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Trump’s nominees need to be asked hard questions about their records of harming the public. So we did the work ourselves and wrote some!

Contrary to popular belief, inflation did not lead to the downfall of incumbents worldwide.

Neal Katyal, former Solicitor General under President Obama, has spent his post-public sector career defending any corporation willing to pay his exorbitant hourly rate.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been an active regulator under the Biden administration, helping shift the balance of power in labor relations to empower workers. The NLRB has utilized both enforcement actions and rulemaking capacity to help workers and unions, much to the chagrin of big business groups. 

Lina Khan and the Federal Trade Commission have been the target of endless Wall Street Journal hit pieces and antagonistic lobbying from billionaires hoping to cut short Khan’s tenure at the helm of the consumer protection agency. This is not a coincidence. Under Khan’s leadership, the small agency has punched well above its weight by writing cogent rules  to protect consumers, blocking anticompetitive mergers, and bringing enforcement actions to punish illegal corporate practices.

The Department of Labor (DoL) has been prolific in using its rulemaking abilities to protect workers and increase wages while using its investigative and enforcement authority to hold bad corporate actors accountable. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but highlights major victories in increasing overtime pay, addressing misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and cracking down on widespread illegal use of child labor. 

Ostensibly prestigious universities are partnering with online programs that offer non-degree courses to the tune of more than $10,000. Prominent names like Caltech, USC, and Georgetown have lent credibility to the programs, but they are little more than a scam facilitated by Obama-era deregulation.

On Lina Khan’s 60 Minutes interview with CBS’s Lesley Stahl, the FTC Chair told the nation about the agency’s many successes during the Biden administration. They discussed successful FTC’s actions to bring down inhaler, insulin and other drug costs, pending lawsuits against Amazon and other Big Tech giants, and Khan’s chilling effect on corporate willingness to pursue anti-competitive mergers. While Stahl espoused corporate America’s ‘fear’ of Khan’s leadership, the FTC Chair proudly stood by the agency’s actions to protect Americans from corporate monopolies.

With a divided Congress and an election fast approaching, congressional Democrats have little opportunity to enact any landmark legislation, but they need not sit on their hands. Congressional committees have the power to conduct hearings, investigations, and issue subpoenas. As the majority party in the Senate, Democrats should be using this authority to aggressively critique corporations that harm the public’s health and pocketbooks.

Jonathan Chait has been using his column in New York Mag’s Intelligencer to criticize the Biden administration’s populist modifications of Obamaism and warn Vice President Harris against continuing Biden’s domestic economic agenda. In Chait’s piece Kamala Harris’s Economic Plan: Good Politics, Meh Policy, he joined the chorus of pundits lambasting Harris’ policies to take on corporate power.

Matt Yglesias has joined the ranks of critics misrepresenting Lina Khan and the FTC’s record during the Biden administration.