Making America a Better Economy: Inflation, Gas Prices, and Energy in the Era of the Cold War and the Russian-Prussian War
We have made enormous progress over the past two years. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out.
The unemployment rate has not been this low in half a century. We’ve created 10 million jobs, including almost 700,000 manufacturing jobs. The phrase “Made in America” is a reality on my watch.
There is more work that needs to be done. Inflation is caused by the ptosis and Russian President Putin’s war in Ukraine. I know a lot of people have a job and are still struggling to pay for groceries, gas and rent. That’s why I’m so determined to lower costs for families.
I’m working to reduce the burden on working- and middle-class people by bringing down the costs of everyday things they need for their families, such as health care premiums, prescription drugs and energy bills. We passed the Inflation Reduction Act without a single Republican vote to lock in lower health care premiums for 13 million Americans and lower prescription drug prices for seniors.
And partly because of the actions we’ve taken – including a historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – gas prices are decreasing. Since their peak this summer they have lost more than a dollar, and fell another 10 cents this week. Real savings are being added to by that.
Republicans in Congress are doubling down on mega, MAGA trickle-down economics that benefit the wealthy and big corporations. They clearly laid out their plan. It would raise your costs and make inflation worse.
My administration finally gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices. We capped out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors and capped seniors’ monthly insulin payments at $35 a month. Big Pharma and scores of lobbyists spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent health care savings for Americans. They didn’t succeed.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/american-people-face-a-choice-joe-biden/index.html
A Republican Plan for Taxes for the Rich: Voting on Social Security, Medicare, and Abelian Abiturbations in 2020
Democrats are making sure the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share in taxes. In 2020 55 of the richest companies in America paid zero federal income tax. No longer. I signed into law a 15% corporate minimum tax. And, I’m keeping my campaign commitment: no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes.
Republicans want to cut taxes for the wealthy and some want to cut Social Security for seniors. Rick Scott, the Senator from Florida who is in charge of electing Republicans, has a plan requiring Congress to vote every five years on keeping, cutting or eliminating Social Security and Medicare. Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin has proposed putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every single year.
The fact is, this is not your father’s Republican party: Many Republicans in Congress want to pass a national ban on abortion. I will veto it immediately if we win the Senate, and codify it in January if we keep the House.
The American Way of Democracy: A Tale of Two Cities and One Problem: The Case of the Peculiar Case for Remaining in the White House
Democracy is being put to the test in America. We are learning what every generation has to learn: nothing about democracy is guaranteed. You need to defend it. Protect it. Choose it.
I am certain that the American people will vote in record numbers in 2020 and make it clear that democracy is a value that both defines us and distinguishes us as Americans.
Over the last few years, we’ve faced some of the most difficult challenges in our history, but we did not relent. And, I have never been more confident about our future. The American people have 14 days to decide if we keep moving or go backwards.
Republicans want to use the raising of the ceiling as an example of how to cut spending. No matter how much Kevin McCarthy swears that won’t involve cuts to Social Security or Medicare, it’s almost impossible to imagine they aren’t on the table. What’s your recommendation?
The person is Bret. Well, the Republicans’ current strategy has all the intelligence of Foghorn Leghorn, the Looney Tunes rooster: They’re trying to play a game of chicken with the Biden administration when, deep down, they know they’re the ones who are going to chicken out. It is suicidal for the government to let it default on its debt. We’ll probably go through this terrifying thing until a small group of swing district Republicans break ranks to vote for debt ceiling increase.
Bret: Other than trying to find ways to slow the rate of spending growth, I can’t imagine there would be cuts to either program. They are popular with Republican voters. And there’s no way anything is going to happen except on a bipartisan basis. Suggestions for fix that don’t involve tax increases.
Social Security payroll taxation is stopped at about $160,000 — and that’s a good deal, but not a bad deal, right?
Gail: Well, some people may regard this as a tax increase, but I want to propose some tax fairness. Social Security payroll taxation is stopped at about $160,000. A millionaire doesn’t have to pay anything, even if it’s $840,000.
Gail: Bret, I spent a lot of my early career — way back in the ’70s — hanging out with the chief of police in New Haven, Ed Morrone, who was just so smart. He told my husband Dan, who was a police reporter then, that the most important job of a cop was “to keep people who hate one another apart.”