Biden's 2023 SOTU (State of the Union address)

Biden did a good job in his State of the Union message of bragging about the economic program. And I don't think our pod pundits have quite noticed it yet. But he's also made some real steps in moving back toward New Deal economics and away from the Globalization Gospel of deregulation, low wages, and job insecurity. Much more so than Obama ever did.

Robert Reich recently wrote:

Biden’s larger achievement has been to change the economic paradigm that has reigned since Reagan. He is teaching America a lesson we once knew but have since forgotten: that the “free market” does not exist. It is designed. It either advances public purposes or it serves the monied interests.

Best political line of the speech: "Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history." And the follow-up: "Stand up and show [Republicans] we will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare." Along with his mockery of the Republicans over the whole thing. But, please, please, don't appoint some new bonehead "Simpson-Bowles" Commission to explain why grandma should eat catfood.

"We call them factories" was a nice touch, not in the prepared text. He even managed to throw in some good words for unions. Also: "no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter." That's not exactly the deal he made with Mitch McConnell in the "fiscal cliff" negotiations when he was VP. But progress is progress. And he managed to work in quite a few words suggesting that criminal cops who kill people for no good reason are bad, and (thank God!) at least no fund-fund-fund-killer-cops talk this time like last year.

Although he threw in the usual cant about how most cops are great and we should adore them. (Actually, we should expect them to do their jobs, which do not include murdering people just because they feel like it.) And it would be nice if at least the Democrats could stop saying that "more training" is any solution. The training is the problem.

I would prefer that Democratic politicians erase the words "deficit" and "bipartisan" from their vocabularies. We can dream. And Biden's refugee policy may lack the performative sadism of Trump's. But it crassly violates international law. Refugees crossing the border to request asylum are not "unlawful migration." Democrats seriously need to flush the xenophobic demagoguery. That was one of the best things about Jerry Brown as a politician: he was very good about calling out nativist crap head-on rather than mealy-mouthing around it.

The fentanyl part was a bit strange. He highlighted a father whose daughter died of an overdose who wants to remove the “stigma” around addiction. But Biden’s proposal sounds like a War on Fentanyl. Because the never-ending War on Drugs now in its 52nd year has worked out so very well.

But this was also good: "And to my Republican friends who voted against it but still ask to fund projects in their districts, don’t worry. I promised to be the president for all Americans. We’ll fund your projects. And I’ll see you at the ground-breaking."

(This post is also available on Substack with detailed footnotes.)