What’s the quickest, most efficient way for President Joe Biden to sabotage his own agenda?

Firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as some lefty lawmakers are demanding he do when Powell’s term expires soon.

Powell was originally nominated to a Fed board seat by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 and elevated to chairman by then-President Donald Trump in 2018.

He’s done an extraordinary job. Among the highlights: He safeguarded the Fed’s political independence when Trump tried to bully him into pursuing partisan policies. He took aggressive, early action to shepherd the economy through a pandemic. Perhaps most significantly, he reoriented the Fed’s mission toward creating more job opportunities for the most vulnerable Americans.

This last issue is one championed primarily by progressive activists, including some of the same people now fighting Powell’s reappointment.

By law, the Fed has two main priorities, which are sometimes in tension: maximum employment (creating as many jobs as possible) and stable prices (keeping inflation low). Progressives – plus a handful of conservatives – have argued that historically the Fed has been too fixated on inflation, given decades of ultralow price growth. They’ve urged the central bank to run the economy a little “hotter,” to create more jobs for the most marginal workers.

Under Powell’s leadership, that’s what the Fed did.

Last year, the bank announced a new framework that allows for moderately higher inflation and redefines maximum employment as a “broad-based and inclusive goal.” Powell and other Fed colleagues have advocated paying more attention to unemployment rates for Black people, workers with less education and other populations often left behind even in supposedly “good” economies.

This is a huge deal: The most powerful economic institution in the world now prioritizes the interests of the most marginalized Americans.

The shift is all the more striking because Powell is a Republican. Republicans have typically been more “hawkish” on inflation and have cared less about the prospects of lower-wage workers. Yet somehow, thanks to Powell’s formidable interpersonal skills, he’s managed to maintain Republican support.

This track record isn’t disputed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other left-wing lawmakers urging Biden to ditch Powell. What, then, are their objections?

One is that Powell hasn’t done enough about climate change. Which is, to be clear, an existential crisis – just not one the Fed has much power to fix.

Congress and other executive branch agencies wield the most critical tools for fighting climate change, such as taxing carbon or otherwise limiting emissions. Political will to undertake such measures is pitiful, though, including among leading Democrats. So progressives demand the Fed instead fiddle around the edges by, for example, requiring banks to hold more capital when lending to fossil-fuel companies.

At best, these measures could have a small environmental benefit. At worst, they may jeopardize bipartisan support for the Fed’s independence. Already, influential Republican lawmakers have accused the Fed of getting too involved in social issues unrelated to its narrow, core mission.

Progressives also complain that the Fed needs a chair more committed to regulating Wall Street. While it’s true that the Fed has softened some financial rules in recent years, Powell doesn’t seem terribly ideological here. In his votes and public comments, he’s been relatively deferential to whichever colleague has taken the lead on a given regulatory issue, whether Democrat- or Republican-appointed.

Lo and behold, the main regulatory post at the Fed – vice chair for supervision – will also open up soon. That offers Biden the opportunity to put someone with a firmer hand in charge of regulations, while keeping Powell.

The other main objection to Powell is that Biden is a Democrat – therefore, Biden should appoint a fellow Democrat as Fed chair. Trump, after all, dumped Powell’s excellent predecessor, Janet Yellen, because Trump thought he needed a loyal Republican in the job (and mistook Powell for just such a partisan hack). Some Dems seem to think it’s only fair that Biden do the same.

There are of course qualified Democrats available, including Fed governor Lael Brainard (though she too has found herself in progressives’ crosshairs).

But progressives fail to recognize that having a Republican as chair – this specific Republican, anyway – is helpful to progressive causes.

With inflation running higher than normal, the Fed’s new “full employment” focus will be tested in the year ahead. Having a Republican chair gives greater political cover for the Fed to tolerate more inflation than it might otherwise, because the chair clearly isn’t doing so just to help his political team. Powell also has a proven track record in convincing fellow Fed officials to support more dovish policies.

If Democrats want job growth back on track – and therefore more political space to pursue other policies, including climate – they should keep Powell. He’s more than shown how much this economy, and this president, needs him.

– Catherine Rampell’s email address is crampell@washpost.com.