The PBO calls out pandemic spending Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. With much of the world focused squarely on several American states preoccupied with a few hundred thousand mail-in ballots that could make the difference in a stressful, drawn-out presidential race, well, fewer eyes are on the politicians doing the governing north of the border. So right off the top, let's mention the latest report from Yves Giroux, the parliamentary budget officer, whose team cast a critical eye on the Liberals' latest spending estimates that require a vote in the Commons. Giroux's report politely takes a strip off the lack of federal transparency attached to billions in pandemic spending. "While the sum of these measures is significant, the amount of information that is publicly available to track this spending is lacking," said the PBO, adding that Finance officials briefed MPs on a bi-weekly basis until prorogation—but have since stopped. More criticism: "There is also no consistency to which organizations publicly report on the implementation of these measures." An exhaustive fiscal summary hasn't been updated in months. And there's still no date for a fall fiscal update and no public mandate letter for FinMin Chrystia Freeland. Speaking of transparency and accountability, Conservative operative Stephen Taylor noted that the very last crop of Harper-era political staffers were now free of the five-year lobbying ban enacted by the Harper government's Federal Accountability Act back in the halcyon days of 2006. Wealth tax: The NDP's next parliamentary priority hopes to soak the rich, whose incomes have, the party claims, soared during the pandemic. Finance critic Peter Julian will table an opposition motion (read it here) that asks the House to endorse "a new one per cent tax on wealth over $20 million and an excess profit tax on big corporations that have been profiteering from the pandemic." New Dems attached strings to the new revenue for federal coffers, which the party says could fund a universal basic income, a national pharmacare program and a "for Indigenous, by Indigenous" national housing strategy. If you missed Maclean's Live with Paul Wells last night, it's not too late to catch up on the conversation with Green Party leader Annamie Paul. Watch a full replay. Meanwhile, south of the border, votes continue to be counted. And counted. And counted. Welcome to the new America: Adnan R. Khan, a Maclean's contributing editor who lives in the U.S. and has spent months learning about the country's myriad nooks and crannies, assessed the state of the world's oldest democracy no matter the outcome. Based on any reasonable assessment of the current state of play in America, in terms of both domestic and foreign policy, there is no way Donald Trump should have done as well as he has. The polls told us otherwise, the pundits presaged a Blue Wave; even common sense, that visceral inkling in millions of bellies around the world, seemed to say, ‘No way; he doesn’t stand a chance.’ But in this topsy-turvy moment, what is common is uncommon. Sense is increasingly dismissed as nonsense. This is Trump’s greatest triumph. What the election means for America—and the world: Scott Gilmore writes that even if Biden prevails, international allies won't immediately treat the last four years as an aberration. And at home, the success and pervasiveness of the Republican style of politicking will look a lot more attractive to many Democrats who so far refused to campaign in the same way: Democrats will continue to lose faith in the democratic system they have long championed in the face of Republican rule-breaking and Supreme Court packing. To paraphrase the recently departed Sean Connery, the Dems will decide you don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Expect even mainstream Democrats to argue it is time to adopt the Republican playbook, even if it is anti-democratic, norm-breaking, and patently unfair. For better or for worse, the underhanded tactics so successfully deployed by Roger Cohn, Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump will be embraced by the left. While this may help the Dems in the short term, the health of American democracy will suffer badly as a result. The brick-wall Senate: Even if Biden moves into the White house, his fellow Democrats failed to retake control of the Senate. As Jason Markusoff writes, an obstructionist chamber would wield a lot of power—same as it did the last time the Blue team ran the oval office. If a prospective President Biden is to get legislation passed, almost everything will have to go through Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the wily, oft-smirking Kentucky politician who proved a masterful thwarter of Barack Obama’s agenda and ready enabler of much of Trump’s. Biden may not face total gridlock, but liberal hopes for major progress on climate action, health care and more will be dashed for at least another two years, when the next one-third batch of Senate seats go up for election. Joe Biden and the lure of gridlock: If Biden finds a path to victory, writes Paul Wells, suddenly a series of stock market gains yesterday start to make sense. Gridlock in Washington is great news for those folks who rallied on Wall Street. The New York Times reports that “drug companies, health insurers and giant technology firms” were among the biggest beneficiaries of a rally on the S&P 500. Why? Because they’ve tended to benefit from a federal government that can’t actually do anything. And since the other main feature of Tuesday’s U.S. elections is that the Republicans seem likely to hold the Senate, Biden policies that would specifically make life difficult for drug companies, health insurers and giant technology firms are likely to get nowhere. This is excellent news if you think the biggest problem in the United States is insufficient corporate profit, and less fantastic news if you are preoccupied with pretty much any other problem in the United States. Our election-night liveblog now enters its third day, and your newsletter correspondent continues to operate the Maclean's Border County Decision Desk 2020. So watch for final results from the borderlands as soon as they're made public. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
