COMMENTARY FEBRUARY 16, 2023 Volume XXX, Number 26 COVER IMAGE: Will Matuska PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caitlin Rockett ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER: Will Matuska FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Joel Dyer CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Kaylee Harter, Nick Hutchinson, Dave Kirby, Ari LeVaux, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Alan Sculley, Samuel Shaw, Toni Tresca, Gregory Wakeman, Colin Wrenn
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THE ANDERSON FILES Biden’s populism and the stupid debt ceiling
I
n March 2020, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders had a rough debate in a sealed CNN studio without a live audience to avoid contagion during a raging pandemic. There had been many candidates but, at that point, Biden was destined to be the party nominee. A populist fever had overtaken the race and Bernie reminded people of Biden’s long record, pointing out that Biden’s populism was rather inadequate. Later, a Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force was formed and they released an impressive progressive agenda. Biden was responding to pressure but also to the reality of crisis after crisis from grotesque economic inequality, the pandemic, climate chaos and systemic racism. 4
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
In 2020, Jared Bernstein, Biden’s former chief economic adviser in the Obama administration and a member of the economy task force, told Vox: “Much like FDR faced a structural crisis of economic insecurity, we’re at a similar place. The vice president recognizes that the extent of market failure here is not something you can fix with a Band-Aid, and that structural reforms are necessary.” The “Build Back Better” agenda would emerge. It wasn’t as good as the “Green New Deal,” but it was a break from Clintonism, which gave us NAFTA, welfare “reform” and broad financial deregulation. The Congressional Progressive Caucus now has 103 members, which is nearly half of the 212-mem-
BY DAVE ANDERSON ber Democratic roster. They are planning to work with more moderate Democrats and the Biden administration to promote workers’ rights, immigration reform and solutions to the climate crisis. These days, you don’t hear too much from Democrats about the Clintons. Ironically, Bill Clinton’s labor secretary, Robert Reich, has become a prominent progressive voice. Reich tried to get the Clinton administration to deal with growing economic inequality but had no success. Reich, an economist, thinks the feigned Republican hysteria about the federal debt is an idiotic spectacle. In a recent opinion piece for The Guardian, Reich noted: “A half century ago, America’s wealthy financed
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