good evening, everyone. we begin the reidout with a thing we really haven t seen in a long, long, long time. a forthright, open, democratic, dare i say progressive defense of government. now, i am old enough to remember bill clinton responding to the reagan and reaganomics by saying us too. the era of big government is over but courtesy of the democrats. that was a political calculation that i guess made sense at the time. reagan was still popular and sainted by republicans and so-called reagan democrats. and when president obama came along and was faced with this massive economic hole that george w. bush left the country in, he too felt constrained to couch the response in terms of, not spending too much money, keeping the economy, rescuing stimulus package under $1 trillion and kind of downplaying anything that looked like big government. and not too much braggadocio, especially from the black president. oh, god, no, no, no. well, enter joe biden. fresh off his prime-time
waking american knows the big national news is that the checks are in the mail, with the huge covid bill delivering immediate results and impact. that s the story. that s the thing that can really impact your life and your family s life and your community s existence over these next few crucial months. it s what president biden is leaning into, directly admitting as well that democrats have sometimes flubbed this next part. joe biden siting his own experience in the obama/biden administration when some thought the economic rebound would speak for itself. well, now biden is saying not this time. biden s aides stressing they are rightfully proud of this giant bill, this progressive policy bill, and they will use the megaphone so americans hear about it around the country. there is a policy piece to that effort so people learn about how they can access the benefits, how they can get vaccinate, what the new rules are as well as the new funding. and the president of course spoke t