Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has officially announced Thursday that he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020.
In a sea of crazed lefty Democrats seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, he almost seems centrist---almost.
Make no mistake, he is a serious statist in favor of many government interventions in society and the economy.
From The New York Times:
Mr. Biden has outlined a populist economic agenda focused on income inequality and workers’ rights. He endorsed a $15 minimum wage and free four-year public college in 2015; in a speech at the Brookings Institution in May 2018, he mentioned free college as one of five policies he said would help the middle class. (The other four were progressive tax reform, more worker protections, major infrastructure investments, and incentives for venture capitalists and other investors to spend outside of major cities.) He has called for a ban on noncompete agreements that prevent workers from taking jobs at competitors, and has advocated policies that would let workers discuss how much they are paid without retaliation...
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post in 2017, he argued that health care should be “a right for all and not a privilege for the few.”In short, he is a tired uncreative lefty. His positions are those promoted by Democratic progressives for decades.
That said, a tired uncreative lefty is better than some of the creative full steam ahead socialists among the Democratic contenders.
Biden's announcement video took straight aim at President Trump and attacked Trump from the perspective held by many Democrats that Trump is a racist. At the same time, he wisely ignored the field that he is running against, positioning himself as the candidate that can run and win against Trump.
Except for the long-shot Tulsi Gabbard and her foreign policy positions, I am not excited by any of the candidates. In fact, I am scared of most of them.
A Botoxed-up Biden would probably run an administration as numb as his face, and given the alternatives that might be the best outcome possible in this age of advancing socialism.
Of course, it is very early in the campaign season and one faux pas by the 76-year old Biden in a debate that suggests his Botox treatments have seeped into his brain might end it for the guy.
Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank and most recently Foundations of Private Property Society Theory: Anarchism for the Civilized Person Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics. More about Wenzel here.
Totally agree. Biden would be an incompetent and ineffective president, so I secretly hope he wins. He’d also be bad for cable news ratings, which is another plus.
ReplyDeleteI agree with him about the no compete agreements. These are a way to limit people's right to seek employment with employers that offer higher pay, benefits, etc. I think the courts often side with the individual even when these exist, but if this becomes standard in an industry, all it does is serve to limit competition.
ReplyDeleteThat's something for the market -- not the federal government-- to decide.
DeleteYou don't get much intersectionality with Uncle Joe.
ReplyDelete