United States of America eSeries: 'Child care, paid leave, climate change, housing'

'Child care, paid leave, climate change, housing'

Posted by :

October 4, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'Child care, paid leave, climate change, housing'

Bringing home the bacon just got a lot more costly.

The rashers on America's breakfast plates Sunday were more expensive than at any point in the last 40 years — part of a global crunch that has seen existing supply chain vulnerability clash with the knock-on effects of the pandemic.

The US pork sector had plenty of already inherent problems, including industry consolidation and periodic diseases like African swine flu. But Covid-19 brought a barrage of other issues: Infections closed meat packing plants, which meant millions of animals were euthanized without being processed — leading to long-term supply issues. Feed, trucking and labor costs are also rising as inflation and climbing energy prices hit the economy.

It's not just the pork industry. Supply chain blockages are hitting the semi-conductor and auto industries, as well as other food sectors, and are likely to make toys scarcer this Christmas. There's a bicycle shortage in the US, and a massive traffic jam of ships waiting to unload on the West Coast. There aren't enough drivers, trains or warehouses free to shift massive amounts of goods. That has a knock-on effect: Ships idling off port for days raise the cost of shipping, and cause huge backlogs at the other end of the supply chain in Asia. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets.

America is far from alone in suffering. Cost spikes, delivery problems and shortages of raw materials are hurting the EU's economic recovery. And similar problems in the UK are being compounded by Brexit and the loss of European truckers that used to drive Britain's lorries. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who billed the exit from the European Union as launching a utopian era of taking back control, isn't that keen to admit the obvious.

There could be a political price to pay if there aren't enough turkeys for British dinner plates come December 25. And in the US, soaring prices, higher winter energy bills and shortages of key items could also hurt Biden, who is banking on a booming economy and strong consumer confidence to lift Democrats through next year's very difficult midterm elections.

Subscribe to Meanwhile in America

The world and America

An explosion outside a mosque in Kabul killed "a number of civilians," the Taliban said.

Eleven young baseball players have defected from Cuba.

And China sent dozens of warplanes into Taiwan's airspace.

Meanwhile in America, pressure is growing for Biden to lift Trump-era tariffs on Chinese-made goods.

An oil spill off California's coast may be an ecological disaster.

And SNL has a new Joe Biden.

'Child care, paid leave, climate change, housing'

House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal on Sunday.

The left won — but it won't get what it wants.

The extraordinary legislative cliffhanger that we told you about on Thursday ended in the way things often do in Congress: a stalemate with the toughest decisions booted down the road.

Progressives, as you'll recall, were refusing to vote to pass a $1 trillion package to fix America's crumbling bridges, roads and railroads unless Congress passed a $3.5 trillion bill to expand health care for seniors, offer free community college and kindergarten and to fund home care for sick and elderly Americans. But Senate moderates refused to spend that much cash and are balking at what is in the bill.

Desperate late-night efforts to forge a compromise failed and no one voted for anything. So Biden's agenda — and those comparisons with great reforming Democratic Presidents of the past like Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson — are hanging by a thread.

The showdown did mark a change in American politics: For really the first time in the modern era, the most liberal Democrats refused to cave to the center. They are therefore now a significant force. But at the moment of victory, Biden visited Capitol Hill with an unpleasant truth. For his agenda to pass, the final total of the spending bill will have to come in at just above or below $2 trillion. This is a bitter pill for progressives, who have already trimmed their offer from $6 trillion.

Cherished priorities are going to get dumped. They might have to choose between improving health care for elderly Americans and free pre-school for three- and four-year olds. And what happens to the bill's ambitious environmental commitments, which underwrite US promises at the UN climate summit in Glasgow next month? Nothing is guaranteed. Sen Joe Manchin, the West Virginia moderate staring down the House progressives, says he's only up for a $1.5 trillion dollar bill, and it will require Biden to persuade him to raise his sights.

While the left are newly powerful in the Democratic Party, politics is the art of the possible in a 50-50 Senate. And right now, the votes are just not there to enact the progressive wish list.

Chaos erupted around the University of Kentucky on Saturday after its football team's victory over the University of Florida, resulting in several fires and at least one arrest.

Thanks for reading.

Monday marks a new Supreme Court term. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry visit Paris for a ministerial meeting with the OECD. The UK is planning to implement controversial new travel guidelines. Watch for fallout from the newly released Pandora papers.