Surely the last nearly 2 decades, should have taught Americans, government cures are often far worse than the disease. The portion of the wealth held by the top 10% of US families has vastly increased over the past few decades. Biden alone increased the number of US billionaires by more than 20% during his term, with an economy mostly locked down for nearly 1/2 of it. When more than 1/5th of all US billionaires ever created in history, appear in just 4 years, during a 2 year government imposed economic freeze, that wealth was largely derived from the government spending.
Somewhere, someone knows exactly where all the Covid and Green spending trillions went, but we have a pretty good idea where the bulk of it landed. The Seattle Times, hardly a bastion of Biden hate, has reported under Joe's reign, the wealth of just the 100 wealthiest American families increased by more than $1.5 trillion. Overall, America's top 0.1% were enriched $6 trillion dollars, under Biden. Wealth that concentrated, that quickly, is rare in all of US history.
Americans in the bottom 4 economic quintiles were not handed no bid contracts for Covid mask theatre, or worthless school shields. Green companies, newly formed under Biden, are about to start filing Chapter 11 en mass, before they go Chapter 7, when their government subsidies completely disappear. Their owners and shareholders will overwhelmingly be Dem donors with DC connections. The same people who caught Covid dollars, when DC tossed them by the trillions.
Reps missed a huge opportunity to build a lasting majority coalition when they failed to raise taxes on the top 2% of wealthiest Americans. Dems should not make the same mistake, in the opposite direction. They must stop enriching America's wealthiest and calling the transfer of trillions,"stimulus".
They must stop enriching themselves. People, rich Democrats, making the kind of money, off of the government, you talk about doesn't give the money running the party, any reason to go down another path.
I suggest that before deciding how to get there, we need to settle on a destination. There's a crying need for Democrats to listen, not to advise. We need to ask people "What's on your mind?" "What's worrying you?" "What keeps you up at night?" and finally, "How could we help?"
I see no evidence that Democrats can avoid "big fiscal". We are still in the top down, big money to big corporations mode. Intel, the largest recipient of Democratic largess is a basket case. When I followed the monies for clean energy in the IRS, it went to our governor who couldn't spend it fast enough and it sat in the bank waiting for non profits to actually do something with all that money other then write grant proposals. Eventually the Trump admin took it back I hope. I've never seen that much money do so little.
The BS has been 40 years in the making, at this point neither party is going to convince anyone of anything until the actual money is in the paycheck. I'm a Democrat, and I'm not changing my party registration, but I've learned that in the privacy of my vote I can vote Republican. My vote has to be earned now.
One of the reasons for the disruption of Big Fiscal was neatly described in your Saturday post about reverse watermelons. Until that is exorcisized, Democrats have both a perception problem that drives down electoral prospects and a governance problem that hampers pro-worker intervention in the economy. Even the Abundance agenda is in thrall to the reverse watermelons. Note also in the same post, in the poll about housing affordability, that the least popular alternative was deleting parking from housing. That this was even on the table was due to the malign influence of the reverse watermelons.
I wrote a post a few weeks back called "The Green Crux," in which I asked us to move away from zero-sum thinking on the environment. Green reshoring is a thing, but nobody thinks that if and when manufacturing ever comes back to the US it will be completely free of negative environmental impacts. (Even the original Green New Deal acknowledged that.) At least 70 years have gone by since our last big era of plant construction, and since then we've seen a lot of technologies automatically included in all new building that save energy and pollute less. I think it's more realistic to assume that if (again, a big if) we ever bring back decent manufacturing jobs for workers, they will be more automated (fewer workers, but that's okay), with a mix of positive and negative environmental impacts.
Lots of debate about future impact of AI on the workforce. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that it takes lots of electricity. And the Greens seem to oppose any specific project to generate or transmit electricity. The Abundance people seem OK with nuclear in principle but lots of resistance to any specific plant. Out here in the Great Basin, the planning before Trump upset the apple cart, was to cover significant areas of the desert with solar panels. Lots of government space and sun here. This is being opposed by an uncomfortable coalition of desert preservationists, endangered species activists, NIMBYs, people who are opposed to solar, people who are anti-utility company, people who think the power will wind up in cities, people afraid of AI, Indian tribes and who knows who. Pretty good recipe for deadlock. Add in the complications of reshoring mining and it gets worse.
Big fiscal sounds to me like income distribution, from the taxpayers to the favored few.
There is an optimal level of government; which maximizes economic growth and opportunity. Zero government is chaos and 100%% government in the Soviet experiment.
The private investments of millions of Americans are the seeds of innovation and productivity gains.
Would the Democrat party sacrifice promises of gifts to some voters to increase productivity?
I learned, as an econ major, that savings equal investment. Savings and investments from all levels of wealth. A billionaire that starts a successful company, employing thousands, is a good thing.
But not if those thousands are a bunch of underpaid folks from the other side of the world. A living wage by US living standards is the only thing that any of us should be talking about at this point - wages, wages, living wages for everyone, not just the lucky folks on this call.
Thanks for your reply to my post - this is much appreciated. A living wage is about $35/hour, and if you and I enjoy this level of comfort and security, why don't all US workers have this going for them? "No skills" is a relative term based on the worker's ability to represent and self-advocate. Currently the nursing home industry is a multi-billion dollar concern because that's how much we'd pay to pawn off the care of our elders onto someone else. Do the CNAs wiping the butts of Aging America get any part of that multi-billion bonanza? No, because we've declared what they do a low skills job that is worth only minimum payment. If they all suddenly walked off the job, we'd probably be willing to put a higher value on what they do, so I think we should save the walkout and rethink how we assign value to the "lowest" work. Thank you again!
I have been retired for 17 years, therefore wages aren’t relevent for me. I rely on the return on my savings and investments, so need a growing, prosperous economy to live with dignity. Big fiscal means my living standard goes down, like it did the last time.
I hope Ds take your advice, because the voter reg numbers do NOT show anyone, anywhere is unhappy with President Trump or Republicans. People apparently know from history (Reagan, 1981-2) that it takes about a year to get everything oiled up and running right. Meanwhile
NC Rs = +2000 net last month (Rs now are down barely 15,000 in a state Ds led by 175,000 just five years ago)
Maricopa Co., AZ Rs = +1800. Other counties don't report as regularly, but given their makeup, this means that Rs have gained probably about 2,500 to 2,000 net in a state where they already led by over 300,000. They seem pretty happy with Trump.
PA Rs= +4,000, with the total D lead now under 100,000 in a state where Ds led by 1.1 MILLION in 2022.
FL Rs now +10.1 points.
UT saw a shift of about 200 to Ds
VA early voting is extremely high in Trump counties, lower than 2024 in D counties
NJ poling now has Citarelli ahead.
What all this means is that the continued attacks on Trump are seen as sour grapes, NOT as a willingness to work with him to rebuild America.
Utah, of course, is heavily Mormon. They don't like Trump, regardless of his policies, because he isn't "polite." I have a Mormon friend who says, "You know, Mormons are a polite people." Yes, but then in the name of politeness they elect people who want them dead. It's a problem Now, the Utah shift was only a hundred votes, and could just be a glitch in the statistics for a month. Even if it wasn't Utah is not going blue in the next century. But it is frustrating.
I totally understand your friend's comments. I watched the Kirk memorial yesterday, dreading the time when Trump would take the stage. What a train wreck. Talking about tariffs and himself for 45 minutes. I was literally yelling "get off the stage for the love of all that is holy SHUT UP I'm begging you."
Too many words in the article, but good ideas. This is simple, but difficult to accomplish. Get rid of profligate government spending on useless things. Stop creating more government debt, or at least reduce the growth. Cut regulation at all levels of government. Shrink the bureaucracy. Cut taxes for the middle (the rich don't need it and the poor don't pay taxes). Move away from socialism and big government.
At this point in time, specifics on policy changes may be outdated by 2026 and certainly 2028. I appreciate the moderate tone of current LP writers. But, a big but, how will the Dems convince anyone of the sincerity, effectiveness and like Bernie said about Kamala, just window dressing to get elected. Why would we ever believe the Democrats again. Because if it is just another bait and switch, the consequences could be devasting if Mandani is the real policy maker of the Dem party? He is no different than the radical trans and LGBTQ people joe hired. We saw the effect of his DEI hires and recoiled in horror their lack of ability to do their job as they became DEI only hires regardless of the job they were appointed too. As we saw with Kamal, she blew through $1 billion plus in a few months as joe's shining example of a DEI selection blew up in everyone's face.
And now we will see the impact of Charlie Kirk the martyr. Will his faith in the young people prove to be lasting and to the benefit of the Republicans. They were in Nov last year. And just who on the Democrat side has tried to appeal to them? What policies, what attempts to reach them? 80-year-old white people aren't going to hack it. Anti Trump won 't hack it. As such as the Dems will try to tie any Republican candidate to Trump, but it won't be Trump. The country will prove all the Dem fear mongering again to be a failed strategy in lieu of any "we know what you want strategy".
I will guarantee that when asked what Trump policies they will you do different, they will tell the world.
It will be bait and switch until the dems abandon kooky, far-left platform planks. And abandon them in deed and not just in word. That will be slow to come.
Even Josh Shapiro has gone to the Jasmine Crockett side. I can't think of one moderate Dem, they're all on X with their performative videos and F bombs.
Your problem is that the economy is not sputtering. After a slow start to the year driven by tariff fear-mongering, it is showing many signs of strong growth. At which point, what do you have to say?
Whether or not it is, as the people accept the premise that it is, the Dems will find it hard to counter the argument. Based on their past record convincing people bidenomics was working. what was bidenomics but a slogan for the egotistical biden and his government cabal.
High grocery prices were not the only killer to average Americans. It was also gas prices going from $2 per gallon to nearly $5 per gallon. I also believe that another factor to grocery prices, housing, and other goods increasing in price was the influx of illegal migrants who were given free housing and free money to spend in competition with average American citizens. Today, I believe retailers, especially grocery stores, are in a fight for survival, so they must raise prices to keep going. Their increasing cost of labor, rent, and electricity to provide AC and necessary refrigeration/freezing is a huge reason they cannot lower prices even though their cost of goods may not be increasing, as current inflation statistics show. Your point about Dems needing to find some issue that voters can begin to trust Democrats is a huge one. Right now, I don't trust Democrats. They put up Biden as a moderate and uniter, who, after getting elected went hard left, opening the border to 10 to 20 million illegal migrants, stiffening rules around oil production, and cramming the Green New Deal down our collective throat. We need the Dems to come back to save our republic from going authoritarian. That can only happen if we voters begin to trust the Democrat party. So far, I don't see any progress toward that end.
I think there's a kind of fiscal stimulus that could help win back disillusioned blue collar voters. Massively expand federal funding for services like addiction recovery, mental health, police, and regional economic development (allow a lot of local discretion). Pay for these over time by gradually increasing taxes on the upper classes (funds can also come from taxing opioids, and legalizing and taxing marijuana).
Jared Golden's idea of turning the CTC a monthly child benefit (which parents would get from the SSA rather than the IRS) is a good one. Same logic, tax the upper classes (maybe get rid of the SALT and mortgage deductions). Make it permanent, not temporary like Biden's expansion of the CTC.
And while most of Trump's tariffs are counterproductive, I think a small universal tariff (a few percentage points), with funds devoted to boosting manufacturing and related infrastructure, makes sense.
Surely the last nearly 2 decades, should have taught Americans, government cures are often far worse than the disease. The portion of the wealth held by the top 10% of US families has vastly increased over the past few decades. Biden alone increased the number of US billionaires by more than 20% during his term, with an economy mostly locked down for nearly 1/2 of it. When more than 1/5th of all US billionaires ever created in history, appear in just 4 years, during a 2 year government imposed economic freeze, that wealth was largely derived from the government spending.
Somewhere, someone knows exactly where all the Covid and Green spending trillions went, but we have a pretty good idea where the bulk of it landed. The Seattle Times, hardly a bastion of Biden hate, has reported under Joe's reign, the wealth of just the 100 wealthiest American families increased by more than $1.5 trillion. Overall, America's top 0.1% were enriched $6 trillion dollars, under Biden. Wealth that concentrated, that quickly, is rare in all of US history.
Americans in the bottom 4 economic quintiles were not handed no bid contracts for Covid mask theatre, or worthless school shields. Green companies, newly formed under Biden, are about to start filing Chapter 11 en mass, before they go Chapter 7, when their government subsidies completely disappear. Their owners and shareholders will overwhelmingly be Dem donors with DC connections. The same people who caught Covid dollars, when DC tossed them by the trillions.
Reps missed a huge opportunity to build a lasting majority coalition when they failed to raise taxes on the top 2% of wealthiest Americans. Dems should not make the same mistake, in the opposite direction. They must stop enriching America's wealthiest and calling the transfer of trillions,"stimulus".
They must stop enriching themselves. People, rich Democrats, making the kind of money, off of the government, you talk about doesn't give the money running the party, any reason to go down another path.
I suggest that before deciding how to get there, we need to settle on a destination. There's a crying need for Democrats to listen, not to advise. We need to ask people "What's on your mind?" "What's worrying you?" "What keeps you up at night?" and finally, "How could we help?"
I see no evidence that Democrats can avoid "big fiscal". We are still in the top down, big money to big corporations mode. Intel, the largest recipient of Democratic largess is a basket case. When I followed the monies for clean energy in the IRS, it went to our governor who couldn't spend it fast enough and it sat in the bank waiting for non profits to actually do something with all that money other then write grant proposals. Eventually the Trump admin took it back I hope. I've never seen that much money do so little.
The BS has been 40 years in the making, at this point neither party is going to convince anyone of anything until the actual money is in the paycheck. I'm a Democrat, and I'm not changing my party registration, but I've learned that in the privacy of my vote I can vote Republican. My vote has to be earned now.
One of the reasons for the disruption of Big Fiscal was neatly described in your Saturday post about reverse watermelons. Until that is exorcisized, Democrats have both a perception problem that drives down electoral prospects and a governance problem that hampers pro-worker intervention in the economy. Even the Abundance agenda is in thrall to the reverse watermelons. Note also in the same post, in the poll about housing affordability, that the least popular alternative was deleting parking from housing. That this was even on the table was due to the malign influence of the reverse watermelons.
I wrote a post a few weeks back called "The Green Crux," in which I asked us to move away from zero-sum thinking on the environment. Green reshoring is a thing, but nobody thinks that if and when manufacturing ever comes back to the US it will be completely free of negative environmental impacts. (Even the original Green New Deal acknowledged that.) At least 70 years have gone by since our last big era of plant construction, and since then we've seen a lot of technologies automatically included in all new building that save energy and pollute less. I think it's more realistic to assume that if (again, a big if) we ever bring back decent manufacturing jobs for workers, they will be more automated (fewer workers, but that's okay), with a mix of positive and negative environmental impacts.
Lots of debate about future impact of AI on the workforce. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that it takes lots of electricity. And the Greens seem to oppose any specific project to generate or transmit electricity. The Abundance people seem OK with nuclear in principle but lots of resistance to any specific plant. Out here in the Great Basin, the planning before Trump upset the apple cart, was to cover significant areas of the desert with solar panels. Lots of government space and sun here. This is being opposed by an uncomfortable coalition of desert preservationists, endangered species activists, NIMBYs, people who are opposed to solar, people who are anti-utility company, people who think the power will wind up in cities, people afraid of AI, Indian tribes and who knows who. Pretty good recipe for deadlock. Add in the complications of reshoring mining and it gets worse.
Big fiscal sounds to me like income distribution, from the taxpayers to the favored few.
There is an optimal level of government; which maximizes economic growth and opportunity. Zero government is chaos and 100%% government in the Soviet experiment.
The private investments of millions of Americans are the seeds of innovation and productivity gains.
Would the Democrat party sacrifice promises of gifts to some voters to increase productivity?
I learned, as an econ major, that savings equal investment. Savings and investments from all levels of wealth. A billionaire that starts a successful company, employing thousands, is a good thing.
But not if those thousands are a bunch of underpaid folks from the other side of the world. A living wage by US living standards is the only thing that any of us should be talking about at this point - wages, wages, living wages for everyone, not just the lucky folks on this call.
What is a living wage? And how would a high-school dropout with no skills get handed said living wage?
Thanks for your reply to my post - this is much appreciated. A living wage is about $35/hour, and if you and I enjoy this level of comfort and security, why don't all US workers have this going for them? "No skills" is a relative term based on the worker's ability to represent and self-advocate. Currently the nursing home industry is a multi-billion dollar concern because that's how much we'd pay to pawn off the care of our elders onto someone else. Do the CNAs wiping the butts of Aging America get any part of that multi-billion bonanza? No, because we've declared what they do a low skills job that is worth only minimum payment. If they all suddenly walked off the job, we'd probably be willing to put a higher value on what they do, so I think we should save the walkout and rethink how we assign value to the "lowest" work. Thank you again!
I have been retired for 17 years, therefore wages aren’t relevent for me. I rely on the return on my savings and investments, so need a growing, prosperous economy to live with dignity. Big fiscal means my living standard goes down, like it did the last time.
I hope Ds take your advice, because the voter reg numbers do NOT show anyone, anywhere is unhappy with President Trump or Republicans. People apparently know from history (Reagan, 1981-2) that it takes about a year to get everything oiled up and running right. Meanwhile
NC Rs = +2000 net last month (Rs now are down barely 15,000 in a state Ds led by 175,000 just five years ago)
Maricopa Co., AZ Rs = +1800. Other counties don't report as regularly, but given their makeup, this means that Rs have gained probably about 2,500 to 2,000 net in a state where they already led by over 300,000. They seem pretty happy with Trump.
PA Rs= +4,000, with the total D lead now under 100,000 in a state where Ds led by 1.1 MILLION in 2022.
FL Rs now +10.1 points.
UT saw a shift of about 200 to Ds
VA early voting is extremely high in Trump counties, lower than 2024 in D counties
NJ poling now has Citarelli ahead.
What all this means is that the continued attacks on Trump are seen as sour grapes, NOT as a willingness to work with him to rebuild America.
What's going on in Utah, and do you think that will continue after the past few weeks?
Utah, of course, is heavily Mormon. They don't like Trump, regardless of his policies, because he isn't "polite." I have a Mormon friend who says, "You know, Mormons are a polite people." Yes, but then in the name of politeness they elect people who want them dead. It's a problem Now, the Utah shift was only a hundred votes, and could just be a glitch in the statistics for a month. Even if it wasn't Utah is not going blue in the next century. But it is frustrating.
I totally understand your friend's comments. I watched the Kirk memorial yesterday, dreading the time when Trump would take the stage. What a train wreck. Talking about tariffs and himself for 45 minutes. I was literally yelling "get off the stage for the love of all that is holy SHUT UP I'm begging you."
Too many words in the article, but good ideas. This is simple, but difficult to accomplish. Get rid of profligate government spending on useless things. Stop creating more government debt, or at least reduce the growth. Cut regulation at all levels of government. Shrink the bureaucracy. Cut taxes for the middle (the rich don't need it and the poor don't pay taxes). Move away from socialism and big government.
"anemic job growth"
Thar started in the biden administration's watch.
At this point in time, specifics on policy changes may be outdated by 2026 and certainly 2028. I appreciate the moderate tone of current LP writers. But, a big but, how will the Dems convince anyone of the sincerity, effectiveness and like Bernie said about Kamala, just window dressing to get elected. Why would we ever believe the Democrats again. Because if it is just another bait and switch, the consequences could be devasting if Mandani is the real policy maker of the Dem party? He is no different than the radical trans and LGBTQ people joe hired. We saw the effect of his DEI hires and recoiled in horror their lack of ability to do their job as they became DEI only hires regardless of the job they were appointed too. As we saw with Kamal, she blew through $1 billion plus in a few months as joe's shining example of a DEI selection blew up in everyone's face.
And now we will see the impact of Charlie Kirk the martyr. Will his faith in the young people prove to be lasting and to the benefit of the Republicans. They were in Nov last year. And just who on the Democrat side has tried to appeal to them? What policies, what attempts to reach them? 80-year-old white people aren't going to hack it. Anti Trump won 't hack it. As such as the Dems will try to tie any Republican candidate to Trump, but it won't be Trump. The country will prove all the Dem fear mongering again to be a failed strategy in lieu of any "we know what you want strategy".
I will guarantee that when asked what Trump policies they will you do different, they will tell the world.
It will be bait and switch until the dems abandon kooky, far-left platform planks. And abandon them in deed and not just in word. That will be slow to come.
Even Josh Shapiro has gone to the Jasmine Crockett side. I can't think of one moderate Dem, they're all on X with their performative videos and F bombs.
Your problem is that the economy is not sputtering. After a slow start to the year driven by tariff fear-mongering, it is showing many signs of strong growth. At which point, what do you have to say?
Whether or not it is, as the people accept the premise that it is, the Dems will find it hard to counter the argument. Based on their past record convincing people bidenomics was working. what was bidenomics but a slogan for the egotistical biden and his government cabal.
High grocery prices were not the only killer to average Americans. It was also gas prices going from $2 per gallon to nearly $5 per gallon. I also believe that another factor to grocery prices, housing, and other goods increasing in price was the influx of illegal migrants who were given free housing and free money to spend in competition with average American citizens. Today, I believe retailers, especially grocery stores, are in a fight for survival, so they must raise prices to keep going. Their increasing cost of labor, rent, and electricity to provide AC and necessary refrigeration/freezing is a huge reason they cannot lower prices even though their cost of goods may not be increasing, as current inflation statistics show. Your point about Dems needing to find some issue that voters can begin to trust Democrats is a huge one. Right now, I don't trust Democrats. They put up Biden as a moderate and uniter, who, after getting elected went hard left, opening the border to 10 to 20 million illegal migrants, stiffening rules around oil production, and cramming the Green New Deal down our collective throat. We need the Dems to come back to save our republic from going authoritarian. That can only happen if we voters begin to trust the Democrat party. So far, I don't see any progress toward that end.
The Democrats have nothing to offer and they will be defeated in the 2026 midterms
I didn't have that at all.
I think there's a kind of fiscal stimulus that could help win back disillusioned blue collar voters. Massively expand federal funding for services like addiction recovery, mental health, police, and regional economic development (allow a lot of local discretion). Pay for these over time by gradually increasing taxes on the upper classes (funds can also come from taxing opioids, and legalizing and taxing marijuana).
Jared Golden's idea of turning the CTC a monthly child benefit (which parents would get from the SSA rather than the IRS) is a good one. Same logic, tax the upper classes (maybe get rid of the SALT and mortgage deductions). Make it permanent, not temporary like Biden's expansion of the CTC.
And while most of Trump's tariffs are counterproductive, I think a small universal tariff (a few percentage points), with funds devoted to boosting manufacturing and related infrastructure, makes sense.
So expand government and raise taxes? That's what Dems are supposed to run on?