For 40 years, the U.S. economy has been dominated by Republican policies that enriched the wealthy and “left the working class as roadkill,” and GOP “government is the problem” ideology gave ruthless capitalists a free hand. But Covid-19 exposed that ideology as a lie, and President Biden — a longtime champion of the working class — may have a fleeting opportunity to reverse some of the GOP’s most anti-worker policies.
No question about it, America’s infrastructure needs repairs and upgrades. Modern and reliable infrastructure — from broadband to electrical grids to highways, airports, and ports — is essential for the economy. But for Biden, “infrastructure is about far more than fixing America’s creaking and crumbling roads and bridges, airports and railroads ….” His $2.25 trillion infrastructure program “is the latest massively ambitious sign that he senses that fate, political circumstance and shifts in public opinion offer him a sudden but fleeting opening to accomplish his long-term political aim of improving the lives of American workers.”
His $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, infrastructure plan, and a coming jobs bill all tie together into “a broader common purpose. They form the foundation of the President’s effort to engineer a generational reorganization of the US economy itself.” Biden’s vision includes “revived labor unions, equally shared GDP growth, easier access to health care, equal pay for women, clean energy and better child care for workers.”
Overreach by Republicans, renewed public willingness to trust government to solve problems, and the fact that Biden “can speak the language of Americans who believe that the riches of the US economy have been unfairly hijacked by the wealthy Wall Street barons” might enable him to pull it off.
Read the details here.
Photo: An interstate highway bridge in Detroit