Vote For Me! Here's Some Stuff!

As I sit down to scribble this on Sunday afternoon, the Democrats are preparing for their quadrennial libfest and onanistic celebration of all things Democratic in Chicago. This of course, follows by a few weeks, the MAGAsm in Milwaukee by the former Republican party. I say former, because if Ike weren't already dead, this spectacle would kill him.

The Milwaukee excitement was as artificially pumped up as Hulk Hogan's biceps or Kimberly Guilfoyle's lips. I expect no less in Chicago, only with more tofu.

Now I could write about the obvious, President Gramps being elbowed ever so gently, and then not so gently, aside. I could write about the weirdness of J.D. Vance and his "get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed" attitude toward the fairer sex. Or, how Tim Walz might want to cut back on the caffeine. And of course, Donald Trump's declaration that he is better looking than Kamala...no, really. Or how his imaginary accordion seems to have grown...

But, just for sh**s and giggles, let's be semi-serious for once. I promise it will be only semi.

I will talk in a minute about Trump's inflated view of the economy during his term, but let's start with the Vice President's economic presentation of Christmas in August this week. There really was something for everyone in her speech and unfortunately all of it involved dollars. Well, except for cracking down on corporate greed. You know, like this...

Now, that's called "shrinkflation" by the hip kids in the Commerce Department and you see it everywhere. Same price, less stuff. So, which President do I blame that on? How about neither, because just as what used to be a 2-pound can of coffee is now 25.9 ounces...

...manufacturers keep the illusion going that they held the line on prices. But of course, some prices have risen and the grocery store is where you see it most glaringly. Groceries have gone up 26% since 2019, and though the consumer price index is now down to under 3%, the prices have stayed high.

Why is that? H-m-m-m.

And more importantly, what is Ms Harris going to do about it? Pass a new anti-gouging law. She would authorize the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to levy substantial fines against grocery chains that implement "excessive" price hikes. So, what is excessive? How would you enforce it, and would you need buy in from Congress? This Congress? Good luck. We did try wage and price controls under Nixon, and the results weren't great. Not sure "Nixonian" is the adjective you want for your economic plan.

She proposed a $25,000 gift to first time home buyers because housing is so expensive now. Add to that, tens of billions of greenbacks to build 3 million new, affordable housing units.

Oh, and let's raise the minimum wage in the bargain. Hey, why not?

How about a $6000 child tax credit for the first year of your baby's life? Then there are her boss' plans already in effect. She will build on them. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which includes capping insulin prices at $35 per month and limiting annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs to $2,000. These measures, currently in effect for Medicare beneficiaries, would be extended to all Americans under her plan. How about the cancellation of more medical debt through federal initiatives and partnerships with states? Sure, in for a dime, in for a dollar.

Frankly, the plan she originally supported as a Senator, Medicare for all, is much simpler and more effective than all these card tricks. As I explained in an earlier piece, we already have in Medicare the largest single-payer medical system in the world. I wrote about the advantages of this system, particularly if we all pay into it, in an earlier article...

And likewise, the fix for Social Security's looming funding issues is remarkably simple. Eliminate the income cap. I explained in another earlier piece.

Will a President Harris give these a try? I can't really say but she has already backed away from Medicare for all, though that may be a political calculation to keep every insurance company and medical lobby group off her case until November. At any rate though, her proposals will cost a lot, and at a time when the deficit is genuinely causing concern. That alone may doom them, particularly in these times when even naming Post Offices generates a partisan fight.

The New York Times called her speech a collection of "gimmicks" rather than a serious detailed plan. I want my Democratic friends to argue with that, with a straight face.

Now to the former President: He paints an economic picture much like the one he outlined in his first inaugural address of "American carnage" and an economy that is broken after he left Gramps with one that was humming on all cylinders. He has called the US a failing country. Well, it's a failing country that is the envy of all Western economies.

This is from a guy whose 4 years added more debt than any other single presidential term in history. Over the course of President Trump’s four years in office, the gross national debt grew from $19.95 trillion to $27.75 trillion.

Where do we start? Gas prices? That's the easiest. Gas prices in 2020 were indeed low. The reason is simple and had nothing to do with some brilliant economic plan. No one was driving. We worked from home, didn't eat out or go to movies and kids went to school remotely during the pandemic. I had to run a TV newsroom from my study using Zoom calls. Whatever we have learned about that since, those are the facts. And the law of supply and demand hasn't been repealed. When demand goes down, so do prices.

Oil production? Yes, Democrats are very supportive of green energy and worried about climate change, which of course, we are way too late to slow much less stop. But the fact is, we produce more oil and gas than any other nation, and more than ever before. We have never been "energy independent" as some define it, because we always import some oil, even during the Trump years. And yes, we even imported from Russia during that time. And neither Biden or Trump did it because except for a small percentage, the government doesn't import or export oil, private companies do. If you don't like it, take it up with Exxon.

Jobs? Job creation under the current administration has averaged 225,522 and under the former guy, 180,351 per month. Ah, Trump says, we just hired back people laid off during the pandemic. Actually, we made up that loss and employment returned to pre-pandemic levels by September of 2022.

And they are making more money now. Newsweek did an analysis and found...

“Even after accounting for inflation, the median worker’s earning more than they were in 2017, 2018, 2019.”

Much was made of tariffs on China during the Trump years due to their unfair trading practices. Of course, consumers pay for tariffs, and Trump has proposed even more of them. But as for reducing our trade imbalance, again from the Newsweek analysis...

From 2017 through 2019, leaving out 2020 as a pandemic year, the deficit averaged $338.7 billion. But for the period of 2021 through 2023, the annual gap dropped to an average of $317.5 billion, with 2023 posting the smallest gap since 2009.

Inflation is indeed a tough one. And frankly, no President deserves as much blame or credit as they get for the ups and downs of inflation. Jimmy Carter didn't want an Arab Oil Embargo, but he got one. Poor Gerald Ford was reduced to putting out buttons.

After the pandemic, with factories and companies understaffed due to Covid, and supplies disrupted as a result, you had too many people chasing too few products. Remember when Detroit ran short of microchips for their vehicles? The prices of clean used cars went through the roof. Again, it's that persistent supply and demand gremlin at work. I recall actually ordering toilet paper from Amazon once when shelves were bare.

What we got from all this was global inflation which the International Monetary Fund described as “higher than seen in several decades.” CNBC reported...

“We only have to look at the still high inflation rates in most other advanced economies to see that most of this inflation period was really about global trends ... rather than about the specific policy actions of any given government (though they did of course play some role),” Stephen Brown, deputy chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote in an email.

Did Trump and Biden spend a lot to get us through the pandemic? Yes indeedy. Trump authorized two stimulus packages, in March and December 2020, worth about $3 trillion. Then the Biden American Rescue Plan  added a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that he signed in March 2021— which offered $1,400 stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits and a larger child tax credit to households, in addition to other relief.

Did all these plans do some good things? Even the conservative American Enterprise Institute admitted they did. Did they add to inflation? Yes they did.

So, here we are. As I write this, tomorrow will be a so-called "Blue Moon." Could there be a better time to kick off your party's week of promising a "car in every garage and a chicken in every pot?"