Biden Administration Makes Case for Government Intervention
The president‘s 100 day address champions a new age of state leadership and public sector investment
President Biden put forward on April 28th a powerful address to Congress that exceeded the expectations of progressives and laid out a tangible plan for American recovery. Covered in the speech were many topics: his American Jobs Plan, the American Families Plan, a bold endorsement of a $15 minimum wage, and a progressive tax plan to fund these measures.
Central to all these plans, and the address in general, was a revitalized faith in the power of the federal government to alleviate poverty with big spending. Seemingly missing was the historically hesitant approach to fiscal stimulus that moderate Democrats, especially Biden, have taken in the past.
As the Democratic Party base lurches toward a more wealthy, coastal, and suburban composition, Biden’s proposals deliver a much-needed reassurance of support to the traditionally blue collar working class that has suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. A working class that — as evidenced by the past four years — has increasingly fallen prey to a Trump-led right wing populism that pays lip service to pro worker policy and promises to bring back unionized jobs.
While the Democratic Party certainly hasn’t shifted back to the class-based proletarian haven of its pre-Clinton years, the Biden administration likely realizes the political value of pro working class rhetoric at the current moment. According to recent polling, 68% of Americans support Biden’s infrastructure and jobs plan, 64% support the American Families Plan, and 65% support an increase in the corporate tax to pay for these plans¹. With many out of work, unable to afford expensive childcare and education, and with a broad consensus that our infrastructure is falling vastly behind that of other developed nations, it is no surprise these initiatives garner such widespread support. The Biden Administration has signaled that it is not afraid to endorse and work towards a more fiscally assistive federal government, and that it believes in the power of federal spending to repair and bolster the economy in the long run.
A New New Deal?
Biden begins his case for a more interventionist federal government by celebrating the material successes of the American Rescue Plan Act, passed on March 11th. According to Biden, “we’re already seeing the results” of the $1.9 trillion legislation. He mentioned the story of the single mother in Texas, for whom the bill’s relief check “saved her and her son from eviction from their apartment”. Biden also brought up the familiar images of cars “lined up for miles” waiting for food, thereafter stating that the Rescue Plan’s investment in nutrition assistance has “hunger down sharply”. Biden concluded his synopsis of his first hundred days by touting the success of rental assistance, small business loans, healthcare investments, and how the plan puts the country on track to “cut child poverty in half”.
Tracking the success of the massive American Rescue Plan over the recent months sets the framework for Biden to discuss his plans for future activist legislation. Similar to the approach of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Great Depression, he starts with employment and the American Jobs Plan.
Universal public schools and college aid opened wide the doors of opportunity. Scientific breakthroughs took us to the moon. Now we’re on Mars, discovering vaccines, gave us the internet and so much more. These are investments we made together as one country. And investments that only the government was in a position to make. Time and again, they propel us into the future. That’s why I propose the American Jobs Plan, a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself. This is the largest jobs plan since World War II.
One of the easiest ways for the federal government to improve the short and long term economy is infrastructure investment. The $2.3 trillion plan allocates approximately $1.3 trillion to build and maintain highways, affordable housing, and create new schools. The rest of the money goes towards critical investments in research, manufacturing, and workforce development. An estimated 2.7 million jobs would be created as a result of the plan, and there are tax provisions to re-incentivize manufacturing in America.
The American Jobs Plan is a smart political strategy for the Biden Administration. Republicans and Democrats are united on their desire for more jobs, and creating them through productive endeavors like infrastructure has widespread support. Compared to more polarizing topics Biden could confront — like abortion or other cultural issues — he seems to have played it safe in picking such a bipartisan policy. Many modern Republicans don’t share the same small-government zeal of their Tea Party predecessors, and after a fiscally oblivious president like Trump, the deficit is lessening in political importance.
President Biden even uses jobs to frame the Green New Deal, demonized by most on the right, in a more broadly appealing way. “For too long”, he notes, “we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs, jobs, jobs”. In one simple phrase, Biden paints the Green New Deal as a secular engine of job creation, as compared to a fervent effort by climate-obsessed liberals to “destroy the coal industry”, a trope repeated by the right.
Biden continued throughout the speech to highlight massive investments into the working class. The American Families Plan — whose very name is broadly appealing to both sides of the aisle — spends $1.8 trillion to ameliorate the complications of home life in an unequal society. From the inner cities of the Northeast to the rural Midwest, families would stand to benefit from a plan that finally guarantees parental and medical paid time off and provides universal pre-school to children of working class parents. Conservatives often argue that the country’s decay is found in the degradation of the family unit: they would find themselves hard-pressed to vote against a bill that seeks to resolve this issue.
Political Considerations
Biden’s strong assertion of state intervention in the economy via a series of large public investments may startle many progressives. Indeed, I myself never imagined the moderate Joe of the campaign trail boldly proposing trillions of dollars in public works programs and direct assistance to the working class. I practically jumped out of my seat when I heard the centrist Delawarean demand Congress send a $15 minimum wage increase to his desk, and was pleasantly surprised when he exposed the need to enable Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical monopolies.
Digging deeper into the feasibility and political considerations of Biden’s propositions, we must certainly keep in mind reality. With a narrow Senate majority and far more fiscally conservative Democrats than should hold office during such a time, the likelihood of this agenda passing completely is nearly impossible. But the Biden Administration played their cards right. As any experienced seller knows, you first ask high and compromise down to a price you are more or less happy with. By asking for the most commanding offer, Biden has the leverage to get a much better version of the American Jobs Plan or the Families Plan than if he proposed a weak, watered-down bill.
Considering the state of conservatism today, Biden also could not have asked for a better time to propose such legislation (at least compared to during the Obama Administration). The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly discredited the free-market, small-government, trickle-down philosophy of the GOP. Even Republicans like Josh Hawley have themselves fought for consecutive rounds of stimulus checks, and the language of tax cuts and deregulation for business strikes much shallower in the hearts of blue collar Americans just trying to survive the times. White collar conservatives will undoubtedly decry these investments as fiscally ludicrous expansions of the federal debt, but the fact that both plans would be paid off with broadly popular corporate tax hikes and loophole closures over 15 years is an effective enough rebuttal.
Finally, we return to the messaging of these proposals. Biden’s plans really do embody his campaign slogan “Build Back Better”. They illustrate the revival of a country that has put its people last for far too long, a bold rebuilding of the administrative state, a reprioritization of the public sector, and the creation of a capable and educated middle class. On the international landscape, this agenda offers an America that can compete with a rising China — a country that hasn’t hesitated to invest in its physical and human infrastructure — and prove that our democratic system is more powerful than their authoritarian counteroffer.
I scoffed when I first heard claims that Biden would be the next FDR in the midst of this crisis and, although I’ll stick to that level of doubt, I wish him luck. If this 100 day address does nothing else, it sets precedent for a state that can play an active and needed role in our country’s development.
Main Sources:
- Milligan, S. (2021, April 26). Americans Are OK With Biden’s Spending Plans: Poll. U.S. News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-04-26/americans-are-ok-with-bidens-spending-plans-poll.
- The United States Government. (2021, May 4). FACT SHEET: The American Jobs Plan. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/.
- The United States Government. (2021, May 6). Fact Sheet: The American Families Plan. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/28/fact-sheet-the-american-families-plan/.
