https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/08/07/joe-biden-policy-proposals
In the last two Progressive Assault postings I wrote Joe Biden should make a clear distinction between the kind of man and politician he is and how he would be different from Trump. But there is another very important thing that Biden should say at the outset of his administration: I’ve been here before, folks, and I know what we need to do.
Our country is in a mess, and Joe Biden has real life experience in handling messes. And if Biden can get the Senate, or least some cooperation, then I believe he knows what to do and can pull us out of the public health/ruined economy/death spiral of debt disaster that Trump and the reactionary republicans have left us.
Saving the nation from a conservative Republican’s failure is something that Democrats have often had to do. When Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office the nation was already in a severe and worsening depression, brought on by the policies of the previous Republican president, Herbert Hoover.
Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 because of the mismanagement of the economy by George H Bush and his conservative advisors (remember the motto of the Clinton campaign in the ‘92 election? It’s the economy, stupid!). And George W Bush left a hell of a mess for Obama and Biden to clean up.
How bad a mess was it? Very bad indeed. In scope, severity, and plain old pain, it was crushingly bad. That is why it was called the great recession. Here are some examples:
The jobs situation: In early 2008 the economy was losing about 170,000 jobs per month. After the economic meltdown (more on this latter) the economy lost 700,000 in the last two months of the year. By October of 2009 (barley nine months after Obama and Biden took office) the unemployment rate was 10%.
The housing situation: In 2008 there were a record number of home foreclosures: 2,330,483 (about 1.8% of all housing units). Moreover, there was a sharp decline in the value of housing. By the end of 2008 housing prices declined 12%, finally hitting a drop of 27% before recovering.
https://chiefexecutive.net/lessons-learned-from-the-2008-financial-crisis/
The Economic situation: In 2008 the economy stopped growing for the first time in seven years. This is what prompted congress to authorize 90 billion in tax cuts to spur the economy. However, it was not enough to overcome the economic damage already done. By the end of the 2008 GDP recorded is greatest drop in 50 years.
https://chiefexecutive.net/lessons-learned-from-the-2008-financial-crisis/
This “deplorable” financial crisis was brought about due to lax federal oversight. Mortgage companies were allowed to make thousands of conventional and unconventional (sometimes stupid) loans to people who really could not afford them. In order to raise money to make more loans (and profits) the mortgage companies sold the very risky loans to Wall Street brokerages. The brokerages packaged these loans into various types of investments to be purchased by people and institutions that wanted something that would pay a high rate of return. When the homeowners couldn’t continue making their mortgage payments and defaulted on their home loans the people holding the Wall Street products started losing money. After a while so many companies were losing money that it started a chain reaction of business failures that threatened the whole financial system of banks and brokerages.
It seems that some things never change. And add to all of the above problems were the Marburg and Ebola public health problems that Obama and Biden managed to handle without either of them becoming a major health crisis.
Once again the Democrats will have to save America. But at least this time our new Democratic president has experience in handling severe national problems and knows what to do. And Biden shouldn’t hesitate to say all of the above at the first opportunity after his inauguration.
It’s time for a progressive assault on the failed policies of the Trump and the Republicans! And Joe Biden is the guy to do it!