Joe Biden and the “Peronist” fragments of his speech for the 100 days of government

United States President Joe Biden gave a long speech on his government’s 100 days. And in a few fragments Joe Biden sounded like “Juan Domingo Biden”. Amen to leave even more to the right to macrism in all its aspects, and to the libertarians of the vernacular supporters.

Words for wall street beasts and for American billionaires and their traps for evading taxes and deferring profits to tax havens, they were on Joe Biden’s lips without metaphors. He also launched a message for the pharmaceutical industry, the gulf separating CEOs from employees, and he even argued that the danger to democracy in the United States had American DNA.

Juan Domingo Biden | By Jorge Fontevecchia

There is a reason for all these “Juan Domingo Biden” messages. In the economic plan that he developed for the United States, he put a number: three trillion dollars. Yes, $ 3,000,000,000,000. The reason was stated in the opening lines of his speech: “I inherited a nation, as we all inherit, in crisis. And the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. “

Yes Biden He described the crisis in his country with the following postcard. “One of the images that defines this crisis, at least from my point of view, is that of cars lined up for several kilometers. And not cars of people who can barely start them. None of that. They were good cars, lined up for miles, waiting for a box of food to be put in their racks. I don’t know about you, but, I never thought I would see this in America?“.

Biden dresses like Sanders and offers a progressive America First

If formerly his counterpart Barack Obama chose to save the banks instead of those which lost everything when the real estate bubble burst, this time Biden knows – in his own words – that now the tab no longer allows the “put everything” . To date, said Biden, the The US state gave $ 224 billion in “ransom checks” to alleviate the crisis. Yes, $ 224,000,000,000 “to 85% of American households on 160 million checks for $ 1,400”. In other words, once four and a half the debt with the IMF that Macri he bequeathed to Argentina.

Biden no es Bernie Sanders. The speech as a whole expresses “America for Americans” or “the United States for Americans”. And that also sums up in one sentence, the arrogance that a Biden con Trump, los Bush o Reagan: “I’ve told every world leader I’ve known over the years that it’s never, ever, a good bet to go against the United States, and it’s still not. . We have, without exaggeration, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. But in the ‘Juan Domingo Biden’ fragments, a ‘Peronist turn’ could be inferred – to silver the question with a certain irony – or to Joe Biden’s ‘left’. This is not so, but certain concepts the hair of the Argentinian right would stand on end, from the closest to a certain center – or Macrista radicalism – to the extreme libertarian.

Wall Street did not build America

“There are good men and women on Wall Street, but Wall Street did not build this country. It was built by the middle class. And the unions have built the middle class. That is why I am asking Congress to approve the law for the protection of the right to organize and send it to me so that we can support the right to unionize. And while they do, let’s raise the minimum wage to $ 15. No one who works 40 hours a week should be living below the poverty line. “

The pay gap between CEO and employees

Instead of using tax savings (from 2017) to raise wages and invest in research and development, billions of dollars have gone into the pockets of CEOs. In fact, the pay gap between CEOs and workers is one of the biggest in history. According to a study, CEOs in the United States earn 320 times more than the average worker’s salary even in their own businesses; before, there were less than a hundred.

The pandemic made matters worse: 20 million middle-class Americans were left out of work. In turn, some 650 billionaires (in the US) increased their net worth by over $ 1 billion. And now they have over $ 4 billion. Compatriots, the economics of the spill never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and from the center out. “

A wake-up call for multinational pharmaceutical companies

“Let’s reduce the costs of prescription drugs. We all know what shockingly expensive what are the remedies in the USA. In fact, among those prescribed, we pay the highest prices in the world (…) almost triple what other countries pay. (…) Let’s give Medicare the power to save hundreds of billions of dollars by negotiating lower drug prices. (…) And the money we save can be used to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and expand Medicare benefits without costing taxpayers a dime. (…) It’s a simple premise: medical care must be a right, not a privilege. “

Businesses and the rich are going to have to pay

“It’s time for business in the United States and the richest 1% start paying what corresponds to them. You can become a billionaire and a millionaire, but by paying the taxes that correspond to them. A recent study shows that 55 of America’s largest companies paid no taxes federal in 2020. And those 55 companies made more than $ 40 billion in profits. (…) Many North American companies have also escaped tax through tax havens Switzerland, Bermuda and Cayman Islands. And they have benefited from loopholes and tax deductions to relocate jobs and make profits overseas. It’s not good. We are going to reform the corporate tax so that they pay what is owed to them and contribute to the financing of public investments which will also benefit their companies ”.

In search of billionaire fraudsters

“The Treasury Department will take action against millionaires and billionaires who cheat on taxes. Experts on the left, right and center estimate that tax evasion runs into billions of dollars. I don’t intend to punish anyone. But I will not add an additional tax burden to the middle class; they are already paying enough. I think it is fair and fiscally responsible. And that will raise funds to pay for the plans that I propose (…). When you hear someone say that taxes should not be raised on the richest 1% or on businesses, ask them: “For whom would it be increased? Or for whom would it be lowered? (…) Of 2017 would be profitable and generate strong economic growth. That is how he sold it. However, they added to the deficit of about two billion dollars. And companies in the United States and those at the top of the pyramid social tthey had an exceptional profit. “

The enemy sleeps at home: white supremacy

“We are not going to ignore what our intelligence agency has determined today America’s deadliest terrorist threat: white supremacist terrorism. (…) Almost a year ago, before her father’s funeral, when I spoke with Gianna Floyd, George Floyd’s little girl looked at me and said: “My father changed the world. ” Well, after Floyd’s murderer was convicted, we can see how right he was if we have the courage to act like Congress. We have all seen the knee of injustice in the necks of black Americans. “

(The full speech, even in Spanish, is available on the official White House website)