Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

Oh, Jesus H. Christ!

And Trump's role in it MUST be dealt with...or America goes down the drain.

Americans are paying more for pretty much everything and Joe Biden is under serious pressure to do something about it.

Letter to the editor:

Tax cuts have boosted inflation

By Ron Mitchell, Henderson
Friday, Dec. 3, 2021 | 2 a.m.

Inflation is nearing 6% this year and people are worried that it may continue to go up, returning us to the bad old days of double-digit inflation like we had in the 1970s and ’80s.

There are multiple causes. Republicans trying to blame President Joe Biden for this inflation point to the American Rescue Plan from this spring and the infrastructure plan that recently passed (and hasn’t yet put one penny into the economy). What they refuse to admit is that much of this inflation is the result of their tax cuts for wealthy Americans that has put $250 billion per year of stimulus money into our economy each year since 2018.

Economists of all stripes warned that putting that much stimulus into an already-growing economy was a mistake that would cause inflation to rise. Republicans were OK with inflation caused by tax cuts for the wealthy, but when the middle class shows up for the party looking for more jobs and higher wages, they decide it is time to take the punch bowl away.

If Republicans are serious about reducing the inflationary effects of stimulus spending, they could simply end former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy.

This Is Trump Inflation, And Here Is Why
October 19, 2021

The inflation we are experiencing is a result of failed Trump policies including, but not limited to:

1. Holding interest rates at near-zero for four years, which simultaneously and artificially held the bulging inflation dam from breaking and flooding during his administration, and broke the only lever that the new administration could use to end inflation!

2. Tariffs! Trump tariffs caused massive rises in prices on incoming goods and increased the prices on domestic-made goods because of the increased prices on incoming inputs. The pandemic masked much of what was going on related to prices for over a year.

3. The cost of labor has increased here due to:

a. Trump’s slow reaction to Covid 19, leaving almost a million dead and at least another million hospitalized and unable to work, and many unwilling to return to low paying inflation eaten jobs.

b. The great resignation for which Trump covid policy is responsible is causing early retirement at a near exponential rate. This and the other factors combine to decrease the labor force, thereby increasing labor costs, and as a result, product and services costs.

c. Trump immigration policy. It is sad to lose so many workers and suffer inflationary pressure while there are millions of job seeking individuals stuck behind Trump immigration policy lunacy! We have the answer to the labor shortage and are ignoring it in droves!

New Air Force One will not feature Trump's paint scheme, administration official says
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/politics/air-force-one-paint-job-scrapped/index.html

Inflation is a global problem.

that's the job of the Federal Reserve

Quote:

Inflation is a global problem.

That's possibly the most inane and nonsensical comment I've read this calendar year.

]

That's possibly the most inane and nonsensical comment I've read this calendar year.

Every administration has its ups and downs; today I examine why the Biden White House is taking more than its fair share of hits.

Biden’s been a good president, but Republicans want to impeach him and some Democrats want to replace him.

A Steady Hand

Any evaluation of a president’s performance usually begins with a soul-baring about whether the writer voted for or against the incumbent. I voted for Joe Biden, and I like him.

I am not, however, a partisan Democrat, and I was never a member of the Democratic Party. (My parents were typical Depression-era, blue-collar Democrats turned post-1968 Republicans.) In college, I became a New England moderate-conservative Republican, but I worked for a centrist Democrat on Beacon Hill and for a moderate Republican, the late John Heinz, in the Senate. And so I always kind of liked Biden as someone to whom I could relate: a working-class centrist who spoke his mind, even when his thoughts were garbled or when he seemed comically full of himself.

The Joe Biden who ran in 2020 appeared wiser, sadder, somewhat deflated, and seemed to be taking on the presidency as a public service and a burden. Time and tragedy had tempered Biden, and I liked him even more than I did in his flashier, Jason Sudeikis–like youth. These days, I think he’s done a pretty good job, especially given the fact that he’s dealing with a pandemic, revelations about an attempted American coup d’état, and an economic slowdown over which he had no control.

Oh, and by the way: He’s also managed (so far) to head off World War III and a possible nuclear conflict. We seem to forget that this is Job One for every American president, but while we’re griping about the gas prices (over which Biden also has no control), the Russians are replaying the Eastern Front against 40 million Ukrainians and also threatening NATO. It’s been reassuring to have a steady hand in charge of our foreign policy.

So why can’t the president catch a break? The public blames him for almost everything, and his approval ratings are cratering. What’s going on here?

Forget about the Republicans; controlled by their wackiest members (I would say “the fringe,” but they are now “the base”), they have fallen into a vortex of nihilism and desperation. They’re almost a lock to win the House in 2022, but they’re not sure why they want it, other than to protect themselves both from having to live among their own constituents and the slow but steady approach of justice for GOP involvement in January 6.

As USA Today columnist Jill Lawrence pointed out this morning, the Republicans are determined to impeach Biden because they have no other play—even if it’s not what voters want. It’s what enough of their voters want, and it will make sufficient noise to cover their lack of a plan to govern the country.

One might have hoped, however—and by one, I mean “me”—that the Democrats would hold their fire and stop their whispering about what happens if Biden steps down, or even dies. And if Biden does hold on—well, there are some prominent young Democrats who haven’t decided if they’re going to support him. (And by young Democrats, I mean “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”)

My suspicion is that the full weight of our foreign and domestic crises has not broken through the self-absorption and solipsism of not only our political parties but the American public. We are just not capable of understanding that at home, we are inches away from the meltdown of our constitutional system of government, and abroad, we are one errant cruise missile away from a nuclear crisis.

But this is all the president’s fault because Joe Biden is old and talks like … well, like Joe Biden.

This is part of a more general problem in American politics: We have come to regard the presidency as a temporary appointment to Superman, and the White House as a gleaming Fortress of Solitude full of potential miracles. In doing so, we let ourselves off the hook for any responsibility either for our own actions as voters, or for any requirement to face our problems together with resilience and understanding.