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by adam_arthur 1475 days ago
Well, if a single additional R senator had won in 2020, the ARP wouldn't have passed and inflation at these levels largely wouldn't have occurred to begin with.

Gridlock is the best thing we can get right now. They are still pitching BBB among all of this, which is frankly amazing.

Despite inflation being a horrible political anchor for the Democrats, they have yet to pitch any economically sound policy to combat it. They keep talking about proven to fail economic policies such as price controls, or blaming Russia/Corporate Greed.
2 comments
kombucha13 1475 days ago
This really feels like you are ignoring the larger context here. The issues didn't start with the ARP...far from it. The pandemic and Republicans are equally to blame here. Saying that none of this would've happened without the passing of the ARP is very simplistic and probably wrong.
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adam_arthur 1475 days ago
There were many badly designed policies in the 2020 packages too, such as the PPP.

But at least they had the benefit of the doubt that covid was novel and not well understood, and they were compromise packages with both parties involved.

The ARP was passed solely by Democrats a full year after covid lockdowns started, and was quite obviously excessive by any mathematical/fundamental measurement.

The Fed is the most complicit of all, because they had the power to unilaterally pump the breaks at any point, yet did nothing until it was far too late.

You can believe whatever you want, but it's quite obvious how this is going to look to historians.

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TurkishPoptart 1472 days ago
Why are we blaming Republicans here? The ARP cost US taxpayers $1.9 _trillion_. Such spending causes inflation. [1]

[1]https://www.vox.com/23036340/biden-american-rescue-plan-infl...

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kombucha13 1466 days ago
Did you happen to read the article?

In regards to the ARP: "Estimates suggest that fiscal support measures designed to counteract the severity of the pandemic’s economic effect may have contributed to this divergence by raising inflation about 3 percentage points by the end of 2021."

And then Trump: "...because it was enacted after more than $3 trillion had already been spent to stimulate the economy under Trump."

So what is not proper about Trump and Republicans sharing the blame if not shouldering more?....

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QuadmasterXLII 1475 days ago
we knew this was coming well before the 2020 election, look at google trends for ‘money printer go brrr’
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