The government backed the loans that gave your dad boilers to clean in Wilmington. It built the highways that expanded demand for the cars he sold. I’m happy the government did more than merely understand his problems. The rest of us want more than mere understanding, too. https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1335346208106291206

Your potential power, @JoeBiden, lies in using folksiness and dad stories and charm to make real relief for families sound less scary to Americans than such things often do.

It would be a tragedy if you instead used those talents to make austerity sound appetizing.

The language of “handouts” is so fraught and loaded, so frequently used to denigrate people who just expect the same supports as everyone else. When the state spends on some, we call it investment. On others, we call it handouts. We can and we must do better than this.