Key Insights:

* Yes, Americans are now in a selfish defensive crouch, but just wait 8 years—if we get a high-pressure economy for those years…

* We are finally getting back to normal politics, in which we slag each other because some claim we can afford to spend $3.5 and others that we can only afford to spend $1.5 trillion. And that is a very good sign…

* Hexapodia!

References:

* Zach Carter: Why Are Moderates Trying to Blow Up Biden’s Centrist Economic Plan? <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/opinion/biden-moderate-democrats.html>

* Jonathan Cohn: Why Manchin & Democratic Leaders Might Not Be Quite So Far Apart: <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manchin-build-back-better-tax-credits-prescription-drugs_n_6158c67ae4b099230d240578>

* Todd Gitlin: Look What’s Inside The Bill, Please: the Details of the $3.5 Trillion Package <https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-big-bills-huge-consequences-20211005>

* Robert Greenstein: Budget Rconciliation: Calling It a ‘$3.5 Trillion Spending Bill’ Isn’t Quite Right <https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/570487-budget-reconciliation-calling-it-a-35-trillion-spending-bill-isnt-quite>

* Steven M. Teles, Samuel Hammond, & Daniel Takash: Cost-Disease Socialism <https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Cost-Disease-Socialism.pdf>

* David Cay Johnston: How $3 a Day Can Buy America a Rich Future <https://www.dcreport.org/2021/09/21/how-3-a-day-can-buy-america-a-rich-future/>

* Robert Kuttner: How the Budget Deal Could Make the Child Tax Credit Permanent <https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/how-the-budget-deal-could-make-the-child-tax-credit-permanent/>

* Adam Jentleson: ‘Sinema’s approval rating has tanked, going from net +13 to 0 since the beginning of the year. But surely someone will be along soon to explain how actually this is brilliant politics…

* Jeet Heer: Dune Bugs

+, of course:

* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep <https://books.google.com/books?id=fCCWWgZ7d6UC>

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