OVER the next few weeks Americans will be living the dream of citizens everywhere. Coming their way in the post are cheques of up to $1,400 (£1,005) from the government. Free money, just like that.

Except, as we know, there is no such thing. Free cash is up there with magic money trees in economic fantasy land.

The $1.9 trillion – check out all those zeros – being spent on President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan will have to be repaid at some point, but that is a problem for another day.

When the new President made his first prime-time television address from the White House last week, he was a commander-in-chief talking to a country at war.

Not with a foreign foe but with a virus. He has battles galore against other blights of the age, chief among them poverty, racial inequality, and climate change. Not since the New Deal has so much responsibility weighed so heavily on the shoulders of one individual.

This is just the beginning. Besides the $1,400 direct payments there is help for businesses and schools, and more money on the way for health and infrastructure projects.

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Most newly elected leaders are judged on their first 100 days; Mr Biden has hit top speed half way through that period.

This is a President in a hurry, and it is not hard to see why. With more than half a million Americans lost to the pandemic so far, now is the time to spend money, and plenty of it, in getting vaccines into arms. On the success of that initiative everything else rests.

What was striking about the address was the unapologetic, even proud, way that Mr Biden spoke of the government’s central role in bringing about recovery. “We need to remember the government isn’t some foreign force in a distant capital. It’s us, all of us, ” was among the sentiments you could never imagine his predecessor uttering.

After a year of the pandemic, big government is beautiful again, borrowing and spending are popular once more.

A CNN poll last week put support for the stimulus plan at 61%. Other surveys show it has the backing of a majority of Republican voters (though not Republican politicians). A divided America, it seems, can unite around some things.

The virus has exposed right-wing, populist, non-interventionist “strong men” leaders for the clueless and dangerous individuals they are. It is just one of the many ways Covid has transformed politics and society across the world.

It should hardly surprise us that a centrist Democrat of Mr Biden’s vintage should be a fan of big government. Other converts are more of a revelation. Boris Johnson’s government is on course to borrow a record £355 billion this year. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has kept the furlough scheme going far longer, and at a more generous rate, than many expected.

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The party that believed so heartily in going it alone they took the country out of the EU, now wants to be known for throwing its arms round people in need.

No wonder Keir Starmer’s Labour is finding it difficult to cut through. Why vote Labour for more spending when the Tories, and the SNP in Scotland, are doing the job already?

Though Mr Sunak is keen to warn us that the spending taps will have to be turned off at some point and the debt addressed, there is no sign of any immediate rush to do so.

While some Conservatives are horrified at the levels of spending, others are growing accustomed to it. The Nasty Party, whisper it, rather enjoys being nice now and then.

Mr Johnson is even prepared to use the levers of government to bring about change in other policy areas, including saving the Union. The FT revealed at the weekend that 500 Cabinet Office staff would be migrating north from London to Glasgow in the next three years, a move likely to be trumpeted by Michael Gove when he visits Scotland this week.

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So, big government is back. In Scotland, of course, it never went away. But is it here to stay, or will the Covid-inspired converts rush back to their old, small government, tax-slashing ways as soon as the recovery is up and running?

That depends on how successful big government proves to be. If the recovery arrives as expected, big government will retain a good name. If the recovery stalls, or never arrives, there is likely to be a backlash the likes of which has not been seen since the late 1970s.

If that happens, populist politicians will come roaring back saying “we told you so”. It is not just Covid that can have second and third waves or generate unpleasant variants.

Which brings us to the man missing from Mr Biden’s address, the one about to return to the campaigning fray after spending more time with his golf clubs, the one who thought a tax cut for the richest was the best way to help the poor.

Though some in his party see big government, and higher public spending, as a way of bringing more blue collar voters on side, such stances will continue to be anathema to Mr Trump, and he won’t be slow in pointing out where Mr Biden goes wrong.

For now, the defeated party can only watch with the rest of us as countries across the world gamble big on governments saving the day.