Michael Meeropol
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After my last commentary pleading with President Biden to invoke the 14th Amendment and say to hell with the debt ceiling, I vowed I would talk about something completely different for this one. Well --- I was wrong --- I think the nature of the agreement reached between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden is worth exploring in detail.
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The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution is one of the most consequential amendments. In addition to granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States (including the children of so-called “illegal immigrants”), it also says that no state may take any actions that deprive their citizens of the equal protection of the law. It was the opening gun in an effort to make ex-slaves full citizens and give them political rights.
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Last week, the House Republicans made what they called a budget proposal. But it really isn’t a budget proposal because despite some specifics it leaves most of the cuts to the Appropriations Committees. (This is part of the gaslighting by the Republicans. Members who voted for the bill can angrily proclaim that they did NOT vote to cut veterans’ benefits. In fact, they can deny voting to cut ANY benefits except those specified in the bill – even though, to reach the number of discretionary dollars cut, some or all of the programs not specifically exempted will have to be cut!)
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On Sunday, April 9, I opened an e-mail which reprinted an article from the GUARDIAN. It was entitled, “The American Civil War Ended Today. It should be as National Holiday.”
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When Donald Trump was President, he famously responded to the “Russia Russia Russia” attacks on him by claiming:
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It all has to do with the importance of making choices and how those choices inform us. Consumers choose which products to buy. Citizens choose which facts to believe. Many economists actually define their discipline as the “science of choice.” In the very first economics class I took as a college freshman (and therefore the first class I would teach my principles students years later), my professor identified the “economic problem” as a situation where humans have unlimited wants yet they are confronted by scare (because finite) resources with which to satisfy those wants.
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This commentary was broadcast four days after I turned EIGHTY. I want to reflect a bit on that.
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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont calls himself a Democratic Socialist. I actually think many of his policy proposals make him a more a New Deal Democrat rather than a socialist but let that pass. However, in his diagnosis about what is wrong with the United States, he is very much a socialist. I delivered this commentary because I had just read a review of his new book, IT’S OKAY TO BE ANGRY ABOUT CAPITALISM. (NY: Crown Publishers, 2023), written with John Nichols.
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I have to admit, I watched the State of the Union Address by President Biden. I certainly heard some interesting things in it, especially the exchange with the heckling Republicans who were SHOCKED, SHOCKED [see below for the “Casablanca” reference!] that Biden would remind them that during last year’s election campaign, the Republican senatorial campaign put out an eleven-point program which included the proposal to SUNSET every piece of federal legislation --- which of course includes Social Security and Medicare.
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Last week, I delivered a commentary that began with the assertion that the debt ceiling law was in direct conflict with the Constitution and ended with the following recommendation for President Biden: