Is it irony, hypocrisy, or politics as usual that has Republicans refusing to negotiate with Democrats on the Build Back Better bill while accusing President Biden of failing on his pledge of bipartisanship?
In case they didn’t notice, he got a much-needed infrastructure bill passed with support from both parties.
And Republicans crying about the deficit? That’s just bull. This is the same party that had no problem giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans at the behest of a wannabe billionaire.
So is blaming the president for inflation as we come out of the pandemic economy. What did they expect to happen after businesses shut down, commerce shifted online, a postmaster general slowed mail delivery on purpose, and families and landlords alike experienced real economic pain? The gains we are measuring now are measured against those losses.
Worried about gas prices? The oil companies worry when they’re too low and consumers worry when they’re too high. A president of either party has little real power over oil prices. It isn’t just the U.S. supply of petroleum that determines the price. Weather events shut down refineries. Geopolitics rears its ugly head. Big players pull strings behind the curtains.
Call them what you will, but all of these arguments are just a means to sow discord and distrust among voters. GOP operatives and their financial backers would have us believe that Democrats are fed up with Biden.
We aren’t. Most of us are quite aware that he has helped stop the slide toward authoritarianism, as least for now. We are grateful that he’s restoring some sense of normalcy to our interactions with allies and isn’t fawning over dictators. We’re grateful that he is trying to pass bills that use taxpayer money to benefit taxpayers.
If you are confused about this, it is because Democrats need to do a better job at controlling the message. They need to shout it from the balconies and print it above the fold in every newspaper that’s left that we want what President Biden and the Democrats are offering.
We also need to let the stonewalling Democrats know that we’ve had enough of their false concerns about the debt and that self-serving opposition doesn’t look good on them.
What can we do to set the record straight? First, we have to know the facts.
Tax cuts for the wealthy drive up the deficit. Spending on poverty programs puts money back into the economy.
Taxing the wealthy isn’t unfair. They pay the same rate that you do on the first $50,000 or $100,000 or whatever your middle-class income is. Not taxing them properly increases the wealth gap.
Funding education and childcare moves people back into the workforce.
Raising the minimum wage moves people off the welfare rolls.
Voting rights and our democracy need every Democrat to get to the polls.
We have to drive this message home.
