Here is a struggle that should concentrate the mind and energy of the coalition – including the left – that elected Biden-Harris. The passage of this budget plan was a first step in an effort to restructure the role of the federal government and set into motion a new form of people’s governance. Next comes the budget reconciliation process in which each item and the price tag attached to it will be contested and voted on.

This struggle shouldn’t be confined to the corridors of Congress. Tens of millions should be informed of what is at stake and encouraged to take part in this great policy debate. Republicans and their media network will surely spread distortions and lies about what is at stake. Our side should counter their lies as well as spell out the significance of this battle – its meaning to those who’ve been left out, discriminated against, ignored, slandered, abused, and exploited.

After all, the outcome of this struggle will go a long way in either beginning the burial of Reaganism, Trumpism, and neoliberalism or setting the country on a new path in which people and nature are the overarching priorities of government and society.