President Joe Biden is using the closing weeks of the midterm campaign to tell some harsh truths about Republicans: Not only do they not have a plan for the economy, they are also intent on destroying it if they don’t get their way on policy. Their way includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs that are keeping people afloat amid high inflation and continued waves of the pandemic.
“Hear this closely: The Republicans have made it clear that if they win control of the Congress, they will shut down the government, refuse to pay our bills, and it’ll be the first time in our history America will default—unless I yield and cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said in a Monday speech. “There’s nothing, nothing, that will create more chaos, more inflation, and more damage to the American economy than this.”
He’s definitely not wrong. Wannabe Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy confirmed last week that he is totally on board with the vow from all four of the leading GOP members vying to chair the Budget Committee. Each one of them agreed that they would not agree to raise the debt limit when it comes due in about a year's time if they hold the House majority—not unless Biden capitulates to their demands for all those cuts.
Those plans, by the way, are the most concrete policy proposals the House Republicans have made—that and making the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. The rest of what they put forward in their Commitment to America was largely platitudes and the usual bombastic rhetoric against Democrats and Biden. Oh, and investigations of political rivals and their families. Always partisan investigations.
Those vague economic plans—cut spending, defund the IRS, repeal corporate tax increases, and keep the tax cuts for the rich—none of that is likely to help the main issue in the economy right now, which is inflation, economists say. Even conservative ones.
“It is unlikely that any of the policies proposed by Republicans would meaningfully reduce inflation in 2023, when rapidly rising prices will still be a major problem for the economy and for consumers,” said Michael R. Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
“The amount of cuts you’d have to do to move the needle on inflation are completely off the table,” said Jon Lieber, a former aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell and now with the Eurasia Group, told The New York Times.
“We, the Democrats, are the ones that are fiscally responsible. Let’s get that straight now, okay?” Biden said in that same speech Monday. “We’re investing in all of America, reducing everyday costs while also lowering the deficit at the same time. Republicans are fiscally reckless, pushing tax cuts for the very wealthy that aren’t paid for, and exploiting the deficit that is making inflation worse.”
That and stripping away pretty much all of everybody’s civil rights—all of them.
Republicans have no intention of doing anything about climate change - except to make it worse.
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