" Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazilian coffee is partially responsible for that price rising 19% over the past year (it’s not just tariffs; droughts have pushed up both coffee and beef costs)."
To update J.K. Galbraith's wry observation: "No need to blame the Almighty while Trump is in the White House."
The Social Security COLA is 2.8%. If you want to get yelled off the stage by a bunch of seniors of any political persuasion, then tell them that their cost of living only increased by 2.8% in the past year. Or that grocery prices have increased by only 1.1% so far this year. Tell them that inflation and unemployment won't be measured anymore because the government is shut down.
Tell Americans that Republican Senators have shut down the government because they don't want to continue health insurance subsidies that amount to 0.3% of total federal spending, and would only increase the federal deficit by 1.4%. Tell them that House Republicans gave themselves a paid vacation while everyone else in the government is working without pay, rather than staying in DC to vote on the 9 of 12 spending bills which still need to be passed for the government to be funded this year.
Someone should tell Americans, but it isn't going to be the perpetually tongue-tied Schumer, Jeffries, et al.
Right before I started to write this I was watching Lawrence O’Donnell’s clip of a recent speech Hakeem Jeffries just gave slamming Republicans for shutting down the government because they don’t want to continue health care subsidies and he is explicitly listing the amount it will cost millions of Americans. He was pulling no punches. Now Jeffries is being interviewed on that show.
Most of our mainstream “liberal” media doesn’t bother to show the speeches Dems are giving because they are too busy covering Trump’s every word. Maybe if Dems started giving speeches naked they might get the media’s attention.
Also in his lead in to his interview of Jeffries O’Donnell did a great recap of all the times Republicans have killed or tried to health care reform going back decades. I urge you to watch it. There are some clips available online. Better yet listen to the whole segment in Lawrence’s podcast.
Not all seniors are blind to these facts. Bessent is, like the rest of this administration, lying to the public. Perhaps he believes in what he's saying but that doesn't excuse him.
If you listen to Bessent, it is hard to imagine he understands anything other than how to lie with a straight face. To make matters worse, I can't remember an official who comes across as condescending and arrogant as Snotty Scotty Soy Bean Farmer.
We need to remember, cutting ACA funding will raise the cost of healthcare for all of us. People can't afford the cost without the subsidies not to mention those with preexisting conditions. They'll just go on the GW Bush's plan of going to the emergency room when they're sick. During W's administration the cost of healthcare was spiralling out of control. The ACA has brought the increases back in line with normal inflation over the past fifteen years. Dean Baker recently had an insightful posting on this topic. Does anyone other than the crooked insurance companies really want to see people lose their healthcare?
Billionaire Bessent says there's no inflation. He must be right because he's a billionaire hedge fund manager, even if both of his hedge funds failed. I don't picture Bessent as someone who's buying hamburger meat or coffee. Maybe Russian caviar got cheaper. But you and I know what life costs at the cash register, or when we open the electric or insurance bill.
They'll give $40 billion in a heartbeat to Argentina, but they'll shut down the government rather than spend $25 billion to help Americans pay for private health insurance.
Trump and his people have told so many lies, does anyone outside his cult even listen much less believe anything they say on the economy or any other subject?
The economy will speak for itself. Chaos is precious to Orange POS but does no good to any economy - in fact, it destroys it, always. Fear matters. Scarcity matters. Isolation matters.
And prices? Eventually the story - reality - is there. Calls to us to protest by consuming less are ignoring the reality. It is already underway. Sure, Scott will want jiggered #’s, with a side of lies. Treasury - in deep debt, will be raided for subsidies and temporary awards. Small plugs in dike.
The US is becoming more and more isolated - new hardship condition never encountered. No business school courses on this. Well, the course began earlier this year - we are in the front row. Pay attention.
Kudos… you exposed the Trump/Bessent Ghepetto:Pinochio effect … yes, nice to see gasoline prices dropping, my electric bill skyrocketing as well as restaurants, more home cooking… the “magnificent seven” are keeping the stock market rolling, I seem to hear whispers, “stop loss orders” to my broker, …
I don't know (anything), but Bessent sounded really nervous to me. I was listening on radio, so I don't know how he looked. Anyway, maybe it's a poker tell, if he gets really nervous when he knows what he's saying isn't the whole truth and nothing but.
Losing the ACA subsidies and then health insurance is only the start of the problem. 20 million people who are no longer insured are going to eventually be spending much of their income and possibly their assets trying to get treatment and stay healthy while avoiding non emergency medical expenses. All of that money will not be spent in the parts of the economy that lead to growth and jobs, other than growth and jobs in medical segments. And there will be a rise in bankruptcies and defaults, another drag on the economy. Also a reduction in labor due to illness. Medical costs are already a major fraction of household expenses, this is not going to help the situation.
" Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazilian coffee is partially responsible for that price rising 19% over the past year (it’s not just tariffs; droughts have pushed up both coffee and beef costs)."
To update J.K. Galbraith's wry observation: "No need to blame the Almighty while Trump is in the White House."
The Social Security COLA is 2.8%. If you want to get yelled off the stage by a bunch of seniors of any political persuasion, then tell them that their cost of living only increased by 2.8% in the past year. Or that grocery prices have increased by only 1.1% so far this year. Tell them that inflation and unemployment won't be measured anymore because the government is shut down.
Tell Americans that Republican Senators have shut down the government because they don't want to continue health insurance subsidies that amount to 0.3% of total federal spending, and would only increase the federal deficit by 1.4%. Tell them that House Republicans gave themselves a paid vacation while everyone else in the government is working without pay, rather than staying in DC to vote on the 9 of 12 spending bills which still need to be passed for the government to be funded this year.
Someone should tell Americans, but it isn't going to be the perpetually tongue-tied Schumer, Jeffries, et al.
Right before I started to write this I was watching Lawrence O’Donnell’s clip of a recent speech Hakeem Jeffries just gave slamming Republicans for shutting down the government because they don’t want to continue health care subsidies and he is explicitly listing the amount it will cost millions of Americans. He was pulling no punches. Now Jeffries is being interviewed on that show.
Most of our mainstream “liberal” media doesn’t bother to show the speeches Dems are giving because they are too busy covering Trump’s every word. Maybe if Dems started giving speeches naked they might get the media’s attention.
Also in his lead in to his interview of Jeffries O’Donnell did a great recap of all the times Republicans have killed or tried to health care reform going back decades. I urge you to watch it. There are some clips available online. Better yet listen to the whole segment in Lawrence’s podcast.
Covering Trump without translating it into what it means to Americans turns tragedy into spectacle.
Not all seniors are blind to these facts. Bessent is, like the rest of this administration, lying to the public. Perhaps he believes in what he's saying but that doesn't excuse him.
Sure, like his claim the other day to a reporter that he was a soybean farmer. He is into lying - is why he is where he is.
Oh please, he doesn't believe it - he's a hedge fund manager, do you think he doesn't understand those numbers?!
If you listen to Bessent, it is hard to imagine he understands anything other than how to lie with a straight face. To make matters worse, I can't remember an official who comes across as condescending and arrogant as Snotty Scotty Soy Bean Farmer.
Scott Bessent is tone deaf, ridiculous, and drowning in his arrogance. One of many just like him in this administration.
Exactly. His condescending tone when he responds to questions perfectly exemplifies the administration’s low regard for all but the 1%-ers.
Loyalty and incompetence will get you far in the Grand Ol' Plantation.
We need to remember, cutting ACA funding will raise the cost of healthcare for all of us. People can't afford the cost without the subsidies not to mention those with preexisting conditions. They'll just go on the GW Bush's plan of going to the emergency room when they're sick. During W's administration the cost of healthcare was spiralling out of control. The ACA has brought the increases back in line with normal inflation over the past fifteen years. Dean Baker recently had an insightful posting on this topic. Does anyone other than the crooked insurance companies really want to see people lose their healthcare?
Billionaire Bessent says there's no inflation. He must be right because he's a billionaire hedge fund manager, even if both of his hedge funds failed. I don't picture Bessent as someone who's buying hamburger meat or coffee. Maybe Russian caviar got cheaper. But you and I know what life costs at the cash register, or when we open the electric or insurance bill.
They'll give $40 billion in a heartbeat to Argentina, but they'll shut down the government rather than spend $25 billion to help Americans pay for private health insurance.
But Bessent is a soy bean farmer and he feels the pain!
Trump and his people have told so many lies, does anyone outside his cult even listen much less believe anything they say on the economy or any other subject?
The economy will speak for itself. Chaos is precious to Orange POS but does no good to any economy - in fact, it destroys it, always. Fear matters. Scarcity matters. Isolation matters.
And prices? Eventually the story - reality - is there. Calls to us to protest by consuming less are ignoring the reality. It is already underway. Sure, Scott will want jiggered #’s, with a side of lies. Treasury - in deep debt, will be raided for subsidies and temporary awards. Small plugs in dike.
The US is becoming more and more isolated - new hardship condition never encountered. No business school courses on this. Well, the course began earlier this year - we are in the front row. Pay attention.
Kudos… you exposed the Trump/Bessent Ghepetto:Pinochio effect … yes, nice to see gasoline prices dropping, my electric bill skyrocketing as well as restaurants, more home cooking… the “magnificent seven” are keeping the stock market rolling, I seem to hear whispers, “stop loss orders” to my broker, …
I don't know (anything), but Bessent sounded really nervous to me. I was listening on radio, so I don't know how he looked. Anyway, maybe it's a poker tell, if he gets really nervous when he knows what he's saying isn't the whole truth and nothing but.
Calling Scott Bessent “not credible”, while true, is letting him off the hook. He is a downright liar. He has clearly sold his soul.
It's great that you give Bessent such good advice that he is quite incapable of following!
Losing the ACA subsidies and then health insurance is only the start of the problem. 20 million people who are no longer insured are going to eventually be spending much of their income and possibly their assets trying to get treatment and stay healthy while avoiding non emergency medical expenses. All of that money will not be spent in the parts of the economy that lead to growth and jobs, other than growth and jobs in medical segments. And there will be a rise in bankruptcies and defaults, another drag on the economy. Also a reduction in labor due to illness. Medical costs are already a major fraction of household expenses, this is not going to help the situation.
Jared Bernstein's fourth-to-last and third-to-last paragraphs are EXACTLY what the Democrats should run on next year. All of them.
Apparently the public isn’t buying the line that it’s all Biden’s fault-
any longer . So - the administration needs another “ bad guy “ because
telling people that there really isn’t any inflation anymore- when it is
clear to all that prices for most things that matter ARE going up .
Perhaps they can pin the blame on
Jewish space lasers that have messed with sun spots to alter
the atmosphere and disrupt production worldwide. Beats having to look in the mirror.
JB: "Telling them that’s what you’re doing when in fact you’re doing the opposite won’t cut it."
Except, it may well be sufficient for Trump's base. They all turned off their brains when they bought their red hats.