By JEFFREY SACHS
The alarm bells are sounding for President Joe Biden’s ambitious American Jobs Plan, which aims to rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure while preparing it for the demands of the 21st century. After weeks of seemingly endless bipartisan negotiations, it’s time for Biden to give up and push through his plan on a party-line vote.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, I very much hoped for bipartisanship, but that hope was based on my expectation that the GOP would repudiate former President Donald Trump, defeated and disgraced after his botched handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the January 6 insurrection. Instead, the handful of Republicans who voted to impeach him for his role in the insurrection have been censured by their own state parties and/or are facing primaries from Trump loyalists next year.
Too many Republican leaders would rather tear apart the country than admit that Trump lost the 2020 election. These profoundly cynical leaders seem to believe that their overriding economic aim — to enrich the wealthiest Americans who are their biggest donors — can succeed only by tacitly supporting Trump’s lies and drafting legislation to suppress the vote.