OPINION: Biden’s extraordinarily ambitious philosophy of governing – By Frida Ghitis (CNN) / April 11 2021
EDITORS NOTE: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.
(CNN)The era of small government, or at least a long chapter in it, ended last year when the economy started sliding into a coma in the midst of the worst health crisis in a century and the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
With millions infected with the coronavirus and millions more unemployed, there was no question the magnitude of the problem required the government to step in boldly, and it did. Now, President Joe Biden is leveraging the crisis to correct problems that existed before the pandemic but became more visible during the disaster.
Big spending had already started under former President Donald Trump. Biden is doubling down and making a sharp turn. His budget proposal, revealed Friday, presses the accelerator to speed away from most of Trump’s policies.
Watching Biden over the past 10 weeks, Americans may have wondered what happened to the centrist candidate who won the election. Until now his raft of economic and social programs had little in common with traditional middle-of-the road positions. This budget shows that, despite his aggressive push to leverage the power of the federal government to shape economic and social change, Biden still has enough areas of disagreement with the left wing of the Democratic Party to make decisions that can also bring their blood to a boil.
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