Biden Extends the ‘Greedy Hand of Government’

As President Biden’s State of the Union address is being carved up and served out by partisans, many clips ought to be transcribed in All Caps. How else to reflect his shouted promises to deliver utopia by government if only Republicans in Congress will join Democrats and back their agenda.Mr. Biden used the hectoring phrase “finish the job” 12 times, as if America is a bathroom being remodeled and can be declared perfect once the final light fixture is installed. It recalled Democratic attacks on President George H. W. Bush for failing to “finish the job” in the first Gulf War.That job was to eject Iraq from Kuwait under the United Nations and congressional resolutions, but Democrats nagged, and Republicans joined them, until Mr. Bush’s son launched a war to finish it by removing the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, only to see the Democrats abandon the war.“We disagreed plenty,” Mr. Biden said, “and yes, there were times when Democrats had to go it alone, but time and again, Democrats and Republicans came together.” The message was not “lead, follow, or get out of the way,” but a demand for unconditional surrender, a concept antithetical to the very democracy Mr. Biden declared under threat.The job of the Constitution is “to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” The founders weren’t so arrogant to think they could solve everything, so they handed us the tools to build on their work.A State of the Union Address is a no-lose situation for any president and even Mr. Biden — a who calls himself a “gaffe machine” and stutterer to lower expectations — couldn’t blow it, demonstrating more political skill in a single night than he has in his previous half century of elective office combined.The minority party is in the reverse position of the man at the podium, lost in a massive crowd. The shouting reduced Republicans to hecklers, but Mr. Biden did them a favor by responding with humor as often seen in Britain’s parliament. We can be hopeful that this reflects a willingness to hash out issues, which Mr. Biden promised to do.The performance and pageantry will stick in people’s minds because that’s the power of television, but partisanship deserves mention. Mr. Biden is empowered only to execute the laws passed by Congress, not to command legislation into being and blame Republicans for anything that goes wrong.Appropriate for the wake of Groundhog Day, Mr. Biden repeated this familiar strategy when demanding that Congress yet again raise the debt ceiling. He praised it for doing so under President Trump but tore into his predecessor for piling on that same debt as if Democrats hadn’t backed every penny.While Speaker McCarthy shook his head and rolled his eyes, Mr. Biden said he had reduced the deficit. Fact-checkers rate this false, which is obvious since it would render raising the debt ceiling unnecessary if true. The families that Mr. Biden invoked must live within their means, but he called for not a single spending cut.Mr. Biden demonstrated a belief that there’s no problem a law, policy, or program can’t fix and said that he had already “created a record 12 million new jobs,” as if they weren’t lost by the imposition of lockdowns. It was rather like Broadway theaters claiming to have increased ticket sales by unlocking their doors.In Mr. Biden’s view, credit for prosperity belongs not to the American people who conceive, run, and work at businesses, but to a what Thomas Paine called the “greedy hand of government” reaching into every aspect of their lives — and without which citizens would flop around and die like fish on a beach.No amount of government action can build the utopia that Mr. Biden promises. These parts of the speech are best ignored while the elected representatives of the people hash out competing ideas to find the best ones, holding the president to his word about finishing the only job that’s achievable: Creating a union that’s more perfect tomorrow than it is today.

Biden Extends the ‘Greedy Hand of Government’

Biden Extends the ‘Greedy Hand of Government’

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