Last Updated on November 19, 2020
Even as Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden continues to preach unity and coming together as one nation, those with his ear – and the ears of his closet staff – are urging him to up-end the American form of government to implement his Progressive economic agenda.
The election results aren’t even certified yet and radical Progressives are positioning to be influential in a possible Biden administration. One group, with an intimate connection to US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), is being particularly vocal about how Biden should circumvent Congress – and in particular the Senate – to move his radical economic agenda forward.
New Consensus, a Progressive left-wing think tank led by Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, Justice Democrats’ co-founder Zack Exley, and organizer Demond Drummer, is counseling Biden on how to work around a Republican controlled Senate should the January run-off election in Georgia not go his way.
New: A progressive group whose leaders include AOC’s former chief-of-staff say in a new memo to President-elect Biden that he can achieve almost all of his economic recovery plan without control of the Senate. https://t.co/AiO4RvPBKm
— Holly Otterbein (@hollyotterbein) November 18, 2020
The group is advising Biden that he can work with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department to recreate the scheme that bailed out the big banks in 2008, a bailout that cost taxpayers over $700 billion.
The goal would be for the Fed and Treasury to provide trillions of dollars of low-interest loans to small businesses and to “build the industries of tomorrow,” a sentiment reminiscent of Solyndra.
In a memo the group penned to the Biden “transition team,” they said that while “appealing,” bipartisan legislation is not a pre-requisite for achieving the former vice president’s agenda. The notion circumvents any and all checks and balances by elected officials mandated to steward the American taxpayer’s dollars.
“The plan we’ve just outlined, again, can be pursued with or without formal legislation,” the memo reads.
Biden’s $7 trillion “Build Back Better” is slated embrace green infrastructure, revitalize the manufacturing industry through green renovation projects, and revamp housing, education and implement universal healthcare.
New Consensus states Biden could first create a “National Development Council,” which would have on its board the Federal Reserve chairman, Treasury Secretary, and select Cabinet members. Their task would be to formulate an economic development strategy.
To ensure loans are used productively and not just for stock buybacks/speculation, we propose creating a National Development Council. NDC will take Build Back Better and turn it into a national economic development plan, which the Fed can use as guidance for its loans.
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) November 18, 2020
From there, they see Biden establishing a “National Development Bank,” to oversee unencumbered financing plans for his proposals. Regional Federal Reserve banks would be empowered to unilaterally administer local projects in their jurisdictions, rather than relying on larger Federal Reserve Banks in New York or Boston.
