Smedley_buzkill wrote:
The most pressing issue for the most people is illegal immigration, with inflation running a very close second.
Not according to the NBC News poll, but I won't disagree with you. I think illegal immigration *is* a major concern for a lot of people.
Smedley_buzkill wrote:
You say there is not much a president can do about inflation. Printing too much money is a primary cause.
That is ONE of many causes and the president has very little control over it. Here's why I say that... First of all, the Federal Reserve is the ONLY entity that CAN print money and they do that in response to people borrowing money. The president CAN borrow money through the treasury and we can track that with our national debt. But our national debt is actually much smaller than the sum of our corporate debts, which is itself smaller than the sum of our personal debts. So, even if a president stops borrowing money, there is still billions of dollars being printed so banks can loan money to the American people and their businesses.
The other thing I want to point out is that our treasury actually borrowed more money from the Federal Reserve under Trump than it did under Biden and while Biden's efforts to enforce taxes on the wealthy helped cover the bills without printing more money, Trump's massive tax cut on the wealthy left us with no choice but to borrow.
When you look at the whole picture it becomes more evident that if anything, Trump is more responsible for inflation than Biden is, but for those who don't have the depth of understanding, all they know is that effects coincide with Biden's term. It's like blaming the person you just sneezed on for getting you sick.
Smedley_buzkill wrote:
Kneecapping your fossil fuel industry, which Biden did his first couple of weeks in office, is another way to really get that inflation ball rolling.
Yeah, I've debunked this one a million times. Biden didn't kneecap fossil fuel. In fact production has increased under Biden to record-breaking levels. Here's what Biden did...
1. He promised that he would work toward a future without fossil fuel. (IMO, a good thing)
2. He took federal land off the market for future leases. (IMO, a good thing)
That's it. That's the extent of his so-called "inflation-causing attack on fossil fuel". Here's why it didn't have ANY impact on our current supply... NONE of the potential leases that were obstructed by taking federal land off the market would have reached production for another 10 years at least. It typically takes at least that long to develop a site between leasing a tract of land and turning on the spigot.
Gas prices went up because oil companies saw an opportunity to price gouge. It's that simple. Oil executives have even admitted this.
Smedley_buzkill wrote:
Inflation averaged 1.25% under Trump.
Only because of the pandemic that he had no control over. If you remove 2020 which was submerged in the economic shutdown, the average rate under Trump is 2.1% which is higher than the average for Obama's second term which was only 1.1%.
Smedley_buzkill wrote:
Biden boasted of "lowering" inflation to "only" 3.5% from a high of 9% brought on in large part by his insane energy policies.
One of the things I've noticed about you dweebs is that you never consider the fact that economic conditions don't change on a dime. In 2021 the average rate of inflation was 4.1%, the second highest rate so far this century and even though Biden took office in 2021, the budget for 2021 was signed by Trump not Biden. Clearly, inflation was already rampant before Biden had ANY influence. Biden's economic policies were implemented for the first time in 2022 and that's when inflation peaked and started to decline.
Even so, I still think the market's self-adjusting properties has more to do with the decline than Biden's policies. Unlike you, I'm not so loyal to a personality to where I have to cherry-pick the facts to support an immaculate image of my idol.
Smedley_buzkill wrote:
Something like 8 out of every 10 dollars currently in circulation has been printed since Biden took office.
I haven't seen this claim before but it sounds like another red herring. First of all, about 90% of the dollars in circulation are digital (not printed). So all of a sudden we're talking about 8 out of every 100 dollars. Secondly, the average lifespan of a dollar bill is 6.6 years, with other denominations being pretty close to the same. So now your point has pretty lost all it potency, as all the printed money in circulation typically gets swapped out within the span of one president (serving two terms) anyway.
Right-wing media is a treasure chest of these little zingers designed to fool people like you.