Curry faults Biden for lack of action on progressive goals

By Scott Benjamin

Former Clinton White House aide Bill Curry says that in nearly six months in office President Joe Biden hasn’t raised the minimum wage, implemented the public health option or adequately addressed corruption in government.

“What is disappointing about Biden is he appears to be repeating [former Democratic President Barack] Obama,” said Curry, who was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1994 and 2002 and served for four years as state comptroller.

He said Obama campaigned in 2008 on the minimum wage, addressing corruption and the public option.

Curry lamented, “He didn’t do it, and that is probably why [former Republican President Donald] Trump got elected” in 2016.

Biden served for eight years as vice president under Obama.

Remarked Curry, “He’s waiting too long to act.”

“I fear there are going to be two years without progress, and it will be a wasted opportunity,” he said regarding Biden’s “procedural” errors.

Curry said as was the case during Obama’s tenure, congressional Republicans want to thwart his proposals.

“Getting to know Bill Buckley was one of the most educational experiences I’ve ever had,” Curry declared of his rapport with the famed conservative commentator who lived in Stamford. In the 1990s, Curry debated against Buckley on his long-running television show, “Firing Line.”

“I learned from working with Republicans years ago when I was in the state Senate,” he added. “But today with the national Republicans, that is not where we are.”

“More than 60 percent of the people support Biden’s platform,” Curry remarked regarding recent poll results.

“To the Republicans: Gerrymandering and voter suppression are important,” declared Curry, who is writing a book on Obama and the politics of populism.

Biden used budget reconciliation to get the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act stimulus package approved in March without one Republican vote in the U.S. Senate. New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman recently stated that “right now the economic news is good. And Joe Biden has every right to crow about it” with the addition of about 850,000 jobs in June and three million since he took office.

Curry said the president’s initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal has been slashed to $1.2 trillion following negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators.

“My biggest concern is that it is not enough,” Curry of Farmington said in a phone interview with Patch.com.

“Biden committed to it,” he related. “We should probably get it done. It will do some good.”

Wall Street Journal columnist William Galston recently stated, “Almost 4 in 5 Americans favor the bipartisan infrastructure bill over a more expansive version supported by only Democrats. If members of the House and Senate are interested in rebuilding confidence in their institution, they should listen to all their constituents, not just to the loudest voices.”

Curry, who worked for two years as a domestic affairs advisor for former Democratic President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, said it is hard to measure how the current infrastructure proposal would benefit Connecticut.

Apparently little progress has been made since a 2015 ad-hoc committee chaired by former state Rep. Cameron Staples (D-New Haven) recommended that the state spend $100 billion over 30 years on its roads and bridges.

Some congressional Democrats faulted Biden for not increasing the federal $7.25 per hour minimum in the American Rescue Act this spring.

The president announced his support for the $15 minimum wage in a speech to Congress in April and CNBC reported that he has signed an executive order that will boost the minimum wage for federal contractors from $10.95 to $15 an hour next year.

Connecticut’s minimum wage is currently $13 an hour and will be at $15 an hour in 2023.

Curry said that when you boost the minimum wage “it goes to the people that it will help the most.”

However, there are signs that the post pandemic recovery has boosted wages.

Washington Post economics correspondent Heather Long wrote on July 2 that, “In the past three months, rank-and-file employees have seen some of the fastest wage growth since the early 1980s, as employers desperate to get workers back into restaurants, ballparks and plants are offering perks such as more time off, free food and higher pay to entice them to return.”

Curry said, “This is the first real wage growth in 40 years. My guess is that it doesn’t last.”

He said middle class workers are still susceptible as a result of the decrease in collective bargaining units over the last generation and the impact of a global economy that has during the digitization age made it easier for American companies to have work done in low-wage countries.

Curry said a public option would make health coverage less expensive. Progressive Democrats criticized Obama for not including it in the historic health care reform that he signed in 2010.

CNBC recently reported that Biden left it out of his budget, progressives in Congress are instead focused on expanding Medicare and the health care industry is against it.

On another topic, Curry said Biden should take action to address the revolving door for former members of Congress and former staff members to lobby on Capitol Hill; reduce the influence of lobbyists; and increase transparency.

Biden signed an executive order on January 21 – his second day in office – that placed restrictions on executive branch appointees after they leave the federal government.

Curry said further steps are needed, citing a study that 12 percent of Medicaid spending is linked to corruption. Regarding, federal infrastructure spending, he said if it is on “shovel-ready projects,” those are the ones that are “most susceptible to political processes.”

The New York Times reported in May that the president’s proposed $6 trillion budget for the fiscal year that starts in October would have a $1.,8 trillion deficit. It reported that there are projected deficits above $1.3 trillion for each year over the next decade.

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in April, “Is it a risk? Yes, a big one. [However,] look at the cities, like Fresno, Calif., and Greenville, S.C., that have surged back to life in recent years. What did they do? They invested in infrastructure and community colleges. The Biden plan is what has already worked locally, just on a mammoth scale.”

Said Curry, “We have to be aware that each dollar spent now may be taking away a dollar that could be borrowed down the road. But the other issue is where is it going and is it being spent in the best way.”

The consumer price index increased five percent in May over a year earlier, the largest jump in 13 years.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell said during congressional hearings in June that it is “”highly unlikely that inflation will rise to levels seen in the 1970s but acknowledged significant uncertainty as the economy reopens.”

Curry said, “There has to be concern about the bump. I believe it probably is temporary.”

He added, “Far too many times we have relied too heavily on raising interest rates and slowed our economy needlessly. I hope we don’t repeat that mistake.”