Thursday, April 29, 2021

Biden has a plan, and all Republicans can offer in "response" is cynicism and empty sound bites


First off, in the aftermath of Pres. Joe Biden’s “annual address” yesterday, I want to say that both Sen. Tim Scott and Vice Pres. Kamala Harris are wrong that this isn’t a “racist” country. As I said a couple of posts ago, you only have to be racist against one group to be so, and just because every other group shares the same prejudices against a certain group doesn’t mean it’s “acceptable” and not “real” racism.

Carrying on, Biden talked about “winning the future for America,” which sounds a bit more promising that Donald Trump’s “America First” nativism and stoking the fire of white nationalism and grievance. Did Biden inherit a nation in “crisis”? Certainly it faced—and still faces as long as Trumpism controls the Republican Party—a crisis of the soul. But not to worry, because Biden has a plan that “turns peril into possibility, crisis into opportunity, and setback into strength.” This is now an America that “chooses hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness.” There is no “quit in America.”

Damn, doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? At last year’s State of the Union, there was no pandemic, no worst economic downturn (albeit a temporary one) since the Great Depression, and no violent attempt to overthrow the election. Trump never had to explain any of his failures and crimes in that regard, and even if he had to, it would have just been him regurgitating absurd superlatives than mean nothing. Yesterday, the “house was on fire”: today with the help of Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer, Biden acted to put it out with the “American Rescue Plan” with the “overwhelming support of even Republican voters, if not all of the Republicans sitting in that chamber yesterday. People are getting vaccinated in droves, and in  time everything will be back to “normal,” if people play by the rules.

So what is Biden planning on doing tomorrow? Well, we can talk about it but it won’t be immigration reform, or Medicare eligibility reduced to 50 years of age, or dental care covered by Medicare—the latter items which I suspect most Americans would really appreciate. There is the American Jobs Plan to rebuild the country’s infrastructure and create jobs that wishy-washy Sen. Joe Manchin is afraid costs too much and Mitch McConnell is in a tizzy-fit over. It should be pointed out to these people that the money spent on this is recycled into the economy, which is something that Biden and his friends in media should be making people understand; this is not trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich that do not “trickle down” into the economy, but goes right back in, and stays in, the pockets of the rich.

Then there is the American Families Plan, which proposes to “guarantee” four additional years of free public education in order to give American children a fighting chance with kids around the world who seek to populate American universities. This plan also proposes expanded day care, family medical leave and an increase in child tax credits. Do you remember ever hear anything like that from Trump? Biden also mentioned that American Rescue Plan also proposes to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, and make it “more affordable” for those enrolled in the program.

For the benefit of folks like Manchin, Biden claimed that none of this will increase the deficit if we just make the top 1 percent do the “right thing” and pay their fair share of the taxes, meaning a top marginal rate of 39.6 percent. People always misconstrue what that means; that is over a certain income level the overage will be taxed at that rate. The top marginal rate used to be 90 percent, which served as a disincentive for the very rich to pay themselves more than they deserved and allowed the excess profits to “trickle-down” to everyone else. Despite the fact that the corporate tax rate went down to 21 percent, 55 of the biggest corporations in the country paid zero federal income taxes. Trump’s tax “reform” did not close loopholes or prevent these companies from shifting profits overseas. If we “fix” those issues, Biden’s “new deal” can pay for itself, we are informed.

Biden also went on to say that he intends on engaging world leaders on climate change, unfair trade practices, counter aggression and restart arms talks. Then he addressed social unrest, and praised the Senate for passing a hate crimes act to protect Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Of course Biden made a big show of support for women, and wants to reauthorize the terribly flawed Violence Against Women Act, which basically gives women license to commit violence themselves. The need for gun control seems to have mentioned, as well passing a new voting rights act. Biden certainly had every dot dotted.

Lest he forget what is really on the minds of Fox News listeners, there was immigration and the need to “end the exhausting war against immigrants.” To his credit, Biden addressed the reasons why people from Central America are coming here—not to commit violent crime, rape or become wards of the state, but because to escape “violence, corruption, gangs political instability, hunger, hurricanes and earthquakes.” Instead of shutting down foreign aid programs to address these problems like Trump did, Biden wants to “restart” and strengthen them.

That was a tough act to follow, and I doubt a majority of the nation after four years of Trumpism was in the mood to hear the usual the sky is falling bullshit from Republicans. But that is basically what we got from Scott, couched in “genteel,” nonthreatening terms. Trumpism controls the Republican Party on the state level and in the House of Representatives; it was a cynical ploy to put Scott (who some Republicans would call a "RINO") out there. In fact, it was so cynical that no one—not Republican nor Democratic voters—fell for it.  Or even if a few of them did, it was probably because they were not reading between the lines close enough.

Scott had no choice but to admit that “Our president seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words.” He at least realized that being openly antagonistic was not going to win any converts back to the side of Trump and his brand of nastiness. But then he accused Biden of offering empty platitudes, without, of course, mentioning the passage of the American Rescue Plan, which Scott nor any of his other so-called “moderate” colleagues voted for purely partisan reasons (how often do voters in Maine have to be made fools of Susan Collins?). Who’s pulling America apart? Not Biden, whose policies have the support of many Republican voters; obviously their representatives in Congress only “represent” themselves, because they are the patricians who know better than the plebes. 

Then Scott proceeded on a laundrey list of empty talking points that he accused Biden of dishing out; but unlike Biden, Scott’s points were entirely lacking in context or any kind of actual “plan”—so indicative of Trump and his camp followers. Phony “opportunity zones,” misrepresenting the Trump tax cuts, claiming we are all “one big happy family” while justifying Republican efforts to undermine the black vote (most of his votes come from white people, so what does he care?). Oh yeah, Republicans are all for “infrastructure”—but where were they during the past four years when Trump was boasting about his “infrastructure” plan? Scott claimed most of Biden’s infrastructure plan is “government waste,” which of course is another way of saying Republicans oppose green energy, electric vehicles, broadband in rural or underserved areas, stuff like that.

Scott went on to say stupid things like, you know, who wants to be “forced” to go to “free” college if they don’t want to? Students can make-up their own minds. You think they are stupid? Well, Republicans do. He made a great to-do about his struggles being black, although, frankly if you are a black conservative, you’ve got a “leg-up” on the competition. Scott’s take on racism was absurd and hypocritical. Nonwhites have been “defined” by their color by whites since forever, and Scott complained about pointing out systemic racism and accusing white people as complicit as being “divisive.” It is not without irony that Scott barely mentioned immigration or the border, because the racist fear of a “great replacement” is the number one “threat” to the country to Republicans, more than any international foe like Russia—which Scott didn’t mention at all.

Certainly a greater portion of America does not spend its time consumed with race, but there is an obviously a more than convincing case to be made that the Republican Party since the 1960s is the White People’s Party, and parading one lone black Republican in Congress to “speak” for the party isn’t fooling anyone.


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