A Modest Proposal

In Andrew Cockburn’s recent essay [“Hard Times,” Letter from Washington, February], I was quoted as calling for a New Deal 2.0. I would like to elaborate here on what I meant, and the mechanism by which we might pay for it.

Our pandemic-hobbled economy has been propped up by minimal payments to struggling Americans and maximal funds for Wall Street, amounting to a massive wealth redistribution that will only fuel the politics of alienation and resentment. A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office indicates a broader economic recovery may take four years. Fiscal…