Democrats Are Trying To Push Through Another 'Build Back Better' Bill. It Would Only Make Inflation Worse.
Here's hoping we don't wind up with more of the spending and favoritism that's become so common.
The go-to policy for dealing with nearly every modern problem is more government spending. So it was just a matter of time before Democrats tried to revive the failed "Build Back Better" (BBB) program to address today's economic troubles. Of course, if they succeed, the result will be much the same as what we've experienced over the past 18 months: more debt and rising inflation.
As a reminder, the $2 trillion proposed BBB legislation came on the tail of an oversized $2 trillion third COVID-19 relief bill and a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. It was killed when Sens. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D–Ariz.) joined all Republican senators in opposition. They rightfully worried that more spending would inflate our debt and produce inflation. But now, their party is back at it again. In the midst of the largest inflation in four decades, they've been negotiating behind the scenes for weeks in hopes of passing a slimmer BBB.
According to Politico, they hope to pass the bill before September by using the budget reconciliation process. The bill includes tax increases, deficit-reduction measures, prescription-drug reform, and renewable-energy subsidies, but most of the details are still unclear. If we wind up with more of the spending and favoritism that's become so common, it would be tragic.
First and worst, these policies are destined to be counterproductive. Subsidies to suppliers of green energy, for instance, increase the cost of that energy and hinder the innovation that could make it more commonplace. The Democrats' prescription-drug policy would be costly and in the long run perhaps even deadly. As the Paragon Institute's Brian Blase recently wrote in a newsletter, "Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Tomas Philipson…estimates that these proposals would lead to 135 fewer new drug approvals over the next two decades. This reduced innovation would translate into a loss of life years many times larger than the life years lost from COVID-19."
Second, as the spending flows through the economy, it will continue to fuel inflation. The recent price hikes are caused by irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies during the pandemic, followed by a failure to implement—or even talk about—policies for reducing the budget deficit and debt once the crisis passed. Indeed, one of the implicit fiscal rules that politicians have lived by until now is that while government can spend big during an emergency, it should go on a diet once the emergency is over. Doing otherwise might trigger a calamitous suspicion that the government will fail to repay its debt and instead rely on inflation to chip away at it.
Furthermore, another huge spending spike is costly especially if paid for with borrowed money. It is particularly expensive at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking interest rates to tame inflation. Thirty percent of U.S. debt needs to be rolled over within a year. Higher interest rates mean higher interest payments on our debt, a difference in cost that will be felt rapidly.
Finally, higher interest rates and the resulting slowing of the economy could reduce inflation—but that could be a costly and short-lived victory unless Congress implements austerity. Any initial success in taming inflation could backfire by temporarily increasing households' real wealth and interest receipts from bond investments. In this scenario, more wealth and higher incomes end up boosting the aggregate demand that's been driving inflation. Implementing a fiscal consolidation plan would reduce the wealth effect and keep inflation under control. On the other hand, adding more spending to the economy, like most Democrats want to do, would aggravate the wealth effect and fuel demand-driven inflation.
As the Hoover Institution's John Cochrane reminds us, this is exactly what happened during the Great Inflation. He writes: "In 1970 and 1974, the Fed raised interest rates more promptly and more sharply than now, from 4% to 9% in 1970 and from 3.5% to 13% in 1974. Each rise produced a bruising recession. Each reduced inflation. Each time, inflation roared back." This is what will happen if the Biden administration fails to implement austerity or, even worse, if it uses fears of an upcoming recession as an excuse to increase spending and the debt further.
A soft landing was never a credible option. Once inflation starts, there's no easy way out. But there are plenty of ways to make things worse and more painful. This is what will happen if Democrats proceed with their current BBB plan.
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
As long as my daughter gets a pony, I am good with this.
She’s gonna have to dig for it.
We’re all going to be glad of horsemeat soon.
I actually have made $18k within a calendar month via working easy jobs from a laptop. As I had lost my last business, I was so upset and thank God I searched this simple job (ebt-04) achieving this I’m ready to achieve thousand of dollars just from my home. All of you can certainly join this best job and could collect extra money on-line visiting this site.
>>>>>>>>>> http://dollarspay12.tk
A few details –
Ponies eat grain; there is no more grain. We burn corn for fuel, and refuse to develop fertilizer because the sky is falling.
Ponies shit a lot. You need a big shovel.
Wherever it is you live, they will change the zoning to prohibit ponies.
Your daughter will outgrow the pony, and it will eat up your retirement fund.
VERY good!
Silly, she doesn’t want the point for keeping BitPay for the meat. It will go into the freezer the day after it arrives. Tough times ahead. Smart kid.
*but
(BitPay?? Really? DYAC.)
Oh admit it: it’s you, not your daughter who wants a pony.
Here’s hoping we don’t wind up with more of the spending and favoritism that’s become so common.
Lulz. Who stuck that stupid headline on VdR’s article?
Thanks for saying it.
Anyone who wrote that without rolling their eyes is a fucking idiot. That’s borderline babylon bee right there.
The only reason prices appear inflated is because of the greed of people like your local gas station owner. Biden should raise the minimum wage to at least $25 / hr to help the wages of the working class outpace the greed of America’s corporations.
U should become a greedy local gas station owner 🙂
Instead of using Gov-Gun theft as your main point of income. (i.e. Being an armed robber).
It’s a parody account.
HAPERINFLATION!!!!!!!!!
#MoreButtplugInsights
Democrats Trying To Throw More Money At Their Supporters To Stave Off Midterm Slaughter.
There, wrote a better headline.
My “Fuck it up Faster” bill is guaranteed to deliver.
For fixed interest debt, inflation can be great.
For savings, inflation can be killer.
It would seem that a high(within some sort of reason… e.g. not runaway) inflation would be good for fixed interest debt holders, as long as they can make ends meet without going into further debt.
If you have fixed interest debt in a house or business and the country going through 3 or 4 years of high inflation, once it settles you will be making more money but your overall debt load would be much less.
The government aside, how does one tally up the winners and losers due to inflation? Where is the tipping scale from good, to acceptable, to bad?
The wise government seers have determined that 2% is that tipping point.
How about we forgot about who wins and loses and just get back to inflation levels where we don’t have to think about that?
“Making inflation worse” is the objective of Democratic policies. It gives them everything they want: it’s effectively a massive tax raise, it forgives both public and private debt, and it lets them spend and hand out money to their favorite cronies.
If you think that this is accidental, you’re a fool.
^EXACTLY.. Sometimes people makes mistakes…
But this sh*t is intentional and UN-Constitutional..
Remember that day the people gave the ‘feds’ the authority to plan the economy?
Yeah; me neither…
F’En Nazi’s (National Socialists)
He’s been telling you for months that his plan to fight inflation is to cause more inflation.
—————
Unfortunately for us, Joe Biden has a plan to tackle inflation. He wants to print and spent trillions MORE dollars so that you pay ‘less’ for stuff like drug prescriptions or child care! Remember how Obamacare was going to save you money on healthcare costs but you never actually saw any savings? We’re going to take that ‘efficiency’ and spread it out to MORE places! He wants to crank that wave machine up to 11, and he claims this will LOWER inflation. But it will do the opposite.
‘United wishes and good will cannot overcome brute facts. Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.’
Winston Churchill
This is a major problem for the Biden administration in particular and way too many of our current ‘leaders’ in general (and by extension the rest of us). They believe something is true, and think that strong enough belief will conjure it into reality.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/inflation-and-you
“here’s hoping” is not a strategery.
I wonder what it must have been like from 1865 to 1900 when prices and wages were essentially flat? You only got a raise when you were more productive.
“Subsidies to suppliers of green energy, for instance, increase the cost of that energy and hinder the innovation that could make it more commonplace.”
How? Let me guess, it’s because of some hand-waving psychobabble.
I don’t even have to talk about how a functioning government is perfectly capable of bidding and other means of preventing the gouging of said government. I don’t even have to talk about the fact that prices rising as a result of higher demand (i.e., demand by government as buyer) is perfectly natural.
All I have to do is point out that no amount of subsidy for green energy will match the subsidy given to fossil fuels, which we still burn for some reason despite its actually incalculably high cost.
Whiny whiny bitch bitch.
Do you remember when you guys with your fascist hardons started believing that playing fair wasn’t part of the game anymore?
You know who was way ahead of you? DIE JUDEN!
Haha, just kidding. Did I make you jump?
Sick in the head.
The “anyone who disagrees with me is a fascist” tell is how you know you’re dealing with a communist.
Say what you will about communists, at least they weren’t fucking Nazis.
You think this will be the first time that fucking fascists aren’t completely obliterated? You think it’s worth risking the complete destruction of your communities because some trans kid somewhere wants to swim competitively?
I hope one day you turn off the right-wing propaganda and get your brain right. You probably won’t, because the brain cares more about feeling right than being right. But never let it be said that I didn’t warn you.
I literally have no idea what you’re talking about. Did you stop drinking from last night? Put the bottle down.
Communists are better than Nazis?! That’s your argument? And then to end the comment complaining about propaganda. The irony of how you don’t see the irony is fantastical at this point.
All I have to do is point out that no amount of subsidy for green energy will match the subsidy given to fossil fuels, which we still burn for some reason despite its actually incalculably high cost.
And every time you do someone has to point out that there’s a big difference oil companies getting tax breaks and green energy getting direct payments.
But in your mind taking less from the oil companies that pay billions in taxes is the same as taking money from someone else and giving it to green energy companies that pay none.
I’m for taking it all from oil companies and giving it to green companies. The green companies can turn the massive gashes their predecessor left in the planet and do science with them or something. We’ll imprison the oil executives for knowingly spreading false science with the motive of ruining the habitable planet, of course, but in the end, no true restitution will be made. A lot of those oil geezers died comfortably on their islands surrounded by underage whores. Such is the justice of the universe, alas.
Were you saying something about wah wah we’re not playing fair with the petroleum industry? They bought a political party that’s ruining everything you hold dear as we speak. Are you their lawyer or something?
reality check: without fossil fuels our economy goes to zero. fossil fuels make everything happen and wind mills & solar panels can never replace the fossil fuels. thinking it will is just childish thinking. if you greenies want some credibility then start promoting nuclear energy. if you want more use of electricity then build and increase use of nuclear. until you do so we all know you’re not serious people.
Your talking points, which you have not verified by reading a single scientific paper, a single book on the subject, or probably a single sentence anywhere about anything, are about 10 years stale.
I’m all for nuclear power. I’m just going to keep saying it, and you’re going to keep accusing me of believing something I don’t believe.
You have been made into a sheep by people who make money from your stupidity. Stop letting them fuck you.
Tony *is* serious. Extremely stupid, but very SERIOUS! Stupid beyond your imagining, and serious about being stupid.
By the way, if you’re Exxon’s lawyer, I want to meet you in person for a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery expensive lunch and charm you to be my friend and confidant. We’ll build sandcastles at Ibiza. We’ll never fly either coach or first class again, because there is only one class on our plane: casual luxury.
Oh, I need to be the one who decorates everything. Just leave it to me. If you have some sort of ‘vision,’ I will take a look and see if it’s actually any good, then I will bluntly explain why it’s crap. Then you can do whatever you want to your bedroom and any other personal room that is not open to the public. Wait, it’s your plane. Surely Exxon’s lawyer has people for that. Nate Berkus?
And that, my sad, untrained ladies, is how you bag rich DILF.
A subsidy is a check from the government.
When oil companies take advantage of tax laws to write smaller checks to the government, they are not getting subsidies.
Contrast that with green energy companies that receive piles of money from the government. Money that may have come from the taxes collected from oil companies. Those are subsidies.
So you’re demonizing the people who are paying for the shit you want.
^EXACTLY…
There aren’t any fossil fuel subsidies; just a ‘green energy’ [WE] mob who likes to pretend any tax deduction = a subsidy..
“When oil companies take advantage of tax laws to write smaller checks to the government, they are not getting subsidies.”
You actually cannot fudge your way out of this with the ratfucking of language. The language I’m using is mathematics. The language of science.
If those tax breaks were written on a napkin at the Exxon CEO’s favorite meat bar, it’s a damn subsidy. And a bribe. Or, as our magnificent criminal justice system hath declared it, “free speech.”
Is it that you like your free government money under the table where it can’t upset the ladies? Or have you not ever checked under that table before?
You can call the tax breaks chocolate bunnies if you want to, but no one else cares.
One company gets a tax break and another doesn’t, and they’re the same kind of company, how is that tax break not tantamount to a subsidy?
Do I have to teach arithmetic to you zombies too?
Because a subsidy is money given, and a tax break is money not taken.
If you don’t care about the distinction, that’s all fine and good, but others aren’t wrong for understanding nuance.
Regardless, the petroleum business gets no tax breaks that every other industry gets; they all depreciate their capital goods over time.
Econ (and tax) ignoramuses like whoever is hiding in taht gray box are not even willing to do a wiki search; repeating bullshit is easier.
“You complete moron, if you just changed the definition of words and the processes for how things works, my position is correct!”
-Tony
It’s funny how you’ve given up even trying to form reality based, cogent arguments and instead just go right to parroting tribal propaganda taking points.
But, I guess when your team has shown all the policy positions that you have supported are completely wrong, only thing left is lying and gaslighting.
They’ve been shown to be completely wrong…. because you read a Facebook meme that said so. Correct?
You people have not so much as seen a flash of real data across your faces in 20 years or more, have you?
If I’m gaslighting you, you won’t know. It’s kind of an in-person thing. It takes planning. All I’m doing here is accusing you.
No, Tony. It’s because I actually engage in reality and facts. I don’t go around screaming propagandistic tribal nomenclature and talking points like a fool; that’s all you.
Your bizarre hate and anger has you parroting some of the most pseudo-intellectual garbage anymore. You used to try and be intellectual. But you’ve regressed into petty tribal whining and righteousness.
Only thing I think that can explain it is seeing your whole worldview falling apart and really having nothing left to debate with. Thus, ranting like a leftist loon is all you can do.
Oh, is that what you’re doing, listing facts? Seems like you’re just calling names.
My worldview is fine. The world is what’s fucked, and it’s fucked because too many people like you couldn’t figure out that Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro are liars and fascists.
If you actually believe those characters are saying something that’s not a complete lie meant to foment violence against disfavored minorities, you should switch to candy crush or some other form of infotainment that doesn’t activate your critical thinking, because there’s apparently no need.
Propagandist is angry at other propagandists. Again, your inability to see the irony in your positions is astounding.
He admits to drinking early in the day; could well explain the stup[id sumbitch.
Politicans’ jobs depend on willful ignorance of basic economics.
That’s why they blame greedy businesses for inflation.
If they admitted that inflation is a monetary phenomenon caused by more and more money chasing the same amount of stuff, then they wouldn’t be able to say they’ll fix inflation by printing more money. That would be asinine. So they ignore economics and hand out freshly printed cash, which only makes inflation worse.
And never-mind the U.S. Constitution (the very definition of the USA) never gave the ‘feds’ any authority to manage ‘basic economics’… Their main purpose was to defend the USA from foreign invasion and to prevent “amongst” the State trade battles.
Conservative think tanks’ jobs depend on saying just enough of the basic economics platitudes to justify the largest heist in mankind’s history. Intermediate economics, not necessary. We wouldn’t want to to talk about real-world models yet. Not until they’re safely away on their diplomatically immune sea-steads
Oh, you were talking about inflation?
Inflation is an overused word. It has you completely befuddled, thus proving my point. What’s going on now is price inflation, otherwise known as too much demand chasing too little supply. We’re still in basic economics, so I hope you’re keeping up.
Perversely, the Fed’s policy mission is, if you read the letter of the law, to induce a recession on purpose to cause those of us swimming in Trump and Biden checks still (it wasn’t THAT much; mine went to single new toy, I believe. No I’m sure I stuffed it in the old investment account. That’s so me.) to be poorer and less able to afford the stuff we currently need to buy.
How this will help anyone but corporate bottom lines is beyond me, but I do own a few properties I’d like to see regain their paper losses, so bully for me.
To recap: there is not just “inflation,” as in either “inflation bad! inflation Biden? Bidenflation? InBidenenening? I just had Tucker on for 3 seconds, why do I hate all Democrats? or “We’re on the fast train to Weimar” (put a pin in that one, though).
It wasn’t too long ago you were praising the fed for steering the Good Ship Economy right and well, and here you are, almost frothing at the mouth incoherently at it.
You can sell yourself narratives all day and all night if you want, but until your narratives have some correspondence with reality, you’re always going to end up disappointed, as you are now, even though your team’s most desired economic policy preferences were largely enacted.
Immaturely blaming everyone else and whining is very unseemly. Have some dignity and learn something.
Look at Brian talking about narratives and people. You know the old saying: smart people talk about ideas, stupid people talk about people.
I do not attach my undying loyalty to any person or entity, especially the fed. Is that how you go through life? You convince yourself that you’re on a team, and that team is always right for eternity?
Imagine having that kind of brain and then finding yourself attached to some fucking fascists. What a risk.
I’m not the only one to criticize the fed’s recent actions, but if you ask its chairman, he’ll remind us that they have a very narrow mandate. Everyone’s leaning on Congress to actually do shit, which is its job.
Unfortunately the tribe to which you have so disappointingly attached yourself has decided that, whenever Democrats are in power, they will do everything they can to hurt Americans in the hopes that they blame America.
And the sick thing about you is that you probably know this perfectly well and endorse it.
Tony: “smart people talk about ideas, stupid people talk about people.”
Also Tony:
“Look at Brian…the tribe to which you…whenever Democrats are in power…you probably know this perfectly…”
I didn’t say I was smart, but you haven’t said anything of substance at all. You talk about coping, but all I see is a sad, silly FOX News junkie who is tossing up the most feeble of defenses against the looming truth that everything you believe is a pile of dogshit.
Your projection is nauseating.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/88-americans-believe-country-wrong-track-amid-inflation-storm-polls-says
“Economic concerns tend to rise to the top of the list of family concerns, as you might expect, but the singular impact of inflation is really hitting home right now,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, wrote in the study.
Murray added: “And most Americans are blaming Washington for their current pain.”
When respondents were questioned about their “current financial situation,” 42% said they were “struggling.”
Nardz with his subversive but principled political action. All so those fat pasty goo-balls in Brooks Brothers can’t suck the treasury dry for the brotherhood of sociopathic CEOs. (Motto: “Burn it all down, fuck we don’t care, we’ll die richer than you,” a slight update to the one they shared at their college fraternity.)
Hard to bring a guillotine on a yacht. They thought of everything.
When I was a kid pretty much the least cool kid in school was the one shilling for the unearned power of terrible institutions. We put them in a room labeled college republicans and left them there to talk about CS Lewis and how horny they are probably, what with the “Jesus watches you masturbate” thing, which, um, red flag. Did someone ever unlock the college republican repository?
It’s really ugly, watching how you cope.
all inflation is caused by government, always. so those americans who are blaming washington are correct, even if they don’t know why.
Which government caused the global rise in prices?
Correct. Whoever controls the money supply controls inflation.
Theoretically, it is possible that suppliers could cut supply with the same result, but you’d have to find a business stupid enough to cut their income. Only happens in lefty ‘literature’ and cartoons.
Oh, and in that empty space between Tony’s ears.
The Nazi(National Socialist)-Nation that conquered the USA is running it bankrupt… Just like the other hundreds of nations that tried National Socialism…. Will people EVER learn???
The US can’t go bankrupt, darling. Not until the Republican party takes over and the rest of the planet goes to the Euro standard or the Yuan, depending on how that works out.
We will be a conquered people and a pariah, able only to influence anything with bitter threats to destroy the world. And our conquerer will be the fattest, oldest, orangest, most retarded human on earth. Genghis Khan, he is not.
Or you could credit Putin, who will have made a country in his own image. Either way, you’re history’s piss boy. You’re the boy, and history is going to piss on your face.
That’s just a story you tell yourself.
Sure, sure; because all human resources just get printed at the money printing press right, right????…/s
Democrats and RINO’S with their compulsive push for more Gov-Gun forced communism and socialism are what created the failing Nazi-Regime… Course; that’s blatantly obvious by their compulsive “spending” (i.e. THEFT) of citizens…
But your cognitive dissonance will blame it all on the “fattest, oldest, organgest, most retarded humans on earth” who coincidentally had one of the best economies we’ve ever seen.
Because that’s what Democrats do… Push for failing “central planned” economies, rewards the nation with a Great Depression, a Great Recession, a Biden-Inflation and continues to PROJECT all their sh*tty policies onto anyone else.
The economy does not only well but gangbusters under Democratic governments, and under every Republican government in recent history we’ve seen a global economic calamity.
Even through your painfully confused reading of history, you have a memory, yes?
You’ll never LEARN anything Tony until you can escape your own B.S. that Gov-Guns doesn’t create wealth.
I don’t care. I only care about erasing fascists right now.
When you have to generate fake villains in order to be politically and societally righteous, you know you’ve lost the debate.
If the world switches off the dollar, it will be because your own Magical Monetary Policies failed and crashed the dollar, which, based on your self-contradictory bitching in this thread about the Fed (which you used to love o so dearly), is exactly what you want.
You are simply spewing inconsistent economic argleblargle as a coping mechanism, since your favorite political party has spent two years thoroughly demonstrating that they shouldn’t be allowed to run a daycare, much less a country.
You had two years to just be normal. And you couldn’t do it. Blaming everyone else won’t make you sane. Open your mind. Learn.
At this point he’s reached righteous spewing as the only constant. He’ll constantly change his position to whatever is needed so that he can wax poetic and denigrate all those he feels he’s clearly better than. The irony is how the irony is completely lost on him.
But you don’t care about economic policy, you care about using the violence of the state to hurt trans people.
Name the last Republican to make any statement at all about economic policy. I literally can’t remember the time.
You’re a parody now.
Explain the Republican economic policy platform. Bullet points.
Your party is going to lose power because of how horribly they have run this country, and no amount of finger pointing is going to save you.
Ponder that, little communist.
You can’t even name one single bullet point on their agenda, can you?
Because you don’t care. You only care about hurting people you perceive to be in the enemy tribe. You’d burn your own house down for the cause, which you can’t even articulate.
How many excuses has your Grand Leader gone through for blaming gas prices on? The price we pay for the Green New Deal, as we release oil from strategic reserves, thereby helping people consume oil? Putin’s fault? Gas station attendants?
Who the hell is coming up with these ideas? Did the democrats hire someone as stupid as you to explain what’s going on to the people?
No, it’s my fault because I want to hurt people. Talk about stupidly making this about people….
Gas prices? Literally the only thing I’m getting from you are RNC talking points. Do you even bother with the FOX News middleman, or do you just retype their fundraising emails?
Prices are different today than they were in 2019. To me, that is not a major crisis. Gas is, if anything, too cheap.
I realize that Republicans will find one imperfect thing about the world, claim it’s the single greatest problem ever, and blame the nearest Democrat, but there’s no reason you have to fall for that crap.
But no one cares about what you think is a major crisis when they can’t afford to put gas in their car to go to work.
Why do you expect them to care about your silliness?
Your party isn’t losing power this November because of me, Tony. It’s because of you. And all the people that think like you. You’re doing this to yourselves, and blaming everyone else, their lives, and their pocket books for not buying Teslas.
Good luck with that. You’ll need all the coping mechanisms you can get your brain’s hands on, if you can’t learn anything.
I made gas more expensive?
No, that was the Republican party’s favorite foreign despot, Putin. The guy Trump sold the US out to? Remember?
You’re not wrong to imply that American politics hinges on abject stupidity, but there’s no reason you have to fall for it. You honestly think the big problem with the US right now is that the president hasn’t been able to find the “make gas cheaper” button under his desk?
Your president is going to lose office because he obviously as dementia and his policies make the standard of living in this country worse.
You can call wanting a higher standard of living “stupid” all you want, but you’re the only one who thinks that’s a smart strategy for the future.
Tony,
This is just such massive levels of gaslighting. Good lord, man.
Tony:
“You know the old saying: smart people talk about ideas, stupid people talk about people”
Search for the word: fascist.
6 hits, all from Tony, talking about the people he hates.
The communists called all of their political prisoners “fascists.” Everyone they threw in the gulag for thinking unapproved thoughts.
And that’s how you know “fascists everywhere!” is a communist tell.
There are almost literally zero communists in this country. I’m not calling Republicans fascists because I like to call people names, it’s because they attempted to overturn the 2020 election, are rapidly working to subvert democracy in literally every way they can, and are running a politics of moral panic over certain minority scapegoats. I’m sorry bud, but this is not the kind of thing to fail to notice.
The tricky thing about fascism is how slippery it is. They always target communists, of course, even if there are no communists. But they have no ideology but power, so any lie in service of that is permissible. All they require is a critical mass of stupid people to sell them to.
You just can’t help yourself, can you?
The more everyone who disagrees with you is a fascist, the more communist you sound.
Keep going, genius.
Lots of people who disagree with me aren’t fascist. Unlike you, I don’t throw around such terms recklessly. I am simply watching Donald Trump try to fashion himself into a strongman dictator, watching Ron DeSantis prepare his presidential run on the backs of innocent gay and trans people, and watching every Republican-majority legislature in the country attempt to relieve the people of their democratic responsibilities. I’m also watching literal neo-Nazis form the core support base of the Republican party. I saw them break into the US capitol in an attempt to murder elected officials. What would you like me to call it? You got a term worse than fascist?
And between the two of us, you’re the only one suggesting that the US federal government use its power to change the price of a commodity. I’m a communist? I’m the only capitalist between us, it seems.
“And between the two of us, you’re the only one suggesting that the US federal government use its power to change the price of a commodity.”
Oh, so now you’re a free market extremist, who wishes the government have no say in how much anything costs?
Ok, you’ve convinced me. I agree with you: free market extremism. I’ll stick a pin in this one. Because we all know you can’t stay consistent with that for more than half a second.
Aren’t you concerned that the Republican voting base is going to get used to the idea that high prices for certain goods or services is a political problem to be dealt with by the government? There is no principle in capitalism that says a limited natural resources is to always remain cheap.
You’re the one throwing around the slur “communist,” but between the two of us you’re the only one suggesting the US federal government intervene in the market. Are you a hypocrite or a moron?
“Aren’t you concerned that the Republican voting base is going to get used to the idea that high prices for certain goods or services is a political problem to be dealt with by the government?”
You’re absolute right, Tony. You win. Free market extremism. We can’t expect the government to control prices. We can’t expect the government to make gas cheap, healthcare affordable, wages rise, housing affordable, etc. Thats all just pseudo economic bullshit.
Thanks for showing me the way, Tony.
Tony,
Brian is arguing for government to get out of the way of interfering with the price of a commodity, which you champion. That’s asking for government to leave the commodity alone, not price control it. That’s literally capitalism.
Again, if you can’t debate honestly, that is a significant indicator of the strength of your argument.
Give Tony a break. When every position he argues for is shown to be complete garbage, all he has left is calling people “fascists.”
It’s what happens when pseudo-intellectualism finally fails.
Seriously, do you even attempt to engage in legitimate, genuine conversations anymore? Or is it always tribal hyperbole, name calling, and hysterics?
It’s all he has left.
Biden united the civilized world in response to Russia’s aggression. It was a triumph of foreign policy. He should be given that much latitude over domestic policy, see if things don’t change for the better.
Of course you don’t want things to change for the better. I bet there’s no counting the number of Americans you’d be willing to sacrifice in order to give Republicans a PR win.
Ha!
Shit, Brian was right; you are just a parody at this point.
It’s so interesting how your article of faith that Biden=bad is such an article of faith that you are totally incapable of not only entertaining alternative theories, but of computing any worldview that doesn’t include that as its core belief.
You gotta turn off the juice man. FOX News is rotting your brain. It is actually causing your brain to deteriorate.
Where is my article of faith that Biden = bad? You keep trying to claim I watch Fox news, but I don’t watch cable news at all.
Your constant need to create straw man arguments to tear down should be massively telling how terrible your position are. But again, the irony of your inability to see your irony is epic.
The article of faith is that a certain set of policies leads to inflation and recession. People warned about those policies before Biden got elected. Biden ran on implementing those policies and then proceeded to implement them. And the consequences have turned out to be as predicted: inflation and recession.
????????????????????????what drugs are you on? You do know you shouldn’t enroll in more than one pharmaceutical drug trial at once right? It’s time to put the crack pipe down and turn off MSNBC.
Thanks for your sharing! The information your share is very useful to me and many people are looking for them just like me! best coffee beans
Who is going to stop them?
the incredible thing about this is that we’re in the middle of horrible inflation and likely a recession. and now the demented one wants to increase government spending. of course this will require the government to print more money and, by definition, increase inflation even more. brandon is a dumbass of the highest order.
You are falsely assuming that Brandon doesn’t want inflation; in fact, massive inflation gives Democrats almost everything they want economically and politically.
You are also falsely assuming that Brandon has your and my best interests at heart.
You should stop expressing opinions on subjects you clearly know nothing about. In your defense, this kind of hogwash can be found on the Washington Post op-ed page too.
Democrats rarely just increase government deficits. That’s Republicans, who always, and I’m saying always, spend more, often by orders of magnitude, every time they get in power. The idea that this isn’t true is a lie they tell you. The good thing about numbers, though, is that they don’t lie like Republicans.
Democrats tend to find pay-fors, though it’s usually just window dressing. At any rate, the more progressive a Democratic government, the more likely things are to be budget-neutral, since progressives want to raise taxes. So stop worrying so much.
“Don’t worry, a progressive government will just tax the hell out of you in order to continue its ever greater spending and control.”
-Tony, fighter of fascism.
You still don’t get it, do you? Government spending itself It the problem even if it is accounted for by tax increases. Tax increases only make the damage from government spending even worse.
Build Back, Bitches!
GO AWAY JOE,It’s time for the Biden crime family to confess their abuse of power, for self enrichment, prior to all the investigations that will start after the mid terms. Resign now, admit your crime, against the American tax payers, returns any ill gotten gains, stop your family from being dragged through the mud you created for yourself, and family. You will be impeached, Hunter will be jailed, your family will suffer those loss of assets.Your have too much ill for this not to happen, Your appointed friends in office will no longer be in power, leaving you no suppot.
Honeybuns, it’s not a mistake: creating inflation and wrecking the economy is the objective.
Reason is still ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop.
Reason is still ignoring the Durham investigation and trials.
Reason is still ignoring the Ashley Biden diary.
Reason is still ignoring the sale of oil to China from the strategic oil reserves.
Reason is still ignoring Biden’s Climate emergency.
Reason is still ignoring Wisconsin finding fraud and banning drop
boxes.
It is not always want sites report, but often what they don’t report tells you more about the leanings of the site.
WHAT’S CHANGED AMERICA???
BY KEVIN R. BROCK, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR THE HILL
“People in power, they’ll do anything to keep their crown.” — Mary Gauthier, “Mercy Now”In 1978, the FBI launched an undercover investigation designed around a fictional Middle Eastern company seeking permits for casino operations in Atlantic City. The case didn’t start out targeting federal officials, but soon seven members of Congress bellied up to the trough and accepted bribes in exchange for influence and favors. Indictments and convictions followed, and the legislative branch was left red-faced. . According to a site that monitors congressional investors, members of Congress and/or their families who traded stocks in 2021, on average, out-performed comparable samples within the S&P 500, making over 3,500 transactions totaling $555 million in value, with an average hold of a little over 100 days. Thankfully, only about a fifth of Congress or their families actively trade, according to required disclosure filings. But the ones who do are in positions of influence in both parties. The top Democrat investor family is that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with returns of nearly 50 percent in 2021. Pelosi defended her family’s right to invest while she had special access to interesting information. Well, of course she did — the Pelosis are killing it.
Don’t believe biden and the democrats, look no further then their America last polic, China first policy, look at their in power, financial gains, pelosi and family, biden and family, look at the pawns they put on office, look at our open borders and now ” Polio” has returned to the United States, because of biden’s border policy, times for changes America vote them out, keep them out, vote in the mid terms..
MORE Democrat virus is here, hat a geat unAmerican idea, forget our immigration laws forget the tax payer, because brain dead biden wants it to happen, open borders have brought in crime, drugs and diseases, monkey pox, polio is back in the Unites States now, impeachment and jail for oath breakers virus spreaders will follow. ID CARDS FOR THE VIRUS INVADERS?