State of the Biden

I thought President Biden's State of the Union address was going to be a rote recitation of his accomplishments and his wish list for the new Congress, and for the most part it was.  Then it became a riot - and I don't mean on like the one that took place in the Capitol two years ago this past January 6. 

Biden referred to a plan proposed by Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida, a man Mitch McConnell despises.  The plan that seeks to have all federal legislation, including Medicare and Social Security, sunset after five years so Congress can decide whether to renew it as a way of reforming "entitlements" (they're called entitlements because we pay into it and so we're entitled to them!).  When Biden noted in his speech that only a handful of Republicans, not all of them, support Scott's plan, a gaggle of MAGAs - including the insufferable Marjorie Taylor Greene - booed and heckled the President, much to the chagrin of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who tried unsuccessfully to silence them. 

And with that, the President showed just how vicious Republicans can be when they're confronted with the evidence of how callous and uncaring they can be . . .  when they're confronted with the truth.  He may have ended Scott's political career, a political career that should never have made it past the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election.  And he boxed the GOP into trying to find ways to cut the budget and approve a debt ceiling increase without cutting Medicare or Social Security - all while Speaker McCarthy sat silently without applauding Biden Administration initiatives that poll well with the voters.  

Well played, Mr. President, well played.

Alas, Biden's age will still be a factor in the 2024 election.  If the 2024 Republican presidential nominee is younger than even Hunter Biden (like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who turns 45 in 2024), the President is likely to face a grueling campaign with an opponent with much more energy then either he or Hunter has.  Which is precisely why Democrats are still a little skittish about renomainting Biden.  

Well, Democrats, you might not have had to worry about having to go with Biden without any obvious Democratic presidential possibility for him to pass the torch to after you let so many Democratic rising stars flare out and burn out or you ignored up-and-coming Democrats promising new leadership (*cough cough. Martin O'Malley, *cough cough*).   Just remember, you offered up 26 presidential candidates for 2020 and Biden was the only one who had any chance of defeating Trump.  You gotta dance with he what brung ya.

Promises and Ponzi Schemes

I'm taking a break from my break long enough to comment on the latest news . . ..

President Obama's speech last night laid out $447 billion in tax credits for businesses to hire new workers, spend more money on highways and bridges, and extend payroll tax cuts with the cost for the package to be paid for with future spending cuts to keep the debt and budget deficit down. If the speech was an effort to show that he is committed to solving the nation's employment crisis, Obama succeeded. If it was an effort to get something done, of course the Republicans will never go along with it. If the bipartisan proposals in the speech were meant to make the Republicans pay a political price for inaction, well, that might work. But then the Dow lost 303 points, in part because of more fears about European debt, but also because no one expects any of these proposals to pass, indicating that none of Obama's initiatives may matter much.

Eighteen years ago, when Bill Clinton first entered the White House, I would have heard a speech with economic proposals exactly like Obama's (I probably did) and reacted by saying "Sounds good!" After hearing excerpts of the speech after the fact (I didn't get to watch it live) I didn't want to get up and cheer. In fact, I didn't want to do anything. I simply went about my normal life.

Though, tonight, Chris Matthews declared the speech passionate and pointed, and he predicted Obama may have turned a corner. He may be right. But he may also be right when he suggested that Rick Perry could easily beat Obama in November 2012, if the economy remains bad enough.

Speaking of which, the big news to come out of the Republican presidential debate was Perry's insistence that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, which encouraged right-wing commentators to parrot their agreement without explaining what a Ponzi scheme is. A Ponzi scheme, for the record, is, according to Wikipedia, "a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors." By the way, Social Security is in surplus right now and will be for several years, and when there are fewer workers paying into the system, a few minor adjustments can be made to keep it going well into its second century.

Budget Concerns

One of the biggest complaints about the extension of the Bush tax cuts is that they make it so much harder to cut government spending. Too many people have too much interest in the government programs that the commission report laid out by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson has suggested should be on the table. Already people are complaining about the proposed retirement age increase to qualify for Social Security - to 69 from the current 67. The Americans who need to wait to reach the age of 69 to begin collecting a Social Security pension, by the way, aren't concerned with it so much now. They haven't even started kindergarten yet. See, the retirement age would, under this plan, rise to 69 in 2075. But people who won't be around then are against it because they believe it opens the door for more rule changes that are detrimental to the American people.

If you want my humble opinion - well, maybe it isn't so humble - I can propose several sensible ideas. For example, we should the actually increase spending on mass transit and intercity rail projects while dramatically cutting highway spending for a net decrease in the federal transportation budget. We can move much more people by mass transit with a modest public transportation spending increase than we do with the massive amounts of money we already spend on highways. Also - and I'm actually with Rand Paul on this one - we should zero out farm subsidies that primarily help agribusiness, and we should encourage farmers to grow more diverse crops and create value-added products rather than limit themselves to the modest government-supported corn and soybean cash crops. And last but not least, stop spending so much money on the military, for Pete's sake - our multi-billion-dollar weapons systems aren't helping us win the war in Afghanistan. But no, all of that is too sensible, and even though I plan to write my Republican congressman to suggest these ideas, I doubt it's going to happen.

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell plan to start the new year with painful spending cuts that will hurt too many people even as the extended tax cuts help the rich, and many think President Obama, by allowing the tax cuts to be extended, has given them the rope to hang themselves with when they try to make those cuts. I hope this is correct, though personally, I think the President has given Boehner, McConnell, and their fat-cat friends the silk from which to produce expensive neckties - made in China - to wear to the inauguration of President Romney. Because when the deficit explodes, they'll just blame Obama for that.

After all, he agreed to middle-class tax cuts and a payroll tax holiday.

Which would make raising the retirement age irrelevant.