SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2024
The humor of Candidate Trump: In Friday afternoon's post, we formally announced the date of this year's Al Smith Dinner.
One day later, the Harris campaign swung into action. CNN offers this news report about that candidate's plans:
Kamala Harris to skip historic Al Smith Dinner in New York before election, campaign official says
Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend next month’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York City, her campaign has told organizers, opting instead to stump in a battleground state on October 17, less than three weeks before the election.
The historic Catholic fundraiser traditionally features light roasts by the two major-party nominees—aimed at one another and others—in presidential election years. This fall’s gathering is already sold out and poised to welcome an estimated 1,500 guests to a gala ballroom in Midtown Manhattan,
Candidate Harris won't attend! As the report continues, it offers this surprising recollection about the wit and wisdom of Candidate Donald J. Trump:
Donald Trump stunned attendees in 2016 when he abandoned the collegial banter and launched a series of personal attacks on Hillary Clinton, who in her own remarks had offered the expected round of self-deprecating humor. The affair—black-tie for attendees, white-tie for the headliners—is named after the first major-party Catholic presidential nominee, four-term New York Gov. Al Smith, the Democratic standard-bearer in 1928.
Smith lost to Republican Herbert Hoover, and it would be more than three decades before another Catholic candidate, Democrat John F. Kennedy, was nominated by a major party—on his way to the White House in 1960.
Eight years ago, with New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan seated nearby, Trump ambushed Clinton, calling her a liar and mocking her over hacked emails.
When the audience booed, Trump went further, saying, “I don’t know who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I [sic]. For example, here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.”
The lesson that year was obvious. Nice guys (or gals) win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College.
Fearlessly, Trump was willing to call attention to Clinton's hatred of Catholics. On Saturday morning, the trio of friends on Fox & Friends were busy describing Harris's father as "a hard-core Marxist."
Pete Hegseth said he wonders "what she heard at the dinner table" when she was growing up. Such are the wages of "segregation by viewpoint," the pseudo-journalistic practice by which the friends all voice the same points of view as they read from the same corporate scripts.
In 1960, did Candidate Kennedy kick-start the tradition according to which the candidates offer humorous remarks at this charity event?
You'll have to research that one yourselves. Theodore White seems to give that impression in The Making of the President 1960.
At any rate, one of Kennedy's quips that year involved his wealthy father. As we noted on Friday, the sally went like this:
On this matter of experience, I had announced earlier this year that if successful I would not consider campaign contributions as a substitute for experience in appointing ambassadors. Ever since I made that statement, I have not received one single cent from my father.
That calls to mind an alleged remark from that year's primary season. Allegedly, Candidate Kennedy offered this quip, out on the stump, about his father's participation in the West Virginia campaign:
My father wired me, "Don't buy one more vote than necessary. I'll be damned if I'll pay for a landslide."
So it went in days of yore. At any rate, as the brainwashed daughter of a hard-core Marxist, Harris won't attend.
Somerby is revealing his true colors finally. He describes the Al Smith dinner and the fact that Harris has said she will not attend (preferring to campaign instead). Then Somerby quotes Trump's ugly "roast" of Hillary:
ReplyDelete"here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics.”
Then Somerby concludes:
"The lesson that year was obvious. Nice guys (or gals) win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College."
Somerby has never acknowledged the role played by Comey in Hillary's loss, nor the Russian meddling, nor the e-mail hacks and suspected collusion with Trump's campaign by Russia. No, according to Somerby, it was Hillary's fault for being "nice" while Trump bared his fangs at an event that was supposed to be collegial and good-natured fun. This is Trump lying that Hillary "hates" Catholics, much as he told Kamala Harris during the debate that Biden hates her.
But today Somerby raises the age-old complaint always made against female candidates -- that women are too nice, aren't strong enough to fight back (breaking rules as Trump did), that women cannot go for the jugular.
This is ludicrous aimed at Harris who was a highly successful prosecutor before becoming DA in San Francisco and Attorney General of CA. She demonstrably went for the jugular in her Senate hearing questioning, which is why those of us who have paid attention do not consider her "nice" or "weak" or "soft" or "gentle" or "too compassionate" to be a strong president. But that doesn't prevent Somerby from hauling out that tired old chestnut, when any hunter knows the danger posed by a female animal, a mother protecting her offspring. Aggressive male posturing is not part of female culture, but women are as strong as men in service of their goals, including fighting for the presidency, fighting other nations who encroach on our country, and defending the values of our nation in war and peace.
Somerby knows this is a low blow, so he cloaks his own aggression toward Harris in stories about Trump and Hillary. Trump's behavior should reflect poorly on him, but too many men confuse fighting dirty with strength. It is especially a conservative problem, which is why I believe Somerby is once again revealing himself as a right winger.
Yesterday Kamala was "imperfect" to Somerby. Today she is "too nice" to win the electoral college. What will it be tomorrow? You can bet it won't be anything positive, because that is not Somerby's purpose here. Today, his job appears to be spreading misogynist bullshit to undermine Harris's decision to use her limited time to advance her candidacy, assuming New York Catholics will understand, even if Somerby doesn't.
Hillary murdered Vince Foster, but Somerby calls her too nice to win in 2016, because she assumed the format of the dinner would be the same as in previous years?
DeleteThe people who get cheated by a cheater are not weak for being honest. Somerby is displaying the kind of thinking you find in criminals: "well, if they didn't want to be pickpocketed, they shouldn't have worn a coat with pockets" or "it is just smart to evade taxes -- if the govt wants my money they can pry it out of my cold dead fingers."
DeleteThis kind of admiration of cheating is why Trump must be held accountable for his crimes. Somerby is once again siding with the dishonest Trump by calling Hillary too nice and implying that Harris is too decent to be president -- we need an asshole dictator strongman like Trump, who may be crazy but at least he doesn't "lose" at the Al Smith dinner.
It is odd that Somerby seems to side with Trump on this, when bitter attack is nothing like the sense of humor demanded by that event. Hillary has a sense of humor. Many people laugh at Trump but not because he is humorous (unless you consider mockery of disabled reporters funny). Has Somerby, a professional standup, lost his appreciation for what such a dinner was supposed to show in each candidate? A willingness to laugh at themselves (which Trump cannot do), grace and humiliaty (which Trump lacks), and a commitment to the charity embodied by the fundraiser (Trump stole from his own charity foundation).
How has Somerby fallen so far down the rabbit-hole? Harris would be a fool to put herself in Trump's sights, after the way he cheated in order to savage Hillary. Does Somerby now blame her for being smart? That's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation that Harris saw coming. Somerby seems disappointed she didn't fall for Trump's trap.
Man, I’ve been away from this blog for a while.
DeleteSome of you people here are really batshit crazy and getting worse. Why are you so obsessed with writing 400 word screeds against Bob on the comment page? And they make no sense.
They make no sense AND they're boring.
Delete"Some of you people here are really batshit crazy and getting worse."
DeleteIt's some of that Howler magic.
Somerby says:
ReplyDelete"Fearlessly, Trump was willing to call attention to Clinton's hatred of Catholics. On Saturday morning, the trio of friends on Fox & Friends were busy describing Harris's father as "a hard-core Marxist."
Pete Hegseth said he wonders "what she heard at the dinner table" when she was growing up. Such are the wages of "segregation by viewpoint," the pseudo-journalistic practice by which the friends all voice the same points of view as they read from the same corporate scripts."
Then at the end of his essay, he says:
"At any rate, as the brainwashed daughter of a hard-core Marxist, Harris won't attend."
Nowhere in today's essay does Somerby explain that Harris's father was not a marxist and that she is not the brainwashed daughter of a marxist or any other brainwashing.
Without fact-checking those lies told by the right wing, Somerby's repetition of them, in a context where he appears to be complaining because Harris will not attend (or why bring this up at all?) tends to further the spread of misinformation about Harris. Those of us who actually do support Harris and plan to vote for her, take our daily opportunities to correct this bullshit when it is being spread. Somerby -- not so much. That's why it appears that his revival of old stories about Kennedy are mainly a pretext for saying negative things about Harris, joining the Republicans in their spreading of their lock-step talking points.
Here are some facts that Somerby has left out:
1. Harris did not grow up with her father so she did not hear him talking economics around the dinner table. Her parents split up when she was in elementary school and she was raised by her mother, as a single mom.
2. Harris's father is an economist who taught a course in Marxism at Stanford University. Does that make Stanford a Marxist University? He helped found a Worker's Party in Jamaica, before Harris was born and before he came to the US. He is considered a Development Economist (specializing in the economies of developing nations), not a Marxist.
3. Harris is estranged from her father and vice versa. He has not participated in any aspect of her campaign and gives no interviews.
4. Harris has said repeatedly that she supports capitalism, as should be evident from her past decisions, policies and plans for holding office. There is nothing Marxist about any of her beliefs or acts, unless you apply the word in the distorted sense that it is used by the right wing, which makes it meaningless.
Somerby presumably knows that Harris is no Marxist. Why then does he repeat the right's criticisms without telling the truth about Harris?
You're a bot, right? No human could be so brain-dead as to think Somerby is seriously calling Harris a Marxist in this post.
DeleteNot even a Republican? They think all sorts of strange things. But what would it hurt Somerby to explain Harris's background? He may need that info himself -- there is no evidence he doesn't.
DeleteHe was being sarcastic. And her father did dabble in Marxist criticism.
DeleteHe taught a class in it. At Stanford.
Delete"At any rate, as the brainwashed daughter of a hard-core Marxist, Harris won't attend."
ReplyDeleteMaybe Somerby thinks this is true? Hard to tell, but he does watch a lot of Fox News, where he has heard this stated as fact over and over. Anything is possible.
Or maybe he thinks she is being insufficiently respectful of the memory of Al Smith. After all, emphasizing the shared Catholic heritage of Smith and Kennedy is a way of pointing out that certain other identities have also had trouble getting elected (especially when championing the little man as opposed to coming from the millionaire class).
The lesson seems to be that millionaires will be forgiven anything, even their Catholic religious background.
"Smith was the first politician of national stature to rise from the ranks of urban immigrants, in his case, the Irish-American immigrants of downtown Manhattan. He became a four-term governor of New York and, in 1928, the first Roman Catholic to win a major party’s presidential nomination."
Smith was opposed by the KKK who accused him of digging a tunnel beneath New York City in order to sneak the Pope into the country in order to rule as king. Similar things were said about Kennedy but didn't stick. In contrast to Kennedy, Smith had a long and distinguished career in public office. Kennedy was much less experienced. Perhaps that made him appear to be less of a threat to powers that be.
When Republicans call Harris a Marxist, they are perhaps implying that she will rock the boat and is thus dangerous. That may even be what Somerby thinks -- but it is hard to tell because he never says anything directly. What IS his point today, other than to smear Harris?
Where were you manufactured? Are you battery-powered or do you derive your energy from some advanced, fuel-cell technology?
DeleteIs it hard to find spare parts when you break down?
This is just more name-calling Hector. Can't you address the content of the comments?
DeleteI really hope you’re artificial , or some kind of paid troll, because otherwise you’re nuts. Who otherwise gets so obsessed with Bob Somerby?
DeleteNo one is smearing Harris.
DeleteSomerby is repeating Trump’s smears.
DeleteI was watching Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino yesterday and was struck by a scene in which the main character (who is portraying an outspoken bigot) suggests that his Asian neighbor is barbequing dog in his backyard grill.
ReplyDeleteThis latest accusation by JD Vance and Trump is part of a long tradition of making such racist accusations about eating pets. That makes it how you recognize a bigot, not "current events" worth reporting by the media.
Trump accused Hillary of hating Catholics, but hate is the right wing's favorite tactic, not the left's. The Hartmann Report talks about hate as a political weapon:
ReplyDelete"With European antisemites from the Middle Ages right up through WWII, the blood libel was to claim that Jews were using the blood of Christian children to make their matzo bread for Passover. In 1890s America, east coast German and Dutch immigrants were slandered with claims they were making sausage from local pets; the assertion was even made into a then-well-known folk song. Chinese immigrants suffered the same sort of defamation with white Americans spreading rumors of pets being served in their restaurants from the 19th century through last year.
Now it’s Donald Trump and JD Vance turn telling the vicious, racist lie that legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are both here illegally (they’re not) and are eating the pets of local white people (also a lie). Most recently, Don Jr. has repeated his father’s frequent claim that Black people have lower IQs than white Americans:
“You look at Haiti, you look at the demographic makeup, you look at the average I.Q. — if you import the third world into your country, you’re going to become the third world.”
Their rhetoric has already inspired threats of violence, which is exactly what they want: anything to stay in the headlines as the champions of America’s white supremacist political party. This is how fascists and bullies behave.
Members of Trump‘s team have told reporters that this is a strategy. JD Vance admits they are “creating stories” to keep the hatred against Haitian immigrants alive and at the top of the news cycle:
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually has to pay attention to the suffering of American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Yesterday, Trump repeatedly refused to condemn the bomb threats being inflicted on Springfield schools and government buildings, and then publicly posted that he has “hate” for Taylor Swift. Hate, hate, hate.
And as long as Trump and Vance keep making their outrageous claims, the media keeps talking about immigration — which Trump believes is his strong suit. And the media is not talking about what Biden and Harris have accomplished so far or what they plan to do for America in the future. Trump wins no matter what."
https://hartmannreport.com/p/hate-as-a-political-weapon-how-trump-6c2
When Somerby uses his blog to focus on past hate against Al Smith and JFK (to a lesser extent) and describes the way Trump used hate against Hillary and now Kamala Harris, he is aiding and abetting Trump's strategy of using hate to mobilize his supporters. The left is not doing this. Why would a supposed liberal and Harris supporter like Somerby do this? It makes no sense to me, but the hate is obvious on the right.
"When Somerby uses his blog to focus on past hate against Al Smith and JFK (to a lesser extent) and describes the way Trump used hate against Hillary and now Kamala Harris, he is aiding and abetting Trump's strategy of using hate to mobilize his supporters."
DeleteNot true. All Somerby is aiding and abetting is your mental deterioration.
Snappy comeback asshole
DeleteSomerby seems to imply that Harris is hiding from Trump by skipping the Al Smith dinner, but it is Trump who is hiding from Harris by refusing another debate. Here is Jeff Tiedrich's take on it:
ReplyDelete"...yesterday, CNN offered [to] host a second debate, to be held on October 23. Kamala agreed in a hot fucking second, because why wouldn’t she? Kamala’s as eager as the rest of [us] to laugh her head off as Donny shits himself once again on live tv.
no more debates, fuck that, replied Donny. here’s his official excuse: it’s too late. early voting has already begun.
oh, boo fucking hoo. it’s a bullshit excuse. early voting didn’t stop Donny from debating Joe Biden on October 22, 2020.
anyway, Donny doesn’t have time for a debate. he’s too busy selling Trump Coins."
As a matter of strategy, I wonder whether Harris is better off not attending. Presumably Trump will malign her whether she's there or not.
ReplyDeleteI doubt any of that figured in her decision. With the NYC vote locked down, she may have decided it would be a better use of her time to campaign in a swing state.
Delete"I wonder ...."
DeleteYour concern trolling is duly noted.
“Presumably Trump will malign her whether she is there or not” You said you only saw the first half hour of the debate. You missed the part in which he face planted and she laughed at the spectacle. No, being in the same room with her is not a safe environment for him. On the other hand, with her gone, he is certain to take a swipe or a dozen at her that will be as fictional as the stories he told about her Oprah interview, and will again look stupid or demented when fact checked. So it will be a win for her.
DeleteHarris is attacking Trump for his alleged Russia connection. Trump is attacking Harris for her alleged Communist connection. Joseph McCarthy must be chuckling in his grave.
ReplyDeleteHave you watched Rachel Maddow's new documentary, "From Russia With Lev", Dickhead?
DeleteOne of the saddest moments was seeing how that fucking piece of shit treasonous bastard you support told his goons to "take her out", referring to Marie Yovanovitch and the disinformation campaign he coordinated with Russian goons to force her removal as ambassador to Ukraine.
Go fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw, Dickhead.
Harris has no communist connection.
DeleteGo ahead and explain to us the nature of Harris's "alleged communist connection" you execrable piece of garbage , DIC.
DeleteWE all know about Trump:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/politics/trump-putin-ukraine-russia-smart/index.html
@10:49 "alleged" - declared or stated to be as described; asserted:
DeleteSome of Harris's enemies have asserted that she has a communist connection.
"Some of Harris's enemies have asserted that she has a communist connection."
DeleteMore relatives of yours?
Consider me your enemy, DIC. I allege that you fornicate with farm animals. If some execrable piece of garbage decides to banter on a comment section about how you have been alleged to fornicate with farm animals, knowing that your accuser has logged in 40,000 outright lies and counting, that indeed makes him (and by analogy, you) an execrable piece of garbage.
Delete"SUNDAY: Harris takes a hike on Al Smith!"
ReplyDeleteThis is an unfortunate wording choice by Somerby. I doubt Harris intended any disrespect to Al Smith. She is obviously taking a hike on Donald J. Trump.
Why does Somerby phrase things like this if he supports Harris and wants her to win?
Almost all candidates for any office try to be seen and heard as much as possible. They have positive virtues that they as many voters as possible to know about. Harris's decision to skip the Al Smith dinner continues her campaign decision to be seen and heard as little as possible.
DeleteWhy is she campaigning in this unusual way? Does she have more negatives than positives?
If Harris were staying home instead of campaigning elsewhere, your suggestions might have some merit, but she is skipping the Al Smith dinner in order to meet voters in Oklahoma.
Delete“ campaigning in this unusual way?”
DeleteYes, her method, of holding rally after rally with thousands of attendees who can see her in person, all over the country, is quite unusual, David. Never seen the like in American politics.
I find Harris to be unimpressive and uninspiring. I'm embarrassed for our country but whadda ya going to do? Because the entrenched, immoral DNC has sold out every single one of their voters, the race is about being one notch less shitty than Trump and that's pretty much what we she is.
Delete10:00 And yet she is leading your old demented dumpster fire in the polls. Don't pretend to be speaking for Democratic voters. You know shit about them and are laughingly unconvincing in your trolling.
DeleteHarris is campaigning in a battleground state, you execrable piece of garbage. Try keeping up. Why did your POS candidate refuse another debate? What was he doing playing golf the other day, apart fron that is what he had spent 250 days doing while in office?
DeleteI don't like Trump. I'm a Democrat but am just disappointed in Harris and the DNC. Maybe she will surprise me. I think she's going to have a hard time even getting elected though. All she has going for her is she is marginally better than Trump. Nothing will change if she does get elected though. The DNC has made clear they could give fuck all about their voters and they obviously control Harris totally.
DeleteSo vote for Trump or Stein or West.
Delete"marginally better than Trump." Not even YOU believe that bullshit.
Delete11:30 Unconvincing. Every sentence.
DeleteI was going to vote for one of the fine people on the Right who marched at the "Unite the Right" march, but it turns out the only people on the Right who attended were neo-Nazis and white supremacists, so I'm voting for Harris.
Delete"Trump doesn't want to leave any space for Americans to hear about the specific achievements of the Biden/Harris administration..."
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Harris come to the Al Smith dinner and tell us about all these achievements?
Today I happened to listen to "Passin Through," a folk song written by Dick Blakeslee in 1948 and covered by Leonard Cohen, Cisco Houston, Pete Seeger and others. Blakeslee is heard performing it himself on an album called "Songs for Political Action - Folk Music Topical Songs and the American Left 1926-1953, released in 1996.
ReplyDeleteLike songs by Woody Guthrie, it embodies liberal sentiments that continue to motivate those of us on the left. Here are the lyrics:
[Verse 1]
I saw Adam leave the Garden
With an apple in his hand
"Now you're out, what are you gonna do?"
"Plant my crops and pray for rain
Think I'll raise a little Cain
I'm an orphan now, and I'm only passing through."
[Chorus]
Passin' through, passin' through
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue
Glad that I ran into you
Tell the people that you saw me passin' through
[Verse 2]
I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
He said, "Talk of love not hate, things to do, it's getting late
I've so little time and I'm only passin' through."
[Verse 3]
I was with Washington at Valley Forge, shivering in the snow
I said, "How come the men here suffer like they do?"
"Men will suffer, men will fight, even die for what is right
Even though they know they're only passin' through"
[Verse 4 -- Leonard Cohen version]
I was at Franklin Roosevelt's side on the night before he died
He said, "One world must come out of world war two" (ah, the fool)
"Yankee, Russian, white or tan," he said, "a man is still a man
We're all on one road, and we're only passin' through"
[Verse 4 -- Cisco Houston Version]
I was at Franklin Roosevelt's side
Just a while before he died
He said, "One world must come out of World War Two
Yankee, Russian, white, or tan
Lord, a man is just a man
We're all brothers, and we're only passing through"
Repeat the chorus
We are not all religiously motivated and do not share belief in an afterlife, but we share respect for the struggles of humanity in the face of our limited lifespans, the sense that we are all in this life together, the need to unite despite our differences (not pretend those differences do not exist), and the need to unite in love not hate, these are liberal values.
DeleteMany of us were raised on these values. That is why Trump's campaign of hate and division is such an affront to us. If Somerby were to write about this song, he would make some weird allusion to the male references that would giggle and shit on feminists, which would reflect hate and division. His idea of unity would suggest we should all BE the same, not treat each other as the same in dignity and respect despite being different.
We on the left are willing to embrace right wingers and forgive their hate, but not to excuse it or overlook it or pretend it doesn't exist. Why? Because that is incompatible with fighting for what is right.
When I read Somerby, I do not see any understanding of these values, this desire for unity as people while struggling together. That is why I do not believe he is what he claims. He regularly spits on the things I care about, the things that move me.
Donald Trump is passin' through. All of his money won't change that. It is sad that he will have led such an impoverished life, but his use of hate to divide and manipulate people to enrich himself monetarily has done damage to our nation, hurt his followers and his opponents, and must be fought because it is not right. We are all on one road, but Trump spends his time tripping others and fostering hate. That is his tragedy.
Ten things to know about Qatar and Hamas
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2024/09/05/europe/vladimir-putin-kamala-harris-endorsement-intl/index.html
ReplyDelete“So if Putin’s take on US election politics is seen through the lens of “House of Cards,” then, Putin’s support of Harris is a sort of Frank Underwood move: A kind of endorsement poisonous to its recipient.”
Oh, really? And here they had just told us that he is as sincere, informative, and as straightforward as Walter Cronkite.
6:01 You were hearing voices saying Putin is sincere? Seek help.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:52pm, Putin’s sincerity is obviously gauged on whose ox he’s goring.
DeleteThe anonymouse standard of sincerity.
Belief in Putin's sincerity is properly assigned to the mindsets of his admirers, including Donald J. Trump. He's a fanboy.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:40pm, no, you can have a grudging admiration for evil geniuses and other villains, even when you have beentheir victim. What anonymices solely admire is usefulness to their cause. Usefulness over anything else, even passion and sincerity. . You’re far more a patsy to a Putin, than Trump could ever be.
Delete11:57: Have you had a chance to watch the new Rachel Maddow documentary?
DeleteFrom Russia with Lev
From Executive Producer Rachel Maddow, "From Russia With Lev" reveals the outrageous scheme that led to former President Donald Trump's first impeachment. It follows the much, much larger-than-life journey of Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born hustler and former small-time mafia operator whose random, almost accidental association with Trump and Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani took him around the world, and ultimately to prison. Lev reveals the ham-handed workings of the furtive campaign to dredge up false but damaging allegations against then-candidate Joe Biden. Tune in to the broadcast premiere of “From Russia With Lev” on Friday, Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. ET on MS
Because New Yorkers are already voting for her. She will be telling people in Oklahoma about the Biden/Harris accomplishments, because they are less familiar with them there. She is highly competent but not even she can be everywhere at once.
ReplyDeleteAnd an 11th:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/jared-kushner-666-fifth-avenue-qatar-investigation
Heather Cox Richardson: "On Thursday, September 19, the day after the Federal Reserve began to lower interest rates two and a half years after it began to raise them to get inflation under control, President Joe Biden spoke to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit, nonpartisan forum where leaders from around the world can speak to larger questions about the global economy.
ReplyDeleteBiden noted the interest rate cut and identified it as an important signal from the Federal Reserve to the nation that inflation, which at its post-pandemic peak was 9.1%, has come down close to the Fed’s target rate of 2%. He described it as “a declaration of progress…a signal we’ve entered a new phase of our economy and our recovery.”
But Biden told the audience he was “not here to take a victory lap.” Instead, he wanted to “speak about…how far we’ve come, how we got here, and, most importantly, the foundation that I believe [we’ve] built for a more prosperous and equitable future in America.” He wanted, he said, to make the country realize how much progress we’ve made, because if we don’t, the negative economic mindset he attributes to the pandemic will “dominate our economic outlook,” and we will miss “the immense opportunities in front of us right now.”
Biden reminded the audience that when he and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021, having “inherited the worst pandemic in a century and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” they found “there was no real plan in place—no plan to deal with the pandemic, no plan to get the economy back on its feet. Nothing—virtually nothing.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted the U.S. wouldn’t see a full economic recovery until at least 2025.
But, Biden said, he “came into office determined not only to deliver immediate economic relief for the American people but to transform the way our economy works over the long term; to write a new economic playbook,” investing in ordinary Americans and promoting fair competition.
Immediately, Biden and the Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan—without a single Republican vote—to launch “one of the most sophisticated logistical operations in American history” to get coronavirus vaccines into every person in America. Without addressing the pandemic, there could be no economic recovery, he said. The American Rescue Plan also “delivered immediate economic relief for those who needed it the most,” preventing “a wave of evictions, bankruptcies, and delinquencies and defaults” like those that had followed economic crises in the past and had “weakened the recovery and left working families permanently further behind,” a process Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called “economic scarring.”
[cont.] The economic crash had tanked local and state tax revenues, so the administration funded state and local governments to keep teachers and first responders working, small businesses open, and more housing being built. It expanded the Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty in half. The American Rescue Plan included the Butch Lewis Act, which protected the pensions of millions of union workers and retirees.
ReplyDeleteDuring the pandemic, factories shut down, and supply chains—from shipping to port operations to trucking networks—were tangled. The reopening of the global economy sent inflation skyrocketing, and then Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine sent food and oil prices even higher.
Biden reminded the members of the Economic Club of the massive cargo ships stuck outside the Port of Los Angeles before the 2021 holidays, and the shortage of baby formula, and explained that his administration brought together business and labor to repair supply chains and “unclog our ports, trucking networks, and shipping lines.” (Although Biden didn’t note it, Republicans in 2021 suggested that the “reckless spending” of the American Rescue Plan meant that Christmas would be “ruined,” but the administration worked to smooth out the tangles and by July 2024 the Port of Los Angeles saw record-breaking volume passing through it, up 37% from July 2023.) Biden also released oil reserves to stabilize global markets and increased energy production to record highs. Together, these measures began to ease inflation.
Nonetheless, Biden said, critics claimed that the economic supports of the American Rescue Plan would make people leave the labor market—remember “The Great Resignation”?—and that it would take significant unemployment to lower prices. But rather than backing off, Biden and Harris seized the moment to invest in the United States. They wrestled the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through Congress to rebuild roads, bridges, ports, airports, trains, and buses; to remove lead pipes from schools and homes; and to provide affordable high-speed internet access to every American.
The administration insisted that U.S. contracts must use U.S. workers and U.S. products. With the CHIPS and Science Act, it brought back semiconductor chip manufacturing to the U.S., and private companies from around the world are investing tens of billions of dollars in new chip factories in the U.S. that are already employing construction workers and will soon employ factory workers. Factory construction is at a record high now, and the Biden-Harris administration created more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs.
Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act that will help cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and is creating hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs. That law also permits Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, saving taxpayers an estimated $160 billion over the next decade.
With inflation under control and a record 16 million jobs created, the administration’s policies proved, Biden said, that it’s possible to bring down inflation while also safeguarding jobs and wages for American workers and promoting economic growth. A record nineteen million people have applied to start new businesses. More Americans have health insurance than ever before. The racial wealth gap is the smallest in 20 years. And rather than creating a recession, these measures kept economic growth above 3% last year. The stock market is at record highs.
Biden contrasted his economic policies, based in the idea that the economy grows from the middle out and the bottom up, with those of former president Trump, whose policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations are based in the idea that the economy grows best when markets drive it and that concentrating wealth at the top of society permits individuals to invest more efficiently than the government can. Biden noted that, in contrast to his own approach, Trump’s policies killed manufacturing jobs and saw very little factory construction, while creating the largest budget deficit in American history.
ReplyDeleteBiden listed these comparisons to make the point that, as he said, “[f]or the past 40 years, too many leaders have sworn by an economic theory that has not worked very well at all: trickle-down economics. Cut taxes for the very wealthy…and hope the benefits trickle down. Well, guess what? Not a whole lot trickled down to my dad’s kitchen table. It’s clear, especially under my predecessor, that trickle-down economics failed. And he’s promised it again—trickle-down economics—but it will fail again.” He noted, as former president Bill Clinton pointed out at the Democratic National Convention, that since 1989 the U.S. has created about 51 million jobs, and 50 million of them have come under Democratic presidents.
“I’m a capitalist,” Biden said, “[b]ut I believe capitalism is the greatest force to grow the economy for everybody.” He called for more affordable housing, affordable childcare, and lower healthcare costs, noting that those policies will increase economic growth. He called for higher taxes on the very wealthy to pay for those pro-growth policies and to cut the deficit.
And then Biden brought the economic discussion back to his argument before the State Department in 2021, just after he took office. He told the audience at the Economic Club that we have such a dynamic system, and foreign companies are willing to invest here, because of the stability provided in the U.S. by the rule of law. Indeed, it is the rule of law that protects investments and capital, as evidenced by the fact that autocrats stash their money not in their own countries or other dictatorships, but in liberal democracies where investments cannot be taken away or legal protections changed on a dictator’s whim.
After listing the extraordinary economic successes of the past three and a half years, Biden told the audience: “American business, our economic dynamism can’t succeed…without a stability and security that makes us the envy of the world.”