Voters will have to pay higher taxes to make a transient stimulus permanent
on an American welfare state
“America’s social democratic turn has been in the works for decades now”, writes Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times. “Quietly, voters have grown to like Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Public surveys disclose a culture that is no longer one of masochistic self-reliance, if it ever was.” But President Joe Biden’s $1.9trn fiscal relief bill is still far from a “resounding” progressive moment. Voters may welcome extra spending in a crisis, but the test is whether they will accept higher taxes to make it sustainable in the long run. “A proper welfare state must be paid for. Such is the political Everest that should daunt the Democrats, and the opening that awaits the Republicans.”