Somehow, America’s corporations have the political power to work with Republicans to achieve low taxes, deregulation, and union bashing. But when it comes to sticking up for voting rights, Republicans blow them off? How can this be?

The answer is pretty simple. Big business plays serious hardball when it comes to realizing their own goals. Their support for democratic rights is just rhetorical.

What would make it serious? How about denying support to all politicians who would restrict democratic rights, and financially supporting the party that defends rights? That would be revolutionary.

Don’t hold your breath. Business’s own political goals come first. At best, the marriage of capitalism and democracy is an uneasy one. We need to keep the pressure on big corporations to walk the talk.

Inflation Spike? The Consumer Price Index rose 0.6 percent in March. Is this an early result of too much stimulus? No, but wait for The Wall Street Journal, Fox, and various Republican politicians to offer Cassandra warnings on roaring inflation.

Mostly, the price hikes reflect one-time factors, such as gas prices rising with post-pandemic travel resuming, supply constraints reflecting global supply chain problems, and sectoral quirks such as hikes in prices of Canadian lumber.

The basic climate of low inflation is unchanged. The largest driver of inflation is wages, and wages continue to lag. So the Biden administration needs to keep going full speed ahead, and damn the naysayers.

Taxes: Belated Good News. The $3,000 refundable child tax credit is one of the most far-reaching provisions of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. But it is only for one year.

Yesterday, Biden pledged to the Congressional Black Caucus that he supports a permanent extension of the credit; and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig walked back previous comments that his agency might not be able to meet the July target of sending out monthly checks. Checks will go out as planned.

Even better, Rettig testified that a trillion dollars of taxes owed goes uncollected every year. One reason is that the IRS is grossly underfunded. Biden’s budget would increase its funding by more than 10 percent, expressly targeted to audit wealthy tax evaders.

Rettig’s testimony means that we could raise more than enough money to finance all of Biden’s public-investment initiatives just by collecting money owed by rich tax cheats. There is no better illustration of just how warped our economy has become and the need for radical remedy.