The editorial in the morning paper gets right to the point in explaining the utterly illogical nature of President-elect Joe Biden’s economic “stimulus” plan:
In addition to $1,400 payments to individuals, Mr. Biden’s plan includes federal money to supplement regular state unemployment payments and a $15 an hour federal minimum wage. Consider the bizarre logic of those last two proposals: Mr. Biden seeks to kneecap already struggling small businesses by raising mandated wage floors, thus outlawing certain jobs, while simultaneously creating disincentives for returning to the workforce. This is economic stimulus?
In fact the Congressional Budget Office has said raising the minimum wage to $15 would destroy 1.3 million jobs.
The editorial then notes, “The new president’s blueprint also includes billions for state bailouts, which is no doubt music to Gov. Steve Sisolak’s ears as he prepares to outline his budget proposals in his State of the State address this week.”
Yes, the lede story on the front page reports that Sisolak is projecting a 2 percent shrinkage in the general fund budget over the next two years. But a couple of graphs later on the jump, the story reports that overall state revenue — which includes other state revenue sources and federal government funding — will actually increase 5.1 percent. Poor, poor Nevada government.
4TH ST8 
I thought Trump wanted a $2,000 stimulus?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/12/22/trump-i-want-2000-stimulus-checks/?sh=28837c2b2e06
And Trump said he’d consider a $15 minimum wage law months ago and yet, I saw nothing about it here; you probably just overlooked it what with him being a republican and all.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/10/23/trump-says-hed-consider-15-per-hour-federal-minimum-wage-but-prefers-to-leave-it-to-states/?sh=3d15d2b64865
Nice to see you’ve found your voice again Thomas. Little surprise though that you couldn’t even wait for Biden to be inaugurated to attack him for those things that Trump did and/or suggested.
Years of silence about Trump and a preemptory attack on a not yet president.
How appropriate.
From the Forbes story on the debate: “Trump said he’d like to see states decide on what the minimum wage rate should be themselves, saying that ‘Alabama is different from New York, New York is different from Vermont, every state is different.’”
Also: “When pressed by debate moderator Kristen Welker on whether he’d be open to a $15 per hour federal minimum wage, Trump said ‘I would consider it to an extent,’ but not if he felt raising it would hurt small businesses.”
Yes Thomas I read it.
You don’t find it odd that Trump spent 4 years actually DOING things like increasing the deficit that you never wrote a word about and now although Biden hasn’t taken office yet, that you are writing stories about things he says he wants to do?
Seems weird to me is all.
https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2020/02/29/editorial-federal-spending-by-both-parties-must-be-reined-in/
https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/spending-like-there-is-no-tomorrow/
https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2020/01/03/newspaper-column-congress-continues-its-spending-spree/
https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/for-our-grandchildren-taxation-without-representation/
https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/editorial-former-nevada-senator-discovers-national-debt/
https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/do-the-math/
That sure is a lot of articles Thomas and I did read all of them, again and all I can say is that they don’t really attack Trump at all even if some of them mention his name… in passing.
I mean heck you got one here talking about Harry Reid for crying out loud and he hasn’t been in government for more than 4 years as opposed to the guy that could have VETO’d any one of those bills that the REPUBLICANS might have passed (at least for the 1st two years of Trumps presidency) all by themselves.
Some of these articles are just defenses of Trumps tax cuts and aren’t any attack at all except on Democrats who again weren’t even in the majorities at the times the deficit was being raised.
Its weird is all.
This is all from the Republican playbook. We saw it during the Obama years. Faced with the worst economic crisis since the Depression, the Republicans and this Web site wrung their hands constantly about our budget deficits, and they continued this flailing until after the election in 2016, when it all magically melted away. From 2017-2019 (we won’t argue COVOD spending), the Trump Administration, averaged a deficit of 3.9% GDP, with no Republican complaints – during good times! By contrast, in 2013 thru 2015, the Obama Administration averaged deficits of 2.8% GDP, also during good times. Those same Republicans complained hardly at all when the Clinton budget surpluses turned into yawning deficit canyons during George W’s eight years.
Trump outspends Obama, and Thomas and the Republicans mumble a few misgivings, but were largely silent, but back in 2013-16, they were full of blood and thunder. And, now, the Republicans, and their minions that contribute here, will be full of blood and thunder again. Look for that to only intensify for 4 more years.
These are not good times. No one here complained when the Trump Administration gave away massive sums of money. Since the economy is no better now, the only argument should be about the amounts compared to those of 2020. Thomas decided not to compare the two. His concern about the $15/hour minimum wage is reasonable, but why no complaints that the rich have hoovered up dozens of times as much money over past decades? Let me see if I have it straight: The best way to help poor people is to find ways to get more money into the hands of the rich. Does that about sum it up?
I’m reminded of a skit from that Monty Python classic “Life of Brian” where a blasphemer is brought before a mob to be stoned. He explains that all he did was utter the word “Jehovah” to explain that the fish his wife had cooked him was good enough for the diety. The “prosecutor” shrieked at his repeated use of the word and said “you’re only making it worse”.
How much worse can Biden make things?
“The U.S. economy shrank 3.5 percent in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses, schools and events, marking the first annual contraction since the Great Recession, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Thursday.
U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) suffered its largest annual decline since 1946 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Commerce Department release. The outbreak of COVID-19 caused the steepest economic collapse since the Great Depression, wiping out more than 20 million jobs and years of economic growth within two months.”
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/536247-economy-shrank-35-percent-in-2020
I wonder, if republicans thought that if instead of calling the virus a hoax, then doing…absolutely NOTHING about it except mocking democrats for months, that Trump did what other leaders of countries did, which is to say SOMETHING other than blame democrats, with the result of their economies being much better off than this one, that those republicans would recognize how evil Trump was?