Biden pulling back on...everything is why we need to prioritize

 Look, I dislike Biden. But I also dislike political wishlists with no guide to how to get there. Which is why I spend so much time trying to find ways to make my own wish list work. We can't have everything, and we need to prioritize what we actually want. This is why, back in 2019, I became critical of the green new deal. We can't fund something that high, and UBI at the same time. We also can't necessarily fund M4A at the same time as UBI, although I'm still working on that one. It's hard, but...I did have those rudimentary numbers that seemed to work in theory. 

But, a huge reason on the surface that Biden pulling back on other progressive ideas like a public option and student loan forgiveness is...because of fiscal issues. Which is dishonest at worst ("how ya gonna pay for it?" is the argument of anyone who doesn't want to pay for something), and at best, it just shows a bad approach to priorities.

Let's look at what Biden's done.

First, we had the stimulus. And I was critical of this $1.8 trillion doozy from the get go. $1400 checks, okay, he promised that. Expanding unemployment, yeah, terrible idea. Literally disincentivizes work in theory, giving the GOP an optics win even if not true. We could've experimented with a UBI for 6 months instead (although given the complications the economy is dealing with now maybe that would've backfired). And yeah. It just seemed like a poor use of money. I'm not against giving people money. I mean my platform is based on the idea of it to some extent. But it depends on how you do it, and that's just a $1.8 trillion band aid that just ain't gonna last. 

Then he had his infrastructure bill. Okay, fair, this wasn't a huge bill. It did some good things. Given I DON'T support a full on green new deal it's a good compromise. Pass. Although it's not super expensive and shouldn't be that insane fiscally. 

He gave us 2 year free college, not 4. Weak. 

And he's giving us free preK, childcare, and paid family leave. All nice to haves, but were these even on my previous list of things? Mostly, no. And the one that was, was extremely low priority. 

In exchange for this, he's abandoning us on student loans, and a public option for healthcare, both fairly high priorities for me. And given his own plans, neither are particularly expensive. Full student loan forgiveness would cost around $160 billion a year over the next 10 years. Partial forgiveness, less. I forget what his public option cost but it was like $65 billion or something, as much as his childcare/preK proposal roughly. 

So, he's basically telling us he blew his load on relatively weak programs, and now he can't do anything I actually want him to do. 

And this is him at best. At worst, he's just abandoning us. 

Screw Biden. I'm so glad I didn't vote for this guy (and yes I'm aware Hawkins was another "wish list" kind of guy but at least I would likely get healthcare out of him).