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“'This round of potential school closures is hitting at a very different point than prior in the pandemic,' said Lauren Bauer, an economic studies fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'We’re no longer in a world of fiscal relief to support households and businesses if they need to shut down, leaving families with fewer, if any, good choices.'"

“So much is good about the recovery … At the same time, we’re still in the midst of chaos … I’m not sure how we’re going to disentangle how much is a result of our political process, how much is a result of the pandemic and, indeed, how those two things have been completely intertwined.” 

“'I don’t lay what’s happening with inflation really at the Fed’s feet,' Wendy Edelberg said. 'This is all very much focused on the goods sector. Goods inflation is off the charts. Goods inflation is running like 12%, which is astronomically high, whereas services inflation isn’t doing much to write home about.'"

“The majority of these excess savings are held by rich people, said Wendy Edelberg, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. ‘Lower income households look to have increased checking account balances by about $500 since pre-COVID,’ Edelberg said. If they don’t have a job, ‘that won’t go far.’” 

“Wendy Edelberg, director of The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and a former chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office, said the bill shouldn’t be viewed as a major driver of near-term growth or inflation, even though it may lead to somewhat lower GDP next year. ‘There are really important forces that are buffeting the economy right now, and getting the pandemic under control is obviously just the most important thing policymakers can do,’ she said.” 

“‘There’s a lot to like about this recovery, but we need consumer spending to pivot back toward services and give the goods sector a break, and we need to get people back to work, and both of those changes depend on getting the pandemic under control. The pandemic is everything,' Wendy Edelberg said."

“Wendy Edelberg is the director of The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. We gave her a call to talk about economic forecasting in uncertain times … ‘Keeping in place the full refundability of the Child Tax Credit that’s in Build Back Better would be a game changer for millions of people. Whether GDP grows 4% or 3.5% is not a game changer, particularly in light of all of the forces that are buffeting the economy right now, which could lead to very different GDP numbers.’” 

“As Bob Greenstein, a veteran budget expert, explained to me in August, [Build Back Better] was ‘probably the most far-reaching in the area of social provision, in improving the lives of tens of millions of people, of any since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the nineteen-sixties.’” 

“Robert Greenstein, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, compared the child tax credit to America’s signature safety net programs — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — which have been adjusted and changed over the years to become mainstays in American life. He said there are few policies that are more important. Greenstein said the benefit flows not just to the families receiving the cash, but has the potential to bring long-term economic benefits."

“‘Moving heaven and Earth to have monetary policy instantly achieve 2% inflation would not be optimal monetary policy in the current environment,’ Wendy Edelberg, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution […] So unless long-term inflation expectations rise unexpectedly, the Fed can sit on its hands, Edelberg added.” 

On October 6, 2021 Wendy Edelberg testified before the Joint Economic Committee on the subject of "Building Back Better:  Raising Revenue to Invest in Shared Prosperity."

On September 30, 2021, Wendy Edelberg testified before the The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the subject of “Assessing the Federal Government’s COVID-19 Relief and Response Efforts and Its Impact”.

"SNAP benefits offer a demonstration. They are calculated using the Thrifty Food Plan, a formula set decades ago, when few women worked outside the home. The plan presumes both the most economical food choices (such as buying grains or beans in bulk, as opposed to smaller, more prepared quantities) and the least costly prep methods, which might involve hours of work. “We think about food preparation differently now,” says Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. “We expected people had an infinite amount of time to soak their beans. But [today,] people purchase canned beans.”

"What we know is that we were not doing a great job of supporting women and mothers with kids before the pandemic," said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and the mother of a 9-year-old son. "The loss of child care didn't actually affect most of the people with the youngest kids because it was already keeping people out of the labor market because it was unaffordable."

“The average increase will be $36.24 more per person, per month, or about $1.19 more per day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the average benefit was about $121 per person on a monthly basis. “It’s pretty important for low-income families with kids,” said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and associated with The Hamilton Project.”

“Wendy Edelberg, a senior economics fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she is director of the Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative, said: ‘People who receive SNAP benefits are generally living paycheck to paycheck. It increases their spending on nutritious food, and it helps them to be more financially secure broadly, so that's why we see that it boosts consumer spending.’”

“‘Biden proposed to make the most critical part for child poverty permanent,’ Robert Greenstein, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Yahoo Money. ‘There is a real distinct possibility that that is indeed what Congress could do and that would be transformational.’”

“Over the weekend, I spoke with Bob Greenstein, a veteran budget expert and advocate for the poor, who is now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, about the broader spending measure, which could total roughly $3.5 trillion. “As a single bill, this is probably the most far-reaching in the area of social provision, in improving the lives of tens of millions of people, of any since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the nineteen-sixties.”

The Agriculture Department’s announcement that it is revising the food package on which benefit levels in the SNAP program are based to reflect changes in food consumption patterns, research on diet and health, and nutrition guidance is a welcome development. Bob Greenstein recognizes how this action will benefit millions of Americans and should lead to a healthier, more productive citizenry and workforce.

“‘It’s the acknowledgement that actually [child care] was basically a full-time job,’ said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and one of the authors of the report.”

“‘Wow — these are stunning findings,’ said Bob Greenstein, a longtime proponent of safety net programs who is now at the [Hamilton Project at the] Brookings Institution. ‘The policy response since the start of the pandemic goes beyond anything we’ve ever done, and the antipoverty effect dwarfs what most of us thought was possible.’”

“‘Are firms replenishing what’s on the shelves? That is a place where people trying to forecast the first estimates of GDP often have really big misses,’ said Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project and former chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office. ‘What’s particularly important right now about that is that inventories have been crazy low.’”

“An analysis of the survey data by the [Hamilton Project at the] Brookings Institution found that mothers of children 12 and under at home spent, on average, more than eight hours on child care. The Brookings analysis also found that working mothers provided 7.4 hours of child care on weekdays in 2020, spending more time than employed fathers, unemployed fathers and fathers not in the labor force. ‘Child care is now a full-time job for mothers,’ said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at Brookings. “They’re spending more than eight hours a day doing child care, and their work hours have suffered. Even if they’re juggling both child care responsibilities and working, they’re now working less than they would before.”