The Centrist Think Tank Third Way Just Can’t Quit Austerity
For a moment, it seemed like the centrist think tank Third Way was abandoning its commitment to austerity. No longer: Third Way is now boosting a campaign to deny $1,400 COVID-19 survival checks to tens of millions of Americans and undermining the push to raise the minimum wage to $15.
Third Way is boosting a campaign by billionaire-funded economists and millionaire TV pundits to deny $1,400 COVID-19 survival checks to tens of millions of middle-class Americans. (Flickr)
For a moment, it looked like the Democratic Party’s Wall Street–boosting think tanks might stop hawking austerity during the historic, deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
“Clearly, there’s a need,” Jim Kessler, an executive vice president at Third Way, told the Washington Post last month in response to President Joe Biden’s first coronavirus relief proposal.
“The new unemployment numbers are shocking,” Kessler said. “State and local aid has to be part of it. There will be additional stimulus checks. And you have to make sure unemployment benefits continue as well.”
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