Bloomberg Businessweek (November, 2024)

Год выпуска: November, 2024

Автор: Bloomberg Businessweek

Жанр: Бизнес

Издательство: «Bloomberg Businessweek»

Формат: PDF (журнал на английском языке)

Качество: OCR

Количество страниц: 112

A US Election of Incremental Ideas

In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned for the US presidency on a complete overhaul of the country’s health insurance system aimed at extending coverage to everyone not covered by private insurance or Medicaid. Four years later, Mitt Romney laid out an elaborate set of proposals for reigniting economic growth after the Great Recession that called for vastly simplifying the tax code and slashing taxes across the board by 20%. In 2016, Hillary Clinton practically swamped the public with in-depth position papers on everything from raising the federal minimum wage to establishing paid family leave.

It’s worth remembering these signature proposals from the campaigns of yesteryear as Americans return to the polls over the next few weeks and then settle in to wait as the votes are counted. This presidential cycle has been largely devoid of such ideological ambition. Donald Trump has contrived dark images of a country in decline while crusading against immigration and for a return to 19th-century-style tariffs and protectionism. Kamala Harris, whose presidential run got off to a late start, has made targeted proposals aimed at helping parents, renters and first-time homebuyers, restoring abortion rights and cracking down on corporate malfeasance such as price-fixing.

Neither campaign has introduced specific plans for meeting the country’s climate goals, easing conflicts in the Middle East, expanding or fixing Medicare and Social Security, or balancing the budget. I don’t want to slip into lazy bothsidesism; overall, Harris’ proposals are far more measured and, according to a recent open letter from 400 economists and former White House policy advisers, economically sound. But in many respects, this has been the Ozempic election. It seems like we’ve lost our appetite for big ideas.

This is partly tactical. Both campaigns want to mobilize their supporters and avoid alienating the independent swingstate voters whose last-minute vacillations will likely decide the election. Harris hopes the outcome will hinge on Trump’s eminent unsuitability and his provocation of the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, while Trump focuses voter attention on immigration and the threat he says it poses to American culture and stability.

There may be another, more discouraging factor behind this political timidity: the partisanship and gridlock that would make it all but impossible for either candidate to enact a campaign agenda, even during the “honeymoon period” that once followed presidential victories. “There are no ways to pass a substantial legislative agenda, regardless of what groundwork has been laid,” says Eric Schickler, a co-author of the essential new book Partisan Nation: The Dangerous New Logic of American Politics in a Nationalized Era.

Schickler and fellow University of California at Berkeley political scientist Paul Pierson argue that we’re in an unrivaled era of “teamsmanship,” where fealty to party is so strong that presidents can no longer appeal to the opposing party’s moderate block, and both sides view victory by the other as an existential threat. Needing a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, recent presidents such as Joe Biden and Trump in his first term have resorted to either executive order or anything that can be achieved through the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority. (That’s how Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act, with help from a tiebreaking Senate vote cast by Harris.)

Within this forbidding framework, advances on issues such as raising the minimum wage or legislating abortion rights are out of the question. The result has been “a decline in the capacity of Congress to address pressing national problems,” the authors write.

This has led to a bizarro world in which even activists are conflicted about candidates’ policymaking proposals on their turf, lest it mobilize the other party in opposition. For example, housing advocates should be delighted that Harris champions the idea of incentivizing new-home construction and offering tax credits for first-time buyers. Instead, some fret that if Harris were to make housing a high-profile part of her agenda, Republicans would automatically line up to oppose whatever plans she supports. “When we’ve seen a major political figure plant their flag on the issue, it completely wrecks the ability to get the other side,” says Henry Honorof, director of the Welcoming Neighbors Network, a nationwide group of local organizations advocating for more housing.

It’s a vicious circle. We want our presidential candidates to campaign on bold solutions. But the very act of offering those proposals now increases the risk the other side will dig in to defeat them. Without serious democratic reforms such as ditching the filibuster or changing the Electoral College, more legislative disappointment is likely. Or, as improbable as it seems, there could be a reconsideration of the tactics of opposition, particularly among stalwart Republicans and their supporters in the right-wing media. We can always hope. Otherwise the US will have a new president after Nov. 5 along with the same poisonous, paralyzed politics that are starting to feel really old.

Remarks

• Ozempic election: We’ve lost our appetite for big ideas

In Context

• Yes, Fed rate cuts will bring relief to wallets—eventually
• Rotting rice tests India’s nationalist export curbs
• Gene therapy, the miracle cure that wasn’t
• The Right Stuff: Taking the hassle out of holiday travel
• Is China’s private space industry ready for liftoff?
• A Walk With: Bill Creelman, CEO of Spindrift

In View

• A “New Deal” for Al has to help Americans, too
• The Fed led, and others followed. Now, not so much
• Turning a profit on old clothes is a tricky business
• The case for and against tourist cities banning Airbnb

In Depth

• Robots sap manufacturing’s power to lift poor nations
• Unlocking the treasure in all that electronic trash
• The economic benefits of not choosing sides
• Sustaining the Amazon’s economy to save the forest
• Should China contribute more to global climate action?
• Introducing Bloomberg New Economy’s 2024 Catalysts
• Teens love sugar, and now teens love Starbucks
• BYD’s rise from battery maker to auto colossus
• Trying to avert fentanyl deaths with a vaccine
• The FTC’s Lina Khan is just getting started

Pursuits

• Can Shaun White take snowboarding to new heights?
• Alternative ski destinations with plenty of powder
• The most exciting food just off the slopes
• Make this the year you finally ski Japan
• Three skis that offer a turn for the better
• Family matters in these fall films
• CEOs have guilty pleasures, too
• Watch Club: Glow-in-the-dark timepieces
• Behind the wheel of Bentley’s hybrid coupe
• Miami reinvents its skyline along Billionaires’ Beach
• Uncork the holidays with these seven sparkling wines

Last Thing

• Blaze your own trail out of Brand Canyon

скачать журнал: Bloomberg Businessweek (November, 2024)