Citizen Cartwright

Biden’s legacy: Credit where credit is due

As Joe Biden leaves political life, his record shows once again that every leader, like every human, makes mistakes. But I want to take a minute to celebrate his skill in enacting laws that will benefit Americans into the future.

During the last Trump administration, it was noted that the U.S. government was being run by people who didn’t value government or governing. Lawmakers who didn’t value lawmaking had no motivation to become skilled at it.

In an earlier time, during my 14 years as a congressional staffer, I saw close-up the value of lawmaking. I saw lawmakers of both parties — including then-Sen. Biden and future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who modeled the skills of crafting and enacting legislation.

 
And during the first two years of the Biden administration, with Biden in the White House and Pelosi the House speaker, I was heartened to see those skills again being used skillfully.

Biden talked about his economic legacy in a speech last month at the Brookings Institution. He said his administration had embraced a different approach after trickle-down economics that benefited wealthy Americans first. He focused on growing the economy from "the middle out and the bottom up," to the advantage of the middle class.

Biden was able to enact, despite narrow majorities in the House and Senate, major legislation including:

— The $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to repair America's roads, bridges and railways; bring high-speed internet to rural communities; increase the resilience of the electric grid; and upgrade drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure 

— The most significant gun safety legislation in 30 years
— The $53 billion CHIPS and Science Act to bring back manufacture of semiconductor chips to the United States from China
— The Inflation Reduction Act, which included the most significant climate change legislation in U.S. history, as well as a cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for people on Medicare

A more complete list of Biden’s accomplishments in those first two years is here.

But despite headlines such as The Wall Street Journal’s on Oct. 22 that the "U.S. economy again leads the world, IMF says," and inflation of 2.4 percent, voters put Republicans in control of the White House and both the Senate and House.

In his speech at Brookings, Biden highlighted the creation of 16 million jobs, the most in any single presidential term and the lowest average unemployment in 50 years.

 

In a CBS News article published this morning, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, says: "He should have a strong legacy when it comes to the economy. He inherited an economy that was flat on its back because of the COVID pandemic, and he's leaving an economy that's flying high, at least in the aggregate."

"How much he can take credit for that, it's a reasonable debate, but I think he deserves a lot of credit," Zandi says.

Biden has noted that most of the positive effects of his policies will be felt over the next 10 years.

Biden aides have privately told The Associated Press that they expect President Trump to continue Biden's planned projects and take credit for Biden’s accomplishments, just like the Republicans in Congress who’ve celebrated plant openings and infrastructure developments in their districts after having voted against them.

Good news in 2024

Fix the News’ year-end roundup has 86 examples of good news in global health, conservation, living standards, energy, human rights, and science and tech.

 

No matter how busy you may be, I hope you’ll at least have time to scroll through this issue to experience the abundance of good will and good work that’s improving the lives of our human family in so many ways.

Some of the thousands of state laws that took effect Jan. 1

At least 20 states increased the statewide minimum wage — the highest in Washington state at $16.66 an hour, followed by California at $16.50, says NPR.

 

And gun safety activists have been touting the wave of newly passed laws to educate consumers on the risks of gun ownership and how to securely store firearms, says USA Today.

 

Iowa and Louisiana are joining 12 other states that charge a flat individual income tax.

 

Kentucky is the latest state to legalize medical marijuana.

 

Minnesota is the latest state to increase transparency when purchasing tickets to concerts, sporting events and other big events.

 

Other new laws:

 

— New York is the first state to offer all private-sector pregnant workers 20 hours of paid leave a year for prenatal care

 

— California says schools can no longer require teachers to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents

 

— Illinois police are required to undergo autism awareness training

 

— Florida is banning children under 14 from having social media accounts

 

— California is imposing harsher sentences for large-scale "smash-and-grab" retail theft

 

— Texas no longer requires car safety inspections

 

— Colorado says all eggs sold in the state must come from a cage-free facility

Fractured fairytales

When one wave of the wand can delay or deny our dreams, I guess it’s no surprise that many of us cheer as a Prince Charming appears to take our side.

 

“Even before police arrested Luigi Mangione in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, some on the internet were hailing him as a 21st-century Robin Hood,” Axios reported last week. And he apparently fits the part. Mangione is “by consensus, handsome, and jacked,” according to a New Yorker article. 

 

More than forty years ago, Richard Meyer, a scholar of American folklore, wrote that “the American outlaw-hero is a ‘man of the people’; he is closely identified with the common people, and, as such, is generally seen to stand in opposition to certain established oppressive economic, civil and legal systems peculiar to the American historical experience,” the New Yorker article says.

 

UnitedHealthcare is the insurance arm of the world’s biggest health-care company. You and I have talked for years about the ways health insurance denials can upend people’s finances.

 

A Reuters article explains that the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), set new baselines for who and what insurance plans must cover. As costs have gone up, insurers increasingly have turned to the prior authorization process, vetting requests for medical services before they agree to pay.

 

Prior authorizations were used 46 million times in 2022, up from 37 million in 2019, Reuters says, citing a KFF analysis of privately managed Medicare Advantage plans for people aged 65 and older or who are disabled. CVS denied 13 percent of such requests, UnitedHealthcare denied 8.7 percent, and Blue Cross Blue Shield denied 4.2 percent.

 

Only about 10 percent of patients appeal these denials, and of those challenges, about a third fail, KFF says. Among the reasons people don’t appeal are difficulties understanding the complexity of health coverage and being too sick, says KFF.

 

United Health’s coverage limits apply to a wide range of treatments. Just four days ago, a ProPublica headline read, “UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to critical treatment for kids with autism.” And on Nov. 19, ProPublica headlined: “How UnitedHealth’s playbook for limiting mental health coverage puts countless Americans’ treatment at risk.”

 

Yesterday’s Morning Briefing from KFF Health News was headlined “CEO was aware of UnitedHealthcare’s PR problem before shooting.” 

 

The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research organization, reported in August on ways Americans increasingly struggle to get their health insurance to work for them. 

 

Also in August, the Commonwealth Fund published “Mirror, mirror 2024: A portrait of the failing U.S. health system,” comparing performance in 10 nations. The other countries are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

 

“The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector,” the report says. 

 

The United States is the only developed country without universal health care coverage (government-funded insurance). 

New ways for people without family to age together

Resources are increasing for “solo agers,” people who live alone, without a spouse, a partner, or adult children to help them manage as they grow older, says KFF Health News.

 

There are several Facebook groups for solo agers, as well as in-person groups springing up around the country, conferences and webinars, a national clearinghouse of resources, and an expanding array of books on the topic, KFF says.

 

All of them address seniors’ need to connect with other people, prevent isolation, and prepare for a future when they might have more health issues and need more assistance, KFF says.

 

One example, Aging Alone Together, a service of the nonprofit group Dorot, is available nationally online free of charge and in person in New York City.

 

Its program consists of six 90-minute, interactive weekly sessions that focus on building communities of support, figuring out where to live, completing advance care directives such as living wills, and getting financial and legal affairs in order.

 

One goal is to help participants identify their priorities and overcome the fear and hesitation that so many older adults feel about the future, says Claire Nisen, the Dorot staffer who runs the program. Another goal is to offer practical tools, advice, and resources that can help people take action.

 

And a third goal is to develop a sense of community that promotes a “can do” attitude. As Nisen says, “Solo aging doesn’t mean aging alone.”

 

The KFF article cites a variety of resources for solo agers.

 

And KFF says: "We’re eager to hear from readers about questions you’d like answered, problems you’ve been having with your care, and advice you need in dealing with the health care system. Visit kffhealthnews.org/columnists to submit your requests or tips."

Good U.S. news on climate, clean energy, health care

Among the items in this week's Fix the News:

 

— Donald Trump can’t stop the clean energy revolution, says the nonprofit Grist. 

 

"The irony of Biden’s signature climate bill is states that overwhelmingly support Trump are some of the largest recipients of its funding,” says Grist. 

 

About 66 percent of all of the spending in the bill has gone to red states, according to Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, a climate research nonprofit. “There certainly is a contingency in the Republican Party now that’s going to support keeping some of those subsidies around.”

 

— “How many people could tell you that, over the course of America’s campaign cycle, we passed the line where humans are installing a gigawatt’s worth — a nuclear power plant’s worth — of solar panels each day? Not many, I think, because when I supply that news to crowds of (environmentally interested) people they audibly gasp in pleasure,” says environmentalist and author Bill McKibben in the Columbia Journalism Review.

 

California has used a quarter less natural gas to generate electricity this year than last year because its solar panels and batteries have achieved critical mass, he says. 

 

A quarter less natural gas in a year in California — the world’s fifth-largest economy — “is the biggest single bite yet taken out of the eventual temperature of the Earth, and yet it is passing mostly unnoticed,” McKibben says.

 

— Out of 10 states with ballot initiatives this year to guarantee abortion rights in their state constitutions, seven states approved them, says NPR.

 

For example, Missouri was the first state to ban abortion — even in cases of rape and only with an exception for medical emergencies. Abortion access now will be guaranteed up to the point of fetal viability (generally the 24th week of pregnancy).

Democrats have prepared for 2 years for coming Trump actions

Democracy Forward, a liberal-leaning legal organization, has "unveiled a large-scale new effort aimed at thwarting President-elect Donald J. Trump’s second-term agenda from his first day in office," says The New York Times.

 

Unlike in 2017, when Democratic lawyers were unprepared for the onslaught of conservative policies, the intent is to be ready to unleash lawsuits immediately.

More than 800 lawyers at 280 organizations are developing cases and workshopping challenges to what the group has identified as 600 “priority legal threats” — potential regulations, laws and other administrative actions that could require a legal response, its leaders say. 

 

Democracy Forward has spent the last two years working to identify the possible actions the new Trump administration could take on issues they see as key priorities to defend, the group’s leaders say, using as a blueprint Trump’s first-term actions, his campaign promises and plans released by his allies, including the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025 agenda.

Democracy Forward’s new project is called Democracy 2025. It’s focusing on issues including abortion rights, health care, climate change and other environmental protections, union protections and immigration. The group also has given particular weight to Trump’s promises to weaponize the systems of government, particularly the Justice Department, against those he sees as enemies, along with his pledges to dismantle federal agencies and fire thousands of government workers, the Times says.

 

The lawyers are preparing to challenge new regulations released by the Trump administration, even starting the process of recruiting potential plaintiffs who would have legal standing in court. They’re also exploring ways to take over the defense of Biden administration policies that are in litigation, such as student debt relief and women’s health protections, that now are being defended by the Justice Department and are unlikely to be continued under Trump.

Democracy Forward has "deep ties" to a number of prominent party strategists and lists election lawyer Marc Elias and Ron Klain, President Biden’s former White House chief of staff, as members of its board, says the Times.

 

The coalition has a multimillion-dollar war chest, according to the Times. Its partners include organizations such as unions, immigration advocacy organizations and groups working on abortion rights, civil rights and consumer protection.

First Monday in October: Supreme Court begins new term

Some important cases are on the court’s calendar so far. And it’s possible that lawsuits over counting ballots and voting access will draw the court into election-related disputes, The Washington Post and others report.

 

Among the top cases:

 

— The Biden administration and families of transgender minors in Tennessee are challenging a federal appeals court decision that upheld the state's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. About half the states have enacted similar restrictions. The court extended employment protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers in 2020 but hasn’t ruled on the constitutionality of lower-court decisions involving transgender minors, bathroom access or athletes.

 

— A woman in Ohio is asking the court to revive her workplace discrimination lawsuit claiming she unfairly lost out on state jobs to LGBTQ people, in violation of federal law.

 

— The Biden administration is appealing a federal appeals court ruling that struck down a regulation to reduce the proliferation of hard-to-trace ghost guns, which lack serial numbers. The firearms assembled from kits have become increasingly popular with teenagers and those whose criminal records keep them from buying guns in the marketplace.

 

— Leading U.S. gun manufacturers want the court to overturn an appellate ruling keeping alive a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Mexico over allegations that the companies’ practices are responsible for violence in Mexico.

 

— The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants the court to restore licenses it issued for temporary nuclear waste storage facilities in rural New Mexico and Texas that were invalidated by a federal appeals court.

 

— The Food and Drug Administration wants the justices to overturn a ruling that would allow the marketing of sweet e-cigarette products amid concern about an increase in youth vaping in recent years. 

 

— The adult entertainment industry is challenging a provision of Texas law, upheld by a federal appeals court, requiring that pornographic websites verify the age of their users.

 

— This week, the justices are to consider whether to reverse the death penalty conviction of Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man whose case has drawn national attention and bipartisan intervention because of prosecutors’ admitted errors.

 

Some of these cases are among 15 the court added on Friday to its docket for this term. Here is that full list, from Scotusblog.

Good news on child health, forest protection, more

Among the many stories of progress in the latest editions of Fix the News:

 

Sept. 17

Despite the many obstacles, about 560,000 children under age 10 have been vaccinated against polio during the first round of an emergency effort in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization says.

 

Sept. 12

Brazil's annual figures on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon show that between August 2023 and July 2024, the area under deforestation alerts dropped by more than 45 percent — the largest proportional drop ever recorded for a 12 month period.

U.S. ranks last in health care among 10 developed countries

The United States performs worst in preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everybody, regardless of gender, income or geographic location, according to a report published Thursday by The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group.

 

Americans die youngest and experience the most avoidable deaths, even though the country spends nearly twice as much — about 18 percent of gross domestic product — on health care than any other nation ranked.

 

“We are undersupplied with the things that people need most,” including doctors and hospital beds, says Dr. David Blumenthal, former president of The Commonwealth Fund. “That’s one of the reasons why you have to wait so long in the United States for specialty care and one of the reasons why no one can find a primary care physician.”

 

The findings are based on tens of thousands of survey responses from primary care physicians and residents in high-income countries collected over the last three years, says NBC News.

 

The researchers compared the United States with Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Each country was graded on access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity and health outcomes.

 

The United States ranked last or near last in every category except one — care process — in which it was second behind New Zealand. Care process measures things like preventive services, such as mammograms and flu vaccinations, and engagement with patients.

 

Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, says the findings align with other research consistently ranking the United States near the bottom of peer countries on nearly all leading health indicators, including life expectancy, child and maternal mortality, access to health care and equity.

 

“The United States provides perhaps the most advanced medical treatments in the world, but only for those who can afford it,” Gostin says. “For far too many people, high-quality medical care is out of reach.”

Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, notes that the U.S. differs from the other countries in one critical area: universal health care coverage. 

"A universal health care system can make a difference,” Gaffney says, “not only because everyone is covered and can see a doctor when they need to, but because they have a long-standing health care provider who can provide counsel and advice and treatment and prevention of common conditions.”