What A Day - Bidenomics 101

Episode Date: December 1, 2020

Biden officially announced several top members of his economic team, including his picks to lead the Treasury, White House Council of Economic Advisers, and the Office of Management and Budget. We talk about the picks and what it says about Biden's economic priorities.Moderna submitted its vaccine for FDA authorization yesterday, following Pfizer’s submission a couple weeks ago. The CDC is holding an emergency meeting today to hammer out some guidelines for states on who should get their COVID shots first. And in headlines: SCOTUS hears arguments on Trump’s plan to keep undocumented immigrants out of the census count, a London lab uses AI to predict the shapes of proteins, and Spiderman is able to have in-person school in Atlanta.

It's Tuesday, December 1st. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Erin Ryan, filling in for Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, reminding you that these are your final 24 hours to stream content on the departing app Quibi. You know, Akilah, I'm really sad that I can no longer take just quick bites of things. From now on, I have to take enormous chunks of entertainment at once. I need to unhinge my jaw and swallow my entertainment like Garfield eating a whole pan of lasagna. Man, you're right. On today's show, CDC advisors meet to decide who gets first access to the vaccines, then some headlines.

But first, the latest. They say I'm complacent. I'm the same like him. Christmas stuff. Christmas stuff. Who gives a fuck about Christmas stuff? Yes, who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff? All right, well, that was the new holiday classic, Christmas Stuff, featuring an auto-tuned Melania Trump. Shout out to the Gregory brothers. They don't miss. All of their auto-tune hits are just fire. One thing that we haven't really talked about very much during the Trump administration

is that Melania is the first ever person with Grinch heritage to occupy the White House. So I do think we need to kind of give her credit where it's due. She is, you know, 60% ethnically Grinch. She overcame her two sizes, two small heart to be here. Oh, she definitely didn't overcome. She sings from her heart. You could hear the Christmas stuff coming from her tiny little heart. But the green fur was in a recessive gene, so she remained beautiful,

even though we do know that she is a Grinch. In fact, yeah. In other news, more states have now certified their election results, which in a normal year with a normal outgoing president wouldn't make news. Yesterday, Arizona and Wisconsin declared Biden the official winner in their states, and once again, Trump the loser. I feel like I'm in a Groundhog Day and every day it's like, Trump lost.

Yes, he lost yesterday too. Biden also received his first full intel briefing yesterday as president-elect, and he officially announced several top members of his economic team. So let's talk about a few of the people he picked. Yes, so a few of these names will be familiar because the media has been floating them for a while, but we now have the official word from Biden. So his appointments include Cecilia Rouse, a labor economist from Princeton to run the White House Council of Economic Advisors. She previously worked in the Clinton and Obama

administrations and would be the first black woman to head the CEA. Very cool. Rounding out that council, which gives economic advice to the president, are Jared Bernstein and Heather Boucher. Like Rouse, both are also really focused on labor, and they view rising inequality as a direct threat to the economy, cosine. They also support a big-ass stimulus package for workers. I am not mad at any of that. And yesterday on the show, we said Janet Yellen would likely be in the cabinet,

and would you look at that? Biden announced her as his pick for Treasury Secretary. So a little background. Yellen is a labor economist and used to be the Federal Reserve Chair from 2014 to 2018, when the economy was still recovering from the financial crisis and the Great Recession. So that should be useful experience now as she helps shape Biden's economic policy. If confirmed, she'll be the first woman to hold the Treasury Secretary position. And then the last big name I'll mention is Neera Tanden, who's been announced as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She'll be the first Indian American to run the OMB, which as the name suggests, oversees the President's budget planning

and manages policy implementation. Tanden is currently chief executive at Center for American Progress, a think tank. So, you know, it's pretty ideal, but there's still a lot of hypothetical conflict between the more center left members of the party and the progressives being reported by all of these big papers. So the cliff notes is that Tandon has been critical of Bernie Sanders and was in the past, specifically while she was working for Hillary Clinton. And the criticism was simply that, you know, he's a millionaire. So, I mean, you know, OK, facts. According to The New York Times, though, many Sanders staffers think Tanden worked behind the scenes

with other Dems to keep him from winning the primary in 2016. Also, Republicans dislike her because she's been so outspoken against Trump. So even if the Dems take back the Senate, and obviously I really hope that we do, her confirmation may be a little bit more fraught than the others that I mentioned. I feel like we can move beyond Bernie would have won because Bernie kind of did win. If you take a look at where the party has moved and the things that we're talking about, progressives have a lot to crow about. And I think that even if somebody was trying to prevent him from winning the nomination in 2016, what we're talking about now is a direct result of what him and people that he supports have pushed for. So, you know, Bernie did kind of win. So what do we know about any details on their plans as economic advisors

and policy priorities? So the hires on their face kind of suggest a little bit, you know, Yellen, Rouse, and Tandon have all focused on increasing worker wages and reducing racial and gender discrimination in the economy. So, you know, all good things there. But also in the announcement, it said that the Biden administration would help create a, quote, economy that gives every single person across America a fair shot and an equal chance to get ahead. And several weeks ago, Biden told business groups that labor unions would have increased power under his administration. And again, that the job losses and lack of real financial help in the pandemic and subsequent recession are front of mind. So a focus on jobs, on wages, on workers' rights. It really all seems like progress to me. Well, let's move on to today's other big story.

It's the COVID-19 pandemic. pandemic, we're hurtling toward what may well be a horrible and deadly holiday season as COVID cases and numbers and hospitalizations continue to reach alarming highs. Over 95,000 people are currently hospitalized in the U.S., according to the COVID Tracking Project. That's compared to the previous high of about 60,000 in the spring and summer, so more by half, which is terrifying. But we're also moving quickly towards something that looks like hope, two vaccines. Yesterday, Moderna submitted its vaccine for FDA authorization. Erin, what's the latest on that? Well, Akilah, thanks to the incredible work of scientists and researchers,

we've now got two vaccines that could start to be distributed to Americans within days or weeks. Moderna, as you mentioned, and Pfizer, which submitted a couple of weeks ago. As soon as the FDA reviews and approves either one for emergency use, people can start lining up to get poked. Well, I'm in line. Yeah, I am also in line to get poked. But as you've been talking about on the show with this first round of vaccines, we're not going to have enough for everybody all at once.

And we don't have one official plan for who gets to be at the front of the line. That's why the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, is having an emergency meeting today to hammer out some guidelines for states on who gets their COVID shot first. So what do we know about their thinking? Well, much to the chagrin of the Kardashians and everybody who would love to feel just a little more normal by having a maskless dance party on a private island. The vaccine will not be distributed based on how many Instagram followers you have or even whether your father invented the toaster strudel.

I'm really bummed. I know. That's my dad. I know, I know. Poor grudging wieners. The ACIP has already decided that the first people in line should be health care workers and people who live in long-term care facilities like nursing homes. According to Dr. Kathleen Dooling, a medical officer at the CDC,

staff and residents at these facilities have accounted for almost 40% of all deaths from COVID-19, even though they're less than 1% of the total U.S. population. If you add up healthcare workers and people who live and work at long-term care facilities, that's about 24 million people. Even with FDA approval and firing on all cylinders, there will only be about 40 million vaccine doses available by the end of this godforsaken year. And both COVID vaccines require two shots, which means that those 40 million doses will be barely enough to meet the needs

of the very neediest in this group. Yeah. And then it starts to get a little bit trickier when you get into the other essential workers and people with high-risk medical conditions or, you know, older people. Right. So according to the CDC, there are about 87 million essential workers, 100 million high-risk adults, and 53 million people 65 years of age or older. And of course, there's some overlap between these categories. These are the people that would be prioritized next, but as you can see, there are a lot of them. If all goes well, you could see 50 million more doses ready to go in January, another 60 million in February or March.

Doing more math, divided by two, carry the one. That means about 75 million people could be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the first quarter of 2021, which means there are more people who are at an elevated risk from COVID than there will be vaccines. And there will not be enough vaccines

to reach herd immunity at first. And it's going to be a while before we get there. So this is just guidance. According to current lame duck secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar, love calling that guy a lame duck, state governments will ultimately determine how the vaccine will be distributed. But who knows if that assertion will hold after Biden takes

office on January 20th? Yes, who knows? Well, it's a little bit of an elephant in the room here. You know, America has a pretty long history of ignoring the needs of, and in some cases, actively hurting the health of, marginalized groups like indigenous Americans living on reservations, black people, hello, non-native English speakers, people experiencing homelessness, and the mentally ill among other groups. So how can we be sure that the COVID vaccine won't just pass them over? That's a really important question, Akilah. I'm sure there are already rich and powerful people trying to figure out how to skip the line. There's nothing more American than that. But the ACIP seems determined

to make sure Americans have faith in the fairness of this process. All of their meetings are live streamed. So if you're looking for something to do today, you can go ahead and live stream the meeting. And all the votes are public. The FDA is also having meetings on vaccines on December 10th and 17th. This whole process depends on the public trusting the vaccine enough to let somebody shoot two doses of it into their arms. And it seems like so far, at least the folks in charge are taking that responsibility seriously. And while all this is happening, Moderna and Pfizer will still be gathering more data and monitoring for adverse effects as the first groups of people get vaccinated. And then the companies will have to go through the normal FDA approval process as

well. This first round of approval is a fast track process. Yeah. So getting back to normal is in sight, kind of, if you squint. It's not that far. It's kind of right there. It's kind of, kind of. Let's put it this way. Between now and when everybody who needs to be vaccinated is vaccinated, you'll definitely have time to relearn that foreign language you tried to learn in high school and have mostly forgotten about by now. So it's not too late. Babble is an option. What's the one with the owl that yells at you if you don't use it every day? I don't know. They don't sponsor us. Only Babble for here. Okay. But one more thing. Scott Atlas, the radiologist whose do-nothing approach to the COVID pandemic was the perfect complement to President Trump's laziness and incompetence, stepped down from his role in the White House

on Monday. Good luck to him in his next role, bad guy in a comic book. You know, we always need more of those. And that's the latest. It's Tuesday WOD Squad, and today we're talking about some major American holidays of the past couple of days. So Cyber Monday, and more importantly for our hearts and souls, Giving Tuesday. So, you know, Giving Tuesday is a newer day. It was created in 2012 to promote giving back after a few days of turned-up consumerism. So, Erin, my question for you.

Did you get anything for Cyber Monday, and who will you be helping out for Giving Tuesday? So I did not get anything for Cyber Monday, except I filled out my household Christmas decorations. Nice. Because I've been, like, putting lights up this year and stuff, because what else am I going to do? But for Giving Tuesday, okay, so here's something that is super fun for all the listeners. There's a website called DonorsChoose, where it's like teachers who are so grossly underpaid that they need to ask for money to buy supplies for their classrooms.

Yeah. so grossly underpaid that they need to ask for money to buy supplies for their classrooms. There's a function on the DonorsChoose website where you can search for people by birthday. So just go on DonorsChoose and you can look for schools in your neighborhood or you can just pull up teachers that have a birthday that day and just fully fund their project. And it's like, I've done it a couple times. It makes me feel really good. And also the teachers are always like, Oh my God, thank you. Random, random stranger. Um, also I have a lot of teachers in my family, so it like feels nice to be able to do that for them. Um, yeah, it's, it's, it's great. Um, Akilah, same question for you. Cyber Monday,

giving Tuesday, what do you got on your plate? Well, similarly for Cyber Monday, all I really did was get some Christmas lights that I didn't need. But I feel like the cheer has to be at home this year. You know, like I don't get to go out and see cool bars that have like a nice fireplace with garland. I got to make that my house. My house is a bar. So I did that.

And then I hurt my finger, so I had to buy this little finger isolator, which is less of a gift. It was on sale, though, so I feel like I took advantage of Cyber Monday. You've got to wait for Phalange Wednesday in order to buy accessories for your fingers and toes. I've got two more dollars off of this finger stint. I don't know what you call it. It's probably just a popsicle stick, whatever. But for Giving Tuesday, there's an organization that when I lived in Cincinnati area, I used to volunteer at around Christmas time all the time. And it's called the Lighthouse Foundation.

It's for like young people who are experiencing homelessness because they're leaving a variety of bad situations. And so it's like a place they can stay, but they also like, you can cook for them and you can help them have a bed for the night and you get them resources. And so I'm going to, you know, keep it local to my hometown and try to do some good in that way.

Pretty exciting. Well, that's awesome. Yeah, you know. And also, especially now with like the economy, I feel like there's so many people who are just, you know, falling through the cracks of poverty that it's like the more we can help, the better.

Mm-hmm. Definitely. Yeah. So just like the more we can help, the better. Mm-hmm. Definitely. Yeah. So just like that, we've checked our timps. They are warm like our hearts after we try to do some good. And also like the burn on my right hand. I'm not doing well hand-wise. I'm getting injured. Anyway, stay safe.

And we'll be back with some headlines. Headlines. The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday about Trump's plan to keep undocumented immigrants out of the census count. Trump made the order earlier this year, but it was blocked by several lower courts that ruled it was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court justices were skeptical of the policy. Even hard right Trump nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. When you lost Kavanaugh and ACB. Wow.

Not looking good. Some justices argued that it goes against the historic precedent of the census counting every person in the country, regardless of their citizenship status. On top of all that, the case faces a mountain of issues, including the Census Bureau saying they won't be able to produce the data until after Trump's presidency is over in January. And even if the court sides with Trump, Biden will probably reverse course once he becomes president. It will take more time for the justices to reach their decision, but for now, it's not looking good for Trump. And that is an evergreen sentence from now until, you know, whatever legal consequences he faces post-presidency. Yeah. Love it. I love it too. I want to hear it more. I want it to be like a character in Mario Kart's catchphrase. Like if, you know, Waluigi is saying, I wanted somebody to be like, it's not looking good for Trump. I would love that. Somebody program it. If you work at Nintendo, pass it along. I second that. I second it. Sounds great. Well, a new watchdog report revealed that the

federal government's pandemic unemployment assistance program underpaid millions of workers. According to the government accountability office, the program meant for gig workers and self-employed people has been giving recipients their state's minimum amount of benefits regardless of what they're qualified for based on their past income. That resulted in an average weekly payout to participants that was below the poverty line in most states that reported data. The GAO's report also found that the Labor Department put out inaccurate data about unemployment claims week after week during the pandemic, which tended to overstate the number of claims. The report argued that inaccuracies in unemployment data are dangerous because they could affect how policymakers

respond to the economic fallout. Though in this case, maybe that wasn't really a problem since the federal response has mostly been do nothing. As a reminder, we're still waiting on that next relief package from Congress. Hopefully it will come before most unemployment benefits end at the end of this month. Yeah, I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm very worried for all the people that this affects. Another big win for computers. A London research lab announced yesterday that they've designed a system that uses artificial intelligence to predict the shapes of proteins, which could greatly speed up our ability to understand and treat diseases. For non-scientists, most protein shapes can be described as extremely tiny.

Yeah, true. But they're also, I mean, who can argue with that? But they're also infinitely varied and determine how a protein behaves in the body. Identifying a protein shape used to take years or even decades, but the new AI system from the London lab DeepMind totally kicked our ass and can do it in under an hour. That's not ominous at all. I'm going to view this as a positive thing that could have no possible downsides. Understanding the shapes of disease-causing proteins could help scientists develop new

drugs or repurpose old drugs that will bind to them. One very hyped evolutionary biologist said of the work, quote, this will change medicine. It will change research. It will change bioengineering. It will change everything. This also sums up my exact feelings when I do an appearance on this very podcast. You know, the streets are talking. The world is different now. This will change everything for me. It's all going to come up barren. It totally is. Well, Spider-Man has finally defeated his archenemy, restrictions on in-person learning.

The newest Spider-Man sequel has received special permission to film inside two Atlanta public schools next year, even while students there continue to attend all their classes online. If getting bit by a radioactive spider protects you against COVID, please tell me. I will find one and I will let it eat me alive. I do not care. Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios were able to get access to the schools by offering $50,000 they could put towards pandemic specific needs like tests or air filtration systems, plus the customary $2,500 for each day of filming. Really, you know, big stacks. Of course, that won't placate Atlanta parents who are mad their kids aren't getting the

same treatment as Peter Parker and Zendaya. They haven't had in-person classes for eight months, and there's no official word on when classes will resume. FYI, if you are one of those kids playing Spider-Man on PS4 or 5, if you're very, very lucky, now counts as virtual schooling. You know, at least, Akilah, at least it wasn't a Batman movie because during these pandemic times, I feel like a movie about a magical bat would just add insult to injury. You're right. You're right. I mean, it did to Robert Pattinson.

Or a pangolin. Is there like a superhero that is like a pangolin? I would say thankfully no, but I also could be wrong, so don't come for me. I find pangolins to be a little bit unsettling, so I'm glad there's not a pangolin superhero. I agree. But if there was, it would be ironic if he were shooting his movie in a school that was empty because of a disease he spread to humans. You know, you're right. And that's why you're in Hollywood.

And those are the headlines. One last thing before we go. We all want to win the Georgia Senate runoffs. So that's why we're supporting the people making it possible. The organizers on the ground. They delivered the win for Joe Biden this year, and we want to make sure that they can do it again. Hell yeah. So our Every Last Vote Peaches and Dreams Fund

supports organizers on the ground via America Votes Georgia, which has long been helping groups that have built the infrastructure to mobilize their communities to vote. If you're able to support, donate at boatsafeamerica.com slash everylastvote. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, save the radioactive spiders, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just the amino acid composition of proteins like me, because I do that, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Erin Ryan. And enjoy your giving. Yes, it's not Thanksgiving, it's giving thanks by donating money. What A Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. got that idea. And it's out now. It's called Bobo Supreme. It's a film for your ears with original songs starring Robbins, Jack Black, Isla Fisher, Alfre Woodard, Patton Oswalt, and tons more incredible people. It's a five-episode series filled with twists and turns, a militia kidnapping, and some scarily accurate news predictions. You can listen to the first one right now for free, and the rest are available to Tim's subscribers on Patreon.

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