While Cooling Slightly, Inflation Remains Stubbornly High

[Larniavc]

You're actually defending tax increases? Yes, let's add to the burden of families who are already struggling with inflation and high gas prices and can barely afford to pay their bills.

Higher taxes for the rich, lower for the people living pay cheque to pay cheque?

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

The Biden administration is more in line with the Chinese Communist Party than the Republican Party, although the Republican Party does have some RINOS. If you want to live in a nation with high inflation, a high crime rate, increasing lawlessness, homelessness, sexual perversion and a wide open border (and you call that freedom?) then keep voting Democrat. This goes beyond logic, reason and common sense. This is a spiritual battle for the souls of men and the heart and soul of America.

Are you willing to give up your ability to pick your leaders to avoid those? That was the deal Trump’s supporters attempted to force on all of us. They were trying to overthrow our vote for who We the People wanted to be president. That attitude has no place in this country and people who attempted to invalidate our votes as Americans need to be punished. We the People picking our leaders and the peaceful transfer of power is the heart and soul of this country and Trump and his supporters attempted to kill it on January 6.

At least now, we can decide to elect someone new and change course. If Trump and his supporters had succeeded and we end up with all of the things you mentioned, we would be stuck with no way to change course.

 

[rocknanchor]

the president fired up the crowd

people are so quick to buy into the leftist narrative and fail to see the big picture

While some feel this has strayed off topic, misinformation lay at the foot of this contention of all left-vs-right perspectives. And its a shame to trample the intents of those who sacrifice, even highly decorated special ops servicemen present on J6 to testify,

"IT WAS A COMPLETE SET-UP!"​

Again, eyewitnesses.

 

[disciple Clint]

I remember Trump throwing a hussy fit when he lost and his supporters doing a putsch to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power. That was a direct threat to our country. I value this country and the freedoms it provides more than gold and silver. Maybe some people are willing to live under a dictatorship for a little fatter wallet but I’m not.

I would call that selective memory.

 

[disciple Clint]

I remember Trump maintaining a bunch of economic trends that been going on for years under Obama. Then covid and its ensuing economic fallout happened, under Trump, with a good chunk of the recovery happening under Biden.

Do you remember something different?

Yes I remember Covid causing that fallout, do you?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Yes I remember Covid causing that fallout, do you?

But you don’t remember inflation being triggered by the covid fallout?

 

[disciple Clint]

But you don’t remember inflation being triggered by the covid fallout?

Inflation is Biden’s fault, and only Biden’s fault

President Joe Biden has been sleeping too long on America’s ailing inflation woes — while his lefty energy policies handcuff oil producers and tax Americans at the pump.

nypost.com

 

[iluvatar5150]

Inflation is Biden’s fault, and only Biden’s fault

President Joe Biden has been sleeping too long on America’s ailing inflation woes — while his lefty energy policies handcuff oil producers and tax Americans at the pump.

nypost.com

Does the NY Post have any columnists who aren’t disingenuous buffoons? Do you read this and think, “Oh yeah, this guy has it right?” Because:

That is, unless Sleepy Joe has an awakening and reverses his bizarre energy policies that made America dependent on despots from Russia to Venezuela.

Renewables allow us to not be dependent on anybody, but who’s been stiff-arming those for the last 30+ years?

Also, oil and gas prices are about back to where they were in 2021.

Inflation is theft. It siphons money particularly from poor, working and middle-class Americans.

Oh boy, if anybody needed a clue as to the intellectual rigor that went into this piece, here you go. What would life be like for the poor and middle class in a deflationary economy?

But Joe Biden fueled it with absurd fiscal policies that included continuing to pay people not to work when the economy needed supply to meet the rising demand post-COVID.

He first two of the three stimulus payments were signed by Trump. The only one Biden signed went out two years ago. $1400/person two years ago isn’t causing inflation today.

And he appointed as an accomplice Fed chair Jerome Powell,

Uh, Biden REappointed Powell. Trump appointed him first.

There’s a way out for Biden: Stop kowtowing to the left and bring back energy independence at home.

The US is still a net exporter:

U.S. energy facts - imports and exports - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

U.S. energy imports and exports since 1950.

www.eia.gov

Basically, everything this guy says is nonsense. I, personally, wouldn’t blame inflation on any single person, but trying to blame “only Biden” while stating things that aren’t true and pointing the finger at policies started by Trump is just mindboggling. Either that guy is ignorant, or he’s hoping that you are.

 

[disciple Clint]

I could come up with a several more sources that have the same conclusion but I am certain that none of those sources would be acceptable to someone who wants to believe that Biden is anything close to competent. Biden’s big-spending policies helped fuel inflation, says Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

 

[iluvatar5150]

I could come up with a several more sources that have the same conclusion but I am certain that none of those sources would be acceptable to someone who wants to believe that Biden is anything close to competent.

It would be great if you’d at least try to find ones that were reasonable in their assessments. The WT link isn’t bad.

 

[disciple Clint]

It would be great if you’d at least try to find ones that were reasonable in their assessments. The WT link isn’t bad.

So you would like me to find a liberal source that will publish an article that counters their liberal stand, come on now, seriously?

 

[scraparcs]

You're actually defending tax increases? Yes, let's add to the burden of families who are already struggling with inflation and high gas prices and can barely afford to pay their bills.

There are some necessary tax increases. Since no party is going to reduce spending to a considerable degree, the only other way to make it work is more taxes.

 

[iluvatar5150]

So you would like me to find a liberal source that will publish an article that counters their liberal stand, come on now, seriously?

If you spent time reading intelligent, worthwhile outlets and authors, you’d know that it’s not uncommon at all for people to re-examine their priors in the face of new information. Here’s a piece from Paul Krugman doing just that:

Opinion | I Was Wrong About Inflation (Published 2022)

Some economists warned that the American Rescue Plan would be inflationary. Others, like me, were fairly relaxed.

www.nytimes.com

 

[disciple Clint]

If you spent time reading intelligent, worthwhile outlets and authors, you’d know that it’s not uncommon at all for people to re-examine their priors in the face of new information. Here’s a piece from Paul Krugman doing just that:

Opinion | I Was Wrong About Inflation (Published 2022)

Some economists warned that the American Rescue Plan would be inflationary. Others, like me, were fairly relaxed.

www.nytimes.com

I am not likely to believe the same sources that you believe, that does not mean that one source is more intelligent or worthwhile, as any intelligent person understands there are different points of view.

 

[iluvatar5150]

I am not likely to believe the same sources that you believe, that does not mean that one source is more intelligent or worthwhile, as any intelligent person understands there are different points of view.

There are intelligent takes from most points of view and there are dumb ones. I tend to favor policies from left of the political center, but I wouldn’t cite as support for my positions comments from r/antiwork or r/politics, because those are mostly dumb takes from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. You and most of the other conservatives around here could cite intelligent, well-reasoned sources that support conservative views - they exist. Heck, I even enjoy reading and listening to them. But for whatever reason, you don’t. Instead, you guys post dreck like that NYPost piece or garbage from Western Journal or The Federalist. When I give you a hard time about the quality of your sources, it’s not because they’re conservative or because I disagree with them. It’s because they’re bad.

 

[disciple Clint]

There are intelligent takes from most points of view and there are dumb ones. I tend to favor policies from left of the political center, but I wouldn’t cite as support for my positions comments from r/antiwork or r/politics, because those are mostly dumb takes from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. You and most of the other conservatives around here could cite intelligent, well-reasoned sources that support conservative views - they exist. Heck, I even enjoy reading and listening to them. But for whatever reason, you don’t. Instead, you guys post dreck like that NYPost piece or garbage from Western Journal or The Federalist. When I give you a hard time about the quality of your sources, it’s not because they’re conservative or because I disagree with them. It’s because they’re bad.

OK tell you what, try to find a source using the common search services Google etc to support a conservative view, you will notice that it often takes several pages to get to a source and that the sources are in fact limited, let us not try to pretend that the vast majority of the media is anything other than liberal as are the people who work at Google etc. So standard practice for a liberal, attack the conservative sources, back up plan call the opposition racist or stupid or both, if that fails simply ignore the post or talk over the person and maybe it will go away at least if it is ignored it will not endanger liberal beliefs.

 

[Gene2memE]

Yes that is exactly what has happened.

Except US Federal Government spending has been going down since the start of the Biden administration. Both in absolute terms and in % of GDP terms.

FY2015 (Obama): $4.60 trillion, 20% of GDP;
FY2016 (Obama): $4.74 trillion, 21% of GDP;
FY2017 (Obama/Trump): $4.79 trillion, 21% of GDP;
FY2018 (Trump): $4.83 trillion, 20% of GDP;
FY2019 (Trump): $5.14 trillion, 21% of GDP;
FY2020 (Trump): $7.47 trillion, 31% of GDP;
FY2021 (Trump/Biden): $7.38 trillion, 30% of GDP;
FY2022 (Biden): $6.27 trillion, 25% of GDP;
FY2023 (Biden): $6.21 trillion, 23% of GDP (CBO estimate)

Sources:

Fiscal Data Explains Federal Spending

Check out @FiscalService Fiscal Data’s new federal spending page! #FederalSpending

fiscaldata.treasury.gov

https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2023-02/58848-Outlook.pdf

 

[disciple Clint]

Except US Federal Government spending has been going down since the start of the Biden administration. Both in absolute terms and in % of GDP terms.

FY2015 (Obama): $4.60 trillion, 20% of GDP;
FY2016 (Obama): $4.74 trillion, 21% of GDP;
FY2017 (Obama/Trump): $4.79 trillion, 21% of GDP;
FY2018 (Trump): $4.83 trillion, 20% of GDP;
FY2019 (Trump): $5.14 trillion, 21% of GDP;
FY2020 (Trump): $7.47 trillion, 31% of GDP;
FY2021 (Trump/Biden): $7.38 trillion, 30% of GDP;
FY2022 (Biden): $6.27 trillion, 25% of GDP;
FY2023 (Biden): $6.21 trillion, 23% of GDP (CBO estimate)

Sources:

Fiscal Data Explains Federal Spending

Check out @FiscalService Fiscal Data’s new federal spending page! #FederalSpending

fiscaldata.treasury.gov

https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2023-02/58848-Outlook.pdf

"The Congressional Budget Office regularly publishes reports presenting its baseline projections of what the federal budget and the economy would look like..."

Historic Taxes, Spending, and Deficits

• Over ten years, President Biden’s FY 2023 budget proposed:
  • Spending: $73 trillion or 23.4 percent of GDP—highest sustained level in American history.
  • Taxes: $58 trillion or 18.8 percent of GDP—highest sustained level in American history.
  • Deficits: $14.4 trillion or 4.7 percent of GDP—highest sustained level in American history.

Record-Breaking Debt

• Under the President’s FY 2023 budget, the debt would grow be allowed to grow by $16 trillion over ten years, or $50,000 of debt per American citizen.
• By 2032, the total federal debt would be $135,000 per American citizen, or $330,000 per household.
• Under CBO’s current projections, the gross federal debt would increase from $31 trillion today (123 percent of GDP) to $52 trillion (132 percent of GDP) in 2033. CBO’s most recent projections have the debt growing to $154 trillion by 2053. This is equivalent to more than $1 million per American household ($540,000 after adjusting for inflation)—which is more than four times current median household net worth.

Interest Payments on Debt Fastest Growing Item in Federal Budget

• Since Biden took office, CBO’s projections of ten-year interest payments on the federal debt have grow by $5.9 trillion or 129 percent.
• CBO projects interest payments on the debt to triple over the decade from less than $500 billion to almost $1.5 trillion.
• According to CBO, interest payments will increase from less than 10 percent of the federal budget today, to almost a quarter of the federal budget in 30 years.

Double-Digit Non-Defense Growth, Defense Hits Historic Low

• The FY 2023 Biden Budget proposed a 12 percent increase for non-defense discretionary spending.
• Defense spending would fall to the lowest level as a percent of GDP since before World War II.

Biden’s Fiscal and Economic Policies Increase Spending by $10 trillion

• Legislation enacted since Biden took office has increased debt projections by $6 trillion over ten years.
• Biden’s unprecedented executive actions have increased spending by more than $1 trillion over ten years.
• Biden’s inflationary economic policies have increased CBO’s projection of interest payments on the debt by $3.6 trillion over ten years. The Past is Prologue: Biden's Deficit Spending Record - House Budget Committee

U.S. budget deficit hits $2.77 trillion in 2021, second highest on record

The Biden administration said Friday that the 2021 deficit, for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was $360 billion lower than 2020 as a recovering economy boosted revenues, helping to offset government spending from pandemic relief efforts.

www.pbs.org

Biden's spending spree is unprecedented

It seems that President Biden's administration is determined to prove that deficits don’t matter and continue President Trump's legacy.

reason.com

 

[Gene2memE]

The Biden administration and the angry mobs during the summer of 2020 are a much bigger threat to our country than that group of angry protesters on January 6.

Yes, people upset at dissimilar treatment at the hands of law enforcement due to race are much worse than people who actively tried to interfere with the electoral processes - up to the point of calling for the murder of those involved. Or are you unfamiliar with the refrain "Hang Mike Pence"?

It just blows my mind how certain people are so quick to buy into the leftist narrative and fail to see the big picture. The economy was thriving under Trump and under Biden, we now have record high inflation, but certain people still don't care.

Inflation is a GLOBAL problem, not a Biden administration one.

Also, US inflation is not at record levels. Peak inflation so far has been 9.1% month to month and has averaged 6% since the start of 2021.

Since 1914, US inflation was above 9.1% in:

Sep 1916 through Oct 1920,
Oct 1941 through Dec 1942,
Jul 1946 through Feb 1948, and again in May through Jul 1948
Jan 1974 through Jul 1975
Jan 1979 through Oct 1981

There were also persistently high inflationary periods (values peaking above 5% for more than a quarter) in the early 1990s and in the mid 2000s.

What these have in common is that they followed on from a period of major economic and/or social upheaval. Given the MASSIVE impact COVID-19 had on economies and the rapid bounceback in 2021 and 2022, its totally unsurprising that an inflationary period would follow.

Biden can lead America into another great depression

That doesn't look like happening. Most forecasts for US GDP growth for 2023 and 2024 are being revised upwards. IMF, World bank, Fitch Ratings and a few others all improved their outlooks in the last month or so. Sure, growth is still somewhat anemic (in the range of 1.5-2.5%), but its much better than the recession forecast midway through 2022.

Here's real US GDP data for the last years of the Trump administration and start of the Biden administration. Tell me where you see the US heading into another Great Depression:

Gross Domestic Product, Fourth Quarter and Year 2022 (Second Estimate) | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 (table 1), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent.

www.bea.gov

and anti-American thugs can burn America to the ground yet these folks will still support Biden and give these criminals a free pass. So sad and pathetic! The Biden administration regime and the elitists who pull their strings are not done with America yet and I think we know what this is all leading up to. As Samuel L Jackson said in the movie Jurassic Park, "hold on to your butts!"

Are you just channeling some conspiracy theory talking points? Can we through in some Communism, New World Order and Globalists? I'm almost at a bingo!

There were more than 14,000 people arrested during BLM (or related) protests. As of September 2020, more than 870 had been formally charged and better than 300 were undergoing legal prosecution.

 

[iluvatar5150]

OK tell you what, try to find a source using the common search services Google etc to support a conservative view, you will notice that it often takes several pages to get to a source and that the sources are in fact limited,

No, I don’t notice this. I didn’t know what sort of “conservative view” you had in mind, so I just searched for “tax cuts spur economic growth”

Result #2:

Reviewing the Impact of Taxes on Economic Growth

With the Biden administration proposing a variety of new taxes, it is worth revisiting the literature on how taxes, particularly on corporate and individual income, can impact economic growth.

taxfoundation.org

11:

U.S. tax cuts boost economy—but for how long?

Did the U.S. tax cuts boost economic activity in 2018? The answer is yes, at least according to the recent empirical literature on the macroeconomic effects of taxes.

www.dallasfed.org

13:

THE BUSH RECORD - FACT SHEET: President Bush Helped Americans Through Tax Relief

14:

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

On December 20, Congress passed the first major overhaul of the tax code in more than 30 years, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which will deliver historic tax relief for workers, families

walberg.house.gov

Most of the ones I left out were neutral, not left-leaning. (e.g. investopedia, academic papers)

let us not try to pretend that the vast majority of the media is anything other than liberal as are the people who work at Google etc. So standard practice for a liberal, attack the conservative sources, back up plan call the opposition racist or stupid or both, if that fails simply ignore the post or talk over the person and maybe it will go away at least if it is ignored it will not endanger liberal beliefs.

What you’re communicating to me is that standard practice for conservatives is to throw up a bunch of easily-falsifiable nonsense then play some kind of whiny persecution card when libs call you out on it. Is that about right? I not only read your piece, I understood it better than you did, and I called out several specific points the author made that were absurd. Yes I claimed it was a lousy source, but I showed my work. Nothing you cited “endangered [my] liberal beliefs,” because it was obviously bogus. I’m always happy to re-examine my beliefs; I think doing so interesting. That you were unable to convince me is not indicative of my close-minded, but rather your failure to make anything resembling a compelling case.