There is no such thing as a Centrist Democrat, when they need sixty votes they get ‘em.
Laura Ingraham on the Democrats passing Obamacare
The Wall Street Journal describes the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act (700 + pages) as ‘a stunning revival of the core pieces of Build Back Better’ that Senator Manchin opposed. Remember, Joe Manchin is a Democrat first and foremost.
The WSJ Editorial Board describes it as, Joe Biden’s stagflation arrives. The word stagflation was coined in the 1970s. It is a combination of high inflation (9% already), slow growth, and high unemployment. The difference this time is that thanks to over the top spending during COVID, many simply do not want to go back to work. Observe the Help Wanted signs at every fast food restaurant.
The tax and spend mantra has it that one taxes corporations (minimum 15%) which raises money which is spent on green energy $369 billion and somehow, drug reductions costs. Manchin is promised some sort of vote on increasing pipeline permits, later in the year, read after the mid-term elections. It won’t happen.
This is curious given the Democrat opposition to all things coal, the basis of the West Virginia economy that Joe Manchin claims to represent.
Inflation results from too much money chasing too few goods. And economic slowdown is caused by over regulation, supply bottle necks, and high energy prices, think the 1970s which had all these features. Let’s put this in perspective.
The $280 billion chip bill will ‘direct financial assistance to semi-conductor manufacturers.’ I didn’t realize Intel and Texas Instruments were on the ropes. Now add the $739 Inflation Act and you get $1,019 billion in new spending. Translation that is:
$1.019 trillion
One thousand billion
One million millions
Don’t think the Government Accounting Office GAO is monitoring this. Such a system leaks billions, here and in the Ukraine.
These are numbers which should be associated with the Webb telescope, not Congressional spending. If Congress wanted to reduce the deficit, reduce spending, especially on Solyndra type dreams which flushed $500 million down the drain.
The qualitative evidence of a slow down grows. We now have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP. Ford lays off 8,000 to finance Electric Vehicle construction. Housing construction and sales slow with higher mortgage rates. German economy falters. Amazon reports quarterly loss. Facebook earnings drop 1%, a first. Comcast and Netflix growth slows and drops. Sure there are bright spots like Valero and SW Airline earnings. This allows the administration to say, recession, what recession. Estimates of Russian wounded and dead in Ukraine run to 475,000. The Ukraine is becoming a negative game for both sides.
Never mind the tortured explanation by the media for stocks. Stocks topped between last November and January, 2022. Prices fell into June and are now rebounding into early Fall, simple as that. Oil and natural gas prices remain high as Putin strangles the EU, now dependent on his largess.
