Category Archives: Joe Biden
How to avoid disaster in the midterms
“The trick, says Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, will be lowering the expectations of an impatient Democratic base that is eager to press the party’s slim advantage by forcing votes on issues like Medicare for All or by making structural changes that could secure the party’s power. Booker says there aren’t enough votes to pass statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico right now, nor for expanding the Supreme Court. He’s taking his own lesson from the early Obama years.”
History suggests that Joe Biden and the Democrats are going to have a tough two years and a disaster in the midterms. Here?s their plan to avoid that.
Politics is the art of the possible
Joe Biden has promised to reverse the Trump administration's most restrictive immigration policies. But he did not include immigration as one of his four core priorities.
Trains are more energy efficient than the alternatives
"Amtrak Joe" has long supported investing in America's train system.
Much needs to be done
No word here on how Biden plans to deal with the immigration court backlog or whether he plans to give the immigration courts independence (e.g., by attaching them to the federal courts just like the bankruptcy courts).
President-elect Joe Biden has promised to undo most, if not all of President Trump's changes to immigration, but when and how will be complicated.
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet
The case for Bidencare
Paul Krugman in the NYT: “But while Biden is indeed proposing incremental change rather than Medicare for All, we’re talking about some big increments. Independent estimates suggest that under Biden’s plan, 15 million to 20 million Americans would gain health insurance. And premiums would fall sharply, especially for middle-class families. …
“None of this [Biden’s proposals] amounts to revolutionary change — in contrast to Trump’s efforts to kill Obamacare, which would drastically change American health care, for the worse. But Bidencare would still be, as Biden didn’t quite say when President Barack Obama signed the A.C.A. into law, a pretty big deal.
“True, America would still fall somewhat short of achieving what every other advanced country has — universal health care. But we’d get a lot closer, and many who currently have insurance coverage would see their costs fall and the quality of coverage improve.”
Bidenomics?? How about Biden’s economic proposals?
Paul Krugman in the NYT:”But if you’re trying to assess the candidates’ economic claims, you should know that Trump’s predictions of a Biden bust lack credibility, not just because Trump lies about everything, but because Republicans always predict disaster from progressive policy, and have never yet been right.
“And you should also know that Biden’s assertions that his plan would give the economy a significant boost are well grounded in mainstream economics and supported by independent, nonpartisan analyses.
“So Biden’s economic claims are, in fact, credible; Trump’s aren’t.”
At least Biden is mentally fit enough to listen to scientists
A 51% majority in a poll of six swing states said Trump is mentally unfit to be president, while 52% said the same of Biden.
Republicans suppressing the vote? Shocking!
Democrats want as many people to vote as possible; Republicans want as few people to vote as possible. Unfortunately, Republicans are better than than the Democrats at this game. The Republicans are inspired by the Spirit of Lee Atwater, the Democrats by, well, no spirit.
About a month ago, we laid out five ways that Republicans are making it harder to vote and more generally undermining the electoral process in 2020. We focused ?
