•Press Release Economic Crisis and Recovery
Washington DC — The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) supports a slate of executive actions detailed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). The Biden administration should move quickly to take executive actions to improve economic security, health and well-being; address the urgent crisis of climate change and reduce fossil fuel dependence; protect immigrants and refugees; and curb corporate tax evasion.
As CEPR recently pointed out, due to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, other pandemic relief legislation, and previous executive actions, the US economy has recovered at an astonishingly rapid rate. While inflation remains a major concern, most working-class and middle-class people are better off economically today than before the pandemic. At the same time, many of the recent economic and social gains are fragile, and too little has been done to address pressing issues in climate, care, immigration, and other areas.
CEPR’s co-director, Eileen Appelbaum addresses one plank on the CPC slate that aims to protect the health and safety of vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities: “Requiring greater transparency about ownership and financing of nursing homes is urgently needed. The heightened role of private equity firms in nursing homes and throughout the US health care system should alarm consumers, policy makers, and really, everyone. Private equity’s business model of buying out providers and loading them with excessive debt creates instability in nursing homes and throughout the health care system at a time when we most need increased capacity and stability.”
“In addition to many impactful proposals in the area of domestic policy, the CPC supports a set of executive branch actions that would provide critical assistance to developing nations at virtually no cost to the US government,” said Alex Main, CEPR’s director of international policy. “These actions include negotiating agreements requiring drug manufacturers to share production know-how to enable the production of vaccines, tests and treatments in poor countries. Perhaps most importantly, the CPC calls on the Biden administration to support a new release of International Monetary Fund global reserves, known as Special Drawing Rights, to provide developing countries with resources to purchase vaccines, boost their economies, and pay off debt, all at no cost to US taxpayers.”
