Prickly City by Scott Stantis for March 19, 2021

I miss the good old days when you almost never heard the word “trillion”.

…and the deficit hawks come out right on cue, now that a Democrat is in the White House.

When I see the how a large segment of our population with children and grandchildren ignore or refuse to understand the consequences of decisions that effect the future of the economy and environment, I find myself saying things as Winslow does here. The thoughts have surfaced with actions taken by the right and left over the past 50 years.

[As the oldest of six who decided in agreement with the wife to be DINKs.]

Can’t be worse than the Voodoo Economics we’ve been using for the last 40 years.

Good point. Slash the defense budget and repeal the Trump/McConnell tax cuts.

Yep, and we need to be looking at the military spending, too.

Might I suggest you educate yourself beyond the kitchen table, which is very inadequate illustrative metaphor for an economy.

President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill may have helped avoid a second Great Depression, but it was a political fiasco.

As then-congressman Barney Frank liked to say: “Things Would’ve Sucked Even Worse Without Us” was an unappealing message for a Democratic bumper sticker.

Republicans relentlessly mocked the $800 billion stimulus as a wasteful porkfest, while Democrats tried fervently to change the subject.

Twelve years later, the politics of stimulus has flipped.

Democrats are relentlessly hyping President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, while Republicans are trying to change the subject to Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head and the Mexican border.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, arguably the shrewdest Republican strategist in Washington, has started floating a half-hearted anti-stimulus message that the coming recovery would have happened anyway.

“We are about to have a boom,” McConnell said last week after the Biden bill passed. “And if we do have a boom, it will have absolutely nothing to do with this $1.9 trillion.”

As a message, this amounts to “Things Would’ve Been Just As Great Without It”—an even less appealing bumper sticker than Barney Frank’s.

It may be an overstated political cliché that if you’re explaining, you’re losing.

But you’re almost certainly losing if you’re explaining, ahead of time, why the economic boom you’re expecting on your opponent’s watch shouldn’t be attributed to your opponent.

✁

“We’re going to see some fairly amazing economic numbers, and I imagine for the next few years, people will look around and say: ‘This is pretty darn good!’” says American Enterprise Institute fellow James Pethokoukis, a conservative economist who believes the Biden stimulus is somewhat excessive. “I’m sure Republicans will try to spin this, and I have long-term concerns myself, but ✁ ✁ ✁

~

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/the-nightmare-politics-of-fighting-the-recovery-bill-476830

GQP: “I LOVE MY COUNTRY, but I don’t want to improve the infrastructure, consider education, healthcare, or the environment as infrastructure, modernize the economy, believe in science, or make multinational entities/individuals pay taxes and stop paying politicians”

since money is all smoke and mirrors – everyone just agrees to forgive all covid related expenses and start fresh

If you want to reduce or eliminate deficits elect Democrats, if you don’t care about deficits and you want billionaires to have more money hoping they will share their largesse with the lesser beings vote Republican. Check out the last 40 years of history.

You should be calling Reaganomics by its real name, Carmen.

“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” – Dick Cheney

Lying cheating racist election rigging Republicans make American politics sick.

the so-called “infrastructure” bill will be a lessen in pork barrel spending. . .a real pork feast

what they should actually do is ban city/state funding of pork barrel crap. . .especially pro sport stadiums

The Republicans are the ones who like to overspend during good times to help corporations. Traditionally, the Democrats spend heavily during troubled times to help the people. It’s cyclical.

Brings to mind the Republican approach to climate change, and tax cuts for the 1%.

Carmen, may I direct your attention to “The Deficit Myth” by Stephanie Kelton.

https://www.amazon.com/SUMMARY-Deficit-Myth-Stephanie-Kelton-ebook/dp/B08LNQ32Q5/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3PJM2S6980GK9&dchild=1&keywords=deficit+myth&qid=1616175106&sprefix=deficit%2Caps%2C207&sr=8-2

Neither major political party is innocent in this. Both of them pile on the debt. Republicans claim that the economy will boom if we follow their policies and that will pay off the debt (despite that not being the case when tried) – AND for that to work we need to collect more taxes, which the Republicans do not want to do…

Must have a democratic president now. Noticed no mention of a deficit during Trump administration.

Republicans say they want to run the country as a business, but they don’t see the value in increasing revenue. They just want to cut taxes.

We could have the revenue to balance the budget by raising taxes on the wealthy and stop giving tax breaks to corporations. This isn’t about placing the burden on the middle class, but the wealthy who like to hide their wealth in tax shelters and off-shore bank accounts.

Restore funding to the IRS to go after millionaires who don’t pay their taxes and the deficit goes down. The rest of us will keep working and pay our taxes. New additions to the workforce will pay their taxes. Immigrants, illegal or otherwise will pay their taxes. Why does Stantis assume the deficit will not be paid down during his lifetime?

I love it when a non-economists comment on economics as they always get it wrong.