Big Changes Coming?

Monday is the Democrats’ self-declared day of decision, the day Democratic leaders in Congress have set as their deadline for passing a huge package of new social programs.  Whether it is going to pass – and/or what’s going to be in it – is unclear, but Monday is supposed to be the day. 

The programs include things that European countries already have, so we should have them, too, we are told.  Of course, Democratic leaders don’t explain that Europeans get these benefits because they, i.e., the middle class, pays more taxes than we pay in the United States.  Joe Biden has said that all these new benefits are “free,” by which he means “free” for the middle (and upper middle) class, because taxes are being raised on corporations and the rich and not the middle (and upper middle) class.

Europeans have these benefits because they pay for them and because it is a choice, i.e., high taxes for high benefits, they are willing to make.  The Democrats, and President Biden, claim we don’t need to make that choice.  We can keep our lower taxes (for the middle and upper middle class) and still get the higher benefits by making the corporations and the rich pay for them.

Of course, as I have said before, this isn’t going to work because the corporations and the rich aren’t going to sit idly by and just pay more taxes because it’s “fair.”  They’re going to hire tax accountants and lawyers to figure out ways to reduce the amount of increased taxes they have to pay.  And they will succeed, at least partially, because American tax accountants and lawyers are really smart, and they will figure out ways to legally avoid some of those increased taxes.

Plus, what the Democrats aren’t fully explaining, is that even though the increased taxes are for ten years,¹ the increased benefits aren’t all for the full ten years.  The idea seems to be to get the benefits in and then worry about continuing them later – because Congress, et al, won’t want to cut benefits once they have already been given.

The other thing the Democrats are doing is to just about flat-line defense spending, which means a decrease in real terms because of inflation.  Which is fine if you think there aren’t that many dangers in the world.  Which may be what President Biden thinks because he told the United Nations that the period of ‘relentless war” is over, and now is the time for “relentless diplomacy.”  Which is cool – as long as other countries agree.  If not, well, oops.  But then, President Biden has not been known for making the right decisions in foreign/national security policy over his career.  The problem now is that his decision really counts; it’s not just something a senator, or even vice president, says.

I’m not sure all of this is what the American people signed up for last November.  They just wanted to get rid of Donald Trump.  Whether they wanted a full-blown progressive Democratic program like this is unclear.  It’s certainly not what President Biden campaigned on.  But sometimes that’s what happens.  And for those people who don’t like it, they can pretty much thank former President Trump for losing both of the Georgia Senate seats in the run-offs in early January.  So, when former President Trump talks about how bad things are, those who don’t like what’s happening need to remember why it’s happening: former President Trump’s narcissism.
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¹ The Democrats are trying to pass their big program through the reconciliation process, which allows budget-related things to pass the Senate without a filibuster.  Bills passed this way can only deal with things for the next ten years.  So the tax increases, and the programs, can only be changed for a ten-year period, though in the case of the programs, in order to keep the estimated costs down, the programs don’t even last for the full ten years