Speechifying

At the end of his first year

LARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE et’s start with some agreement. The president of the United States began his press conference Wednesday afternoon with a miniSOTU. But doubtless many Americans were glad to hear it when he said the nation wouldn’t go back to lockdowns and schools would remain open. Mankind is going to have to figure out how to fight this pandemic without sacrificing the economy or his children’s education. Thank you, Mr. President. We hope your union friends, especially in education, were listening.

Other thoughts on the president’s mid-week news conference:

• President Biden once again pushed his dead Build Back Better plan. And once again said it wouldn’t add to the debt, wouldn’t raise taxes on most Americans, and wouldn’t add to inflation if passed.

There have been multiple news columns — news columns, not opinion columns — that say otherwise. The Congressional Budget Office says it will add to the federal deficit, and estimates trillions would be added to the debt in 10 years. In order to get around either more taxes on the middle class or putting the costs for BBB on the national credit card, you’d have to believe that government entitlement programs can be ended after a few years. And they never are. The president should drop the Build Back Better bill. Everybody else has.

• Call it the John Brummett Question: A reporter asked the president whether he needs to scale back some of his proposals and pass something “more realistic” before the midterms in November. The president answered, “No.” Then he said he just has to make his case, because the American people already “overwhelmingly” agree with him on the issues. Then, nearly in the same breath, he said the opposite, and that “pieces” of the BBB bill might could be passed. So there’s your answer. No and yes.

• When it comes to international affairs, especially as he answered questions about Russia, it was clear that the president is sharp and knows his adversary. But unfortunately, the president tends to think out loud. What was that about allowing Russia to invade Ukraine just a little? A small incursion? The White House went into panic mode and walked it back Thursday morning. But which message will the Russians hear? (We just don’t know if his trust-sanctionsto-the-end policy is going to work with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.)

• As far as his stalled voting bill, and his speech in Atlanta a few days ago accusing those against the bill of being on the side of Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis, the president defended his stand: “There were 16 members of the present United States Senate who voted to extend the Voting Rights Act [in 2006]…. What has changed? What happened? What happened?”

What happened is there were new bills offered. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act are not extensions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Just putting the word “vote” or “voting” in a bill doesn’t make it a slamdunk. Exactly half of the senators representing this country might think that ballots ought to be counted on Election Day, and might not like something akin to same- day registration, and might even suspicion automatic registration at the DMV. And many of those senators might think the states should run their own elections, as always. And make their own rules about whether to allow no-excuse mail voting, and whether drop boxes should be monitored 24/7, and whether felons should be allowed to vote upon release.

It is possible to find fault with these two bills without being an unreconstructed Confederate.

• The president also defended his administration as it has responded to the pandemic. And he is right to do so. This country is doing more testing than any other, and we’re also providing the world with vaccines. The covid-19 bug is a nasty hand for any president to play. But we can’t see how it can be played any better.

• The president says he’s going to do three things differently in his second year in office. He’s going to get out of Washington more often to talk to the people. He’s going to get better advice from academia (!) and think tanks (!) and editorial writers (???) “to get their perspective on what we should be doing.” And he’s going to be involved in off-year elections, raising money and campaigning. All that sounds fine, but it doesn’t sound like a plan.

• The president says he’s going to “stay on this track,” and noted that one of the problems (for him politically) is that the American people don’t know all the things his administration has done, and is trying to do. We disagree. The problem (for him politically) may be that they do.