So is it the economy? Updated August 26, 2024 for Harris plan

 For the MAGA meme screamers, update your data or produce your alternative facts. Economist Steve Rattner adjusted his data to remove the COVID impact on the economy for which Trump was not responsible nor does he deserve credit for low prices and border crossings that happened during COVID. FYI: Scream all you want about prices (now stabilizing), but no president, Trump, Fiden, or Harris can edict or control or set grocery prices, nor can they, with any executive action, roll them back to December 2019. Get real.. (We closed the border because of the COVID crisis, remember?)). The growth of the economy and job creation were worse under Trump than under Biden. Violent crime was lower under Biden (and illegal migrants' crime rates were much less than others). Oil? Under Biden, the USA is now energy independent. Inflation? rate was down to near-normal levels under Biden. The Federal Reserve will reduce interest rates in September because of the threat of increased unemployment and that the inflation rate is close to the target of 2% .Here are my facts : (We closed the border because of the COVID crisis, remember? No wonder illegal crossings were down. duh). Once the COVID close was lifted. Illegal border crossings are now down from 8K to 2 K in spite of Trump torpedoing the bipartisan bill that included funding for building the rest of the Wall and enough border guards, and judges to screen for actual trafficked victims and proof of persecution to be accepted for asylum. Those seeking only economic opportunity do not get asylum under our current law. So, instead of whining about Biden's recovery success.. what does Trump plan? So far, goose eggs, except for inflation causing tariffs and national debt busting more tax relief for billionaires that never trickled down and drill baby drill when we have so much oil, we do not have a shortage to be fixed, and we are exporting our energy already. The only high taxes Biden had proposed is to reverse the low taxes on the ultra-rich Tump passed. Harris proposes restoring child tax credit and aid to families with new babies. Free stuff? That is because consumers are being screwed by expensive stuff by price-gouging business greed( which Harris plans to stop.) Trump has no plan to reduce prices, but he only plans to make it worse;, slapping high tariffs on all imports, costs passed on to all consumers, ending Obamacare, ending free lunches for poor kids, rolling back the big pharma controls, and deals Biden made for low-cost meds for seniors., Here's Kamala Harris' one: Kamala Harris released her economic platform: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamala-harris-economic-plan-presidential-candidate/

One of the parts of the Harris economic plan is to go after grocery store price gougers and monopolistic, greedy price setters.  Is there price gouging going on?  A federal case brought by the DOJ against the merger of two grocery store giants, Kroger and Albertson's, resulted in a confirmation by a store executive that, yes, they had gouged some prices. https://www.newsweek.com/kroger-executive-admits-company-gouged-prices-above-inflation-1945742  Why is this merger such a issue? Because when there is a monopoly, an inhouse memo can set prices without fear of a competitor starting a price war.

Good question: We have had tax hikes and tariff hikes, but we still have inflation. Why? Tax policy has little to do with it. COVID and recovery are why. tax policy is not the reason for current inflation. It was the impact of COVID's on the economy and the recovery from it. . https://credit.org/.../what-is-causing-inflation-in-2024.... " according to Fortune, economists generally agree on some of the causes behind the high inflation that has defined the economy over the last several months:

"The pandemic shifted consumer demand away from services toward goods, which left producers unable to keep up with demand.

Factory closures from early in the pandemic reduced supply just as demand was rising, which sent prices up even further.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in oil prices, which increased the cost of both manufacturing and shipping, while also forcing up the price of wheat and other commodities.

On top of that, the U.S. was dealing with a labor shortage, leaving many businesses that had been shuttered for months unable to meet rising demand — much of which was due to stimulus payments — when they were finally able to open.” (yahoo.com)"

CREDIT.ORG

What is Causing Inflation in 2024? Understanding Transitory

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Trump's proposal to raise tariffs is considered by economists to be one of the highest tax increases in history. Both Biden and Trump have already raised tariffs with a negative impact on the US economy. , costing 684K jobs, $524 more in taxes, and shrink the GDP  

Per   https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-biden-tariffs/

• Candidate Trump has proposed significant tariff hikes as part of his presidential campaign; we estimate that if imposed, his proposed tariff increases would hike taxes by another $524 billion annually and shrink GDP by at least 0.8 percent, the capital stock by 0.7 percent, and employment by 684,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Our estimates do not capture the effects of retaliation, nor the additional harms that would stem from starting a global trade war.
• Academic and governmental studies find the Trump-Biden tariffs have raised prices and reduced output and employment, producing a net negative impact on the US economy.

.https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/crime-down-under-biden-steve-rattner-fact-checks-trump-s-latest-claims-217215557519

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/08/16/kamala-harris-releases-economic-agenda-heres-what-to-know/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTn_fxQijU

A short response to social media posts griping about high prices:

   https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/16/kamala-harris-economic-policy.html

-oil.. USA .first time since 1950 energy independent...producing more from all sources than we import. we are now exporting oil. (note: we do not have an energy shortage, so drill baby drill to increase supply as a solution is BS) Under Trump, imported lots of Venezuela oil; nearly 0 under Biden)

-Biden is responsible for inflation?. He dramatically decreased the rate. Trump would increase it. Under Biden, the rate of increase fell from 9% Covid end, caused by pent-up demand and supply chain problems, to under 3%...much due to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates.. Goal: 2% inflation normal rate. As expected in September, the Fed will lower interest rates. Trump plans to put a 10% tariff on all imports. Every top world economist says this would cause inflation to rise.

- violent crime? increased a bit under Trump and dropped 26% under Biden...legal immigrants and, even more dramatically, illegal ones rates much lower than native-born American crime rates.

- Illegal border crossings per day are down dramatically. 8k last December; 4K in May. 2K now. Biden exec order to refuse to hear asylum cases if crossings exceeded 2400 helped. , but Trump sabotaged even measures to build the rest of the wall and to fund increased staffing to hear and screen border crossers to separate actual asylum seekers (allowed by law)from those looking for economic refugees. (not a reason for asylum granting)

Trump yesterday gave no clear answers of how he could reduce prices to consumers and decrease housing costs except drill baby drill BS and give us the real inflation raiser, tariffs.

. Friday, Harris will give her plan.

MAGA opposition to anything smelling of bi-partisanship is a losing strategy

   Polls are showing Trump is losing the popular horse race national ones and the electoral map because he is losing independents. His strategy of stonewalling any bi-partisan agreements now to wait for his re-election is backfiring. Independents, by definition, vote on issues and not party loyalty. With them, bi-partisanship is not a dirty word if it addresses the issues they consider important. Trump's strategy of opposing any bi-partisan legislation is aimed at consolidating party loyalists in spite of the popular value of the problem solved by any legislation.. He needs some independents to add to his core MAGA followers to win in November,, but what Trump is doing is losing independents independents instead.,

 House MAGA members put Trump first ahead of helping poor kids by renewing the child tax credit and funding much stronger border security that is included in recent bills to the Senate and will be sending them to the House.  Instead of negotiating, MAGA just proclaims those bills are dead on arrival before they read them.  MAGA's undisguised, now openly confirmed,  political tactic is to oppose any bill that is tainted with a bipartisan agreement that would "'make Biden look good."

. To put the MAGA strategy on immigration and tax legislation in context, MAGA seems to consider "bipartisan" a dirty word because it could hurt their leader, Trump's election bid.  On the other hand, it may be backfiring, contributing to Trump's recent loss of independents in the polls. Donald Trump Suffers Polling Blow Among Independents (newsweek.com)    This is a trend worth watching since Trump needs some independents to add to his core support in 2024.  2024 Election Map Predicts Joe Biden Will Beat Trump by Even Bigger Margin (newsweek.com)  Getting stuff done now would destroy Trump's campaign plank that the border crisis or any tax deal was Biden's fault that only Trump could fix. .  Biden just called Trump's bluff on an immigration bill and exposed Trump's cynical strategy.  

The cynical strategy has been exposed publicly for what it is: Sen.Chuck Grassley confirmed the strategy concerning the child tax credit component of a bipartisan deal on a tax bill.( "GOP senator doesn’t want to pass a tax bill because it could make Biden ‘look good’ (nbcnews.com) ,    The minute Trump opposed any immigration bill deal,  the MAGA House leader Mike Johnson clicked his heels, saluted, and called it dead on arrival while ranting about a rumor about the contents that appear not to be true.  The text has not even been released yet.  

The most conservative Senator in the Senate, James Lankford (D-OK), who led the immigration bill's negotiation, was censured by his own Oklahoma party for daring to construct a b-partisan bill that includes most of the GOP's demands. . Oklahoma GOP votes to condemn Sen. Lankford for role in bipartisan border talks | CNN Politics

After Trump condemned the bipartisan bill, Mike Johnson in his first floor speech  cited rumors that the Lankford bipartisan bill would let too many immigrants into the US, but he had not even seen the final wording of the bill, GOP Senator who were crafting the bill  reacted..   GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise | CNN Politics

Speaker Johnson to House GOP: Senate immigration deal ‘absolutely dead,’ members say | CNN Politics

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bipartisan-border-deal-speaker-mike-johnson-calls-nonstarter/story?id=106799716

I agree with this definition of independent voters provided by Google: An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates on issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship; a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party; a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election ...