The Republican Utopia

[Scarlet]

2 minutes ago, Archy1221 said:

Where was “greatest accomplishment” mentioned?   You know, the thingy you claimed I indicated earlier? 

Did you list anything else?  No?  I didn't think so

[knapplc]

6 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

eehhhh….not a very good point.

 

My tiny company got in on some of that PPP money. (Thank you all BTW). We’re not a corporation and I can honestly say that is the first time any deal like that has benefited me or my company. And yes my prices have been steadily increasing ever since because my costs are increasing, ridiculously so in some cases. At this point, the record inflation belongs more at the feet of one Mr. Joe Biden.

 

And anyway this more deservingly belongs in a “Our whole government is effed up utopia” thread.

 

Biden's been in office a year. The pandemic has been here for two years. This supply chain issue didn't start with Biden, and he didn't start the colossal failure of America's botched COVID response. 

 

And it's a fantastic point that the government - when it's controlled by Republicans - have doled out trillions in cash with zero strings attached, and the taxpayers not only foot the bill for that, but suffer raised prices. 

 

Not every company that took PPP money is profiting. Yours may just be using this as a means to stay afloat. But there's plenty of abuse to be mad about. 

[Archy1221]

30 minutes ago, Scarlet said:

Did you list anything else?  No?  I didn't think so

So I didn’t actually say what you claimed I said  Thank you for acknowledging. 

[Scarlet]

1 minute ago, Archy1221 said:

So I didn’t actually say what you claimed I said  Thank you for acknowledging. 

It's inferred 

 

 

[Archy1221]

32 minutes ago, knapplc said:

And it's a fantastic point that the government - when it's controlled by Republicans - have doled out trillions in cash with zero strings attached, and the taxpayers not only foot the bill for that, but suffer raised prices. 

I think we can all agree that it doesn’t matter what party is in charge, this happens, but to the specific time period you are addressing, Democrats controlled the power of the purse.  

Just now, Scarlet said:

It's inferred 

 

 

By you   Which was wrong 

[Scarlet]

1 minute ago, Archy1221 said:

 

By you   Which was wrong 

Really?  Then maybe you should finish your list

[Archy1221]

25 minutes ago, Scarlet said:

Really?  Then maybe you should finish your list

Maybe, or hear me out…you could just not make stuff up

[JJ Husker]

58 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

Biden's been in office a year. The pandemic has been here for two years. This supply chain issue didn't start with Biden, and he didn't start the colossal failure of America's botched COVID response. 

 

And it's a fantastic point that the government - when it's controlled by Republicans - have doled out trillions in cash with zero strings attached, and the taxpayers not only foot the bill for that, but suffer raised prices. 

 

Not every company that took PPP money is profiting. Yours may just be using this as a means to stay afloat. But there's plenty of abuse to be mad about. 

Those are all good points and I agree. Where we might start to diverge is on Biden’s culpability on the supply chain and inflation issues. Some of it may just be inherent due to a raging pandemic but instead of getting out ahead of these problems Biden instead chose to focus on pushing through a massive infrastructure plan that would only exacerbate the inflation we’re seeing. At this point in time, it doesn’t really matter if we’re in dire need of that infrastructure or not because that sort of spending will only be more detrimental to the economy. There is plenty of blame to be placed on Trump and the republicans to be sure but Joe and the dems have done jack squat also. Our government, Rs and Ds, is ineffective as is. Just because one party is more to blame doesn’t change that.

 

To be clear, the thing in that Tweet you posted that drew my ire was the idea that companies are raising prices simply because they can. That may be in plenty of situations but in many/most cases it is out of necessity. My raw material costs have about tripled. Of course prices are rising rapidly. It’s about as useful as pissing in the wind to blame Trump for that now. He’s gone and the current occupant of the Clown House is doing next to nothing. None of them give a s#!t about the common person.

[knapplc]

5 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

To be clear, the thing in that Tweet you posted that drew my ire was the idea that companies are raising prices simply because they can. That may be in plenty of situations but in many/most cases it is out of necessity. My raw material costs have about tripled. Of course prices are rising rapidly. It’s about as useful as pissing in the wind to blame Trump for that now. He’s gone and the current occupant of the Clown House is doing next to nothing. None of them give a s#!t about the common person.

 

You've been pretty clear throughout this s-show that your costs have skyrocketed and that you're having trouble sourcing materials. Clearly that tweet isn't aimed at companies like yours, and I wasn't implying that you (or BRB or BB Hemingway) are included in that tweet.

 

But we all know there are companies that used PPP money to buy back stocks, and then still raised their prices. I think the airline industry is a good example. And those companies should be called out.

[BigRedBuster]

16 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

Those are all good points and I agree. Where we might start to diverge is on Biden’s culpability on the supply chain and inflation issues. Some of it may just be inherent due to a raging pandemic but instead of getting out ahead of these problems Biden instead chose to focus on pushing through a massive infrastructure plan that would only exacerbate the inflation we’re seeing. At this point in time, it doesn’t really matter if we’re in dire need of that infrastructure or not because that sort of spending will only be more detrimental to the economy. There is plenty of blame to be placed on Trump and the republicans to be sure but Joe and the dems have done jack squat also. Our government, Rs and Ds, is ineffective as is. Just because one party is more to blame doesn’t change that.

 

To be clear, the thing in that Tweet you posted that drew my ire was the idea that companies are raising prices simply because they can. That may be in plenty of situations but in many/most cases it is out of necessity. My raw material costs have about tripled. Of course prices are rising rapidly. It’s about as useful as pissing in the wind to blame Trump for that now. He’s gone and the current occupant of the Clown House is doing next to nothing. None of them give a s#!t about the common person.

Meh...very little of the inflation at this point is Biden's fault.  It started long before he took office.  The infrastructure bill hasn't even been implemented yet.  It has no bearing on inflation right now.

[JJ Husker]

4 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Meh...very little of the inflation at this point is Biden's fault.  It started long before he took office.  The infrastructure bill hasn't even been implemented yet.  It has no bearing on inflation right now.

I realize the infrastructure bill has not affected the current inflation. I mean duh. My point was, the current WH occupant has been out of touch with the economy. I find it a little disturbing that he was pursuing that plan as recently as he has been while inflation and supply chain issues remain out of control. Yes, many of these problems started before he was in office. IMO that doesn’t give him carte blanche to be doing jack s#!t about the problems. What’s fair for the goose is fair for the gander.

 

I hate Trump as much as the next guy does but that mfer is gone. We have to hold the current people in charge accountable or nobody will ever be accountable. That may not be completely fair but when’s the last time anything was remotely fair for the majority of taxpayers?

[BigRedBuster]

11 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

I realize the infrastructure bill has not affected the current inflation. I mean duh. My point was, the current WH occupant has been out of touch with the economy. I find it a little disturbing that he was pursuing that plan as recently as he has been while inflation and supply chain issues remain out of control. Yes, many of these problems started before he was in office. IMO that doesn’t give him carte blanche to be doing jack s#!t about the problems. What’s fair for the goose is fair for the gander.

 

I hate Trump as much as the next guy does but that mfer is gone. We have to hold the current people in charge accountable or nobody will ever be accountable. That may not be completely fair but when’s the last time anything was remotely fair for the majority of taxpayers?

The President (no matter the party) doesn't control inflation.  The actions taken that CAUSED the inflation can be blamed on everyone in Washington with the money policies they pushed through congress to fight the economic impact of the pandemic.  That includes Biden that was in congress at the time.

 

I had major supply chain issues with the infrastructure bill too.  Along with, who's going to actually do the work.  I'm glad you agree that the bill doesn't have anything to do with current inflation.

 

Fixing the inflation problem is going to have to come from the feds with monetary policy that most people aren't going to like.  Which, again, the President doesn't control other than nominating who runs it.  The problem is, for too long, economists have been preaching that it's temporary and action isn't needed.  Well, it's turning out to be not temporary.  

[knapplc]

4 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

I realize the infrastructure bill has not affected the current inflation. I mean duh. My point was, the current WH occupant has been out of touch with the economy. I find it a little disturbing that he was pursuing that plan as recently as he has been while inflation and supply chain issues remain out of control. Yes, many of these problems started before he was in office. IMO that doesn’t give him carte blanche to be doing jack s#!t about the problems. What’s fair for the goose is fair for the gander.

 

I hate Trump as much as the next guy does but that mfer is gone. We have to hold the current people in charge accountable or nobody will ever be accountable. That may not be completely fair but when’s the last time anything was remotely fair for the majority of taxpayers?

 

It takes time to respond to inflation like this, and there's very little magic-wanding a president can do about it. The Fed can (and will) raise interest rates to help, but that's a small fix to a bigger problem.

 

Today's inflation is caused by worker shortages and supply chain problems, all stemming from the pandemic. I'm not sure to what level of accountability you want to hold Biden for this, but it's not only not a problem of his creation, the solutions are a bit out of his hands as well.

 

Other economies that have robust antitrust laws will recover quicker - greater diversity creates competition, forcing prices down and competition for workers up. Had we broken up some of these massive companies over the last few decades we'd be in better shape - but that's not a solution for today, nor is that failure Biden's. 

[BigRedBuster]

2 minutes ago, knapplc said:

forcing prices down and competition for workers up.

We need more competition for employees?  Holy s#!t.  

[knapplc]

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

We need more competition for employees?  Holy s#!t.  

 

Hah! Well, not at this very moment, no, but overall it's healthy for an economy. 

 

And cheers on typing a very similar explanation to the inflation problem just now.  Great minds.