How many of you saw/heard President Biden’s October 21st message that he delivered from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, either directly or in reasonable detail on the nightly news? If so, go to the head of the class and collect a “get out of jail” free card.
It was a comparison of both the Democratic and Republican plans for the future and of both parties’ contribution to the deficit and its increase and decrease. It’s of particular importance because it differentiates for the citizens of this county the clear choice we have in our next elections.
How many will know anything about it?
How many news outlets from print to media covered it in enough detail? I don’t know the answer to that, but would appreciate anyone reading this to let me know in a comment if they saw it adequately covered and where. THANK YOU! I strongly suspect they reported more on MAGA nonsense than these economic issues.
I am in northern Spain at the moment and was traveling by train on the 21st from Barcelona to Bilbao. However, I just read the transcript of the President’s message. Here it is if you haven’t heard/read it: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/10/21/remarks-by-president-biden-on-historic-deficit-reduction/
I don’t normally watch Fox Business News, but I went back to September 23 and Larry Kudlow’s program. Here is what he said: “Well, the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, has laid out a terrific new supply side economic growth plan that looks a lot like the basic thrust of Kevin McCarthy’s commitment to America plan.” https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6312775592112#sp=show-clips
He’s right, and we know what then happened to the British economic system quickly and also to Liz Truss! Is that REALLY what we want here. For the hundredth time: SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS DOESN’T WORK! It just makes the rich richer, the rest of us poorer, and raises the deficit. That’s been proven during the reign of Margaret Thatcher and now Liz Truss in Great Britain, and Ronald Reagan and Trump in the U.S.
Granted, the economy is much more complicated than that, but avoiding supply-side economics is one of the basics.
The President: “I ran for President to rebuild the backbone of the middle class…to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. Since I came to office, that’s what we’ve done: historic vaccination efforts that saved lives, helped our economy recover from the lost jobs during the pandemic; 10 million jobs created—a record for any administration at this point in a presidency; 3.5 percent unemployment a 50-year low; nearly 700,000 manufacturing jobs created with companies investing billions of dollars to build industries of the future here in America, proving that “Made in America” is no longer just a slogan.
We’re rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports. We’re delivering clean water, high-speed Internet to every American. And the price of gas at the pump is coming down….This record deficit reduction includes the cost of my student loan plan and everything else we’re paying for. The deficit is down $1.4 trillion this year, even after accounting for 30 years of debt relief paid in advance.
Republicans in Congress have a very different vision. [Obviously, considering Kudlow’s comments, among others.]
Congressional Republicans love to call Democrats “big spenders,” and they always claim to be for less federal spending. But let’s look at the facts.
The federal deficit went up every single year in the Trump administration, every single year he was President. It went up before the pandemic. It went up during the pandemic….And one big reason for that is Republicans voted for $2 trillion tax cut—a Trump tax cut—which overwhelmingly benefitted the wealthy and the biggest corporations. And that racked up the deficit…significantly.
If they get their way, the power we just gave Medicare to begin to negotiate lower prescriptions drugs goes away. Gone.
If they get their way, the $2,000 cap on prescription drug costs, which takes effect next year— maximum any senior would have to pay, no matter what their drug costs are, would be $2,000. It goes away. Gone.
The $35-a-month cap on insulin, which takes effect next year for folks on Medicare—gone.
The savings on healthcare premiums of $800 a year for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act—gone.
And of—and, of course, they’re still determined to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which means an end to the protections for tens of millions of people who cannot afford health insurance because they have a preexisting condition….
The Republican leadership in Congress has made it clear they will crash the economy next year by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States for the first time in our history, putting the United States in default unless we yield to their demand to cut Social Security and Medicare.”
Before I drop some documentation for the next bombshell, which I’m sure you’ve already heard, bear this in mind: THE DEBT CEILING ONLY APPLIES TO PAYING EXISTING BILLS OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH FUTURE DEBT! The Bloomberg Report Europe Edition ran this headline on October 16, 2022: Another Debt Crisis Is on the 2023 Republican Agenda.
They reported the following: “Using the debt ceiling as leverage to try and extract cuts to Medicare and Medicaid is exactly what House Republicans did in 2011….The most important issue in this campaign is the Republican plan to reduce spending on popular social programs and jeopardize the full faith and credit of the US government….Republicans have been somewhat circumspect about their plan, though it’s not exactly a secret. All four House Republicans seeking the top spot on the Budget Committee favor linking the debt ceiling to cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. ‘Our main focus has got to be on nondiscretionary—it’s got to be on entitlements,’ says Representative Buddy Carter, [R, GA].
‘Entitlements’ and ‘nondiscretionary’ are Congress-speak for programs whose eligibility and benefit rules are set by Congress rather than subject to the annual appropriations process. The largest such program is Social Security, followed by Medicare, followed by Medicaid. A few smaller programs, such as Affordable Care Act subsidies, food stamps, and most classes of farm aid and veterans’ benefits, also fall under the non-discretionary umbrella….Whatever happens, however, a Republican win is pretty much a guarantee of a political and economic crisis whose goal is to enact fiscal austerity.
In a sane world, that looming crisis—and the prospect of cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—would be dominating the political debate right now. Unfortunately, as has been clear for some time, sanity is in short supply in US politics.” https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-10-16/2022-campaign-another-debt-crisis-is-on-republican-agenda?leadSource=uverify%20wall
According to Politifact, Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan have exploded deficits, while Democrats have brought deficits down. Reagan sent the deficit from $70 billion to $175 billion. George H.W. Bush took it to $300 billion. Bill Clinton—with help from Bush’s willingness to raise taxes—got the deficit to zero. George W. Bush took it back up to $1.2 trillion with unfunded wars. Barack Obama cut that back to $600 billion. And Trump’s tax cuts sent it skyrocketing again, even before pandemic spending sent it higher still. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/republican-presidents-democrats-contribute-deficit/
Related posts in this blog:
GOP Cut, Cut, Cut, Under Trump
7/15/24 (Reposted), Impact of Trump’s 1917 budget cuts and implications for this 2024 election. The GOP tacked on an amendment on that bill that repeals the mandate to have health insurance from the ACA. The Congressional Budget Office (nonpartisan) estimates over 10 million Americans will be uninsured within 10 years. Healthcare costs skyrocket when citizens do not have adequate health insurance for a variety of reasons, so not only those 10 million, but most of the rest of us too will suffer financially from this.
7/18/24 (Reposted), Unemployment has remained below 4% for 22 months in a row for the first time since the late 1960s. That low unemployment has enabled labor to make significant gains, with unionized workers in the automobile industry, UPS, Hollywood, railroads, and service industries winning higher wages and other benefits. Real wages have risen faster than inflation, especially for those at the bottom of the economy, whose wages have risen by 4.5% after inflation between 2020 and 2023.
7/22/2024, 2023 economic data showing U.S. strong economy.
Well said, Doann, I wish the Dems would campaign on these issues much harder than they do.