POLITICS: Biden brain lie hurts Dems, stratospheric school spending and other commentary

Elex desk: Biden Brain Lie Hurts Dems

“Joe Biden may have cost Democrats the White House in 2024”; their inability to admit it might “hobble them in 2028,” note Politico’s Adam Wren and Holly Otterbein. “Potential presidential contenders have mostly dodged questions about his condition while in office. They’ve also sidestepped whether the party should have more forcefully called on him to abandon his reelection bid earlier.” With Biden out of office and getting media-dragged daily, “there would seem to be little political imperative to stick beside him. But there is also an obvious downside to addressing him at all — inviting comparisons to the party’s boosting of the former president in the past.” Yet “some Democrats think a willingness to break from the field on Biden could open the door to an outsider candidate.”

Eye on NY: Stratospheric School Spending

The Empire State plans “to spend an average of $35,012 per student, up 4.6% from the current school year,” reports the Empire Center. “More than half of districts plan to spend at least $35,000 and 48 districts plan to spend more than $50,000” versus the national average of $16,526. Per-pupil spending “will exceed $26,000 in all 57 counties outside New York City.” Although the new state budget hikes school aid by $1.7 billion, “more than half of the school districts (385) plan to also hike their property tax levies faster than inflation.” For the upcoming school year, “nearly half of districts plan to increase property taxes by exactly as much as New York’s [2%] property tax cap allows.”

Foreign beat: Bet on America, not Beijing 

“Taking the risk on China paid off handsomely for many years, while businesses avoiding it likely faced higher costs,” argues Oren Cass at Commonplace. Yet “the bet that free trade would liberalize China and convert it into a responsible trading partner” was likely “bad from the start.” Yes, only after granting China permanent favorable trade treatment lifted investment uncertainty “did the floodgates open.” But that’s not an argument for repeating the past error by “subjecting workers and communities to sudden, value-destroying disruption.” “A more gradual and predictable transition” from dependence on a Chinese supply chain “would be best for the American economy, for business owners, and for workers and their communities.” “Congress should pass legislation locking the trajectory of the US-China relationship into law.”

From the right: The GOP’s ‘Corleone’ Option

Some “good advice for House Speaker Mike Johnson” if Republican Congress members keep pushing for a higher SALT cap can be found in “The Godfather Part II,” quip The Wall Street Journal’s editors. Specifically, when Michael Corleone offers nothing to a greedy senator. “The limit of $10,000 in SALT was one of the great victories in the 2017 tax reform”; but now “the SALT lobby won’t even take yes for an answer” and insists that a tripling of that cap isn’t enough. “If that isn’t enough for holdouts, Speaker Johnson should consider the Michael Corleone option: nothing. No SALT increase. Then let’s see if the SALT Republicans would really kill the budget bill and raise taxes on everyone in their districts.”

Libertarian: End the War on Appliances

“It’s no secret the federal government has been trying to make our household appliances greener for many years,” with an “unfortunate effect on performance,” gripes Reason’s J.D. Tuccille. Now, “the Trump administration and members of Congress are rolling back red tape and liberating appliances.” An order signed by President Trump directs the energy secretary to get rid of or roll back “rules that limit water use” in toilets, tubs and washing machines. And “Congress sent to the White House, and Trump signed, laws repealing [the] Biden administration’s energy conservation standards for” fridges, freezers, water heaters and other appliances. This combo “is exactly what’s needed to trim back a federal government that has intruded too far into our choices and our homes.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board