Joe Biden was sold by his primary opponents and former President Trump as a feeble placeholder and a relic of the past.
He has, in actuality, been the most progressive President since FDR, and this might be the most consequential Presidency of modern times.
That sounds like hyperbole, and let’s be honest, it might be. But, how can a President and Congress appear likely to spend 5.7 trillion with the federal debt sitting at over 28 trillion and it not be that consequential.
Whether it’s consequentially good, or bad is yet to be determined.
However, the American experiment has reached a crossroads. You can clearly see all the cracks in the foundation of our governance. Institution decay. Perceived and actual corruption. A steadily declining civic engagement and education.
The additional Biden bucks may be little more than an injection of formaldehyde into ‘Lady Liberty’s’ withering corpse, history will determine that.
However, the dollar figure is significant, but even more so is the process.
The on paper intent of the ‘American Family Plan’ is prudent. The middle class is dying because of debt and costs, not wages or the availability of jobs.
Those costs need to be addressed, and that need isn’t new.
But, measures need to be enacted outside of the government realm as well.
As an example, what is to stop entities for charging more for childcare, college, healthcare, etc. now that federal money has been enhanced?
The hope is that the marketplace will take care of that, but that hasn’t been the case despite previous attempts to lower college cost and ease debt burdens.
Expanded access to more affordable health insurance hasn’t equated to more affordable healthcare either.
Process is important and this spending needs to lead to predictive positive outcomes. If it doesn’t, we are in danger of heading down a fiscal path we can’t return from.