NY Times columnist calls out failure of Obama, Biden administrations

New York Times opinion columnist Ezra Klein said Wednesday liberals need to get upset over the failed promises of the Biden and Obama presidencies.

Klein joined California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast where he talked about his new book with The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, “Abundance,” which examines why liberal government isn’t delivering and finds it’s often their own well-intentioned policies and regulations getting in the way. He said the Obama and Biden administrations suffered from this problem.

“So much of the political theory of the Biden administration was that if you can show liberal democracy can deliver, you will pull people out of wanting these strongmen who say they’re going to burn the whole thing down and give you something out of the ashes,” Klein said.

He gave the example of the Biden administration celebrating the $42 billion for rural broadband passed in the 2021 infrastructure bill. But with all the multi-stage processes and red-tape, “By the end of the administration, of the 56 states and jurisdictions that were trying to apply for the money, three had made it through.”

“If the things don’t move fast enough, if they don’t get to the people fast enough, it’s much harder for liberal democracy to make the case that it delivers,” he said.

Klein then recalled a conversation he had with former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau about California’s high-speed rail effort, which has been in the works for almost two decades with little progress.