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**APRIL 1, 2021**

Meyerson on TAP

McConnell: From Moscow Mitch to Beijing's Bozo

Or, if you prefer, China's Chum.

In today's

**New York Times**, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell provided a
quote

that may be the quintessence of McConnellism. Asked about whether he'd
support President Biden's infrastructure proposal, McConnell replied:

"If it's going to have massive tax increases and trillions more added
to the national debt, it's not likely."

And there, in one admirably succinct sentence, is the reason why the
Republicans are the party of national decline. Any major new
governmental initiative perforce will either be paid for with tax
increases, or increase the national debt, or be offset by cuts to
existing programs. In one sentence, McConnell has ruled out the first
two options, leaving unsaid that his preferred option, and that of his
party, is to slash benefits and social services. That's why McConnell
considers his job to be killing all new initiatives, if and only if he
can't pay for them by reducing his fellow Americans' living
standards.

Just in case anyone was in doubt, McConnell has now made clear that the
yearly Infrastructure Week follies of the Trump presidency weren't
just Trump's fault (due to the president's insistence on requiring
states and localities to pick up 90 percent of the tab). They were also
McConnell's fault, and that of the whole damned Republican Party,
which thought that even the remaining 10 percent was way too much. Had
Republicans been like this 170 years ago, they wouldn't have ponied up
enough to fund the Pony Express.

It wasn't always thus. The most celebrated senator from McConnell's
Kentucky is still Henry Clay, who dominated the Senate for much of the
first half of the 19th century. Clay's defining passion was what he
called "internal improvements"-using federal funds to create and
improve the nation's rather primitive roads, canals, and bridges.
Internal improvements quickly became the gospel of the Whigs (the party
Clay headed), and when the Whigs went under in the 1850s, the gospel was
passed on to its successor, the new Republican Party.

Support for internal improvements was anything but consensual. The South
(that is, the white male elites who controlled its politics and economy)
fiercely opposed the expenditure of federal funds on just about anything
save the occasional retrieval of a runaway slave. It was only when the
South seceded that the first Republican president (Lincoln) and the
newly Republican (and devoid of Southerners) Congress enacted the
internal improvements of which Clay could only have dreamed: a
transcontinental railroad, land grant colleges, the Homestead Act.

They may both be Kentuckians, but McConnell is the anti-Clay. More R&D?
Phooey! Upgraded manufacturing? Feh! Clean energy? Blecch! Living wages?
Hell no!

Nonetheless, McConnell's nay-saying will surely lead to a rise in
national pre-eminence: China's.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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One Signature From Joe Biden Could Help Thousands of Refugees

But he has hesitated on signing a presidential determination that would
increase the number of refugees allowed to settle in the U.S. Why? BY
MARCIA BROWN

The Progressive Policies Moderates Hate Provide the Cost Savings
Moderates Claim to Want

If moderate Democrats are serious about their demands to offset the cost
of Biden's infrastructure plan, they can start by saving billions
through prescription drug price reform. BY ALEXANDER SAMMON

The Right Curriculum? How PragerU Infiltrates Schools.

The right-wing nonprofit, known for viral videos like 'The Left Ruins
Everything,' launched a program specifically designed for teachers
last fall. But according to students, its content has been in public
schools for years. BY AMELIA POLLARD

First 100: The Case for Vaccine Passports

We're in a health emergency and they can stop the spread. BY DAVID
DAYEN

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