Professional Documents
Culture Documents
20210323纽约时报
20210323纽约时报
收件⼈:我<lucialuuu@163.com>
时 间 :2021-03-23 18:37
By David Leonhardt
For the past few decades, new presidents have focused on two issues above
all others: taxes and health care. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both
made expanding access to health insurance their top long-term priority,
with Clinton failing and Obama succeeding. George W. Bush focused on
cutting taxes, and Donald Trump tried to cut taxes and repeal Obamacare.
His advisers are preparing a set of proposals intended to reshape the U.S.
economy and other parts of American life. If they pass, they will almost
certainly have a more lasting effect on people’s lives than the virus-relief
bill that Biden signed two weeks ago. And while the proposals include
measures on health care and taxes, they are broader — more diffuse, a
critic might say — than the top priorities of other recent presidents.
During last year’s campaign, Biden described the package with the phrase
“build back better.” It is an attempt to create a more prosperous, equal and
sustainable economy. It’s the Democratic Party’s answer to decades of
rising inequality and growing damage from climate change.
An electric vehicle charging station in Baker, Calif. Philip Cheung for The New York
Times
Child payments and paid leave. The virus-relief bill included a few
large items to help middle-class and poor families — but they all expire in
the next year or so. This new package would extend a monthly child
payment that starts at $250 per child for most families, as well as a big
expansion of paid family leave. These provision would significantly reduce
both economic and racial inequalities.
The plan does not appear to include another idea Biden has said he favors
— expanding access to government insurance plans, through a public
option or allowing younger people to buy into Medicare.
Paying for it
Lower prescription-drug costs would cover some of the package’s $3
trillion to $4 trillion in new spending over 10 years. But a bigger source of
money would be higher taxes on the affluent — people making at least
$400,000 a year — and on corporations.
Republicans are unlikely to support any such tax increases, which means
Democrats would need to pass major parts of the package through a
Senate mechanism known as reconciliation. Bills that go through
reconciliation need only 51 votes in the Senate, rather than 60, to pass.
What’s next: Biden’s advisers are leaning toward splitting the package
into two different bills, partly in the hope of securing Republican support
for some of them.
The Virus
Poorer countries could wait years for vaccines. That’s bad for
everyone.
Some people who recovered from Covid say their sense of smell
remains distorted.
Colorado Shooting
The scene after a gunman attacked a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., yesterday. Chet
Strange/Getty Images
“We ducked and I just started counting in between shots, and by the
fourth shot I told my son, ‘We have to run,’” one customer said.
Politics
The U.S., Canada, Britain and the E.U. placed economic sanctions
on top Chinese officials over their role in human rights abuses
against Uyghurs.
Senator Elizabeth Warren didn’t get a cabinet job, but she still
wields influence in Washington.
A demonstration outside Parliament in London last week. Mary Turner for The New York
Times
The U.S. Supreme Court will review a case considering the death
penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon
bombers.
Opinions
Morning Reads
Ancient: The oldest wooden sculpture is 12,500 years old. It’s teaching us
about prehistory.
Lives Lived: Elgin Baylor played above the rim in a Hall of Fame career
with the Lakers. His acrobatic brilliance foreshadowed the freewheeling
shows put on by future N.B.A. stars. Baylor died at 86.
Mireille Lee, 15, left, and her sister Elodie, 13, started the TikTok account
@alifeofliterature in February. Peter Flude for The New York Times
Welcome to BookTok
TikTok’s influence is selling thousands of books. Some enthusiastic
readers — mostly women in their teens and 20s — are posting videos of
themselves reading or recommending novels. Occasionally, they sob into
the camera after a particularly devastating ending.
“It becomes this very emotional 45-second video that people immediately
connect with,” the director of books at Barnes & Noble told The Times.
“We haven’t seen these types of crazy sales — I mean tens of thousands of
copies a month — with other social media formats.”
One example: “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller. Sales spiked after
a popular TikTok video last year, and the book is now selling roughly nine
times as many copies a week as it was in 2012, when it won a prestigious
fiction award. The book is currently third on the New York Times best-
seller list for paperback fiction.
Seeing the potential, some publishers have begun paying — or sending free
books to — users with large followings. The fees range from a few hundred
to a few thousand dollars per post. For now, though, the majority of these
videos remain unsponsored, happening organically.
What to Cook
Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen.
Crunchy tofu coated in panko and sesame seeds pairs nicely with a
coconut-lime dressing.
What to Listen to
Lana Del Rey’s sixth major-label album, “Chemtrails Over the Country
Club,” finds the singer “scaling back, seeking more insular insight,”
Lindsay Zoladz writes in a review.
Virtual Travel
See the Meroe pyramids — around 200 in total, many of them in ruins —
in Sudan.
Late Night
The hosts talked about spring breakers in Miami.
The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was intimacy. Here is today’s
puzzle — or you can play online.
Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Bad inventions? (four letters).
If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here.
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See
you tomorrow. — David
P.S. The Times’s newest class of fellows hails from 17 states and Puerto
Rico, as well as Britain and Vietnam. One of them has a Ph.D. in physics.
Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about a food critic who lost her sense of
smell. On the latest “Sway,” the artist Beeple — discusses NFTs.
C
o us for assistance.
Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact
The Morning Briefing newsletter is now The Morning n
newsletter. You received this email because you
signed up for the newsletter from The New York Times,
t or as part of your New York Times account.
To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.
The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018