carried within themselves. In fact, in the first chapter, titled “The Question”, begins with the questions “What, exactly is a Democrat? Why do we belong to the same party? What ties us all together?”
Purvis spends a large portion of the book discussing who Democrats are, who “they” (the opposition) are, and the myths and fables about both before he arrives at the Democratic Creed.
The Democratic Creed is a concise way of claiming the values, beliefs, and actions inherent in a Democratic Identity. Here is the Democratic Creed in its entirety.
“We believe. . .
- That all people are created equal, that this is America’s fundamental ideal.
- That America is a democracy, by and for the people, ruled by the Constitution and its interpretations, protected by the Bill of Rights, and inspired by the Declaration of Independence.
- These founding documents demand Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity for all Americans, in full and equal measure. . .regardless of who you are, what you believe, or where you live.
- That the duty of government is to strive endlessly to make the ideals of Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity a reality for all.
- That the purpose of government is to protect our nation, defend our democracy, and to endlessly promote the welfare of each and every one of us.
- That fighting for these ideals is our purpose as a political party.”
Stay tuned for the Follow-up to this article in next week’s newsletter! Also, The first chapter of the book is available at https://www.dems101.org/opening-chapter.The Democratic Creed is also on the website at https://www.dems101.org/the-creed
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