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Friday, March 20, 2020





MARCH 20, 2020

PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS


TO WATCH THE ROUNDTABLE, GO TO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBstcJ2GjGQ.

Published on
Friday, March 20, 2020
byCommon Dreams
As #WhereIsJoe Biden Trends, Sanders to Host Coronavirus Roundtable to Address Pandemic
"Trump is in front of the cameras every day, reassuring people, putting on the appearance of 'leadership,'" said one Democratic critic. "Where is Biden? Why isn't he dominating the airwaves?"

byJon Queally, staff writer

PHOTOGRAPH -- Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden is seen on stage as he and Senator Bernie Sanders take part in the 11th Democratic Party 2020 presidential debate in a CNN Washington Bureau studio in Washington, DC on March 15, 2020. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

While users on social media asked Friday why Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden appears to be missing in action on the coronvirus crisis—causing the #WhereIsJoe hashtag to trend— Sen. Bernie Sanders indicated his intention to remain focused on the global pandemic by announcing a virtual roundtable event focused on the crisis.

The campaigns of both remaining Democratic contenders have been dramatically curtailed by the infectious disease, but Sanders—who remains a sitting member of the U.S. Senate—has been much more active and vocal on the subject of how to manage the outbreak over the last week, even as his presidential hopes have been dashed by repeated primary losses to Biden.

On Tuesday, Sanders released a blueprint for what he believes is necessary to fight the pandemic while also protecting working families and the nation's most vulnerable from economic fallout. Called "An Emergency Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic," the plan sets forth a series of principles alongside detailed policies that guarantee healthcare coverage related to both testing and treatment of the virus be fully covered at no cost, would establish an Emergency Economic Finance Agency to manage the crisis, and create a separate oversight agency designed to protect consumers from price-gouging and corporate corruption.

While Biden also released a coronavirus action proposal—the "Plan to Combat Coronavirus (Covid-19) and Prepare for Future Global Health Threats"—the former vice president has been noticeably absent from the airwaves despite largely being seen as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Biden has pitched himself as the best candidate to take on President Donald Trump over his presidential mismanagement and crass leadership—a critique that others say is now more relevant than ever given Trump's egregious handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

As Peter Daou, Democratic operative and Sanders supporter, stated on Twitter:


Peter Daou
@peterdaou
People, I mean this sincerely: #whereisjoe?

Trump is in front of the cameras every day, reassuring people, putting on the appearance of "leadership."

Where is #Biden? Why isn't he dominating the airwaves???

11.3K
12:08 PM - Mar 20, 2020
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"While Bernie Sanders leads," wrote historian Christo Aivalis, "Joe Biden is hiding. In this crucial moment, Americans need leadership, and they aren't getting from the man already being crowned as the Democratic nominee."

Journalist and co-founder of The Intercept Jeremy Scahill, tweeted: "We were all told that we desperately need Joe Biden’s leadership and experience. Now all we have to do is find him."


jeremy scahill
@jeremyscahill
 · 3h
We were all told that we desperately need Joe Biden’s leadership and experience. Now all we have to do is find him.


jeremy scahill
@jeremyscahill
How can anyone who is excited about Joe Biden being the nominee defend his remarkable lack of anything even vaguely resembling leadership at this crucial moment? And staffers posting tweets on his feed doesn’t count.

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In an Common Dreams column Thursday, progressive activist Norman Solomon argued that the coronavirus crisis offers a serious opportunity to compare the governming styles and ideological commitments of Sanders and Biden—especially as a contrast to Trump and the Republicans.

According to Solomon, "the differences between what Biden and Sanders are advocating have enormous implications for what could be done to curb the deadly virus in this country."

The Biden vs. Sanders vs. coronavirus question, Solomon wrote, "is not only an electoral contest between presidential candidates. It's also a contrast of patchwork fixes vs. profound structural changes. Refusal to upset the apple carts of corporate power vs. willingness to fight that power. Tepid adjustments vs. truly transformational agendas."

As people across the country increasingly realize that key planks of the Sanders agenda—from Medicare to All to paid sick leave to better labor protections—would make a world of difference in combatting the virus, the shortcomings of the status quo, including the nation's tattered safety net and the bottomless greed of its for-profit healthcare system, are also coming into to sharp relief:


Meagan Day
@meaganmday
Less than a week ago Joe Biden insisted there’s no connection between single-payer healthcare and coronavirus, while Chris Cuomo complained that Bernie Sanders would “try to make it a healthcare issue” https://twitter.com/abbyvesoulis/status/1240994625739018253 …

Abby Vesoulis
@abbyvesoulis
An uninsured COVID-19 patient just got her medical bill: $34,927.43. @abbyabrams has the story. https://time.com/5806312/coronavirus-treatment-cost/ …

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Jen Perelman For Congress
@JENFL23
This is why I can not support Biden.

Despite a #pandemic, he is siding with Big Pharma over providing an affordable vaccine to #coronavirus patients.

If we do not hold our politicans accountable during a crisis, then when?#JEN2020 #MedicareForAllhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/prospect.org/api/amp/coronavirus/biden-sides-with-big-pharma-against-affordable-coronavirus-v/ …


Biden Sides With Big Pharma Against Affordable Coronavirus Vaccine Plan
Unlike Sanders and other Democrats, Joe Biden has not embraced a key executive authority: cutting the cost of a possible coronavirus vaccine and other pharmaceuticals developed with federal research...

prospect.org
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FROM READING THIS ARTICLE, IT’S CLEAR THAT BIDEN HAS SIDED WITH RIGHT-LEANING FORCES, PARTICULARLY THE DRUG MANUFACTURERS, NOT JUST RECENTLY BUT DOWN THROUGH TIME. MOST DISAPPOINTINGLY IT WAS PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON WHO ALLOWED THE AUTHORITY TO MANDATE FAIR PRICING ON DRUGS BY THE NIH TO BE REMOVED. THAT’S WHAT A NEW DEMOCRAT IS FROM THEIR INCEPTION, IT LOOKS LIKE.

WHO LED THE FIGHT AGAINST THIS IN THE FORM OF AN AMENDMENT? REP BERNIE SANDERS AND SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE. IT WAS DEFEATED. SANDERS HIMSELF, ACCORDING TO THIS ARTICLE, DID TAKE SOME $400,000 FROM PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, AND APPARENTLY IN THIS ELECTION CYCLE. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THE SOURCE OF THAT INFORMATION IS, AND WHAT SANDERS HIMSELF HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT. THAT ISN’T GOOD, CONSIDERING HIS STANCE ON SUCH MATTERS. IT WILL TEND TO WEAKEN THE PUBLIC FAITH IN HIM. FOR COMPARISON, THOUGH, TRUMP HAS TAKEN $752,000 AND BIDEN $1.34 MILLION. BITE NOT THE HAND THAT FEEDETH THEE.

Biden Sides With Big Pharma Against Affordable Coronavirus Vaccine Plan
Unlike Sanders and other Democrats, Joe Biden has not embraced a key executive authority: cutting the cost of a possible coronavirus vaccine and other pharmaceuticals developed with federal research dollars.
BY DONALD SHAW MARCH 19, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH -- STAR SHOOTER/MEDIAPUNCH/IPX
Former Vice President Joe Biden delivers an address on combating the coronavirus at the Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, March 2020.

Sludge produces investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics. The American Prospect is re-publishing this article.

The pharmaceutical lobby scored a major win earlier this month when it stopped House Democrats from adding language to the emergency coronavirus funding bill that would have pressured drug companies to make coronavirus vaccines affordable. Instead, the industry secured language in the bill that prevents the government from taking any action to address vaccine prices that could delay their development.

There are, however, existing executive powers that could be used to keep coronavirus vaccine prices low. In 1980, when Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act establishing procedures for private companies to patent inventions built upon government-funded research, it created a safety valve allowing the government to break such patents when companies fail to satisfy the health and safety needs of consumers.

The authority, known as “march-in rights,”* lets the government seize patents in these cases and license the rights to responsible third parties. The authority could likely be used for vaccines like the one currently being developed by Moderna in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

It will be at least a year until a vaccine is ready, according to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the question is whether whoever is president then will be willing to use this power against the drug companies.

Unlike many of the leading Democrats who ran in the presidential primary, former Vice President Joe Biden has not embraced the use of march-in rights against pharmaceutical companies. In October, The Hill surveyed Democratic presidential candidates on their willingness to use march-in rights and found that Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg either included the idea in their pharmaceutical policy platforms or told the reporters that they were supportive of it.

Biden does not call for using march-in rights in his campaign materials and he did not respond to The Hill’s questions on the matter. Sludge asked the Biden campaign on March 16 if Biden would be open to invoking march-in rights for coronavirus drugs built upon NIH research, but, like The Hill, did not receive a response.  

In not embracing march-in rights, Biden is aligned with the pharmaceutical industry, which launched a coalition led by two of its top lobbying groups, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), to push back against calls for using the authority.

Biden’s COVID-19 plan calls for new authority for the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to approve the commercial price of vaccines developed with federally funded research. Such authority would either require an act of Congress, which has not shown an ability to go against the pharmaceutical lobby, or specific language to be included in drug development contracts. For the many coronavirus drugs already being developed, such as the vaccine candidate currently being tested by NIH and Moderna, it’s likely too late for contractual language to be added.

The pharmaceutical industry has given Biden far more campaign money than anyone else who has run for president this cycle, including President Trump. Joe Biden’s campaign and the outside groups backing him have taken over $1.34 million from the pharmaceuticals and health products industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. For context, Trump has received about $752,000 from the industry this cycle, while Sanders has received about $422,000.

The Biden campaign’s ties to the drug industry go much deeper than the contributions it has received. His campaign chairman and top aide, Steve Richetti, is a longtime healthcare lobbyist who has personally represented drugmakers Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Sanofi on issues related to pricing and patents, among other matters.

The pharmaceutical industry has given Biden far more campaign money than anyone else who has run for president this cycle, including President Trump.

The pro-Biden super PAC, Unite the Country, which has spent over $11.8 million supporting Biden so far, is led by multiple individuals with ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Among its leaders is longtime Biden friend Larry Rasky, the founder, chairman and CEO of Rasky Partners, a lobbying firm whose pharmaceutical clients have included Eli Lilly. Another member of the super PAC’s professional team, Amanda Loveday, is an associate director of NP Strategy, a public relations shop launched by corporate law firm Nexsen Pruet, which has clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Unite the Country board member Mark Riddle has previously served on the board of a centrist think tank, the New Democrat Network, that received funding from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s top lobbying group.

Last month, House Democrats pushed to have march-in rights for coronavirus treatments codified in the emergency funding bill. That effort was abandoned due to opposition from the Trump administration and Senate Republicans. Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) then led 45 of her colleagues in sending a letter to Trump on the matter, and she sent a separate letter to Health and Human Services Secretary and former Eli Lilly president Alex Azar on March 2.

“You must understand that the House of Representatives would find it unacceptable if the rights to produce and market that vaccine were subsequently handed over to a pharmaceutical manufacturer through an exclusive license with no conditions on pricing or access, allowing the company to charge whatever it would like and essentially selling the vaccine back to the public who paid for its development,” Schakowsky wrote to Azar. 

Despite the Democrats’ pleas, the pharmaceutical lobby prevailed. The Democrats’ language on march-in rights was not included in the bill and new language was added to specify that HHS could not take any action stemming from concerns over pricing of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics that could delay development of such products. The language is so broad that some observers believe drug companies could use it to block any effort to reduce prices, including march-in, by claiming that it reduces incentives to innovate.

Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked a bipartisan House bill to lower the price of some prescription drugs through Medicare negotiation after a surge in large campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry.

The Biden campaign has received large contributions from many executives and board members of pharmaceutical companies and lobbying groups, including PhRMA Vice President Carl Meacham ($1,658), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals board chairman Roy Vagelos ($2,800), Dendreon Pharmaceuticals Chief Operating Officer Christina Yi ($2,800), and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Vice President Joel Posener ($1,000). Among Biden’s bundlers who have raised at least $25,000 for the campaign is David Scheer, who is a board member of pharmaceutical companies including Esperion Therapeutics, OraPharma, and ViroPharma.

In September of last year, Bloomberg News reported that Biden told a private gathering of donors at a surgeon’s home in Dallas, Texas that there were “great drug companies out there—except a couple of opioid outfits.” At the second Democratic debate in July, Biden supported smaller-scale cost controls for prescription drugs, tweaking the Affordable Care Act, instead of Medicare for All’s proposed provisions allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices with corporations.

Until 1995, the NIH had authority to require companies to make drugs based on public research available at reasonable prices. As The Intercept reports, this “reasonable pricing” authority was stripped by the Clinton administration in 1995 at the behest of the pharmaceutical lobby. Amendments were offered in Congress to restore the authority—in the House by then-Rep. Bernie Sanders and in the Senate by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.)—but were defeated. When the measure was brought up in the Senate, Biden was one of eight Democrats who voted with Republicans to table and kill the amendment.

This article has been updated to clarify the date Sludge asked the Biden campaign if Biden would be willing to use march-in rights for coronavirus drugs.

DONALD SHAW
Donald Shaw is a money-in-politics reporter and a co-founder of Sludge.

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“MARCH-IN RIGHTS”*

GO TO THE WAPO WEBSITE BELOW TO READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ON MARCH-IN RIGHTS IN REGARD TO DRUGS. APPARENTLY THE MARCH-IN RIGHTS STILL ARE IN FORCE, BUT THIS ARTICLE GIVES USEFUL INFORMATION.

A rare deterrent to limitless drug price increases may die under Trump



CLEARLY BERNIE CAN DO TWO THINGS AT ONE TIME. LOOK AT THE MEASURES THAT OUR MAINSTREAM DEMOCRATS ARE PUSHING. IT MAKES ME ANGRY AND WORRIED ALL IN ONE KNOTTED BALL, LIKE THE YARN AFTER THE KITTEN GETS INTO IT.

WEB ONLY / VIEWS » MARCH 19, 2020
While Mainstream Democrats Fumble, Bernie Sanders Is Modeling a Serious Response to Coronavirus
Democrats make a huge mistake by shying away from a robust material response to the crisis.

BY NATALIE SHURE

PHOTOGRAPH -- Bernie Sanders is one of the few legislators offering bold solutions to the crisis. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

We are facing an emergency that will lay bare every gross inequality in American life.

The escalating coronavirus pandemic, still in its early days in the United States, has already upended American life. Within days, the country’s residents have begun to transition into an unprecedented phase of social lockdown: many workplaces have required or encouraged employees to work from home, and over 40 states have temporarily closed some or all schools. Across the country, public gathering spaces including theatres, arenas, bars, restaurants and retailers are also shuttered, furloughing or laying off thousands of workers.

The longer that major sectors of the economy—largely kept humming by low-waged and tipped workers—go without customers, the worse the aggregate impact of these developments will be. As more and more workers lose their income amid the coming major economic downturn, their ability to secure basic needs like food, utilities, housing and healthcare will be seriously threatened.

Those who will see their pay fall due to closures, business slumps or care duties in light of canceled classes will still face ruinous financial obligations. Precarious and poor workers will have little wiggle room as small business owners struggle to keep shops open. Healthcare access will be hampered by tighter family budgets and widespread loss of employer-sponsored insurance. This dire situation clearly demands a dramatic political response, but so far many Democrats have been reluctant to rise to the political moment.

To stave off the extreme harms promised by the pandemic, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted universal measures, opting instead for means-testing in the face of unprecedented social chaos. The two-week sick leave bill she championed contained major carve-outs**, comprising up to 80% of the total workforce. The bill exempts employers with 500 workers or more, and allows small employers to opt-out as well. Moreover, as Adam Johnson and Sarah Lazare point out at Jacobin, the bill contains no provisions for often precarious freelance and gig workers, leaving them more vulnerable to the dual pressures of lost income and illness.

While Pelosi’s defenders may be inclined to defend the move as the best possible result of a painful compromise, that’s not the argument she herself made: “I don’t support U.S. taxpayer money subsidizing corporations to provide benefits to workers that they should already be providing,” Pelosi tweeted. Her deputy chief of staff was even more explicit: “As congress considers the next steps, the Speaker believes we should look at refundable tax credits, expanded UI & direct payments - but MUST be targeted.”

Their hesitation is especially troubling given that Republicans appear to be publicly coalescing around the idea of universal cash relief. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) expressed early support for the idea, proposing a $1,000 pay out to every American. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that the Trump administration planned to send out checks within two weeks, while Pelosi reportedly remained steadfast in her opposition. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for her part, has put forward a plan calling for $500 in payments to each family—a far more paltry sum.

To be sure, this rhetorical divergence hardly suggests that Republicans are on the verge of becoming a workers’ party, especially as many of their plans include means-testing. But that they’re able to occupy even a rhetorical space to the left of a disjointed message from elected Democrats is a failure—what Kate Aronoff at the New Republic calls a “realignment from hell.” While expansions on the widely panned bill are being debated among House Democrats, it’s unclear whether these will replace, supplant or simply act as bargaining leverage over further legislation.

The coronavirus pandemic presents an opportunity to make an urgent case that very few elected officials so far are making: We are facing an emergency that will lay bare every gross inequality in American life, and the only hope of mitigating the mass suffering that lies ahead is a colossal public investment in what’s necessary to ensure dignified lives.

Keeping families stable requires universality and equity, which can be corrected later through progressive taxation. Forcing people to contend with administrative quagmires in the midst of a crisis guarantees that far too many fall into the cracks. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has presented a bold $2 trillion plan including direct monthly cash payouts of $2,000 to every household, 100% payment of unemployment benefits for everyone who loses their job as a result of the crisis as well as moratoriums on evictions, foreclosures, utility shutoffs and loan payments. A similar set of proposals was put forward Wednesday by House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, including billions of dollars in grants to small businesses.

These are the types of policies [that] begin to meet the scale of the crisis—and represent the clear way forward for a party that claims to represent working people.

When asked by a reporter about his plans for his ailing presidential campaign in light of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, Sanders responded, “I’m dealing with a fucking global crisis…right now I’m trying to do my best to make sure we don’t have an economic meltdown and that people don’t die. Is that enough for you to keep busy today?”

That’s the type of urgency this crisis requires, and Sanders, Waters and other left-leaning officials are showing what real leadership looks like under these dire conditions. Democratic leaders should join in and get busy with them.

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NATALIE SHURE
Natalie Shure is a Los Angeles-based writer and researcher whose work focuses on history, health, and politics.


CARVE-OUTS*

What is a “carve-out” in health insurance?
Reviewed on January 12, 2017 / 0 reviews

To sum it up...

A carve-out plan involves one health insurance provider excluding coverage for specific situations or conditions while another carrier provides coverage for these excluded conditions

Carve-out plans are mostly preferred by employers because they offer a cost-effective way of providing health insurance for employees

Big employers who self-insure their employees have a vast array of carve-out options such as cancer, trauma, cardiac care, neonatal intensive care and organ transplant

Before signing up for your employer’s health insurance policy, find out whether it’s a carve-out plan and what risks are excluded if so

If there is one facet of health insurance whose understanding eludes a lot of people, it’s the carve-out health insurance plan. Basically, carve-out plans cobble coverage together via several different carriers. Typically, carve-out plans are offered by employers who self-insure their employees.

Sometimes, carve-out plans are reserved for high ranking company executives, a low-risk subgroup of employees. When this happens, the rest of the company’s employees may be left without necessary health insurance coverage.

In a business setting, carve-out health insurance policies need an able leadership and strong management capable of negotiating appropriate coverage for employees in carved out health insurance plans.

Enter your zip code above to find a health insurance plan from one of your state’s top provider!

Carve-Out Plan: Definition

Sometimes, self-insuring employers can isolate specific risks and use a third party vendor to cover them. The third party vendor will assume financial risk and receive a flat fee from the company in exchange for coverage.

This health insurance coverage situation is referred to as carve-out health insurance.

Services Offered via Carve-Out Health Insurance Plans
A man writing a numerical list

Employers, over the past few years, have carved out health insurance plans in several specialty areas. Some of these areas include:

High-priced health services such as burn units and organ transplants
Visual services
Dental services
Pharmac.
Mental health
. . . .  

Paid Curve-Out [sic] Plan for Extra Protection
adobestock_66382055-1600x1600

As a patient, you can opt to pay extra for a carve-out plan if deemed fit. The additional coverage will be offered by a third party vendor on top of your standard health insurance coverage.

The carve-out plan will cater for the costs associated with chronic illness, prescription medication, and other forms of specialized products or care. It is a good way to supplement your employer-provided health insurance coverage.



“MOST PEOPLE I TALK WITH ON THE PROGRESSIVE SIDE OF THE LEDGER, THEY’RE OF THE VIEW THAT IT’S TIME TO GET ON WITH THIS....” EVERY TIME I SEE A STATEMENT LIKE THIS, I WONDER WHO THOSE “PROGRESSIVES” ARE; JOE BIDEN, MAYBE? THERE ARE SOME 35 STATES LEFT TO VOTE, AND THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS WILL ONLY HAMPER THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE A STRONG ONLINE PRESENCE AS BERNIE DOES. IF BIDEN DOESN’T HAVE ONE, MAYBE HE NEEDS TO GET ONE SET UP.

Progressives debate Sanders's future
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/20/20 10:16 AM EDT

PHOTOGRAPH – BERNIE SANDERS   © Getty Images

Progressives are debating what should come next for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose once-promising second presidential bid has been all but snuffed out by former Vice President Joe Biden.

Sanders is publicly giving the appearance of winding down his campaign after a string of blowout losses that has pushed Biden to a near-insurmountable lead in delegates.

The Vermont senator has pulled his digital campaign ads and scaled back his fundraising efforts. The coronavirus pandemic, meanwhile, has effectively pulled the candidates off the campaign trail completely.

Some progressives say the time has come for Sanders to throw in the towel so the nation can focus on addressing the health crisis and so Democrats can move on to the business of defeating President Trump in November.

“Politics takes on a different aura when the nation is facing possibility of millions dying from a pandemic, so the ups and downs of politics seem remarkably trivial in comparison and I think that’s taken some of the wind out of Bernie’s sails,” said Robert Reich, who served as Labor secretary under former President Clinton.

“Most people I talk with on the progressive side of the ledger, they’re of the view that it’s time to get on with this. We know Joe Biden is going to be the nominee. We’ve got to get Trump out, and there’s national emergency, so let’s move along.”

But some of Sanders’s allies see reasons for him to stay in.

The Vermont senator’s supporters believe his presence in the race will keep the left engaged between now and the Democratic convention in July, potentially delivering additional down-ballot victories for progressives.

They believe Sanders should continue to act as a liberal counterbalance for Biden, keeping him sharp heading into the general election and giving him new opportunities to win over Sanders’s supporters.

And they argue that Sanders is not attacking Biden or doing anything that would harm him ahead of his expected general election match-up with Trump.

“Sen. Sanders can run an ideas-focused and positive race, and he’s actually much better at that than he is at drawing contrasts anyway,” said Neil Sroka, a progressive strategist with Democracy for America, which has endorsed Sanders.

“That’s good for progressive power-building and might even be the best thing for Biden if he ends up as the nominee. Biden won’t have an easier time gaining the approval of Sanders’s supporters if Sanders is disengaged. And what would happen for Joe between now and the convention? He’d basically disappear. It’s good to have meaningful contests between now and then to keep him out there and to give him opportunities to win over Sanders’s supporters in a way that would be impossible if he were to leave the race tomorrow.”

There is also incentive for Sanders to stay in the race to pull Biden further to the left.

Just hours before their one-on-one debate last week, Biden announced that he supports Sanders’s plan to make public colleges and universities free for families who make less than $125,000 a year.

However, Biden remains resistant to the left’s top policy goal of implementing "Medicare for All." The former vice president has gone so far as to say that as president he’d veto any Medicare for All bill passed by Congress.

That stance has not hurt Biden in the slightest during the primaries. For instance, exit polls in Mississippi found that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters there support Medicare for All, but Biden won every county in the state on his way to a 65-point victory.

Sanders is clearly feeling pressure over his future, blowing up at a reporter on Capitol Hill this week when he was asked about whether he’d stay in the race.

"I'm dealing with a f---ing global crisis,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju. “Right now, right now I'm trying to do my best to make sure that we don't have an economic meltdown and that people don't die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?"

Sanders in recent days has repurposed his campaign to focus almost exclusively on the government response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a speech to supporters on Tuesday, as voters were casting ballots in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, Sanders didn’t even mention the elections or ask his supporters to get out and vote for him.

Instead, he used his address to lay out his health and economic plans for the virus.

The Vermont senator is pushing to empower Medicare to cover all treatments and testing for the disease, he wants to establish an agency to deal with the economic fallout for working-class voters and he proposed creating an oversight agency to ensure that corporations do not misspend the bailout money coming their way or overcharge consumers during the panic.

Sanders said he’s taking his proposals directly to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and progressives are watching closely to see how leadership responds, believing Sanders has banked truckloads of political capital and wondering if he can turn it into sway on Capitol Hill.

The coronavirus, liberals say, fits into Sanders’s wheelhouse, as it touches on the issues he’s raised for years about the health care system, corporate oversight and new protections for the working poor.

Among the items being debated in Congress: Paid leave, a $15 minimum wage for companies that need taxpayer assistance, government-administered health care and cash payouts to those in need.

“The economic fallout from this means that people could be far more open to radical change,” said Sroka. “Everything broke in a clear way and you’re seeing socialism emerge as a political force. I think this political generation awakening in this moment and the need for an aggressive response in a lot of ways could be a fulcrum or an acceleration on the path we’ve been on since the last financial crisis.”

But Reich argued that it’s impossible to know what lies beyond the coronavirus horizon.

He said that any progressive changes that happen now will be short-term to deal with the crisis, and that the only people with real power in Washington at the moment are Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“I think Bernie has some influence, but we’re dealing in days and hours, rather than measures of time that his movement can affect,” Reich said. “When Washington is facing a crisis, the normal rules of political power don’t apply. Normally that’d be an interesting question, how much leverage does Bernie have and where are progressives on putting conditions on bailouts? But right now, it’s not terribly interesting. Congress is moving too fast for progressives or anyone to get organized or mobilized.”

Rather, some Sanders supporters are looking to the future and how the progressive movement will build on the groundwork that Sanders laid.

“Bernie’s two presidential campaigns were built on the back of three decades of movement-building, with victories and defeats along the way, and we’ve moved the policy debate exponentially in a relatively short period of time,” said Jonathan Tasini, a progressive strategist and Sanders supporter.

“If he is not in the White House, he will return to the Senate as perhaps the most influential Democratic member but, really more important, across the country there are now scores of seeds planted for local, state and federal campaigns, electorally and issued-based, that will sprout and feed what I truly believe is inevitable change.”

TAGS MITCH MCCONNELL CHARLES SCHUMER BERNIE SANDERS DONALD TRUMP NANCY PELOSI JOE BIDEN PROGRESSIVES 2020 2020 CAMPAIGN 2020 PRIMARY MEDICARE FOR ALL



THIS REALLY IS A VERY GOOD VIDEO. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT.

Watch: Concentrated Power and Coronavirus
The Prospect and American Economic Liberties Project host a conversation with Rep. Mark Pocan
BY PROSPECT STAFF    MARCH 19, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH -- YICHUAN CAO/SIPA USA VIA AP IMAGES
Container ships in the Port of Oakland, California, March 9, 2020

On March 17, the Prospect and the American Economic Liberties Project held a virtual event on the coronavirus and the global supply chain structure. In addition to causing a sudden stop in economic demand and the serious threat to the health of millions, the crisis has exposed cracks in how we make and distribute medicine and other key goods. We have centralized supply in corners of the globe, in particular China; we are dependent on Chinese production for everything from batteries to active pharmaceutical ingredients, from parts for advanced drones and missiles to bibles. The shutdown of production and trade as a result of the coronavirus crisis reveals a critical dependency that makes our system of commerce fragile and prone to shocks.

Prospect executive editor David Dayen moderated an hourlong discussion on this topic, featuring: Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI); American Economic Liberties Project executive director Sarah Miller and senior fellow Lucas Kunce; and Rush Doshi, director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Brookings Institution.

The video is below.

SEE WEBSITE: Prospect executive editor David Dayen moderated an hourlong discussion on this topic, featuring: Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI); American Economic Liberties Project executive director Sarah Miller and senior fellow Lucas Kunce; and Rush Doshi, director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Brookings Institution.



THERE ARE QUITE A FEW GOOD STORIES IN THE NEWS TODAY, SO I’M JUST GOING TO STOP LOOKING AND COLLECTING WITH THIS CLOSE-UP OF A WOMAN WHO, TO ME, IS ONE OF THE REAL STARS ON THE SANDERS STAFF. SHE’S YOUNG, BUT TOUGH IN A VERY ATTRACTIVE WAY, BRIAHNA JOY GRAY.

Bernie Sanders' Messenger: Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray Keeps Fighting the Good Fight
Terrell Jermaine Starr
Today 3:43PM, MARCH 20, 2020
• Filed to:
BRIAHNA JOY GRAY

PHOTOGRAPH -- Briahna Joy Gray looks on as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders walks to greet supporters at Wofford College, in Spartanburg, S.C., February 27, 2020.
Photo: Terrell Jermaine Starr (The Root)

SPARTANBURG, S.C.—There are few political operatives who have turned the role of national press secretary on its head like Briahna Joy Gray. As Bernie Sanders’ top messenger, she speaks for the senator in ways he often can’t articulate himself. More directly, she not only speaks for the campaign, she defends his political revolution.

I call her the Bernie Whisperer.

If you don’t see her on television or a radio show talking about the need for Americans to divest from neoliberal politics in favor of the Democratic Socialism her candidate favors, she is on Twitter sparring with critics or amplifying the messages of Sanders’ supporters. In her role, Gray is as much a cheerleader and activist as she is a national press secretary.

She has to be.

The campaign is bracing for the reality that Sanders’ pathway to the Democratic nomination is growing slimmer. The coronavirus pandemic has stalled Sanders’ rallies—signature galvanizers of his campaign. For now, Gray told me Sanders is not dropping out and it is her job to vigorously spell out what a Joe Biden Democratic nomination will look like—which, in her words, is a loss to Donald Trump in November.

All of those black people who backed Biden will suffer another four more years, she worries. Even as her boss has failed to win over consequential black support, Gray has never wavered in promoting him. When I caught up with her several weeks ago backstage at a rally at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., Sanders was ahead of Biden in delegate count and hoped to deliver a decent showing in the Palmetto State. Not only did Biden win South Carolina easily, the former VP later swept the South on Super Tuesday and garnered a lion’s share of the black vote. One of the responsibilities Gray feels she has is to help articulate to black people why Sanders will move them along economically in ways that Biden can’t.

As Sanders delivered his stump speech, Gray and I spoke backstage, where she told me about her own frustrations with American capitalism and why she feels a Sanders presidency will better help the older black folks who are devoted to Biden. Soon after graduating from Harvard Law in 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement was taking shape. The language of the 99 percent versus the 1 percent was becoming mainstream and working at a corporate law firm exposed Gray to corporate maleficence.

“We were dealing with a lot of the issues that later on seemed to have been the causes of the financial crisis,” she said. “Seeing, doing the document view, reading the emails, seeing that people knew. They knew something was wrong, they knew they were mis-valuing financial products, they knew what was coming down the pike, and they didn’t end up suffering the consequences. It was the American people, disproportionately black people, who lost 40 percent of our wealth in the financial crisis. That was a very radicalizing experience for me.”

Briahna Joy Gray texting at a Bernie Sanders rally in Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday, February 27, 2020.
Briahna Joy Gray texting at a Bernie Sanders rally in Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday, February 27, 2020.
Photo: Terrell Jermaine Star (The Root)
Gray could not leave the firm because she needed the money for her $2,300 monthly student loan payments for law school. She clerked for U.S. District Court federal Judge Brian M. Cogan of the Eastern District of New York between 2012 and 2013, but she took on more loan debt to do so. As someone in her 20s, Gray knew she should not be struggling to make ends meet.

“I was someone who, on paper, did everything right and I was still feeling so trapped,” she said. “That will radicalize people. I think that a lot of people in our generation felt similarly stuck in one way or the other. Getting into your 30s, not being able to buy a house. Still dealing with student loan debt. Not being able to help your parents out the way that you would like to.

“Seeing our older relatives still having to work past retirement age because Social Security doesn’t go far enough,” she continued. “Seeing at the same time, people on both sides of the aisle making efforts to cut those same Social Security programs. All of that starts to make you feel like, ‘Well, I’ve been a loyal Democrat my whole life. If the Democrats are still not protecting me from falling through the cracks, why should I vote? Why should I participate?’”

Here at the Wofford rally, the college-age audience can likely relate to Gray’s experience. That has been Sanders’ most active audience: young people who have a grievance with the America they feel is failing them. Young people who, unfortunately for Sanders, have not shown up at the polls and simply aren’t voting in numbers commensurate with their parents and grandparents. I asked her about the generation divide and accusations that Bernie Sanders and his supporters are trying to destroy the Democratic Party.

She understands both sides. On one hand, there are a lot of black folks who feel ignored by the party and live in communities that have not seen any real investment during their lifetimes. Then you have others who recall a party that has stood by them through the worst of times.

“There were a lot of black people who lived the experience of the Democratic Party defending them through the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s and feeling like, especially now in the Trump era, that the Democratic Party and certain actors are the last defense against some truly horrible stuff happening,” she said. “I think both things can be true. The Democratic Party is, of course, not all bad. There are a number of amazing people within it, including Bernie Sanders, who always caucused with the Democrats, voted with the Democrats, and supported the Democratic agenda more consistently, in fact, than a lot of people who have a D behind their name. But the question is, shouldn’t we all be trying to make the Democratic Party live up fully to the ideals that it says it represents?”

The problem with Sanders has always been his messaging to black voters as a whole. In South Carolina, he pulled 17 percent of the black vote compared to Biden’s 61 percent; that figure barely beat his 2016 total in the state. In California, he got 15 percent to Biden’s 42. Sanders took his worst beating in Mississippi, where black voters backed Biden over Sanders 9 to 1. Sanders skipped Mississippi to campaign in Michigan, where Biden won 66 percent of black voters to Sanders’ 25 percent. Over the course of the 2020 primary, I’ve reported from Sanders’ rallies and the same theme arises again and again. Plenty of young people of various ethnic groups, but not enough of those black folks who vote in large enough numbers to decide an election.

That is not the work of an operative like Gray. When a candidate doesn’t speak to the essence of a key voting bloc, there is very little someone like Gray can do about it—no matter how skilled she is.

Tara Dowdell, a political consultant who has worked on local and national campaigns, told The Root Gray was the ideal pick to be Sanders’ top press person because she is so devoted to his message and is very keen on galvanizing his base of supporters. In a very crowded field with 20 or so candidates, Gray was essential for keeping the campaign’s supporters engaged and motivated.

“The problem was that it was effective when it was a divided field,” Dowdell said. “When you have a ton of people in the race, you have the ability to win with fewer supporters as long as you hold your coalition together. Now, when you have a smaller field, the ability to build those relationships outside of the existing coalition becomes critical. And I think the campaign is learning or I hope that they’ve learned that you have to be careful. If you are gonna attack people within the party, at some point, you’re going to need those people. I do think she was effective for rallying the troops in a divided field but things change so quickly that you have to be able to adapt to those changes and one way to survive in politics is by having those relationships to fall back on.”

Briahna Joy Gray talking with Bernie Sanders campaign volunteers at Wofford College in Spartanburg on Friday, February 27, 2020.
Briahna Joy Gray talking with Bernie Sanders campaign volunteers at Wofford College in Spartanburg on Friday, February 27, 2020.
Photo: Terrell Jermaine Starr (The Root)
Gray didn’t join Sanders’ campaign to support a candidate tethered to those types of political relationships, however. She joined to help lead a people-centered movement. To understand how Gray maintains hope that the campaign can still win, you have to understand her upbringing. Born to a father who was a research chemist and a mother who was a graduate student, Gray spent some of her early childhood in North Carolina while her mother pursued a Ph.D. program in psychology she says she didn’t finish.

Her parents then moved to Saudi Arabia for two years and worked as educators before working in Kenya for six years. Gray was 13 years old when the embassy in Nairobi was bombed in a terrorist attack in 1998. Her family knew some of the people who perished. From that point forward, her sense of safety always felt precarious.

When the September 11 terrorist attacks took place in 2001, she didn’t feel the same vulnerability that most Americans were struggling with. In fact, it made her consider who would be discriminated against in the aftermath.

“‘Whoever did this, whatever they look like is going to be in trouble,’” she thought. “Whoever was in that plane, if they’re black, black people better watch out. If they’re Arab, Arab people better watch out. In fact, that’s what ended up happening. There were people rounded up in the streets in the days after 9/11. There were an incredible number of civil liberties violations, and it was [a] horrible, horrible time that a lot of Muslim Americans remember. And a lot of people who aren’t Muslim, who are Sikh or just were mistaken for Muslim, remember. So I do think that having that international perspective did give me the space to consider the broader implications of some of American political happenings that were perhaps better understood with a more international perspective.”

After Sanders delivers his stump speech, Gray smiles as her boss walks by to pose for photos with supporters. Then a line queues up near her. The students, many of them black, want photos with Gray.

“You’re such an inspiration to me,” one of them tells her.

It happens every campaign stop and she still isn’t used to it.

“It is so surreal,” Gray told me as more students or volunteers ask for a selfie.

This election cycle has seen more black women in senior roles than any cycle ever. A lot of them communicate with each other, regardless of the campaign they are working on.

Gray told me her circle of support is more insular, with former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner as a primary source of support. She calls on Turner and others to help guide her through the grueling days of the campaign season when she’s unsure of how to proceed.

Being such a front-facing black woman brings mean-spirited attacks. Gray told me she’s received many racist and sexist attacks online. A sexist attack recently aimed at Gray came from The Root’s former Politics Editor, Jason Johnson. During an appearance on The Karen Hunter Show, Johnson called Gray one of Sanders’ “misfit black girls,” causing the words to trend on Twitter.

“That’s more misogynist than any gangster rapper ever because it says I don’t respect or value your mind,” Killer Mike told me during a campaign stop in Columbia, S.C., on behalf of the Sanders campaign back in February. “I don’t respect or value that you have a choice or say. It was belittling. It was intellectual cynicism and evil at its finest. And we allowed it. Because the nigga don’t rap.”

Gray first caught the attention of the Sanders campaign through her writing as a freelancer while working her law firm job in New York City. She’d work long hours during the day and write columns about Sanders during the evenings without the firm’s knowledge. After she joined The Intercept, the campaign asked her to join Sanders’ traveling press corps before eventually offering her the national press secretary role.

“I was told that the campaign didn’t feel like they had seen anybody who was able to articulate Senator Sanders’ message as well as I did,” she recalls. “They had a lot of confidence in me in part because I was a true believer, for a lack of a better word.”

That is Gray’s most critical asset: being a believer.

Given how much the delegate tide is in Biden’s favor, Gray’s optimism will be essential as many states are postponing primaries as governors work to contain the coronavirus. Right now, she is in Washington, D.C., planning more digital engagements with Sanders’ supporters and keeping active on Twitter—which includes taking on critics who she feels misrepresents Sanders’ positions while ignoring Biden’s weaknesses.

I asked her about criticisms of her Twitter engagement and she brushes them off. Though she has sparred with many people on the timeline, Gray says she has only blocked two people and maybe has 10 muted. Her Twitter vigor also comes from a place of feeling alienated by mainstream media she feels marginalizes Sanders and reports on his Democratic Socialist philosophy pejoratively.

Ultimately, the negative press directed at Sanders won’t help take down Trump in November, she told me.

“I think it is my duty, not only as a person on this campaign but as an American who is old enough to watch 2016 and saw how that went, to keep being honest and holding people’s feet to the fire,” she said. “And make them figure out how they are going to justify their position and defend themselves in a general election because that’s what it’s going to come down to.”

Correction: 3/20/2020, 5:10 p.m. ET: The story has been edited to clarify that Briahna Joy Gray did, in fact, clerk for a federal judge.

Terrell Jermaine Starr
Terrell Jermaine Starr is a senior reporter at The Root. He is currently writing a book proposal that analyzes US-Russia relations from a black perspective.



WHILE THE WASHINGTON POST TODAY WROTE A DISGUSTING ARTICLE ABOUT SANDERS, AT HIM, REALLY, THIS ONE ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION HAS PICKED UP 125,548 VIEWS IN FOUR HOURS, 10K THUMBS UP AND ONLY 211 THUMBS DOWN. CLEARLY SOMEBODY DOES LIKE HIM.

BERNIE HOSTS VIRTUAL CORONAVIRUS ROUNDTABLE
125,548 views • Streamed live 4 hours ago, MARCH 20, 2020
UPS   10K    DOWNS   211

Bernie Sanders
389K subscribers

Sen. Bernie Sanders hosts a virtual roundtable on the economic and health crises created by the coronavirus outbreak. Sanders will be joined remotely by musical guests, including AndrĂ© Cymone and Nahko Bear of Nahko and Medicine for the People, and leaders who are on the frontlines of the fight to ensure working people aren’t left behind in the response to the crisis.
Category   News & Politics

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