In the beginning, Build Back Better wasn’t just the most expensive piece of legislation ever. The multitrillion-dollar price tag was a bargain because the bill would totally transform America, President Biden claimed.
Whatever the problem, from jobs to climate change to child care, BBB was the solution.
Then came inflation, with the White House hiding behind the fictions that rising costs were overstated and transitory. When the price of everyday consumer items jumped, a slimmed-down Build Back Better was drafted for a new assignment: Suddenly it was the cure for inflation, the president insisted.
Comes now a new COVID variant that is shaking health officials and global markets. How long until the White House claims BBB is key to surviving a new round of social and economic disruptions?
The ever-shifting rationale and price tag behind Biden’s signature legislation is an apt metaphor for the confusing incoherence of his presidency. As Winston Churchill said in a different context, “This pudding has no theme.”
What, pray tell, is the Biden presidency about? What are his convictions and where does he want to take the nation?
Merely to raise such questions at this late date signals the problem.
At his inauguration, Biden said repeatedly he wanted to unite America. “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,” he said.
Yet he also rails against “systemic racism” while calling Americans good and decent people.
He said he respects the outcome in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, but also that he is “angry and concerned” about the acquittal.
His party holds the narrowest majorities in congress, but most of Biden’s initiatives are so radical they are dead on arrival, with even Democratic moderates balking.
He says America is back to cooperating with our allies, yet pulls out of Afghanistan on an arbitrary deadline despite pleas from NATO to go slower and leave a small number of troops there. He breaks his promise to evacuate all US citizens and foreign nationals who helped our war effort, leaving their fates to the Taliban.
Virtually every time Biden mentions Taiwan and China, the White House has to “clarify” what he meant to say even as the president refuses to answer media questions.
Citing global climate change, he shuts down the Keystone XL pipeline and restricts oil drilling on federal lands, but, faced with rising gas prices, urges Russia and OPEC countries to produce more oil.
An early assessment was that Biden aimed to undo everything Donald Trump did. That view lent a certain consistency to the foolishness of throwing open the southern border, begging Iran to sign…
Read More: Joe Biden’s Build Back Better ‘cure’ is what ails us: Goodwin