Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion pandemic “relief” package would unite Americans in forcibly shared economic pain.
by J.D. Tuccille
Reason.com
President Joe Biden’s inauguration speech was full of calls for “unity” to a bitterly divided nation. But mixed in with a positive acknowledgment that “politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path” were a politician’s traditional calls to unify around favored policy proposals. And among those proposals is a $1.9 trillion pandemic “relief” package that might unite Americans the way a sinking ship brings passengers and crew together as they await their fate.
“We must set aside the politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation,” Biden urged in his speech. But there’s no way to set aside politics when government acts, since political concerns inevitably determine how governments use their power, including in terms of gathering and spending other people’s money.