Prickly City by Scott Stantis for March 20, 2021

Republicans would have a lot more credibility regarding debt and deficits if only they spoke up when they were giving out trillions of dollars to the already super-rich.

Why do deficits suddenly “matter” only when there’s a Democrat in the Oval??

Tax cuts for the rich NEVER add to the debt, right Stantis?

Anyway, remember It’s OKAY If A Republican* Does It.

Always.

There are only three ways in all of history to finance government.

If people are taxed, they notice and don’t much like it.

If people lend money to the government, they expect to get paid back.

But if the government spends more money than it takes in, only a few people notice that your life savings get eaten by price inflation and your standard of living stagnates.

(In fact, our American standard of living would have collapsed decades ago if not for three factors: women leaving the kitchen to join the workforce; internationalization of trade, especially with China; and the constant flow of new technology. Each of those deserves a long comment, but this is already long enough.)

Instead of “debt” the wild animal should be labelled “Bush and Trump tax cuts.” Clinton left office with us on the way to paying off the debt. Bush blew it on tax cuts and left us on the edge of a second Depression. Democrats are the fiscally responsible party. Republicans are the ones who keep wrecking the ecnomy.

That should be an elephant

At least interest rates are low. Now, 4 trillion more for infrastructure.

Yes, we understand, you’re afraid of the boogie man.

These “OMG! The Debt!!” cartoons aren’t reflecting reality…

Stantis is just early with the GQP’s disinformation….

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“I think the Trojan horse will be called infrastructure, but inside the Trojan horse will be all the tax increases,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week. “They want to raise taxes across the board.”

For those struggling to decode these comments, here’s the trap McConnell is laying.

Any major upgrade of America’s roads, bridges, broadband network, water systems and other infrastructure will be expensive.

That’s part of the reason “Infrastructure Week,” though much hyped in recent years, still hasn’t happened, despite the obvious need for more infrastructure investment and the popularity of such proposals.

If Democrats try to undertake this expensive project without paying for it, Republicans will no doubt accuse them of running up the debt and thereby stoking out-of-control inflation.

✁

Today, Democrats are addressing concerns about debt and inflation risks by brainstorming ways to pay for their ambitious infrastructure plans — likely through increases to individual and corporate income taxes.

Anticipating this, Republicans have preemptively accused Democrats of using infrastructure as a “Trojan horse” for tax hikes.

By this twisted logic, tax increases are Democrats’ secret ends, not merely the means for paying for stuff that Republicans demand be paid for.

According to Republicans, a big spending program such as an infrastructure bill can’t be financed by deficits, and it can’t be financed by new revenue.

Presumably the only option left is to cut spending on Medicaid or Social Security or some other popular safety-net program Republicans have long salivated over slashing. ✁ ✁ ✁

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-are-laying-a-trojan-horse-trap-on-infrastructure/2021/03/18/6f56cb80-8814-11eb-82bc-e58213caa38e_story.html

I’m pretty sure that I’ve posted this before….

Rush Limbaugh July 2019.

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Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh admitted that Republican fear-mongering over the federal deficit under President Obama was “bogus,” while defending the deficit’s explosive rise to $1 trillion under President Trump.

During Limbaugh’s show on Tuesday, a caller suggested that Republicans should nominate a young fiscal conservative instead of Trump, citing the rising deficit. Limbaugh dismissed the concerns, declaring that fiscal conservatism was basically a sham all along.

“Republicans can nominate a young, potentially two-term president, one that believes in fiscal conservatism,” the caller told Limbaugh. “We’re gonna have — in 2019, there’s gonna be a $1 trillion deficit. Trump doesn’t really care about that. He’s not really a fiscal conservative. We don’t, we have to acknowledge that Trump has been cruelly used.”

“Nobody is a fiscal conservative anymore,” Limbaugh shot back. “All this talk about concern for the deficit and the budget has been bogus for as long as it’s been around.”

That’s quite the statement from Limbaugh, who spent the entirety of the Obama years attacking the president over rising deficits.

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https://www.salon.com/2019/07/19/rush-limbaugh-admits-gops-fiscal-attacks-on-obama-were-bogus-defends-trumps-deficit/

Have a great weekend my friends.

Incurred, in no small part, by, you know, RINOs.

If you remember the debt is a loan who makes that loan and who covers it? The dollar is only worth what those who pay taxes can pay. Too bad the owners of the debt/loan don’t pay taxes at the same rate as the majority of taxpayers.

Suddenly Republicans are worried about the national debt again, since there is a Democrat in the White House… they had no such worries when #45 was increasing the national debt…

A direct way to pay down the national debt is via increased taxes, but Republicans do not want that (despite claiming to want to get that debt down)… especially if taxes are increased on the very rich…

Let’s just keep whistling as we blithely walk past the graveyard.

As long as we are so heavily indebted to China and they continue to buy our debt they will have to prop us up. They know that there would be an economic global effect if we totally crash.

Just don’t think of the fear that they might let it happen and allow a few billion people to suffer. They have a culture that has endured deprivation for long periods of time in its history, and that has seen mass numbers of deaths within short periods of time.

In view of the GOPQ’s earth scorching of fiscal restraints starting in 2016, the fast food electorate will continue to find the most appealing to be the candidates who support their base instincts and who do not expect any sacrifices to be made.

Seems we are just playing our roles in that investment stage play, “Last One Holding The Bag”.

How is it that Republicans are fine with the kind of huge deficits they make then turn around to attack when Democrats are in office? The ones who always fixes the economy so that bone-heads can elect Republicans again to smash it down?

Debts always matter, because they can seriously cripple your life… unless you are a liberal politician, who is always willing to spend the nation’s credit, because they don’t have to pay it back.