It’s going to be a miracle if the Republicans avoid getting slaughtered at the polls in November. Beyond the problems the president is creating for them, they’re absolutely hopeless at legislating. Consider this:
Government aid has dramatically propped up the economy during the current contraction, according to government data. From April to June, the federal government pumped about $1.2 trillion into the economy. Unless Congress renews programs currently set to expire, that number will plummet to about $200 billion from July to September, a $1 trillion decline in federal stimulus, according to Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JP Morgan.
In April, American workers’ pay fell by 7 percent, the federal government reported Friday. Federal support made up the difference. When including government aid, Americans’ personal income jumped by 10.5 percent, a record increase. Without the government support, Americans would have seen a major contraction in their incomes at a time when the pandemic is already causing consumers to constrict their spending.
The Republicans are so incensed that workers actually saw an average increase in pay after they provided stimulus that they don’t intend to renew anything other than the program aimed at saving small businesses. That means they’ll let everything else lapse. No more checks. No boost in unemployment benefits. And certainly no rush:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that lawmakers would wait about a month before making a decision on going forward with a broader relief package, though he said Monday that the small-business aid would proceed very soon.
This strikes me a suicidal politics, and I’d applaud their self-destruction if it were not also destructive to so many people’s lives.
Having government do good means St. Reagan was wrong, and that “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” is not, in fact, the curse they want it to be. So of course they won’t have the government do anything good during a time of crisis.
I agree, their ideology is blinding them to how awful the optics of not continuing aid is when the first round did so much good. They don’t care since they’re all at least millionaires. But the local chambers of commerce sure will notice their members losing income when people stop spending on big-boy/girl toys like motorcycles and putting off house upgrades like that new deck or kitchen. Tax cuts don’t mean anything when there’s no income to tax.
To paraphrase something I first heard from you, and maybe only ever from you, “They are voluntarily walking right into the threshing blades”. This time, I think you might be right. Watching every one of those Senators walk by the cameras today and pretty much say, “Fuck you, no comment” to the questions about the St. John Church/Trump photo-op catastrophe is the tell. These people are going down with the ship. Loyal, but very stupid, lemmings.
It’s crazy. In the midst of the turmoil of the pandemic and Floyd’s murder we don’t need this silliness. Most of us know the minimum wage needs to be raised significantly and soon. Income inequality and poverty are both sides of that coin. One wonders how much of the looting is a reflection of that reality. And it makes no difference to the federal government since it owns the money lock, stock and barrel. And the government’s money will be needed for so much more for things like climate chance, M4A,. education, and Lord Governor, for infrastructure, lots of it. Fuck the deficit: it is meaningless just now.
They’re in a really untenable position — tea party fanatics on one side and sanity on the other. They’re lucky it hasn’t bitten them earlier. Sooner or later they’re gonna get their comeuppance. I’m hoping and praying it happens this — IN A REALLY BIG WAY. There certainly were never a more deserving bunch of bastards.
I don’t have a degree in economics, or any real education in the subject, but why couldn’t states (eg, California, with a large economy now badly hurt by lack of ready cash to finance public services) issue scrip, use it to pay state employees and state-financed subsidies, mandate that it be accepted as payment for all state services and acceptable as legal tender in any business that chooses to accept it. In short, issue their own currency. Is there a law against such a move? Would state bond ratings crater? If the issue is to get money in people’s hands and get them to buy things, but the federal govt. is hamstrung and won’t increase the money supply, and the hoards of cash in corporate and private vaults won’t be circulated in the economy, why couldn’t this be a stopgap measure? This country generates vast wealth, but the problem seems to be that tax policy and the tendency of billionaires to hide their billions under the bed is preventing the wealth from circulating to create more wealth.
Daft. They are thinking “Hey you look great, why are you on a diet?” They don’t get to “Doh” fast enough either. Renewing the program aimed at saving small businesses is pointless if people can’t afford a hair cut. Things are going okay now because of, and only because of, the relief package. Just as things are going well enough with the virus because of the all the shutting down and staying home and wearing of masks. That it has calmed down does not mean those actions were unwarranted; to the contrary, they are exactly why things calmed down. And your friend looks great because they are on a diet. Doh.
Every Republican defeat for the last thirty-some years has had the pundits and their fans saying that finally the GOP would come to its senses and moderate itself. Instead the GOP has moved relentlessly to the right. Is there any reason to think the same would not transpire if the GOP is badly defeated in November?
Yes, because a growing contingent of the GOP or what used to be the GOP has had it with Trump, epitomized by the Lincoln Project, suburban Republicans, et al. So if the Republicans get drubbed in November, the smouldering mess that remains will have to duke it out with these people. If the Trumpists still cannot be dislodged from control of the GOP, they will move even further to the right. But the further to the right they move, the fewer elections they will win, they will cease being a national party, and the Never Trumpers will become the new “GOP.”