The Great Democracy Initiative (GDI) was a project of the Roosevelt Institute from 2018–2020 that produced actionable policy blueprints for addressing the structural problems facing our nation.
In the span of twelve short years, America has faced two economic crises with devastating long-term impacts. In the face of the Great Recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 health crisis, Congress scraped together costly ad hoc measures. This crisis approach to policymaking is inefficient at best and malpractice at worst. There is a better way.
In this report, authors Ganesh Sitaraman, Dr. Lindsay Owens, and Adam J. Levitin propose the creation of a standing emergency economic resilience and stabilization program (SEERS) to be deployed in the event of a declared economic emergency. This standing program is not tailored to a specific crisis, but rather serves as an off-the-shelf program to address future economic crises. The SEERS program includes: a restructuring process for large firms, a program that covers payroll and operating expenses for small businesses, financial system infrastructure reform to enable direct government payments to consumers and businesses, and a system of automatic stabilizers. SEERS would allow Congress to respond quickly in a crisis while focusing its attention on the unique causes of each particular downturn.