Communities over Corporations
September 17, 2021
To truly build back better, curb corporate power.
The Roosevelt Rundown features our top stories of the week.
Public Money for Public Purpose
Our country is at an “inflection point,” as President Biden said in a speech yesterday.
The Build Back Better agenda could help stave off the worst effects of climate change, provide much-needed care infrastructure, and empower workers.
It would also address many of the economic and racial inequities embedded in our unfair tax system—if we don’t allow corporate interests to weaken the reconciliation bill, Roosevelt’s Niko Lusiani warns.
“As corporate lobbyists circle the skies and fill the trenches here in DC in search of fresh revenue streams, we can’t forget that building back better means ensuring that investments are not only large enough but equitable, accountable, and participatory from the outset,” Lusiani writes.
“. . . Congress and the Biden administration must think carefully about structure, with responsive and democratic program design that puts communities first while restraining corporate capture.”
Read on for Lusiani’s two proposals to curb corporate power and promote accountability in Build Back Better.
The Benefits of a Global Minimum Tax
“When companies make their profits at the expense of ordinary citizens and use their money to ensure that they don’t pay their fair share of taxes, it adds to the public’s ire and threatens the stability of economic and political systems,” Joseph Stiglitz, Todd Tucker, and Gabriel Zucman write in Foreign Affairs.
“Squashing the global tax-avoidance industry is not only vital to establishing a sense of fairness in the international economic system; it is also an important tool for coping with climate change and addressing the myriad other issues facing the world today.” Read on.
What We’re Reading
Joe Manchin Doesn’t Know What He’s Missing – New York Times
How the Budget Rules Hobble the Progressive Imagination – The American Prospect
9 Questions about the Civilian Climate Corps, Answered [feat. Roosevelt’s Mark Paul] – Washington Post
How Free College Can Help Remake the US Economy – Bloomberg
Occupy Wall Street Did More Than You Think – The Atlantic