On November 3rd, while in a moment of extreme exasperation following Glenn Youngkin’s win in Virginia, I wrote an article outlining several key steps that I felt were necessary for the Democratic Party if they were to have any chance of maintaining control of Congress in the 2022 election cycle. I’m glad to report that just ten days later, we are already seeing substantial progress on two of those three steps. If Democrats in Congress can maintain their momentum in the marathon that is today until election day of 2022, then they will have a much better chance of maintaining control of Congress for the last two years of President Biden’s term in office.
The first topic in that article, and the one that still needs to be addressed, is using adding language to the Build Back Better legislation that will eliminate debt ceiling votes entirely. In order to eliminate debt ceiling votes entirely, there would need to be language inserted into the BBB bill which declares that when Congress passes an appropriations bill, the legislative act of approving that spending is deemed an effective pledge to provide all necessary funding for the government programs approved in that measure. The idea for inserting that kind of language is derived from a passage in the decision for the Supreme Court case Perry v. United States, which reads:
“By yirtue of the power to borrow money “on the credit of the United States,” Congress is authorized to pledge that credit as assurance of payment as stipulated,–as the highest assurance the Government can give, its plighted faith. To say that Congress may withdraw or ignore that pledge, is to assume that the Constitution contemplates a vain promise, a pledge having no other sanction than the pleasure and convenience of the* pledgor.”
When partisan politicians threaten to use a debt ceiling vote to pre-empt payment for contracted goods and services that Congress has already appropriated funds for, they are clearly questioning the good faith and credit of the United States, and doing so to satisfy a partisan political interest. Ultimately, failure to pass a debt ceiling vote constitutes Congress acting to “withdraw or ignore that pledge [of payment]” which Perry v. United States strictly forbids.
The second topic of that editorial was how Democratic voters were demoralized by a lack of action on the criminal referral of Steve Bannon to the Justice Department. The indictment of Steve Bannon by a Federal grand jury was a huge, and obvious step towards reviving faith in the Democratic Party, and convincing the American people that Republicans wouldn’t be allowed to bully Democrats and break our laws with impunity. The key to success going forward will be maintaining the pressure, and seeing to it that the January 6th Committee continues to demonstrate a sense of urgency and aggression in prosecuting the architects of the January 6th riots. The key difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to investigations and prosecutions appears to be that Republicans have an attitude of “we’re going to do this until the courts tell us we have to stop”, and Democrats operate with an attitude of “we can’t do that unless the courts tell us it’s okay first”. The January 6th commission needs to file an immediate referral for Mark Meadows to the Justice Department, follow suit with any other former Trump staffer who fails to appear before Congress when they are subpeonad, and feel free to issue subpeonas to fellow lawmakers like Mo Brooks and Lauren Boebert, and to adopt the Republican attitude -at least temporarily- of “we’re going to carry on until the courts force us to stop”.
Passage of the infrastructure bill was a huge victory for the Democratic Party. Democrats do need to get more aggressive however in two areas: selling the infrastructure bill to the American people, and putting pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell to wind down federal stimulus at the Federal Reserve, and initiate a series of interest rate increases to help tamp down inflation, and ensure that implementation of the Infrastructure Bill won’t lead to more rapid inflation throughout the economy. The Federal Reserve recently agreed to begin tapering economic stimulus at a montly rate of “$10 billion less in Treasurys and $5 billion less in mortgage-backed securities.” President Biden needs to contact chairman Powell and ask him to accelerate that rate of reduction, with the goal of having inflation brought down to a less than 3% annualized rate by the end of March 2022. Failure to do so will mean that Democrats will be constantly bashed with propaganda about “hyperinflation” from Republicans. Achieving that goal will mean that Republicans are left without a key talking point, and will be faced with the paradox of how to portray themselves as Youngkin style moderates who won’t scare suburban women voters, while the wing-nuts in their party are calling for book burnings and complaining about all the Jews in government.
The work of government is never finished. Democratic leaders have made great strides in just the last ten days, and if they keep up the pressure their chances of maintaining Congressional majorities in 2022 will be much improved. Adding language to the BBB legislation that eliminates the ability of the GOP to force the government into default would eliminate an on-going source of stress for the American public, and bring the practices of Congress inline with the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent. Continuing pressure with the January 6th investigation, and being bold about the use of investigative authority will help to revive the American people’s faith in government. Taking immediate action to counter inflation during the early implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will deprive the GOP of a key talking point, and help to force on just how authoritarian the Republican Party has become with their book-burning and anti-Semitism, and make it harder for them to portray themselves as “Romney style Republicans”, like Glenn Youngkin did in Virginia.
Congratulations on the good start, and please keep up the pressure.