President Biden’s first 100 days are done.
The world has not come to an end and there have been some improvements.
More than 100 million people are fully vaccinated as promised. Science and expertise seem to be back in favor for making policy. A vision for a more equitable future has been presented.
The President has proposed a transformational program to be implemented over the next eight years. Transformational programs are not the sole province of progressives. President Reagan said, “The problem with government is government,” and thus began a long decline in the programs of FDR and LBJ.
The question on these transformational proposals should be about need, equity, quantity and process.
Instead, many of our elected officials attack the proposer and their political party. That is a rabbit hole we should not go down.
During the worst times of the Great Depression, big government took the form of the New Deal programs which were critical to the people of Graham County. Thirty years later, big government took the form of the War on Poverty. Once again, those programs were critical to the people of Graham County. President Biden has proposed the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. Both are designed to return us to a position of competing on a world scale and to provide bootstrap help to economically-disadvantaged folks.
The 2020 Census will be released soon. Just one statistic already known should justify having a robust and conclusive bi-partisan debate on the President’s proposals. There are 1,269 Medicaid eligible people in Graham County. As a society and a moral community, we have an obligation to enhance their ability to achieve economic independence. We cannot let partisan political idealogues on either side stand in the way of compromise leading to solutions.
Don’t be fooled by claims of rampant inflation, the demise of small businesses or massive deficits resulting from Biden’s proposals. Recent, small inflationary increases are caused by supply shortages or manipulated markets like gasoline. Small businesses will flourish when the economy grows from the Biden proposals. The deficits projected by opponents can and should be overcome with a more equitable tax system that has the wealthy and corporations paying their fair share, and ends loopholes which are bought and paid for by lobbyists and dark money campaign contributions.
The President’s proposals are bold and large. So is our shared vision of America as the land of opportunity and the leader of the free world. As the proposals are debated, let’s not waste too much time on arguing about the ingredients.
Let’s savor the good taste of the opportunities that will be created for all the people of Graham County.
Roger Carlton writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, rcarlton57@hotmail.com.