President Joe Bidenâs executive order creating a commission on the Supreme Court purports to âprovide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform.â In reality, itâs just another political power moveâone the country rejected before.
His fellow progressive Democrats in Congress did not bother to wait for the commissionâs conclusions. Rather, they began pushing legislation that proposes adding four seats to the courtâa move known more commonly as court packingâgiving their president (and party) the opportunity to ensure their policy agenda sails through all three branches of government. Turning the court into nothing more than another radically partisan body is of no concern to progressives. That is undoubtedly the desired outcome.
America needs a Civilian Climate Corps
America needs to get back to work, and we can do that while confronting the intersecting crises of the coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice, economic inequality, and climate change.
By Edward J. MarkeyUpdated April 27, 2021, 2 hours ago
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H. Hopp-Bruce/Globe staff illustration; Matze/Adobe/Matze - stock.adobe.com
The United States needs more than a jobs program; we need a massive careers mobilization. Livable wages with benefits. On-the-job training supported by local unions. Sweat equity that builds toward racial, moral, and political equality. Work that rebuilds the economy and arrests the climate crisis.
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Mark Arnold, Telecommunications Director for Kutztown, poses for a portrait in front of the historic train station in Kutztown, Pa. on Friday, April 23, 2021. President Joe Biden s $2 trillion infrastructure plan aims to expand internet access by building more publicly-owned broadband networks. Kutztown runs one of 200 city-wide broadband networks across the country that offer internet service. (HEATHER KHALIFA/The Phildadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Biden wants local governments to provide broadband internet. Could they compete with Comcast and Verizon?
Christian Hetrick, The Philadelphia Inquirer, (TNS)
The rural borough of Kutztown, Pa., couldn’t convince companies to bring faster internet to its community. So the town, about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia, built its own broadband network.
Biden Eyes Expanding Welfare State, Overturning Clinton-Era Reform
WASHINGTON President Bill Clinton in 1996 signed welfare reform into law, fulfilling his campaign promise to “end welfare as we know it.” A quarter-century later, advocates of that overhaul effort accuse the Biden administration of seeking to overturn the bipartisan accomplishment, calling its proposal an “attack” on the U.S. welfare system.
A majority of both Democrats and Republicans voted for the reform bill in 1996 in an effort to break what they termed a culture of poverty and dependence. Ten years after signing the legislation, Clinton took a victory lap to declare welfare reform a “great success,” in a New York Times op-ed.