Tackling Antitrust, Priming the Pump, and Protecting Healthcare

1. Tackling Antitrust

On Monday, congressional Democrats rolled out their economic agenda for the 2018 elections. A key part of this plan is its emphasis on the need for stronger antitrust enforcement to make our economy more dynamic and once again competitive. Roosevelt President and CEO discussed the agenda on Marketplace and our Research Director Marshall Steinbaum explained to NBC News how the renewed focus on antitrust is important and encouraging.

2. Priming the Pump

For years, the Roosevelt Institute has pointed out that while our economy walked back from the brink, the Great Recession never really ended for millions of Americans. This week, we released a new report “What Recovery? The Case for Continued Expansionary Policy at the Fed” about the role the Federal Reserve can play in getting our economy to a better place. The report, written by our Fellow J.W. Mason, was covered in the New York Times and The Week.

3. Defeating Trumpcare

Very early this morning, the Senate rejected the latest plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. This followed months of grassroots resistance across the country and growing criticism of the conservative approach to repeal from patient advocacy groups, healthcare providers, and the insurance industry. In The Atlantic, Vann Newkirk looks back on what went wrong for the ruling party, what might happen next, and how this chain of events reflects the Republican congressional leadership’s estrangement from their conservative base.

4. Next up; Tax Cuts for Rich

Following the latest collapse of conservative attempts to repeal Obamacare, Republican leadership has announced plans to move to tax reform. While details are still changing — they announced this week the Border Adjustment Tax was dead —the broad strokes look like more of the same from conservatives. If Republicans get their way, millionaires, billionaires, and CEOs would get a massive tax break. Marshall Steinbaum discussed the road ahead on taxes with Mic.

5. On Monopoly & Neoliberalism

As the Democratic congressional leadership unveiled their plans on antitrust, Mike Konczal was in The Nation explaining the ways our government has already made the economy better for everyone by tackling monopolies. And a week after his column about the meaning and power of “neoliberalism” made waves, he appeared on the Give & Take podcast to continue that discussion.

What We’re Reading:

Today marks the 100^th anniversary of the Silent Parade, in which 10,000 African-Americans marched down New York’s Fifth Avenue in total silence to protest the lynchings that targeted their community across the country and specifically in response to a racist pogrom in East St. Louis, Illinois which killed an estimated 200 people. An op-ed in the Miami Herald explores this part of our nation’s history, how this protest became the first of many street demonstrations that would eventually advance the cause of racial justice in America, and reminds us how far we still need to go.

What We’re Watching:

There is a great deal of discussion about the gender pay gap and how women continue to be paid less than their male counterparts for the same work. A less-discussed but arguably more pervasive issue is the gender wealth gap, which drags down the lifetime economic prospects of women and their families. Robert Reich and Elena Chavez Quezada teamed up for this great, informative video to break this topic down.