Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis released today showed inflation continuing to come down. In November the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index was 2.6% over the previous November, down from 2.9% in October. The Federal Reserve aims for 2%. Falling gas prices meant that overall, prices actually dropped in November for the first time since April 2020.
The population is aging so the cost of Social security must be curtailed by cutting benefits. There is no mention by the GOP to increase revenue,which could be efficiently done by removing the cap on wages. Everyone would pay into the fund, no matter how much a person earns. Right now payroll deduction on wages stops at $125,000 per year. The problem is not that the population is too old, or the spending is too high. The problem is that more revenue is needed and the rich are sitting on a mountain of cash, and so are the corporations. We should relieve them of about half of it.
I don't think we're dealing with anything rational here.
Supply side talk just serves as a ruse. It doesn't work in fact, as Heather Cox Richardson notes in her summary of the effort to push it in the Reagan era.
But it does work to gild the lies by which the billionaire classes seek to turn Americans into serfs.
Dems can't counter with demand side talk, because MAGA-land won't listen to facts, doesn't care about facts. All there have been to schools totally dehumanized, so they know only the language of slogans, group labeling, and all the packaging of hatreds which the social media billionaires have engineered.
I long for our best Dems -- four or five dozen of them by my count nationwide -- to speak together in public in pairs and trios, not just to talk the demand side talk, but to set the successes of the past three years in the contexts of real people who've needed the good programs we've gotten. Also quote humanities -- characters from novels and films primarily who illustrate the challenges so many inhabit.
Supply-side economics is fundamentally hierarchical. It assumes that producers know what consumers want, need, and will buy better than consumers themselves do. Sounds a bit like the Soviet five-year plans. Also sounds authoritarian. It makes sense that the people who believe in a social hierarchy also believe in trickle-down economics. Thank you for helping me connect the dots, Dr. Richardson!
[The economic numbers] "illustrate the administration’s return to an economic theory under which the U.S. government operated from 1933 to 1981.
In those years the federal government focused on supporting people on the “demand side” of the economy in the belief that what drives economic growth is demand for goods and services. This theory means that the government should work to make sure workers and those at the bottom of the economy have money to afford the goods and services they need. This theory suggests that education and good wages and a basic social safety net are good for the economy because they enable people to have enough disposable income that they can buy things."
What a concept!!! vs tfg cutting taxes for the 1% and thus hurting not helping the typical middle class American.
Let's see, cut taxes for the rich and for corporations then complain about older people and the poor...sounds like a GQP plan to run America! Why is it that whenever our government is run by the republicans it goes down the tube and then the Democrats come in and have to clean up their mess...it's been like that ever since 1981! What will it take to convince people to start believing in the Biden Administration??? He had the biggest mess to clean up!
Heather, you are so right. Biden has really helped our society in many ways.
Who sent the USNS Comfort to New York during the early days of the pandemic? I remember what a relief that was to the American public.
The Republican House Speaker told Biden to fix the problem at the border and then sent the representatives home without a deal for the border, Ukraine or Israel. I think Biden will come up with a great plan to give humanitarian relief to the immigrants.
Biden is a hard-working, ingenious man who will lead our country with compassion and wisdom, not chaos.
Deliberate Idiocy redux. My most posted quote, from Will Rogers, Nov 26, 1932. “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” I think that Mr. Hoover and Mr. Reagan knew that money trickled up. Even David Stockman finally admitted that trickle down was bull Schitt. Daddy Bush called it voodoo economics. It’s time we resurrected that term for Repub economics, no substance, just ritual of hogs slurping at the trough
In the past 120 years, progressive income taxation has proven successful in fostering economic equity. This approach, where higher-income individuals bear a greater tax burden, has contributed to a fairer distribution of resources. Complementing this, the implementation and evolution of social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare have been crucial. These programs not only provide a safety net for retirees and those with medical needs but also exemplify the necessity of well-designed social policies to ensure the welfare of all citizens.
I'm glad that it was acknowledged, at least partially, that two eight-year Democrat presidencies did little to stop (or furthered) the supply-side era--mostly because Boomers (two political sides of the same self-important coin) have been in power and never saw an economic boon disparity they could resist taking advantage of, regardless of party (look where the bulge of tax breaks has moved over the past 30 years. Seriously, just look it up). Also, it's fair to point out (as Greenspan did in his book) that, those budget surpluses forecast in the Clinton years were HEAVILY reliant on the stock market continuing the arc it was on. Bush's tax cuts were also predicated on that arc--they were seen as eminently safe when concocted. When the stock market turned into a pumpkin in 2001, most of Bush's advisors told him, "Hey, those tax cuts aren't a good idea now." But, understandably after what happened to his dad ("read my lips" and reversal) Bush said, "I said I'd do it, so I'm doing it." My point is that it's a little more complicated than "supply side bad." One reason Reagan's policies were popular in the early 80s is that government HAD gotten (somewhat justificably) a reputation as complacent and bloated, or as a comedian once said, "like a double sasquatch pizza with cheese in the crust and cheese inside that cheese." The PROBLEM is that the deregulation never really stopped for 40 years since. And both parties (again, led by Boomers. Congress is STILL more Boomers than anyone else) bear responsibility. Biden (not a Boomer. Coincidence? Hmmm) will, rightfully, be looked back at by sober historians as an underrated, highly-impactful president who bucked a lot more trends than people realize and did so with high stakes too.
How can we possibly help the American people understand that, all social issues aside, this has been one of the biggest impacts on our society and has increased the wealth gap tremendously? History has shown over and over that trickle down only works for the very wealthy. Read Price of Peace by Zachery D Sachs which certainly opened my eyes to economic theory. Most economic pundits on our news just don’t appear to get this. ‘Snippets’ on this topic are meaningless. Thank you, for once again, Heather, pointing out what’s really important for all Americans. Happy Holidays.
But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. [10] For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Too many so-called Christians - in particular, those who are affluential and influential - utterly ignore the warning in St. Paul’s words. Greed destroys.
The wealthy can self-fund their retirement and healthcare costs. Most Americans to the tune of tens of millions benefit greatly from social security, Medicare, and Medicaid (1/2 of the program goes to the middle class to cover long term care). Offering cuts hurts so many of us compared to spreading the costs over all taxpayers. We all share in the burden of funding social insurance programs and we all benefit as we age, become widowed and orphaned, and/or disabled. We can’t afford to water down these programs…and stop calling them “entitlements.”
Well, those anti-Kamala feelings and comments are made in the same vein as much of social discourse now--end-all/bottom line/apocalyptic views on all things, all the time (even sports, if you follow them). Much of it is visceral fear by Dems that Trump could win, so looking for scapegoats/excuses instead of finding the resolve to come together and worry about their pet causes later. Maybe if they put half that effort into getting the 32% of electorate that DOESN'T VOTE into, y'know, doing THAT, this election wouldn't even be close. And yes, I've actually chatted with Dem pollsters and election workers who bemoan how poorly they message and get the vote out compared to the fasci--er, Right.
Thank you as always Heather for another well-researched provocative LFAA. If most Americans understood economics there would never be a close election again. Reagan and post-Reagan GOP have purely been about the concentration of wealth (and thus power). It is why their donors are able to drop millions into dark money PACS, purchase Congressional Reps, Senators, State legislators, and Supreme Court justices to continue to represent the interests of concentrated wealth.
Since a large part of the American population views "trickle down" as an accepted form of economics as opposed to mass fraud masquerading as economic theory, do you really expect them to understand that the debt burden has largely been shifted to the middle class and working poor? And of course the GOP is coming after earned societal benefits (like Social Security and pension funds), as well as vital democratic institutions like public education. The GOP economic formula has been to cut income, capital gains, and estate taxes for the wealthiest, based upon the lies that the "better off" the wealthy are, they will be in really good moods and then provide capital for new business and business expansion -thus creating new streams of tax revenues and then balancing the budget. It has been proven to be false. The reality is the taxes for corporations and the wealthy are cut, which leads to a massive budget hole, and then SURPRISE! -Now we need to cut programs like Social Security, Medicare, School lunches for children, PBS, funding for arts and humanities, housing assistance, and vital programs for the elderly and impoverished.
There should be a PBS program that picks up where Sesame Street left off to explain basic tax and economic theory. If people were not so distracted by Fox 'News' telling them who to hate and blame, perhaps we could elect leaders at the local, State, and Federal level that would represent the interests of all Americans and not just the wealthiest 1% and corporations.
Tax cuts as the solution to economic problems, especially rising debt, is pretty much the most stupid policy idea imaginable. Conservatives, the world over, push this policy simply to line the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the increasing number of poor. That both the Republicans and Democrats (and their equivalents in countries such as UK and Australia), have gone along with this agenda is a major factor (but not the only one) in facilitating the emergence Trump and others. That a a fool, as Biden described him, and a blatant grifter, such as Trump emerged in the US, rather than some one like Ted Cruz, is something peculiar to the US, and explains why Trump beat Cruz and 2016 and why he has already walloped Dr Santis in 2023 and why others such as Haley et al will not succeed in 2024.
First Reagan ruined California. I know I was there. And then ruined the country. And we are still reeling from his administration and the R's that followed him. Yes, it is dull but when Heather pulls it all together it becomes clear. Clear that we must reelect Biden/Harris. Good news out of Wisconsin today - the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that indeed the maps are unfair and must be redrawn. Thank you to Josh Kaul!
The population is aging so the cost of Social security must be curtailed by cutting benefits. There is no mention by the GOP to increase revenue,which could be efficiently done by removing the cap on wages. Everyone would pay into the fund, no matter how much a person earns. Right now payroll deduction on wages stops at $125,000 per year. The problem is not that the population is too old, or the spending is too high. The problem is that more revenue is needed and the rich are sitting on a mountain of cash, and so are the corporations. We should relieve them of about half of it.
I don't think we're dealing with anything rational here.
Supply side talk just serves as a ruse. It doesn't work in fact, as Heather Cox Richardson notes in her summary of the effort to push it in the Reagan era.
But it does work to gild the lies by which the billionaire classes seek to turn Americans into serfs.
Dems can't counter with demand side talk, because MAGA-land won't listen to facts, doesn't care about facts. All there have been to schools totally dehumanized, so they know only the language of slogans, group labeling, and all the packaging of hatreds which the social media billionaires have engineered.
I long for our best Dems -- four or five dozen of them by my count nationwide -- to speak together in public in pairs and trios, not just to talk the demand side talk, but to set the successes of the past three years in the contexts of real people who've needed the good programs we've gotten. Also quote humanities -- characters from novels and films primarily who illustrate the challenges so many inhabit.
Supply-side economics is fundamentally hierarchical. It assumes that producers know what consumers want, need, and will buy better than consumers themselves do. Sounds a bit like the Soviet five-year plans. Also sounds authoritarian. It makes sense that the people who believe in a social hierarchy also believe in trickle-down economics. Thank you for helping me connect the dots, Dr. Richardson!
[The economic numbers] "illustrate the administration’s return to an economic theory under which the U.S. government operated from 1933 to 1981.
In those years the federal government focused on supporting people on the “demand side” of the economy in the belief that what drives economic growth is demand for goods and services. This theory means that the government should work to make sure workers and those at the bottom of the economy have money to afford the goods and services they need. This theory suggests that education and good wages and a basic social safety net are good for the economy because they enable people to have enough disposable income that they can buy things."
What a concept!!! vs tfg cutting taxes for the 1% and thus hurting not helping the typical middle class American.
Thanks, Dr. Heather. Please sleep well!
Let's see, cut taxes for the rich and for corporations then complain about older people and the poor...sounds like a GQP plan to run America! Why is it that whenever our government is run by the republicans it goes down the tube and then the Democrats come in and have to clean up their mess...it's been like that ever since 1981! What will it take to convince people to start believing in the Biden Administration??? He had the biggest mess to clean up!
Heather, you are so right. Biden has really helped our society in many ways.
Who sent the USNS Comfort to New York during the early days of the pandemic? I remember what a relief that was to the American public.
The Republican House Speaker told Biden to fix the problem at the border and then sent the representatives home without a deal for the border, Ukraine or Israel. I think Biden will come up with a great plan to give humanitarian relief to the immigrants.
Biden is a hard-working, ingenious man who will lead our country with compassion and wisdom, not chaos.
Deliberate Idiocy redux. My most posted quote, from Will Rogers, Nov 26, 1932. “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” I think that Mr. Hoover and Mr. Reagan knew that money trickled up. Even David Stockman finally admitted that trickle down was bull Schitt. Daddy Bush called it voodoo economics. It’s time we resurrected that term for Repub economics, no substance, just ritual of hogs slurping at the trough
Great coverage.
In the past 120 years, progressive income taxation has proven successful in fostering economic equity. This approach, where higher-income individuals bear a greater tax burden, has contributed to a fairer distribution of resources. Complementing this, the implementation and evolution of social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare have been crucial. These programs not only provide a safety net for retirees and those with medical needs but also exemplify the necessity of well-designed social policies to ensure the welfare of all citizens.
I'm glad that it was acknowledged, at least partially, that two eight-year Democrat presidencies did little to stop (or furthered) the supply-side era--mostly because Boomers (two political sides of the same self-important coin) have been in power and never saw an economic boon disparity they could resist taking advantage of, regardless of party (look where the bulge of tax breaks has moved over the past 30 years. Seriously, just look it up). Also, it's fair to point out (as Greenspan did in his book) that, those budget surpluses forecast in the Clinton years were HEAVILY reliant on the stock market continuing the arc it was on. Bush's tax cuts were also predicated on that arc--they were seen as eminently safe when concocted. When the stock market turned into a pumpkin in 2001, most of Bush's advisors told him, "Hey, those tax cuts aren't a good idea now." But, understandably after what happened to his dad ("read my lips" and reversal) Bush said, "I said I'd do it, so I'm doing it." My point is that it's a little more complicated than "supply side bad." One reason Reagan's policies were popular in the early 80s is that government HAD gotten (somewhat justificably) a reputation as complacent and bloated, or as a comedian once said, "like a double sasquatch pizza with cheese in the crust and cheese inside that cheese." The PROBLEM is that the deregulation never really stopped for 40 years since. And both parties (again, led by Boomers. Congress is STILL more Boomers than anyone else) bear responsibility. Biden (not a Boomer. Coincidence? Hmmm) will, rightfully, be looked back at by sober historians as an underrated, highly-impactful president who bucked a lot more trends than people realize and did so with high stakes too.
How can we possibly help the American people understand that, all social issues aside, this has been one of the biggest impacts on our society and has increased the wealth gap tremendously? History has shown over and over that trickle down only works for the very wealthy. Read Price of Peace by Zachery D Sachs which certainly opened my eyes to economic theory. Most economic pundits on our news just don’t appear to get this. ‘Snippets’ on this topic are meaningless. Thank you, for once again, Heather, pointing out what’s really important for all Americans. Happy Holidays.
Thank you Heather.
1 Timothy 6:9-10 NLT
But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. [10] For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Too many so-called Christians - in particular, those who are affluential and influential - utterly ignore the warning in St. Paul’s words. Greed destroys.
The wealthy can self-fund their retirement and healthcare costs. Most Americans to the tune of tens of millions benefit greatly from social security, Medicare, and Medicaid (1/2 of the program goes to the middle class to cover long term care). Offering cuts hurts so many of us compared to spreading the costs over all taxpayers. We all share in the burden of funding social insurance programs and we all benefit as we age, become widowed and orphaned, and/or disabled. We can’t afford to water down these programs…and stop calling them “entitlements.”
Well, those anti-Kamala feelings and comments are made in the same vein as much of social discourse now--end-all/bottom line/apocalyptic views on all things, all the time (even sports, if you follow them). Much of it is visceral fear by Dems that Trump could win, so looking for scapegoats/excuses instead of finding the resolve to come together and worry about their pet causes later. Maybe if they put half that effort into getting the 32% of electorate that DOESN'T VOTE into, y'know, doing THAT, this election wouldn't even be close. And yes, I've actually chatted with Dem pollsters and election workers who bemoan how poorly they message and get the vote out compared to the fasci--er, Right.
Thank you as always Heather for another well-researched provocative LFAA. If most Americans understood economics there would never be a close election again. Reagan and post-Reagan GOP have purely been about the concentration of wealth (and thus power). It is why their donors are able to drop millions into dark money PACS, purchase Congressional Reps, Senators, State legislators, and Supreme Court justices to continue to represent the interests of concentrated wealth.
Since a large part of the American population views "trickle down" as an accepted form of economics as opposed to mass fraud masquerading as economic theory, do you really expect them to understand that the debt burden has largely been shifted to the middle class and working poor? And of course the GOP is coming after earned societal benefits (like Social Security and pension funds), as well as vital democratic institutions like public education. The GOP economic formula has been to cut income, capital gains, and estate taxes for the wealthiest, based upon the lies that the "better off" the wealthy are, they will be in really good moods and then provide capital for new business and business expansion -thus creating new streams of tax revenues and then balancing the budget. It has been proven to be false. The reality is the taxes for corporations and the wealthy are cut, which leads to a massive budget hole, and then SURPRISE! -Now we need to cut programs like Social Security, Medicare, School lunches for children, PBS, funding for arts and humanities, housing assistance, and vital programs for the elderly and impoverished.
There should be a PBS program that picks up where Sesame Street left off to explain basic tax and economic theory. If people were not so distracted by Fox 'News' telling them who to hate and blame, perhaps we could elect leaders at the local, State, and Federal level that would represent the interests of all Americans and not just the wealthiest 1% and corporations.
Tax cuts as the solution to economic problems, especially rising debt, is pretty much the most stupid policy idea imaginable. Conservatives, the world over, push this policy simply to line the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the increasing number of poor. That both the Republicans and Democrats (and their equivalents in countries such as UK and Australia), have gone along with this agenda is a major factor (but not the only one) in facilitating the emergence Trump and others. That a a fool, as Biden described him, and a blatant grifter, such as Trump emerged in the US, rather than some one like Ted Cruz, is something peculiar to the US, and explains why Trump beat Cruz and 2016 and why he has already walloped Dr Santis in 2023 and why others such as Haley et al will not succeed in 2024.
First Reagan ruined California. I know I was there. And then ruined the country. And we are still reeling from his administration and the R's that followed him. Yes, it is dull but when Heather pulls it all together it becomes clear. Clear that we must reelect Biden/Harris. Good news out of Wisconsin today - the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that indeed the maps are unfair and must be redrawn. Thank you to Josh Kaul!