American Politics Discussion Thread

[darrelljs]

  That said, spending less is a pretty good way to reduce inflation .

Darrell

Sounds a bit simplistic.

I didn't say it was the ONLY way.

The current inflation isn't necessarily happening because the US government is splurging on unnecessary items, but is primarily caused by a major rise in gas/energy prices.

Now who's being simplistic .  There are a lot of reasons for inflation.  Energy is one.  Lots of free cash injected into the economy (directly via pandemic payouts or indirectly via cheap credit).  The supply chain crunch from all the shutdowns (which I live on a daily basis).  Labor shortage leading to rising wages.  I see no leadership from Biden here because tackling it conflicts with his agenda.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Inflation is bad for the average citizen, and fixing inflation is bad for the average citizen.

Quoted for truth.

Crime wave is a fabrication as much as the Immigrant Caravans are. Republican propaganda is effective. Their voters are detached from reality.

I go to Chicago for work one week a month, always downtown. I promise you the crime is significantly worse than it was before the pandemic. In addition to all the statistical evidence, I have personally witnessed a shooting, a restaurant being robbed, and a tasering of a person chasing people around with a rusty hacksaw. In the loop mind you.

Darrell

[Mjmd]

The infrastructure act addressed port facilities, it just isn't instant shockingly. Green energy investments will help with energy prices long term, again not instant. The direct payouts are a laughably small amount and more efficient than quantitative easing at preventing recession. I'm actually really worried we are never going to do this kind of thing again because its so much more effective.

I'm not sure what besides taking the Canadian approach and upping immigration is going to dent labor shortage and we know where Republicans stand on that.

[darrelljs]

The direct payouts are a laughably small amount

From April 2020 to December 2021, the federal government made direct payments to individuals totaling $931 billion to address pandemic-related financial stress.

[Mjmd]

Does that include the PPP loans, because that program was laughable corrupt? Also, I'm comparing it to $9 TRILLION in quantitative easing. Edit: let alone the fact we hadn't raised interest rates in forever.

[Mjmd]

My overall point is people try to put all the blame for inflation on the individual payments and for some reason ignore everything else and forget what the individual payments helped us avoid, IE a recession.

[Jowy]

Inflation is bad for the average citizen, and fixing inflation is bad for the average citizen.

Quoted for truth.

Crime wave is a fabrication as much as the Immigrant Caravans are. Republican propaganda is effective. Their voters are detached from reality.

I go to Chicago for work one week a month, always downtown.  I promise you the crime is significantly worse than it was before the pandemic.  In addition to all the statistical evidence, I have personally witnessed a shooting, a restaurant being robbed, and a tasering of a person chasing people around with a rusty hacksaw.  In the loop mind you.

Darrell

Source FBI, who in turn received the statistics from the police.

https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-conten...k-46-3.pdf

In Chicago specifically the crime rate was on a downward trend until 2022, when it looks like theft exploded. Shooting incidents, murders and aggravated batteries went down from 2021 to 2022. I'd imagine the theft increase was caused by the tough economic conditions of the poor people in the city slums. If that is the cause, Republicans surely aren't going to fix it. Anyway I'm not saying there can't be areas where crime has increased, but in general crime has constantly been going down and there is no "crime wave". It's just good propaganda to attack the Democrats with. Normal people aren't going to look up stats. At best they have anecdotal evidence like your experiences that then makes them believe the faked claims.

[Jowy]

My overall point is people try to put all the blame for inflation on the individual payments and for some reason ignore everything else and forget what the individual payments helped us avoid, IE a recession.

That is capitalism. It is right for companies to suck on the government teat, but the government isn't supposed to help the workers in any way or it's socialism (which is bad!). This happens because the companies control the government, both parties.

[Gustaran]

My overall point is people try to put all the blame for inflation on the individual payments and for some reason ignore everything else and forget what the individual payments helped us avoid, IE a recession.

Spot on. Letting businesses go bankrupt in a pandemic does more damage to the economy than providing support. In addition, you can't enact social distancing and lockdown rules which cause many businesses to close down and people to lose their paycheck and not follow up with financial support. What do you think will happen if people run out of money to pay their bills and put food on the table because they aren't allowed to go to work?

In addition it's quite funny how Republicans are always quick to point out the irresponsible spending by Democrats, but as soon as they are in power they force through huge tax cuts (Trump's had an estimated cost of 2.3 trillion). These mainly benefit big businesses and rich people, may even run out for the average citizen after a few years and include a lukewarm promise of "they will somehow pay for themselves", which they usually don't.  The result of such a strategy was quite evident in Kansas:

State Senator Jim Denning warned “It was supposed to increase the GDP, and it didn't. The feds will have that same problem,”[80] a sentiment repeated by William G. Gale of the Brookings Institution, who stated that one of the most important implications of the Kansas experiment for federal tax reform is "not to expect tax cuts to boost the economy much, if at all.

[darrelljs]

I’m going to need to stop posting in this thread for a while, before I become the new T-Hawk .

Darrell