Biden needs to push for far-reaching progressive economic policies

Biden needs to push for far-reaching progressive economic policies 

Biden's work starts with staffing the government and working on the Georgia run-offs. If we wins that, he works with Schumer and Pelosi instead of McConnell. He will then work on COVID. In my best world, he will talk to people who had the virus and recovered and then shake up the approach to fighting the virus. Bad masking is not how it spread. People with "seasonal allergies" sneezed on each other. They need to stop.  Repairing the State Department and working with the world on COVID is part of job one.

He needs Schumer and Pelosi to quit being cute in enacting legislation to embarrass Republicans. Much of the House agenda was for show. Most of those bills need to be scrapped. Their focus has been on electoral politics for too long. Schumer needs to give up on a liberal caucus and pick off a few Senators to get a majority. The only way to get appointees confirmed is to get rid of Mitch or make some deals. Pardoning Trump may be the price, but it will get Trump out of the headlines.

Domestic priority number one is already announced: undoing Trump. Luckily, Trump's "reforms" did not really happen. He was incompetent in appointing people to actually get his agenda done, so there are many things that do not need to be reversed. The economy will bounce back once people stop getting sick. Much of the labor agenda involves staffing the NLRB. 

Transportation infrastructure needs a gas tax increase and enough pork barrel spending to make it possible. You cannot get one without the other. Members coordinating with the people back home is what gets projects rolling and is how government is supposed to work. Environmental issues need to be addressed at the same time, including a carbon tax (or the threat of one in order to get a gas tax passed). The alternative should be capping flood insurance payouts on the shore. Do that and people will change their minds about warming.

Immigration reform needs to pass this year and it cannot be punitive. Everyone should get the legal status they qualify for, with no requirement of current status. The states should help with processing, with a fee charged to cover their costs. Boards of Election need something to do when there is no election pending. The DMV is another option.

Tax reform is whatever Richie Neal and Chuck Grassley agree to. The Office of Tax Policy will both negotiate administration priorities and provide analysis. It is a job for professionals, not theologians or columnists. I have a few ideas on this, which the revenue committees are well aware of.  Capital income from gains, profits, dividends, pass throughs, interest and rent need to have a consistent rate between 21 (current) and 28%. 26% is a good number. Self-reporting needs to be replaced by taxes paid at distribution or sale. Wealth taxes are a non-starter. It is better to have an asset value added tax on capital gains, zero rated for ESOP sales and marked to market at option exercise and the first sale after gift, donation or inheritance. No more estate tax. . A higher child tax credit is promised, but should be for more than one year, as proposed. 

An employer-paid value added tax should fund the public option, with partial credit for providing insurance to employees. Funding over private insurance will pay for a public option. Trade it for pre-existing condition reform repeal, with those denied automatically enrolled in a subsidized plan that is more generous than Obamacare deductibles and premiums (which function as a poor tax). ACA taxes on the wealthy need to be repealed as part of the deal. Give the GOP what its donors want. The end result of letting insurance companies being greedy is an every-growing public option and an end to private insurance. Single payer is inevitable.

If the bishops start talking about how abortion is covered - they need to be told to put a lid on it. Obama gave a pass to the bishops on these issues. Joe should not. He needs to explain to the bishops and his fellow Catholics why, if private coverage of abortion is allowed, public coverage must be as well. More importantly, he needs to publicly explain why Roe cannot be overturned, both by the Court and the Congress. No one really wants to make abortion equivalent to infanticide. It simply cannot be done without registering all pregnancies, reporting all losses and punishing mothers (as they would be punished for killing or paying for killing their infants).