legislation, which has passed in 27 (mostly red) states. This legislation, where in effect, gives workers a choice of whether to join unions and prohibits those unions from requiring that all workers -- whether they are members or not -- contribute to the costs of union representation through the payment of dues. Organized labor has long opposed "right-to-work" laws and has been looking for ways to curb their influence.

Many of these items are part of a progressive policy wish-list to be sure, but critics of the President's plan should focus on the fact that it's paid for by rolling back some of the tax relief passed during the Trump years (particularly the reduction in the corporate tax rate). And even the way in which the plan is "paid for" requires a budgetary sleight-of-hand -- Biden wants to take 15 years to pay for eight years of spending which, as one analyst noted, is the equivalent of only paying for half of the proposed spending. Usually, budget analysts look at how much spending will cost over a decade and how much revenue is raised during the same time to pay for it. But Biden's plan only includes tax hikes to finance part of the spending over the first 10 years, meaning that a significant amount of spending (about $1.5 trillion) will be deficit-finance d.

All of this spending comes on the heels of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act, which included Covid-19 relief provisions, but also other liberal policy priorities like a massive expansion of Obamacare, over $80 billion in money for many poorly-run pension plans (some of which are co-managed by unions), and a $350 billion bailout for state and local governments, with blue states -- which have had higher unemployment rates in part due to stricter Covid-related economic lockdowns -- the disproportionat e beneficiary.

And let's not forget how Biden started his time in office, a little over two months ago, with a flurry of executive activity (three times the number his recent predecessors had signed weeks into their presidencies) that revoked many of Trump's significant executive actions and put a stake in the ground for a new policy direction.

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