Did Joe Biden become a socialist? Shadows and lights of a multi-million dollar plan to end the crisis

The lights of Congress went out, lawmakers walked out of the room, but the debate after Joe Biden’s speech on Wednesday was instantly illuminated. demolished economic pillars who ruled United States for decades? Now, the state of this country will become huge? Has Biden become a “socialist,” as the Conservatives and the Republican opposition claim?

In his message to both houses on his 100 days in the White House, Biden promoted a huge package for families of $ 1.8 trillion, which offers tax breaks of up to $ 250 per month per child, funds free kindergartens for 3- and 4-year-olds (in the US, public school starts in room 5), grants 12 weeks leave for maternity and sickness and opens free university studies for two years in technical education centers.

These are measures that are being implemented in many countries around the world, but not yet considered in the United States.

He also presented massive $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to reactivate employment, which comes on top of the already approved economic stimulus of $ 1.9 trillion.

If Biden manages to approve all of these packages, he will deploy a public investment of around $ 6 trillion, the equivalent of almost a third of GDP, something unprecedented since WWII. And, to pay the expense, he said he would raise taxes for those who earn more than $ 400,000 a year.

“From bottom to top”

“The spinoff economy never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and from the middle out, ”Biden said in one of the most striking sentences of his speech, which sought to demolish one of the tenets of the doctrine that has ruled over the past decades: that higher incomes of the wealthiest flow from a “spill” or “trickle” of wealth to the rest of society. The president believes that this idea no longer works.

In addition, Biden seeks break with another pillar: the doctrine raised by Ronald Reagan, who advocated that “government is not the solution to our problem, government is our problem”, an idea that his successors, including Democratic presidents, have also followed.

Biden, who throughout his career has been viewed as a “moderate” with good connections to Wall Street, believes that now, against the backdrop of an unprecedented health, economic and inequality crisis social, it’s time to break down those ideas that were ingrained years ago and promote a great expansion of the state to get out of the swamp.

These measures were eagerly awaited by the more progressive sector of his party, but they are also accepted by the population.

Republican coup

Republicans and more conservative sectors immediately accused Biden of abandoning moderation and turning to the “socialist left” proclaimed by Bernie Sanders, who in fact defined himself as a “democratic socialist.”

The Conservative Journal The Wall Street Journal He noted in an editorial that the middle class will now depend on government “from cradle to grave” and that the tax increase to fund spending it proposes is “destructive.”

For it Biden may not be able to achieve everything he aspires to in Congress and that ultimately these packages come out much more modest. But it also opened up a debate.

Steven Kyle, professor of applied economics and management at Cornell University, said Bugle that “Biden is correct that the policies of the past 40 years (since Ronald Reagan became president in 1980) have primarily focused on tax cuts and incentives for businesses to invest and grow.”

The expert recalled that these guidelines “had been quite successful in achieving this goal, but the promise to reach the rest of the population had never been kept. The income of three quarters of the population has remained virtually unchanged in real terms over the past 3 years. -4 decades. In other words, the trickle never happened. I am not surprised that the President insists on this point because reversing this and providing aid directly to the middle and lower classes is very popular with most people. “

“I would say Biden looks more like a European-style Social Democrat, or at least tries to be,” Kyle adds.

“It means a combination of progressive programs (for example, a health-for-all plan and support for all parents of young children, etc.) that most industrialized countries already have, but which do not exist in the United States. United ”, he emphasizes.

“But he is by no means a socialist in the classic sense of the word. to want a managed economy. Biden clearly doesn’t want to do this. Yes, it is true that businesses and the rich will cry “socialist !!!” when they raise their taxes, but these are only political insults: taxing the rich to pay for social programs is not something particularly revolutionary precisely, ”he explains.

Kyke emphasizes the importance of the actual size of packages that are ultimately approved. “What comes next is how much of that you can get in Congress. I have no doubts that there will be a great infrastructure program (even if they cut it in half is still great) and that many (probably most) of the so-called family plan programs will also be implemented. implemented. “

These plans, according to Kyke, “enjoy over 70% approval in the polls (some over 80%), so it should be an easy vote for most politicians. It will be complicated and what will come out of the process. legislative This may be different from what has been proposed, but it will certainly be great. “

The Scandinavian model

Robert Haywood Scott III, professor of economics and finance at Monmouth University, pointed out Bugle: “I think President Biden is right to say the spillover economy did not produce the proposed economic benefits by his supporters. The rich who benefited from lower taxes did not use that money to stimulate the economy in a way that increased the financial well-being of most Americans. At the same time, the national debt of the United States has increased dramatically. Instead of reducing income (taxes) along with spending, these policies have led to reduced income (lower taxes) and more spending, which is a recipe for financial disaster. “

Moreover, adds the economist, “Wages have almost stagnated for the average American household for the past few decades. However, the incomes and wealth of the richest ten percent (and certainly the richest 5%) have increased dramatically. These observations are widely accepted. on both sides of the political aisle. “

“Second,” Scott details, “President Biden promotes progressive policies similar to those found in social democracies like Scandinavia (eg Norway, Finland, Sweden). Rather than transferring wealth to the wealthier people and expect it to circulate, social democracies have higher taxes, but then receive services used by all (eg health care, education, infrastructure). Comparatively, the United States spends far more than any other developed country on health care, and yet by most measures it performs worse: in essence, it is inefficient. “

“Of course, Biden’s plan is much less ambitious than that of the Scandinavian countries,” Scott noted. He added: “It is impossible to say at this stage whether the president’s policy will have the redistributive effects expected by his supporters, but it is certainly a change in political guidelines compared to the previous president.”

For the teacher, a tax increase is inevitable: “The United States needs to invest in its infrastructure (which is very outdated). Almost all politicians agree that we need to invest in the country’s infrastructure and ensure that our roads, bridges, cities and airports are up to date and can help businesses compete globally. These investments are not cheap, so unless the federal government wants the federal debt to increase further, the money has to come from somewhere. “

Washington, correspondent

CB