With congressional elections looming early next year, campaign exaggerations and tall stories have already begun. Regrettably, that’s the nature of American politics these days.
A hot issue for campaign fodder is inflation, up 5.4% year over year in September. But up far more than that over the past 12 months for many basic items, e.g. gasoline up 42%, bacon up 28%, and used car prices up 24%.
Republicans, seeking to regain majorities in the House and Senate, have decided to blame this inflation on Democrat spending.
Consider a recent op-ed piece released by Sen. Roger Wicker’s office entitled “Democrat inflation burns a hole in American wallets” that said, "Our economy is resilient, but it is drowning in federal spending passed by Democrats this year.”
This may play well politically in Mississippi, but it’s far from the whole story.
It all goes back to supply and demand. The COVID-19 pandemic decimated supply production and distribution systems. It also reduced demand as people hunkered down and quit spending.
In response Republicans during the Trump administration passed the $2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020 followed by another $900 billion in spending in December 2020 and worked to re-open the economy as quickly as possible. Coupled with massive liquidity provided by the Federal Reserve, Republican spending and policies caused the economy to rebound quickly, growing at an annual rate of 6.4% this year.
The consequence of this was surging demand in the face of persistent scarcity of supply. That is the cause of current inflation.
Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey provided an example of this in a recent newsletter. “Natural gas prices have nearly tripled within the past ten months….The higher domestic prices are being driven by tight global supplies and greater demand around the world.”
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed by Democrats in March 2021 (with much still unspent) plus continued Federal Reserve support have simply continued the demand side stimulus Republicans started.
The real culprit, of course, has been COVID-19 and the disruptions it spawned. The spending, so far, by both parties has been in response to that economic calamity.
In a sane world, the two parties would be working together to fully resolve this crisis. However, our politics does not operate sanely these days.
While supply chain disruption will likely be prolonged, the Federal Reserve believes inflationary pressures will be transitory. If so, continued stimulus by the Fed plus excessive spending by Congress would imprudently sustain inflation.
Sen. Wicker and his fellow Republicans should be campaigning on their successful role in rapidly rebuilding the economy (albeit with too many COVID deaths) while warning that future inflation will result if Democrats pass their proposed multi-trillion dollar spending package.
Instead they are choosing to just blame Democrats for what’s wrong now.
Will this glib campaign strategy work?
Probably.
American voters tend to blame or credit whoever is in office at the time for their economic plight or plenty without regard for the prior events and lead time required to get there.
“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord” – Lamentations 3:40.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
18 comments:
There's a difference in spending money to re-start an economy crippled by a pandemic and spending money to make people dependent on government to perpetually secure their votes...THAT (along with other various socialistic/communistic policies) is what the midterms will be about.
“ American voters tend to blame or credit whoever is in office at the time for their economic plight or plenty without regard for the prior events and lead time required to get there.”
But of course, because the vast majority of Americans and selfish, lazy, uneducated ignorants that survive on self indulgence and instant gratification. Mississippi is the worst example of this.
What a crock of shit Bill. Anyone with any sense knows the reasons for shortages in America. It basically all starts with the Chinese Communist Party! These are the people who unleashed this pandemic on the world. And while the world suffers and dies their economy grows at break neck speed. You see the communist didn’t lock down their populations. They simply have enough warm bodies that if someone dies because of their pandemic they just put another body in its place.
And because of American greed food manufacturers are selling large food production facilities to Chinese buyers. Those buyers ship larger and larger food products to their homeland and American shelves become empty. Oh they ship us basketballs and tennis shoes made by slave labor shops in China. And this is all happening with the blessings of this administration. The other day a press release from a left wing paper stated that Americans Have Became Fat and Lazy. Conditioned by years of excess. Typical communist comments. Turn America into Venezuela so we can appreciate food!!
There is no honorable compromise to be had with Biden and his socialists who have decimated our energy autonomy to make us dependent on foreign oil and gas, taught perversion and racism to our kids, left about 300 Americans, hundreds of allies and $85B languishing among terrorists in Afghanistan.
No compromise can be had with Biden's Bolsheviks who refused to develop Covid therapies and refused to honor natural immunity or private medical choices, opened the border to every undeserving, often diseased peasant and border jumping criminal in the world and eagerly replaced common sense responsibility in government with marxist degradation.
One must simply tolerate the systemic nausea the leftists cause until they can be vomited up and flushed away in 2022 and 2024.
Remember Trump emphasized vaccines plus therapies, energy independence, cutting of oppressive regulations, reinvestment of private capital in America and opportunities for all to pursue prosperity that flowed from his policies.
We see every week Bill and other Democrats pretend that all the problems we face today are caused by Republicans.
Please read the post at 11:49 four more times. The others are lagniappe. Wonder why Crawford can't see it?
Pretty sure it’s actually the blame game that’s got us into this mess And folks like Bill actually know this but you know he’s got to get his shots in. Only true fact now is how could we ever recover ?! Old BIll and thousands like him doomed us long ago.
Amen 11:49! Biden has completely lost it. The father of his transportation secretary was a Communist professor at Notre Dame. His treasurer nominee is a far left Marxist that believes that banks should turn over their deposits to the government for control. It never end in his administration. He’s completely off the rails.
'What a crock of shit Bill. Anyone with any sense knows the reasons for shortages in America. It basically all starts with the Chinese Communist Party!"
Absolutely. If Kroger (and Walmart, etc.) would just start buying milk, bread, eggs, chicken, produce, peanut butter, and thousands of other food products from the Chinese, then they could stop doing it and that would really teach 'em a lesson! If I may ask, what in the hell does China or communists - Chinese, Venezuelan, or Plutonian - have to do with the shortages and supply chain issues of the above and many other food products? Granted, kids may well have to go without a single "Vocal Fry Whining Kardashislut" doll as a Christmas/holiday present and the Chinese government may well have something to do with that. I would like to sincerely thank them for whatever role, however small, they may have played in such as that. I am doing my part to stymie the Chinese government (but I generally like the Chinese people) by refusing to buy any wines, "Scotches," suits, slacks, blazers, shirts, shoes, undergarments, ties, cars, surgical instruments, or company stocks produced in or by the Chinese government. Admittedly, I have been doing that very thing for 50 years, so it isn't the sacrifice it might at first blush seem.
Things are going to get a lot worse for North America. Scientific journals are slowly trickling out new findings that the Atlantic Ocean currents that keep warm air drawing up to the North in the winter have weakened severely. It is climate change but not global warming and definitely not caused by CO2. The point is that we may end up seeing Texas and Mississippi freeze over like Alberta and Manitoba, Canada for months as the USA experiences winters similar to the Canadian plains. Something that was common 12,000 years ago. We are all going to have to learn to prepare for harsh winters and those who do not will expect the government to take care of them.
According to Crawford it's another "...vast right wing conspiracy," "...but what does it matter?"
Sleepy Demented Joe kicked it off in his term by shutting down the pipeline expansion. That ripple affect alone took this to the next level as it shot up prices up and down the supply chain for everything.
And this "SOB" was a big shot at "M" "D" "A" one time. People from Meridian...Geez.
If I may ask, what in the hell does China or communists - Chinese, Venezuelan, or Plutonian - have to do with the shortages and supply chain issues of the above and many other food products?
Turn up your self-education efforts to High since you're without a clue how the Chi-coms have inserted themselves into our domestic food production efforts.
Sounds like we need to "kill" all of our democratic and republican masters, since jobs/businesses/resources have been allowed to flow to the Chinese under both their watches. We really need to hold our elected leaders accountable, as well as our corporate leaders, that put shareholders' interests over the well-being of our country! I have no problem with making a profit, but to what extent do we keep crapping on the American people at the expense of wealth for wealth's sake.
@9:18
You don't blame the corporations that sold out to the Chi-coms for this issue with domestic food production efforts? It is not all on the government.
"Turn up your self-education efforts to High since you're without a clue how the Chi-coms have inserted themselves into our domestic food production efforts."
Yeah, the "Chi-com" infiltration of the tin-foil industry is gonna be a real problem for some.
Alcoa is sure missing an opportunity with this one: "Tin Foil. Made In America By Americans for Americans...Especially Its Lunatics!" I know what some may be thinking - "Wait a sec, that's exclusionary and therefore offensive to Canadians, Mexicans, central and South *American* nuts..." Way ahead of ya. It's all-inclusive! Every American loony will be just as welcome as US loonies to make as many sombreros (or chapeaux for the fucking Quebecois) as they wish. Plus, it can be made anywhere from Cape Horn to the Arctic Circle without a single word change! That'll show them there Chi-coms!
If I understand the gist of these accusations, a chicken farming redneck, even a rich one, picks up his iPhone, searches the contact list, and within seconds, Xi answers on his iFone (a knockoff, of course) and they begin to plot. Chickenboy wants mo' money, Xi wants Taiwan, so Xi agrees to buy out chickenboy and chickenboy agrees to sponsor the "1st Annual (sic) Special Socialist Hole-In-One Shootout" golf tournament in Laurel (the shirts say "ASSHoleN1" - probably a misprint what with being printed in China and all...), bribe Lynn to drop that lawsuit (OK, that one is theoretically possible), and let the Chinese invade Taiwan. That sounds suspiciously like the plot of a Tim Crancy/Jeff Ryon (a knockoff, of course) novel.
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