Inhumane Border Optics

  • Border reality: There is no real liberal way to quickly and effectively stanch the flow of illegal immigrants at the border. The optics are awful; the sense of inhumanity palpable. But still it didn’t have to include Trumpian Border Patrol agents herding Haitians like cattle.
  • $600 billion: What uncollected taxes amount to annually, according to the collective opinion of five former treasury secretaries: Tim Geithner, Jacob Lew, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
  • President Biden, as we’ve been seeing, is pushing to increase taxes on the rich. It’s fundamental to his challenge of uniting Dems–and enough of the public–behind his $3.5 trillion, human-infrastructure, economic agenda. He even included, yes, Twitter, when he went on the record saying: “I’m sick and tired of the super-wealthy and giant corporations not paying their fair share in taxes.”

In support of that position, White House economists issued an analysis showing a gap between what everyday Americans pay in taxes and what the wealthiest owe on their holdings. The disparities result when WH officials count the rising value of wealthy Americans’ stock portfolios, which is not taxed on an annual basis, as income.

  • According to data from the Florida Department of State—the voter registration advantage for Democrats in the Sunshine swing State has gone from more than 550,000 a decade ago to about 24,000 now. Both parties have slightly more than 5 million active voters. Other context is critical. There are about 3.8 million NPAs and about 250,000 registered with minor parties. And then there’s turnout. We’ve seen a state turn out for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
  • “Without the huge gender gap in Biden’s favor, Trump would have won re-election. Democracy’s secret weapon? It’s women warriors.”—Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.
  • The House passed legislation that would guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion. In another party-line vote, the measure passed 218-211. But GOPster opposition will doom it in the Senate. Thus, the House vote was symbolic. But symbols matter when the cause is the ultimate women’s right. Had the House Dems not done their part, it would have sent an unconscionably wrong signal.
  • The Biden Administration has made it a priority to do what it can to increase competition and limit the power of mega companies via antitrust actions. Exhibit A: the DOJ has filed an antitrust suit against American Airlines and JetBlue for creating a “de facto merger” in the New York and Boston markets.
  • Note to Congressional Dems, both progressives and “centrists”: No tantrums. You know what obstruction awaits on the other side of the aisles. Zero-sum can’t apply. Whatever the pragmatic, shy-of-transformative compromises, they still improve infrastructure and help overhaul health care, federal education and tax laws. Call it three-quarters of a loaf.

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