No matter one’s view in politics, humans fall into 2 categories: Individuals and Groupies. Individuals shun Groupthink. Individuals do not conform. Groupies conform.
Individual “take point”. Groupies are REMFs. Ok on those 2 last sentences. Those a military terms. “Take Point” is being up front and leading. REMFs are rear echelon motherfuckers, otherwise known as supply guys and gals. Groupies are woke. Individuals aren’t. Individuals hunt. Groupies gather fruit and nuts. Individuals fuck the Prom Queen. Groupies fuck anything to include queer. Groupies like unions. Individuals do not. Take above terms Individuals and Groupies and you can define the population very well. Independents are not Individuals. They are fence sitters. They aren’t registered for primaries. They are very young or very old. They are poor. They are uninformed. Spineless. Vulnerable. Scared. Confused. Uneducated. Gallup poll: political independents (41%) greatly outnumber Republican (28%) and Democratic (28%) identifiers. Registered Republican and Democrats vote. Add up registered R or D voters and you get 56% of electorate. Only 67% of electorate votes. The game for democrats is to get “Independents” off the fence or vote for them. Individuals are too Law and Order to do that. So what happens when States send unsolicited mail-in ballots to the entire Electorate, then follow that up with Knock-on-Door Ballot Harvesters to tell independent idiots how to vote? You get Basement Biden What happens in the next election? You get Trump. Got it? Too Fucking Easy!-- Modified on 1/21/2024 3:06:40 PM
You are discounting what happens over the next 9-10mmonths with inflation, the appearance on how the economy is doing, what is going on internationally with Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Hamas, Trumps numerous legal troubles etc. This election may be the most complicated in US history and you are trying to boil it down to only voting methods adopted due to Covid. That is just WAY too simplistic.
Americans who are now paying twice the price for a gallon of gas than they did under Trump's watch over the economy. The only thing Biden did that was much, much better than Trump was create out-of-control inflation. The only person who every beat Biden on creating inflation was Jimmy Carter at 13%+ in 1979. Biden was 8.5%.
A firehose of lies. None of them sourced.
.
http://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASREGCOVW
When Trump took office, regular was $2.30 / gallon. When Trump left office, following price increases and then price decreases as the economy crashed, regular was back down to $2.30 / gallon. "Twice the price" would be $4.60 / gallon. Keep that number in mind because ...
.
When Biden took office, regular was $2.30 / gallon. Regular is currently $2.94 / gallon and going down. 294/230 = 27% higher, NOT "twice the price" higher.
.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/economy-performed-under-president-since-120038478.html
Inflation under NIXON was over 10.9%. Carter was 11.8%. Trump (4 yrs) was 1.4%. Biden (3 yrs) is 5% but falling. As the economy continues to improves and inflation goes down, Biden's 4 yr number will likely be lower.
.
HOWEVER, as pointed out by lester, inflation is caused by expansion of the money supply, M2. Inflation itself LAGS the growth of M2. Over 4 years, Trump increased M2 by 46.2%!!!! (M2 has increased by just 7.2% for Biden's 3 years.) The current inflation was at least partially (if not substantially) caused by Trump's record breaking 46.2% increase in M2, leaving it to subsequent generations to clean up his mess (just like he has operated his failed business ventures).
Americans who are now paying twice the price for a gallon of gas than they did under Trump's watch over the economy. The only thing Biden did that was much, much better than Trump was create out-of-control inflation. The only person who every beat Biden on creating inflation was Jimmy Carter at 13%+ in 1979. Biden was 8.5%.
Supply line shocks is one of many even though Lester wrongfully believes Fed policy is the ONLY parent of inflation. Just look at Covid. Numerous people couldnt work all at the same time. That "shock" to the system, which had nothing to do with Fed policy, led to much lower productivity and thus higher inflation.
Look at the the Russian/Ukraine War as well. Supply line shock hit the Ukrainian grain market and food prices as well as oil prices skyrocketed, again, with no Fed intervention.
Now it is true that flooding the system with cash, as Trump and congress did shortly after the Covid shutdown, of course led to consumers having more discretionary income and as they spent it, prices soared on account of it. But Lester thinking inflation ONLY comes from governmental money supply decisions is just flat out wrong. Markets, and shock to them, can be significant causes of higher prices.
And of course CDL not blaming Trump at all is just par for the course as is his outright lies about gas prices.
At least Lester comes bearing some facts but just doesn't present the whole picture, while CDL is totally devoid of any logic, knowledge or honesty.
You are 100% correct that if you are going to blame Biden for a rise in inflation, you then, being intellectually honest, MUST give him credit for bringing it back down. Or as sane people do, realize that Covid and the Russian assault on Ukraine were black swan type events and that inflation would have happened on any presidents watch for as we all know, inflation was not just an American thing...it was, and still is, a worldwide phenomenon.
http://hbr.org/2022/12/what-causes-inflation
Don't conflate price rises with inflation. A natural disaster can cause the price of food, for instance, to rise. But it doesn't cause the money supply to rise. People just spend MORE for food and LESS for other things. In the case of an increase in the money supply during inflation, people could spend MORE for food and MORE for other things (assuming they get commensurate pay raises -- but most likely they pay MORE for essentials and forego other spending.)
.
Again you have to explain where the money supply comes from. It can't come from individuals or businesses because that would simply be counterfeiting. We don't get to create more money out of thin air. It doesn't matter if some hardship is due to weather or earthquake or acts of war. We don't get to create additional money.
.
So if the money supply increases, it is because the government created more. There is no other way. And the avenue for creating that new money is Federal Reserve policy. They decide. Inflation isn't an accident. They set the rate depending on the market result (contraction or expansion) they are targeting.
I will just point out AGAIN that:
M2 grew by 46% under 4 years of Trump (an EXTRAORDINARY increase leading to inflation)
M2 grew by 7% under 3 years of Biden.
.
More details in prior posts:
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion-boards/politics-and-religion-39/re-said-no-economist-ever-437899
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion-boards/politics-and-religion-39/re-inflation-is-a-bipartisan-evil-437900
Don't conflate price rises with inflation. A natural disaster can cause the price of food, for instance, to rise. But it doesn't cause the money supply to rise. People just spend MORE for food and LESS for other things. In the case of an increase in the money supply during inflation, people could spend MORE for food and MORE for other things (assuming they get commensurate pay raises -- but most likely they pay MORE for essentials and forego other spending.)
.
Again you have to explain where the money supply comes from. It can't come from individuals or businesses because that would simply be counterfeiting. We don't get to create more money out of thin air. It doesn't matter if some hardship is due to weather or earthquake or acts of war. We don't get to create additional money.
.
So if the money supply increases, it is because the government created more. There is no other way. And the avenue for creating that new money is Federal Reserve policy. They decide. Inflation isn't an accident. They set the rate depending on the market result (contraction or expansion) they are targeting.
The covid stimulus spending. M2 was growing at the same rate as in the Obama years until Covid hit. That deficit spending was paid for by the Fed increasing the money supply.
.
But as I've said, inflation is a bipartisan looting of the wealth of the poor and middle class.
Inflation IS rising prices. Inflation started right after Covid before the Fed even acted. Read the Harvard link as you obviously have not.
And biden fucked up many things to cause it
2024 = GOP
Please provide one or more specific things that Biden did, with SOURCES.
And biden fucked up many things to cause it
They, too, including mortgage rates, have spiked. But NOT because of Biden, because of the Fed, whose chief, Powell, was appointed by Trump.
Actually, Powell is one of Trump's better picks. He and his colleagues of adeptly managed slowing down inflation while not crashing the economy.
fix the damage caused by Biden's policies. It's working. Inflation is coming down. HIgh interest rates only suck if you HAVE to borrow money NOW and can't wait a year until Trump is prez.
Sure, Biden has raised the deficit but a lot of that is the result of Trump's tax-related give-aways to the rich over which Biden has no control.
Then are are Trump's own deficit busters...
According to The Balance, a non-partisan web site: "At the end of fiscal year 2020, the debt was $26.9 trillion. Trump added $6.7 trillion to the debt between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2020, a 33.1% increase, largely due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and 2020 recession.
In his FY 2021 budget, Trump's budget included a $966 billion deficit.14 However, the national debt actually grew by $1.5 trillion between October 1, 2020, and October 1, 2021.
FY 2021: $1.5 trillion
FY 2020: $4.2 trillion
FY 2019: $1.2 trillion
FY 2018: $1.3 trillion"
That's a total debt increase of $8.2 TRILLION!
to covid, mostly in order to save jobs and businesses that would have otherwise gone under, and paying rents to keep average Americans from becoming homeless after they lost their jobs. 15,000,000 people lost their jobs in 2020 alone. Much of this money went to the states to pay extended unemployment compensation. I believe California got about $83 billion in 2020 for this purpose alone. The Dems blamed Trump for Covid despite the great job he did in preventing a complete collapse of society.
But Biden's deficits, to continue the same programs are BAD?
The Dems and Pelosi controlled Congress in 2020 and 2021, and Trump couldn't do Jack without their approval. The Dems ALSO controlled Congress in 2022 and 2023, and they just keep the legislation for more debt coming in the trillions. So you want to blame Trump for the deficit when it's the Democrat Congress who controls the power of the purse? How transparently duplicitous of you. Lol
To paraphrase CDL: "The Reps and Johnson control The House in 2023, and Biden can't do jack without their approval. The Reps refuse to act on Biden's Immigration bill to provide $14B for Border Security so TRUMP CAN USE THE BORDER AS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE. So you want to blame Biden for the border when it's a Republican Congress who controls the passage of bills in the House? You transparently duplitous of you! Lol."
.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/19/immigration-border-deal-republicans-johnson-trump/
House Republicans try to blow up the border deal they claim to want.
.
"GOP politicians have been shrieking about the U.S.-Mexico border since President Biden took office. Yet when offered the chance to beef up security there, House Republicans refuse. It’s an election year, after all. And when it comes to immigration, the problem is much more valuable than its cure. ...
.
"In a conference call this week, Johnson told his colleagues that Congress cannot solve the border crisis until Donald Trump or another Republican is president again, Punchbowl News reported. Which seems to give the game away: Rather than resolve a telegenic crisis, Republicans apparently plan to keep it going to mobilize their base ahead of the election. ..."
.
"Trump is similarly urging his congressional acolytes to hold the line. As he wrote on his platform Truth Social, “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” ..."
.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/immoral-republicans-rebuke-efforts-kill-immigration-deal-help-trump-rcna135732
"Tempers flared Thursday as Republicans battled among themselves over whether to accept or reject a deal for tougher immigration laws, with some pushing back on colleagues who want to bow to former President Donald Trump's wishes and kill it. “The border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and Congress people that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem — because he wants to blame Biden for it — is really appalling,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters. ..."
The Dems and Pelosi controlled Congress in 2020 and 2021, and Trump couldn't do Jack without their approval. The Dems ALSO controlled Congress in 2022 and 2023, and they just keep the legislation for more debt coming in the trillions. So you want to blame Trump for the deficit when it's the Democrat Congress who controls the power of the purse? How transparently duplicitous of you. Lol