Delaney Mirrors … Trump? Ex-Rep. Says It Seems Dems Are ‘Cheering On’ Recession

Evangelical Democrats

I’ve never understood why FDR get’s the benefit of “well he was a product of his time” for his flaws (passive racism, active antisemitism, war mongering, welfare for whites, etc) but no one else does, including Biden.

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How 'bout if I refund your Prime payment. Will you go then? :sunglasses:

bqatever

That’s a subset of what we call Blue Dogs.
They voted for Nixon. And Ford.
And Reagan. Twice.
And Bush. Twice. And Dole.
And the other Bush - twice.
And McCain. And Romney.
And the current embarrassment.
Whom they will likely vote for a second time.

If they were loyal to their claimed party and voted for its candidates, there is immense harm that would have been mitigated, and still more that would have never come to pass in the first place. And no need to placate the Blue Dogs this subset makes it necessary to kowtow to in order for Congressional Democrats to ameliorate the worst depradations of the Republican Presidents they voted for.

Attack of the headless chickens

By Paul Krugman

One of my parents’ favorite expressions about a panicky person was “He’s running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” As a suburban kid, I have no idea whether decapitated chickens actually do run around. But the expression seems apt for Trump and his economic officials over the past few days.

Now, the economic news isn’t actually all that bad, at least so far. Growth has slowed, probably to around 2 percent, manufacturing is down, and the trade deficit has gotten bigger, not smaller. But it’s by no means clear that we’re heading for an actual recession. Bond markets are signaling gloom, but this doesn’t look or feel anything like, say, early 2008, let alone the chaos of late 2008.

But Trump and his inner circle are acting — to mix my chicken metaphors — as if the sky is falling. Trump is lashing out at what he considers a conspiracy to get him. He’s accusing the Federal Reserve of sabotaging his boom, even though interest rates are actually a lot lower than the administration projected in its ownrosy forecasts from last year. He’s also blaming Democrats who, he says, are “trying to ‘will’ the Economy to be bad.”

By the way, it’s news to me that opposition politicians can drag the economy down just by thinking bad thoughts. Since the term “voodoo economics” is already taken, I’d suggest that we call this “hoodoo economics.”

Anyway, Trump and company are flailing. Trump is demanding drastic policy easing from the Fed, on a scale that normally only happens when the economy is definitely sliding into recession. Officials have also drawn up a white paper suggesting a cut in payroll taxes, to boost consumer spending by putting more money in the hands of ordinary workers.

What’s striking about these proposals isn’t just the evident panic they display. It’s the implicit admission that Republican economic thinking has been wrong all along.

Some readers may remember the G.O.P.’s furious attacks on the Fed for pursuing an easy-money policy back in 2010-2011, when the economy desperately needed a boost in the face of high unemployment. Such policies, Republican leaders claimed, would lead to inflation and “debase” the dollar. Now Trump is demanding similar policies, even though unemployment remains at a historic low.

Republicans also denounced and ridiculed the Obama administration’s efforts at fiscal stimulus, which included payroll tax cuts intended to raise workers’ incomes and lead to higher spending. Trump’s 2017 tax cut basically bypassed ordinary workers, giving big tax breaks to corporations instead, on the theory that these tax cuts would trickle down to the middle class. Now the Trump administration is basically admitting that trickle-down isn’t working and that Obama-style stimulus is actually the right way to go.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think any of these desperate measures is likely to happen anytime soon. The Fed is in no mood to be bullied by a president it believes has damaged the economy with his trade war. And while Democrats might support a clean payroll tax cut that really went to workers, my guess is that Republicans won’t be able to resist the temptation to lard their proposals up with more goodies for the rich.

And maybe none of it will be needed. We don’t actually know that a recession is coming. But if it does come, we know how the administration will respond: with blind panic.

He’s running to be a Chase lobbyist.

Absolutely. I looked at his bio - his district was the red western panhandle of Maryland plus a big chunk of Montgomery County in the beltway. He and D gerrymandering flipped this seat and he beat Dan Bongino in 2014 midterm. I’m OK with moderate D’s representing light purple seats (Cook has it at D+6). But in a presidential where D turnout will be the key, charisma-challenged moderates are not going to cut it. In 20/20 hindsight, he should have made a run for Governor oust Republican Larry Hogan, but when he looked in the mirror, he didn’t see a governor, he saw a president. Perhaps we can start a Go Fund Me to buy him a new mirror.

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hey don’t go away - or say goodbye first before you do

Classic Quote: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

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I’ve never been more than slightly lukewarm about Biden. Maybe he’s safe but he’s boring and in Iowa so far when there should be enthusiasm there is little. Telling us he electable and repeated by his campaign is not enough.

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That “Okay” -said so nonchalantly and without pause- was one of the funniest lines in the movie!

Unless…HE’S part of the Deep State pretending to be AGAINST the Deep State to throw the Deep State opponents off…whoa, what was I saying?

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