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MARCH 1, 2022

Meyerson on TAP

What Biden Will Say Tonight, and What He Should Say

His defense of democracy and his attack on inflation can lead to some
distinctly progressive initiatives.

President Biden has a ready-made frame for discussing the state of the
union-and, inescapably, the state of the world-in his address to
Congress and the nation tonight. Indeed, he made that frame himself.

Beginning in his presidential campaign of 2019-2020, he included in
his stump speeches his characterization of the historic moment as
increasingly one pitting democracy against autocracy and
authoritarianism. Those passages became more prominent after the January
6 insurrection, Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 voters' verdict,
and Chinese President Xi's promotion of autocracy as a more efficient
system.

So tonight, Biden will surely place the Russian invasion of Ukraine into
that frame, certain that on this one issue, he'll get bipartisan
applause for his defense of democracy. But that defense also opens the
door to him to defend democracy at home as well as abroad. It provides a
nice segue into an attack on the Republican moves to limit the
electorate, and even substitute the vote of state legislatures for the
vote of the citizenry.

The dynamics of the war also opens a door for Biden to highlight the
world's vulnerability to any thug who controls the supply of fossil
fuel-that is, to make the case anew for something like a Green New
Deal.

And by addressing, as he must and surely will, the current bout of
inflation, he also has at least a partial chance to turn a political
lemon into the lemonade of attacking corporate power over markets and
pricing. That includes, as my colleague David Dayen wrote

today, measures to break up monopolies and boost American
manufacturing-two causes that poll well across the political spectrum.
He can also address the hit to Americans' pocketbooks by calling for
measures that would give the government the power to bring drug prices
down and make child care affordable (which also includes establishing
universal pre-K). He may yet try to resurrect, at least rhetorically,
the Child Tax Credit. And this would be a splendid time for him to
announce the forgiveness of some amount of student debt, though I have
no indication whatsoever that he plans to do that.

If Manchin, Sinema, and the Republicans say we can't afford to do
those things, there's a way to fund them right now that could win
broad public support: an excess profits tax, of the kind the government
levied during World Wars I and II. As with student debt reduction, I
have no indication that this is under even perfunctory consideration,
but if ever a measure like this were to win broad public support, this
would be the time. As a sop to the GOP, not to mention Manchin and
Sinema, a share of the proceeds from such a tax could even be targeted
to debt reduction.

Just sayin'.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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The Inflation Conundrum

There is a lot that can be done to restrain prices that doesn't
sandbag the recovery with higher interest rates. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

Biden Wants to Take Down the Ocean Shipping Cartel

New initiatives would beef up investigations into anti-competitive
conduct from the industry, which is enjoying astronomical profits. BY
DAVID DAYEN

Predatory Hotel Investment Trusts Are Decimating Workers' Rights and
Democrats' Most Loyal Unions

Ninety-eight percent of hotel workers were laid off when the pandemic
hit. Real estate investors smelled an opportunity. BY DANIEL BOGUSLAW

European Austerity Hobbled Its Response to Russia

Instead of hoarding budget surpluses after the financial crisis, the EU
could have weaned itself off of Russian energy supplies. BY RYAN COOPER

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