December 15, 2021
Patrick Robertson’s insightful article looks at one cause of President Biden’s slipping poll numbers. Congressman Erik Paulsen dives into causes of the spike in inflation, and Ramona Lessen shared a glimpse at a hearing held this week before the Senate Banking Committee on stablecoins.
This is our last This Week of the 2021, so allow me to close with a few random thoughts.
The House of Representatives has finished its work and is preparing to leave Washington. The Senate has passed a debt ceiling bill, and a defense appropriations bill is a must pass – so it will. The Build Back Better bill is not moving in 2021 and will be kicked into 2022. A Republican Senator described to me the dilemma faced by Democrats, saying that “Senator Manchin doesn’t want to support a bill that has a number of short-term programs that progressives intend to extend later, and he wants to have the program paid for with a full decade of offsets. Senator Manchin also wants the bill paid for and Democrats can’t agree on which taxes to increase.”
2021 was a year of rising expectations and sobering realities. Americans want to get beyond the COVID pandemic and get on with their lives. The vaccines surely are a light to that bright future, but we’re sobered by the reality that over 800,000 Americans have lost their lives. We are coming out of our siloed existence that we had during the worst of the pandemic and that gives us hope, but now we must contend with rising inflation and staggering shortages. Yet I believe with all my heart that the best days for all of us are still yet to come.
We’ll be back after the first of the year with the next issue of This Week. My colleagues join me in wishing you a very Merry Christmas and all best wishes for a healthy and successful New Year.