--- Title: No respite with Joe Biden Date: 15/11/2020 Category: USA Tags: ideology leftwing nationalism URL: https://marxismo.school/communia/en/no-respite-with-joe-biden --- We are living in a time of media bombardment in the United States. We are told that the election of Joe Biden is a _return to normalcy_, that it will save the _soul of America_ and _allow it to heal_. We are told amidst hiccups and tears that _the American people_ are _sighing for relief._ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2ScxGsB-ks&t=87s And amidst excited babbling they claim that the election result holds special meaning for _black voters_ who, according to them, brought Joe Biden to victory. https://youtu.be/XylVPbeJasA?t=162 As the story seems set to become official, the disastrous effects of the pandemic are blamed not only on Trump's mismanagement, but also on his _lack of empathy_. Biden, on the other hand, we are assured, is an _empathetic man_ who will take charge of the pandemic and the needs of the _American population_, supporting the _middle class_, bringing justice to _minorities_, and protecting the health and living conditions of workers. ## Will the Democrats bring an end to precariousness and _austerity_? > The standard of living of the average American needs to fall ‎to counteract inflation‎. I don't think there is any escape from that. > > Paul A. Volcker A cursory look at the policies of past Democratic administrations makes it clear that the Democratic Party is no less committed to _[precarization](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Precarization/)_ than the Republican Party since [Jimmy Carter's days](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/12/09/president-links-budget-austerity-and-social-goals/a5eb349c-8c46-4e72-9fd8-c65505ef7da6/). Paul Volcker, a Democrat who was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board during the Carter presidency, was one of the first to praise Ronald Reagan for taking a strong stand against workers' strikes. > Just after taking office, he appointed a bipartisan deficit commission (the National Fiscal Responsibility Commission) filled with deficit hawks and co-chaired by Social Security "reformers" Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. This commission, as expected, issued a report in December 2010 calling for raising the age of eligibility for Social Security, reducing the increase in Social Security benefits based on the cost of living, and, less predictably but outrageously, reducing personal and corporate tax rates for higher level groups. Even more ominously, Obama appointed a Rubin and Summers protégé, Timothy Geithner, as Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, had led the rescue of the big Wall Street banks during the subprime crisis and the panic in the financial markets in 2008. The difference between Democrats and Republicans never revolved around whether to precarize workers' lives or not. Precarization was a shared goal... the difference lay in the Republicans' strong opposition to tax increases on the large fortunes of the ruling class and corporations. The Democrats, on the other hand, were willing to increase taxes for the capitalists, although not by much, while continuing to impose measures which increased the exploitation of workers in order to revive the economy, that is, [capital](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Capital) [accumulation](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Accumulation of capital). The way to enforce it was to put the focus on the deficit of the federal accounts and [introduce generalized automatic cuts that would make up for any shortfall](https://www.barrons.com/articles/SB51367578116875004693704580469921249824474) if new taxes were not to be approved. > If Congress were unable to come up with a bipartisan plan to reduce the budget deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years - including the $2.5 trillion already agreed upon - then about $1 trillion in automatic, arbitrary, across-the-board cuts would take effect in FY 2013. Obama bet that the draconian consequences of inaction would persuade Republicans to accept the tax increases he suggested as part of a bipartisan deficit reduction plan. But he misjudged their anti-tax fervor. No agreement was reached, and the automatic cuts began. Thus, public spending, including _Medicare_, would be cut by 10% from 2013 to 2021. It is within this context that we must understand [what ObamaCare](https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-sequestration-causes-and-impact-3305775) was. > U.S. cities and states are considering withdrawing their retirees, and in some cases their active employees, from city-funded benefits. Neil Bomberg, program director of the National League of Cities, said in an interview with Bloomberg News, "Cities and towns will be looking at ways to reduce those costs, and ‎Obamacare‎ exchanges can provide a very viable mechanism. Washington state is considering sending its entire active workforce to Obamacare exchanges. That is, Obamacare, although touted as an egalitarian way to help uninsured workers, is **designed to extract an amount greater than the cost of their health care from the workers**. Most U.S. workers were covered by company insurance, which is cheaper for workers than private insurance plans. Obamacare's goal was to [get more workers into private insurance plans](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/10/16/pers-o16.html). > Health care coverage for their employees will no longer be the accepted norm for large and medium-sized businesses. Instead, workers will be left to their own devices, forced to face giant health insurance companies as individuals, with minimal subsidies from the government or their private employers who will do little to offset the huge increases in premiums, co-payments, and deductibles. In essence, a voucher system is being instituted, and the principle will inevitably extend to Medicare and Medicaid, the government's health programs for retirees and the poor, respectively. This will provide the means to privatize and dismantle these basic social programs. ## Will the Biden government be different from the government in which Biden was vice president? There seems to be no doubt that Biden's lukewarm election promises about austerity will not be fulfilled. The _Wall Street Journal_ reassured its readers by turning to one of Biden's closest politicians, who expressed himself [in quite clear terms](https://www.wsj.com/video/bidens-longtime-aide-says-us-spending-will-be-difficult-in-2021/E238DA63-9946-4B25-810E-D44F0FBB3CAB.html?mod=e2twp): > Former Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman, a Biden henchman who succeeded him in the Senate, predicted during a live Wall Street Journal interview Tuesday that a large increase in federal spending by 2021 would be difficult to achieve. > > "When we go in, the pantry will be empty," said Mr. Kaufman, who leads Mr. Biden's transition team. "When they see what Trump has done with the deficit... forget about Covid-19, all the deficits he built up with the incredible tax cuts. So we're going to be limited". This automatically brings us back to the Obama administration and its [deficit reduction policies](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/biden-democratic-national-convention-austerity) at the expense of workers. In fact, they are already preparing excuses. Not surprisingly, a likely Republican majority in the Senate and a narrow Democratic majority in the House of Representatives [will prevent Biden from advancing his so-called _progressive agenda_](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/biden-has-bold-agenda-divided-congress-could-constrain-him). Of course, it would not be the first time a politician made a promise that [never intended to keep](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/20/warr-n20.html). But, most importantly, it is not about that. Even if _progressive legislation_ were passed, we would not be any closer to a world guided by human needs. It would only change the way in which we are sacrificed to increase the profitability of capital investments. It is for capital that the Democrats and Biden reserve the best of their celebrated _empathy_. Just look at the vaunted _expert group_ with which Biden pretends to be _on the move against Covid_. There was also a nice [malthusian](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/la-toma-de-la-circulacion-mercantil-por-el-capital-y-la-afirmacion-de-la-moral-burguesa) who considers that living over 75 years is an aberration... to be avoided. With such _experts_, it is not surprising that instead of lockdowns and school closures [the battle against Covid is reduced to projecting _a lot of empathy_, tracers -useless when there is community transmission- and the recommendation to buy masks](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-covid-19-advisory-board-member-suggests-week/story?id=74173793). https://twitter.com/jimgeraghty/status/1325838466106724358 ## What are the Democrats playing at? Neither is it a matter of Democratic or Republican majorities. Despite all the rhetoric, Republicans are the Democrats' antithesis. In fact, Biden and the Democratic Party would be in [an advantageous position when facing a Republican majority in the Senate](https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/11/politics/senate-joe-biden-mcconnell-georgia/index.html)... > Consider the alternative. Biden is the president while his old friend McConnell is the Senate majority leader... Biden can credibly make the case that there is no point in pushing certain legislation through the House because it will be dead on arrival in the Senate. While progressives might detest that, they would have a hard time denying the obvious political reality. That is, the Republican majority will help to establish more easily that touted _unity_. The attacks on the workers would be justified in order to maintain this unity... and at the same time they will tell us that we must forgive them because, in order to avoid the greater evil of Trumpism, they will have to _arrive at imperfect compromises_. _To their regret_ , of course, let no one doubt their _empathy_. In fact, they already told us, at least since the Democratic Convention: this is not about being for or against austerity, universal health care or the precarization of working conditions. It's about, we are told by the Democrats, building a coalition with decent people from the Republican Party. https://youtu.be/YGFuOtuLqNQ The Democrats want _unity_ in order to come up with an excuse in front of the workers without becoming worn out in front of them, but also to appease the left petty bourgeoisie with the Trumpist _bogeyman_, and to divide the Republican Party _base_, which includes an increasingly delusional and angry petty bourgeoisie. The overall result of that strategy would strengthen the ruling class in two movements. The first would confront the various facets of the revolt of the [petty bourgeoisie](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Petty%20bourgeoisie/): atomizing and dividing the one that uplifted Trump, appeasing the [black petty bourgeoisie that the Democratic Party itself stirred up](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/what-should-we-expect-from-the-demonstrations-in-the-united-states) in order to dislodge him. Thus, in a second move, it would increase its capacity to stifle the ability of the working class to resist the attacks they are already preparing to revive the accumulation. Because, let us not forget, [racialism and identitarianism](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/racialism-feminism-and-equality) are not only interested movements of the petty bourgeoisie, they also are weapons to divide us... which [trade unions intend to exploit ad nauseam](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/strike-for-black-lives). And the _Green New Deal_, above all, is the technological and regulatory form of the greatest transfer of income from labor to capital since the last world war. ## _Sighs of relief_ and the _soul_ of America Seeing what _saving the soul of America_ consists of, we can get a pretty clear idea of what this soul is. It is nothing more than a cheesy way of calling for a _patriotic spirit_, the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the interests of national capital: [ignoring Covid danger](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/what-democrats-wont-tell-you-about-auto-workers-in-the-usa-and-mexico), accepting even more [precarization](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Precarization/) and _austerity_ (that is, accepting a worsening of the general conditions of our own exploitation), and, ultimately, closing ranks with the bourgeoisie when [the needs of capital](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Imperialism/) encourage the state to go into [new trade and military wars](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/would-biden-ease-wartime-tensions-and-trade-war). We cannot accept such a _soul_, a soul which kills our bodies. We can only reject any claim of _[having a homeland](https://dictionary.marxismo.school/Internationalism/)_. We are not _Americans_, we are workers who live and are exploited in the United States. We have the same interests as workers everywhere else in the world. And they, the ruling class, know it. That is why they say we are _sighing with relief_. Actually, that is something even they can't do.