Still, having come to power promising to restore affordability, the new crop of Democrats are soon to discover that there is not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over pricey gas and groceries, exorbitant mortgages and unaffordable healthcare.
Democrats would do well to recall that the affordability strains that helped deliver them to power are not dissimilar to those that delivered the presidency to Trump two years ago. And they could again quickly become their enemy.
Yes they can’t just hit a button and fix everything. But they can start holding people accountable for their actions that lead this country to collapse.
In 2 years? No. Believe it or not, there is no “fix economy” button to press when Democrats get in office. We have to clean up the mess MAGA made first before we can begin to fix anything
I mean “fixing the economy” is a very complicated thing but there are some braindead decisions that got us here that can very easily and swiftly be solved.
- Kill the war in Iran
- Kill the tariffs
Boom, we are at least back to where we were.
Except that neither of those things snaps us back in time. The war in Iran has had some major reprecussions economically and the US dropping it won’t magically fix those reprecussions. Best case Iran starts charging a fee for goods passing through the strait, worst case they actively block goods going to the US.
The terrors have destroyed trust between long standing trade partners. Why would they just go back to trusting the US?
Are those good first steps? Yes. But in no way will we be back to where we were.
Really!? You mean we can’t time travel!? Thanks Obama!
the US dropping it won’t magically fix those reprecussions. Best case Iran starts charging a fee
It shouldn’t be difficult at all to negotiate opening the strait as a contingency of ending the war. No trust required.
Any systemic solution will take years. What Democrats can do is provide direct assistance to the tens of millions of people who have been put at risk of dying from lack of food or medical care. It is going to be messy and expensive, but saving lives has to come first.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of money to pay for it all. We just need to quit fighting wars and spend all of that money on helping people instead of killing them. We can also use the money that is going to ICE and Homeland Security, once they have been shut down.
Well republicans promised AFTER their historic election loss that they’d be blocking all Dems efforts at change, at helping the people, so let’s hang that around their necks politically until 2028 and get all three branches.
Just like Mitch told them to do for all of Obama’s terms. Someone did a meme a few days ago that isn’t meme level, it’s actual truth. Republicans are at home as the underdog - they don’t have to govern, they just have to make it hard for the other side to do anything, and then they just can recite “see, they can’t do anything!”
Well they definitely like dragging the Overton window to the fascist right every chance they get, so not JUST obstructionism.
I do wonder if the reverse is as plausible though… psychologically people tend to view the president as a god and congress as nothing. Hence the strategy worked amazingly in turning people against the democratic party in the obama era. I do wonder if it will work the other way around though.
One thing is for sure, at some point along with all the other problems needing addressing, Presidential power needs to be reined back big time. Congress should get the most attention, and not necessarily the most power, but more abilities to get things done with oversight from a President and Court who are actually doing their correct jobs.
Even the low-hanging fruit hangs rather high. While it may seem easy to reinstate federal subsidies for health insurance programs under the Affordable Care Act, or undo or postpone cuts to Medicaid and food stamps in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Democrats will be hard-pressed to find the money, given a budget deficit that is already running at a whopping 6% of the nation’s gross domestic product.
“Find the money?” It’s not the fucking ark of the covenant, it’s money. Money is everywhere. It’s not a limited resource. In fact, we can literally create an infinite amount of it. No exploratory expeditions or tomb raiding necessary, we can just make it. We do it all the time.
Ever heard about inflation?
I have, yes. Money creation itself doesn’t cause inflation. Prices go up when the demand for products and services exceeds the supply. Typically the more money there is in the money supply the higher demand will be, as any money people can get their hands on will likely be spent. So it is important to manage the amount of money in the money supply. During periods of deflation, more money creation may be appropriate and during periods of inflation money would need to be taken out of the money supply. Income taxes are one method for taking money out of the money supply during periods of high inflation.
One of the reasons we have persistent inflation today is that all money creation currently happens with offsetting debt that has to be repaid at interest. So when a bank creates a $1M business loan, for instance, it isn’t only the original $1M that needs to be repaid, it’s the original $1M plus a significant amount of money in interest. This necessitates more money creation, and leads to our persistent inflation and to our ever increasing debt load, as all new money that’s created has its own, new associated debt.
So it is important to manage the amount of money in the money supply.
So we can’t just create an infinite amount of money? We actually have to manage it in a way that prevents inflation?
You’re right, I shouldn’t have said we can create an infinite amount of money. I should have said we can create as much money as we need, or as much as is appropriate.
That conflict overseas sure is expensive, as is the ICE budget, it’s like money printer go brrrrrrrrrrr
Especially since cutting out the middlemen means stuff like medicare for all should save money overall.
No, but they can pass lots of bills that could fix the economy, and one by one, bring each to his desk with a big press media show, and show America what party is vetoing their pocketbook.
They absolutely CAN. WILL they, though? Probably not.
DEFINITELY not if corporatist AIPAC stooges Jeffries and Schumer are still in charge come January.
Americans are so stupid they will probably blame democrats for everything in 2 years, and vote for another charmer like maybe JD Vance in the next presidential election.
For some reason a lot like really a lot of Americans find Psychopaths that cheat and lie charming. Just that people claim that Trump says it like it is, when he contradict himself all the time when campaigning. It works only because people are stupid, and they hear only the part they want to hear.
In the meantime the world is heading for global warming disaster, which is set back a lot because USA isn’t just doing nothing, they are working decidedly against efforts to prevent it. USA is one big criminal suicide cult, that is actively trying to kill us all.
