Europe should be wary of Biden’s cuddly capitalism

Judging by the European press’ reaction to his address to Congress this week, US president Joe Biden’s domestic agenda is popular outside of the United States as well. 

‘In the choice between going big and going bipartisan, big is winning, remaking America with government at the centre,’ the Guardian writes approvingly. Biden embarks on ‘a historic battle against inequality,’ a Le Monde headline announces. ‘America’s democracy can no longer endure the growing gap in income and education, so Biden has to fight for the middle,’ the Süddeutsche Zeitung piles on.

Notwithstanding the president’s unassuming demeanour, there can be no question about the his ambitions. After the sizeable Covid-19 relief package, worth $1.9 trillion (£1.4 trillion), and a $2.3 trillion (£1.65 trillion) infrastructure bill, the administration is proposing over $1 trillion (£700bn) in new spending and $800bn (£570bn) in tax credits to make America’s capitalism more palatable to those who see Western European social democracy as an ideal worth aspiring to. 

Biden wants to see universal free preschool for all three- and four-year-olds, at a price tag of $200bn (£140bn), a nationally mandated 12 weeks of paid parental, family, and sick leave (projected to cost $225bn (£160bn) over ten years) and two years of free community college for young adults (£78bn).