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What have we done for you lately? Here’s a short list.

A column by Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post brings an idea to mind: maybe Democrats need to go small. Instead of trying to brag about big things—DACA, infrastructure, the child tax credit, etc.—brag instead about small, concrete things. The prototype for this is Cash for Clunkers, a program that every serious economist agreed was pointless but which was nonetheless wildly popular.

Here are a few examples. Note that all of them are things that are happening either right now—it's not a litany of greatest hits from the past—or in the near future:

  • You can now buy an OTC hearing aid without a prescription, and for a fraction of the cost of current hearing aids.
  • We have cut off China's access to advanced computer chips.
  • The price of insulin will be cut to $35 in January for Medicare users, and President Biden has ordered HHS to lower other prescription drug prices later in the year.
  • HHS is also working to ensure greater access to contraceptives in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
  • President Biden has lowered gasoline prices by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It will be replaced by future purchases of lower cost oil, which will save taxpayer money in the long run.
  • Thanks to Democratic management of the economy, inflation is already starting to come down.
    .
  • If you use Obamacare, subsidies have been increased for middle-class workers. This means that their premiums have gone way down.
    .
  • The CHIPS Act dedicates billions of dollars to bringing back advanced chip design and manufacturing to America.
  • The bipartisan infrastructure act provides money for new bridges, roads, airports, and other transportation projects in all 50 states.
    .
  • The Inflation Reduction Act is creating 550,000 jobs in wind, solar, battery plants, and solar panels. It also provides a $7,500 rebate on electric vehicles.
  • The No Surprises Act bans surprise billing in hospitals from out-of-network providers or air ambulance services for emergency medical care, and prohibits out-of-network doctors from issuing surprise bills for non-emergency care.

That's a top ten list. Feel free to add your own, but keep them simple, concrete, and not hated by anyone outside the MAGA cult.

59 thoughts on “What have we done for you lately? Here’s a short list.

    1. HokieAnnie

      Gas prices are down and crime is a vibe due to stuff like the NextDoor app How do you convince folks when they are so sure that the lies are reality? Perhaps shutdown the disinfo.

      1. ProgressOne

        "Perhaps shutdown the disinfo."

        How do you do that without infringing on free speech?

        I keep hearing Trump supporters wanting to regulate speech at social media companies. Don't think you want to be like them.

        1. HokieAnnie

          In a figurative sense not literally. We need our own fire hose of truth - we should require better crime statistics kept to counter act the propensity of the GOP to attempt to scare white voters on crime and to be able to dig in and verify the disparate impacts of over and under policing. Also we desperately need good stats on guns in America, if the public got the truth about guns, how often used, what types, we'd maybe shake more voters off the notion that we shouldn't do anything about it.

  1. Ken Rhodes

    Kevin, you wrote that this is a list of *small* things????

    My mind must be small, I guess, because every one of those (with the possible exception of releasing a little bit of oil from our reserves) looks like a BIG thing to me.

  2. jte21

    These are extremely pretty charts and bullet points Kevin, except it's a little hard to see how they counter:

    BLLLAARRGH! CRIME! BLACKPEOPLEINHOODIES FENTANYL LOCKUPYOURDAUGHTERS BLAAARRRGH!

    AAAAARGH MIGRANTS ILLEGALS CARAVANS OMG BROWNPEOPLEINHOODIES LOCKUPYOURDAUGHTERS AAAAARGH!1!

    ZOMMYGOD INFLATION HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE OF GAS AND EGGS COST $40 A DOZEN AND PRETTY SOON WE'LL ALL BE DEAD! AAARGH!

    Point being, it's kinda hard to win people over with reasoned arguments grounded in facts and thoughtful conversation when the other side is simply injecting demagogic adrenaline into their veins every night across multiple media platforms and telling them it's Democrats' fault they're all worked up.

    1. Salamander

      You've definitely got a point there. Dems need to put some emotion into their message and tell stories. TRUE stories, unlike their opponents.

      Insulin costs down? Bring out Mary X, whose Type 1 diabetes was threatening to bankrupt her parents and prevent Older Bro Sam from going to college... now he can!

      Greater access to contraceptives? Bill is a young, virile male who really wants to have sex, lots of it -- and why shouldn't he? -- but his wife Mindy should not have children, due to health reasons. They're in a Red state. Enough said?

      The roads in Cowtown, USA have been all but destroyed by the heavy traffic of oil company vehicles. But federal money will repair and improve them, and keep that oil and nat gas flowing!

      Well, you get the idea. Emotionally gripping true tales of woe and redemption. People eat it up. Maybe even as much as tall tales of fear, rage, hatred, and vengeance. The better angels of our nature. Maybe they'll show up this time.

      1. cgr

        Not to let facts get in the way of marketing but the insulin price cap only applies to medicare. Not sure why Kevin didn't spell that out. Poor Mary X is still going to bankrupt her parents and people will probably blame democrats.

        1. ColBatGuano

          And this is why Democratic messaging is so terrible. There's always someone who wants to chime in "Well, actually..." to muddle the message. Just say they capped insulin at $35. The Republicans would if they had done it.

  3. rick_jones

    Believing it will be possible to replace the sell off of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with cheaper oil is … optimistic. We’ve already seen the Saudis/OPEC+ be quite willing to look to their own interests, which do not particularly include the midterms. I doubt they would sit by if oil sank lower.

      1. rick_jones

        And is it higher or lower price than when Biden took office? I honestly don’t know and am phone-bound so cannot readily check, but if the answer is it is still higher than start of term, it seems an easily countered boast. Particularly if coupled with getting screwed by the Saudis wrt their alleged deal with the administration to boost production. If that had come to pass, Biden wouldn’t be selling-off the family’s hydrocarbon silver.

        1. golack

          Biden came into office with the world shutting down and the price of oil below $0. Gasoline prices were low--because no one was driving anywhere. (Natural gas prices also down, but no so much?).
          The proper comparison is to pre-pandemic prices.

    1. KenSchulz

      Saudi interests include keeping the world economy dependent on fossil fuels. This is their last chance to squeeze the West; the push to renewables is now a political imperative.

  4. Citizen Lehew

    We’re such adorable little technocrats, so convinced that if we just quietly keep our heads down and do lots of good stuff the voters will reward us.

    That’s how you win elections, right? Do stuff and trust that the media and everyone will be appalled by the other guy? We should probably try it 1000 more times to be sure.

  5. bschief

    I would add providing essential aid to Ukraine to resist the unprovoked Russian invasion. Does anyone honestly believe that The Former Guy and his enablers (cough***Kevin McCarthy***cough) would have done anything comparable?

    1. ProgressOne

      Zelenskyy didn't do what Trump wanted. Sure, Trump got caught and this took the pressure off Zelenskyy to start a Biden investigation. But Trump is quick to blame others. If he decided Zelenskyy undermined him somehow, he would never want to give Ukraine substantial aid.

      Oddly though, with Trump as president, Putin likely would not have invaded. With Trump, Putin felt he had someone he could manipulate. A little flattery is all you need to play Trump. So Putin was comfortable with Trump as president.

      1. iamr4man

        He wouldn’t have invaded until Trump withdrew the U.S.from NATO. I think that’s what he had in mind. But he definitely wanted Ukraine and at some point he would have taken it. And Trump would have supported him. No sanctions. No military aid to Ukraine.
        Sure is lucky Trump lost, huh?

      2. MindGame

        As an alternative (or addendum?) to iamr4man's suggestion, I would argue that Trump, instead of immediately publicizing intelligence like the Biden administration did and thereby undercutting Putin's ability to launch false-flag operations, would have precisely echoed whatever Putin claimed as justification for an invasion and probably even passed intelligence on to Putin to help him get Zelenskyy. Whether Putin would have even needed to wait until the US had fully left NATO or just until NATO was even more in disarray from Trump's verbal attacks on it I'll leave for the true experts to speculate upon.

    2. Salamander

      I wouldn't. The so-called "progressive caucus" flushed that argument down the old crapper earlier in the week by releasing its "make Ukraine give up and tell Russia it can have everything it wants, because war is bad" signed statement.

      True, they repudiated it by the end of the day, but in GOP PR world, nothing embarrassing to Dems ever goes away. Expect to hear the arguments on how Democrats want to dump Ukraine and kiss Putin's "ring" right up until election day ... regardless of the fact that Republicans have simultaneously declared they don't want to support Ukraine anymore.

  6. Jim Carey

    The most significant and important difference between Democrats and Republicans this year, and for many decades, is that the Democrats care more about the whole country and less about special interests, and Republicans care more about special interests and less about the country.

    Vote Republican if you care about special interests in the short term and don't care about anyone in the long term. Vote Democrat if you don't care about how well Republican-supported special interests do in the short term and care about everyone, including those special interests, in the long term.

    Serving special interests at the expense of the whole separates the whole into allies and adversaries, and it sends the message that might makes right. That's not good for businesses, it encourages crime, and it will tear a nation apart. The abortion issue should be seen just one of many tactics used by con artists to trick people into thinking that their neighbors are their enemies.

    Being moral = adhering to the “do unto others as you would have others do unto you” principle. Full stop. Democrats can do a lot more to live up to that standard, but the Republican party has abandoned it all together (for now, and hopefully not forever). That means that the Republican party is literally against Christianity, capitalism, and science, given that the primary purpose of all three is to promote that one principle.

    I think Democrats could do a better job of saying something like, "We support Christian and capitalist values ... and Republicans are continually demonstrating that they are against those values."

    1. Justin

      Democrats are hated and despised. They are the party of open borders, black criminals, baby killing, and gender deviants. It doesn’t matter what good they do. Even when they try to be for peace the end up being useful idiots for war criminals. Bring on the impeachments, shutdowns, and defaults. It will be a blast. This is what a good number of your fellow citizens want to see. There just aren’t enough of the rest of us left to stop them.

      It’s ok. Life will go on. The people you claim you want to help really aren’t interested. It’s time for white liberals to realize that and stop concerning yourselves with the welfare of these criminals and lunatics.

      1. Jim Carey

        I'm not sure I understand your philosophy. Is "I think I am right, therefore I am right!" correct? Or are you a liberal? I'm confused.

        1. Justin

          I am not "right" - I am powerless. It doesn't matter what I think, but I always vote for democrats. That makes me, maybe, a disillusioned liberal content to see the country descend into the chaos so many want. Bring it on.

          1. Jim Carey

            You are not powerless. It does matter what you think, and that you always vote.

            A real liberal values a balance between skepticism and open-mindedness, which equates to knowing that "everything" - "everything I know" = "infinity".

            Here's what I know: the difference between the country descending into chaos, and not, is the same as the difference between believing the country will descend into chaos no matter what anyone does, and not.

            If you understand chaos theory, then you understand the butterfly effect, which is that enormous effects in a complex system are caused by small actions. That is specifically why a complex system is unpredictable. And the difference between "complex" and "chaos" is "complex adaptive".

            The difference between "complex" and "complex adaptive" are many small actions that balance skepticism and open-mindedness, aka "do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

                1. ScentOfViolets

                  I don't think you realize what you've stepped in, but FYI, a fair number of commenters on Kevin's blog happen to be math-heavy physical scienc types; some even happen to be mathematicians, smirk. Now go and read up on the subject, and no it's not "which is that enormous effects in a complex system are caused by small actions", fool.

                  1. Jim Carey

                    I'd be grateful to have my misunderstandings corrected by those knowledgeable readers. I bet they agree with me that insults say more about the insulter than the insulted.

                    1. ScentOfViolets

                      Translation: "Could you use part of your valuable time to spoonfeed me so I don't have to look it up myself ... for free?" Google it. Start with the Wiki and follow the suggested articles/reading links.

    2. Yehouda

      "The most significant and important difference between Democrats and Republicans this year, and for many decades, is that the Democrats care more about the whole country and less about special interests, and Republicans care more about special interests and less about the country. "

      That is just false.

      The most imporatnt difference is that the Democracy supports democracy and the rule of law, and the Republicancs support fascism.

          1. Jim Carey

            You're absolutely correct in the sense that, when I think that there's an infinity of knowledge I don't know, I'm certain that that I'm right. And when someone disagrees with me, and that makes me think they know something I don't know, I'm certain that I'm right. And when someone makes a comment like yours, I'm certain you know something I don't know, but in this case I'm not terribly interested.

            1. ScentOfViolets

              Your initial comment -- which you then proceeded to repeat -- was obvious, banal, and insipid. No, no one is particularly interested in you reiterating tired old bromides.

              1. Jim Carey

                I took your advice and looked up butterfly effect. The small action of a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa having the enormous effect of an Atlantic coast hurricane is a metaphor that explains how complex systems work.

                I'm open to any reasoned argument that I've made a mistake. Meanwhile, I'll continue to assume that what I'm saying is important and a truth that is making you feel uncomfortable, that your opinions are your own and not everyone's, and that we're the only two people still paying attention to this thread.

  7. Ken Rhodes

    Jim, everybody thinks they are right. The problem is the word "think." There's an ever-growing pile of evidence that thinking is too hard for some folks.

    1. Jim Carey

      There's an ever-growing pile of evidence that, when people don't challenge their own assumptions, and act on that basis, and view the resulting outcomes as confirmation that the unexamined and self-confirming assumption was right, that thinking is so much easier than what nature intended it to be,

      1. ScentOfViolets

        Riiiiight. That's why our tech-level and understanding of the universe is strictly Stone Age. Also: If you think confirmation bias isn't a confirmed fact, merely a theory that has an 'ever-growing pile of evidence' ...

        1. Jim Carey

          Yes, our understanding of the universe is amazing. Yes, the evidence of confirmation bias is irrefutable . And Ken is correct that there is more of it now than there was in the past. My post was to counter the seeming implication that thinking has magically become too difficult for humans. My intention was to imply that it's lot more like a bad habit that a cognitive deficiency.

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  9. Vog46

    There's a much higher tolerance for hypocrisy in the GOP than there is in the Dem party

    "We want smaller, less intrusive government" but we want to regulate your womb."

    "We want freedom of speech unless it's anti republican - then shut your pie hole."

    "We want to protect that person in your womb so that it can be killed in an elementary school shooting because....guns."

    "We want lower taxes for those that donate heavily to our political campaigns - but we want money out of politics"

    "Climate change is a hoax because we need to keep our oil industry happy and very profitable"

    The list seems endless but the hypocrites just seem to have the news media clamoring for more and more sensational headlines. The wackier the headline the more air time and column inches it gets.
    And it's not just republicans that do it - they just get more attention.........

    1. ScentOfViolets

      I've come to the conclusion that it's not so much hypocrisy as "what we tell the insiders" vs "what we tell the outsiders". The latter is fair game, it's just wartime psyops after all, nothing more. Nothing less either.

  10. cgr

    The insulin price cap only helps those on medicare. Most of the horror stories about insulin rationing are about younger people and will still occur, so not sure this is effective marketing for Democrats. The lower drug prices in general only applies to those on medicare. Most working adults are still going to be ripped off by drug companies.
    Yes, all of this is the GOP's fault since the Senate needed 60 votes to pass a better bill on insulin and 43 Republicans voted against it but still... not great marketing for Democrats.

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