The game Reagan-Bush played with Clinton-Gingrich is afoot yet again. Republican in White House cuts taxes on the rich, running record deficits. Dem gets in, then but not before, deficits matter and all promises are off the table because the deficit has to be paid down. It's a crock. But Biden's crock, apparently.
“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Biden aide Ted
Kaufman said. “When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit …forget
about Covid-19, all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax
cuts. So we’re going to be limited.”
BI, in context, reports AOC calling bullshit on that line as soon as the creep said it.
And that's only one Rep. calling out things, per a single online report.
There's more. But first, call things as they are: Biden and his people are being swine.
"When we get in . . ." the operative said. Screw 'em. Don't vote them in if they are ALREADY backing away from promises - and not yet "in." It is the definition of pure lying, to lie in advance, to set the table. It is what Trump's done, and he's at least the liar we know.
Put another way, you get your mail-in ballot, wait. Instant turn-around is not necessary. Pay out rope to Biden and his awful people. If they hang themselves, Trump at least has not started any new ground wars.
Trump inherited Afghanistan and seems amenable to it, but starting a trade war is different than starting a live one, such as the military in justification of their disproportionate budget might crave.
Make the son-of-a-bitch and Kamala earn your progressive vote. Do that. Don't make it an "Oh well, lesser evil" vote as a knee-jerk reflex.
You are a progressive.
So insist upon progress. No progress, no change. Just as good a slogan as "No justice. No peace."
Now, BI has its story and its opening paragraph link. Beyond that Breitbart on the far right took notice:
Biden Confidant Downplays Campaign’s ‘Build Back Better’ Spending Promises
The chair of Joe Biden’s transition team is
lowering expectations about the spending proposals the former vice
president has pledged to implement if elected this November.
Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE), a longtime Biden confidant who now
chairs the nominee’s presidential transition task force, told The Wall Street Journal there
was little viability for a large increase in federal spending in the
near future. Kaufman, in particular, argued that President Donald
Trump’s wide-sweeping tax cut in 2017 had created the need for
constrained spending, even before the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Kaufman said on
Thursday. “When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit … forget about
Covid-19, all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts.
So we’re going to be limited.”
Kaufman’s remarks, however, stand in contrast to the spending
proposals Biden, himself, has made in recent months. As the coronavirus
has ravaged the United States and caused the economy to crater, the
former vice president has begun emphasizing a broader economic and
social agenda to “transform” the country. Biden’s program, known simply as “Build Back Better,”
has its foundation in an international disaster relief program designed
by the United Nations. It is not only ambitious, setting its goal as
the building of a new, progressive, and more globally connected economy,
but also pricey.
For instance, as part of “Build Back Better,” Biden is championing a “Buy American”
proposal that his campaign claims will create five million domestic
manufacturing jobs. The proposal is anchored around a $400 billion
federal procurement program, along with a $300 billion investment in
U.S.-based research and development.
Similarly, the former vice president has proposed an ambitious and
costly plan to protect the environment. Biden’s plan, heavily influenced
by the recommendations of
a unity task force set up earlier this year by the presumptive nominee
and his vanquished primary rival, Bernie Sanders, suggests spending $2 trillion over four years to combat climate change.
A major portion of the money will be used to create one million new
jobs in the auto industry by boosting the production of energy-efficient
vehicles. In order to achieve the goal, Biden is backing legislation,
introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to
incentivize individuals to trade in their gas-powered vehicles for ones
running on either electricity or hydrogen.
Given the price tag associated with “Build Back Better,” Kaufman’s
comments on Thursday surprised progressives, many of whom have struggled to warm up to the former vice president.
Struggled to warm up ... really means struggled to trust him. Based on his record.
Beyond BI and Breitbart, not your left-leaning outlets, The Nation weighs in:
Biden Cannot Win (or Govern) as a Deficit Hawk Deficit hawk rhetoric and austerity economics will undermine the winning coalition Biden needs to build. By John NicholsTwitter - August 21, 2020
Joe Biden finally got to accept the Democratic presidential nomination that he began seeking in the 1980s, and he did so with a graceful turn, promising, “We can and will overcome this season of darkness.”
[...] But acceptance addresses are always aspirational, and voters know
that candidates often promise more than they deliver. So Biden still
has work to do. And so do the progressives who have provided so many of
the ideas that Biden touched on in an address where he spoke of tackling
Four historic crises. All at the same
time. A perfect storm. The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst
economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for
racial justice since the ’60s. And the undeniable realities and
accelerating threats of climate change.
To meet those challenges, the federal government must spend
money. Biden acknowledged this by referencing a predecessor who
dramatically expanded the role of government:
Nearly a century ago, Franklin
Roosevelt pledged a New Deal in a time of massive unemployment,
uncertainty, and fear. Stricken by disease, stricken by a virus, FDR
insisted that he would recover and prevail and he believed America could
as well. And he did. And so can we.
These are appropriate and necessary ambitions—as was Biden’s June
proposal for the $2 trillion investment in clean energy and
infrastructure.
Unfortunately, even as the candidate was putting the finishing
touches on his speech, creating doubts about whether the nominee is
prepared to match words with deeds.. “When we get in, the pantry is
going to be bare,” longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman toldThe Wall Street Journal
in an article published Wednesday, the third day of the convention.
“When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit…forget about Covid-19,
all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts. So we’re
going to be limited.”
The Journal explained that Kaufman “predicted…that a large increase in federal spending would be difficult to achieve in 2021.”
Ted Kaufman is not some Biden campaign hanger-on. He’s the head of the transition team.
When someone in his position starts talking about limited options,
alarm bells should go off.This is the kind of talk you heard in 1993
when Bill Clinton, after winning the presidency with a campaign that
talked big about all that he would accomplish, suddenly became a deficit hawk.
Similarly, in 2009, after George W. Bush handed Barack Obama a Great
Recession, right-wing Republicans and centrist Democrats leaped in to
tell the newly elected president everything he could not do.
When Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders heard that Kaufman was laying the
groundwork for another austerity, Sanders said, “He is dead wrong.”
Dead wrong morally. Dead wrong economically. Dead wrong politically.
Americans have grown cynical about whether Democrats in government
will address the fundamental challenges facing the nation. Kaufman fed
that cynicism. If his thinking takes hold, the Democrats will be tripped
up; austerity won’t cut it this time. Democrats and the party’s new
leader, Biden, have to communicate that they are willing to spend what
is necessary to provide health care, housing, and employment, and to
ensure justice. To that end, economist Dean Baker says, “Biden’s people should be prohibited from ever whining about the government debt.”
[italics added] The more Biden flexes his "winner" muscles, the more he looks and talks, in person or via his key people, like the Republicans he loves and features.
John Kasich.
That embrace by Joe has to make progressives puke, and he knew it when he did it.
It, more than cheap words says very, very much about who Joe Biden really is. That his record has not been forced by compromise, but by choice, and that record is a big-time problem for its disdain toward helping regular people and the war-weary, as well as its will to court and aid the rich and to feed the imperial will. IRAQ.
Rolling Stone posted suitable skepticism, also featuring Ted Kaufman's middle finger salute to the people of our nation - closing with a freightening thought:
So far, the concessions Biden has made to progressives come in the
form of changes to his campaign platform. But additions to an official
platform mean exactly nothing unless a president later devotes the time
and political capital needed to pass them into law. And progressives are
wary of being ignored in a Biden administration. Those anxieties were
heightened Thursday after Ted Kaufman, the head of Biden’s transition
team, said Trump-era additions to the national debt would make it
difficult to increase federal spending — a prerequisite for the
progressive agenda.
“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Kaufman told the Wall Street Journal.
“When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit…forget about Covid-19,
all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts. So we’re
going to be limited.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter: “This is extremely concerning.
The pantry is absolutely not bare. We need massive investment in our
country or it will fall apart. This is not a joke. To adopt GOP
deficit-hawking now, when millions of lives are at stake, is utterly
irresponsible. Hold the line. Win. Lead.”
The task of bridging those divides will fall in part to a primary
candidate who ran to Biden’s left but Sanders’ right: Kamala Harris.
Blind ambition will not fix a thing, but will feather the nest of the successfully ambitious. That Harris thing should send a cold chill among the world.
IN TERMS OF GOOD POLITICS, BIDEN SHOULD FIRE KAUFMAN IMMEDIATELY.
TO ATTEMPT MERELY WALKING BACK THE HARM WILL NOT BE ENOUGH AND TAKING TOO LONG TO CLEAN THE MESS WILL BE PROOF OF UNTRUSTWORTHY PROMISING WHILE CATERING TO THE BIG-MONEY DONOR CLASS TOO EXTENSIVELY.
SO FIRE THE DUDE.
DO IT, JOE. YOU REALLY, REALLY NEED CRED. SO FAR YOU HAVE NONE. WORDS ARE CHEAP. PLATFORMS ARE UNTRUSTWORTHY.
FIRE KAUFMAN. TAKE THAT TANGIBLE STEP.
..............
In closing, two additional clarion call posts arose from Kaufman hedging on barely uttered promises. As if the promise was a ploy to delude, and the Kaufman thing being the reassurance to the extensive network of fat cat donors that - what else, Nothing will fundamentally change.
New York Mag Intelligencer, here: vision 2021 - Aug. 20, 2020 Biden Has Nothing to Fear But Fear of Deficits Itself By Eric Levitz
The Week, here: This is how Democrats get shellacked in 2022 August 20, 2020 Author: Ryan Cooper
Both of those headlines are aptly worded cautions to a man, not of the people, but of the oligarchs - and to that man's inner party's self-ambitious operatives. The South Bend mayor doubtlessly would have more advancement potential if the Dems do not get "shellacked in 2022" and he is not alone in wanting a feathered nest from a Joe Biden presidency. He won't get it, Biden has promised those he cares about at the start, nothing will fundamentally change.
Don't you find that a really inspiring thing from a really inspiring man? No? Gee.
Well go vote Trump. Snicker. Trotting out the rotten old lesser evil ploy, voters be damned. It is how since Bubba Clinton that the party has prospered. Everybody owns a share.
..........................
Just saying. Fucking Biden had better start flying right.
