Here’s the thing, the major media, including the all-news cable channels like CNN and MSNBC, is controlled at the top not by the democratic masses in the U.S., but by the scions of international financial capital. Despite the sentiments of individual reporters and commentators, when it comes to shaping the overall narrative of news coverage, the scions prevail. There is plenty of documentation of interlocking directorates and so forth that show this. This is without counting openly propagandistic elements like Fox News.
From the standpoint of this “big picture,” one can discern a steady bias that has to be wrestled with daily to get anything like a true picture of what’s going on. Those who don’t attempt to apply this lens to what they see and hear on the “news,” are prey to falling victim to all the slants as presented. In general, there is a definite prejudice, for example, against President Joe Biden. He’s a tough cookie, he’s had to be for the length of his remarkable political career, and he’s stood up very well against the relentless barrage of negative characterizations of his age, his speech (he has fought against an impediment his entire life) and his inability to simply wave a wand and get his way in Washington.
In this context, the past two weeks have seen a remarkable and blistering array of positive achievements for which the President can take credit. That is why, despite all the attempts to degenerate him, we stand firmly with Joe.
The latest was yesterday’s news of the cooling off of inflation in July. And the biggest of all is the anticipated House vote and signing of the Inflation Reduction Act later this week. It will make Biden one of the most legislatively successful presidents of the modern era. With it, in his first year and a half, he will have achieved the following: the American Recovery Act at $1.9 trillion, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act at $550 billion, this week’s Chips and Science Act at $280 billion and the Inflation Reduction Act at $700 billion.
That’s a nearly $3.5 trillion agenda. The scope is equally impressive: the pandemic and its economic fallout, highways, bridges, broadband, rail, manufacturing, science, prescription drug prices, health insurance, climate change, deficit reduction and tax equity.
He has also expanded NATO, passed a new gun safety law and passed a bill he signed just yesterday to address the effects on veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. Five out of seven of these laws — all but the two biggest, the American Recovery Act and Inflation Reduction Act — earned notable Republican support.
There’s not much debate anymore over whether Biden has been a consequential president. In the long run, his first 18 months may be remembered as akin to LBJ’s when it comes to moving an agenda through Congress. Joe achieved it despite two bouts with Covid. Not too shabby! In fact, we’d say downright amazing.
