2023 Battle Lines

Apart from hostilities involving the Republicans’ war against truth — for example, a majority of Republican members of Congress refused to condemn Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 presidential was stolen — the battle lines between the two parties have formed on familiar terrain. President Biden’s new budget proposal calls for increased expenditures on social programs and on other initiatives. These would be financed largely by increased taxes on large corporations and on the rich and especially the super rich. Republicans oppose increasing expenditures and raising taxes; they advocate reducing expenditures on social programs as a way to strengthen the nation’s fiscal health. Tensions arising out of these opposing positions are certain to rise as summer approaches because of the threat by Republicans to cause the United States to default on its obligations unless the Democrats accede to their demands.