Ok. First, I never liked James Carville. What a hack. And when I said that I didn’t like him to one of my staffers — not raccoon-face — but the short, dumpy one — I could have sworn she said something to the effect of, “Well, his head is brighter than your future” but she was mumbling, and walking out of the room, so who knows?
He does have that famous quote, though:
“It’s the economy, stupid.”
That was some phrase he said to campaign workers when he was a strategist on the successful Bill Clinton campaign. He felt that the economy was something to focus on for voters, and that generally people care the most about the economy and vote for who could steward it better. Other people talk about kitchen table politics — like what the voters see every day, is the most important — what affects them personally… like the cost of gas, or eggs, or whatever.
I don’t get it. What is the hang-up with the economy? And the Republicans and Trump are constantly droning on and complaining about inflation — saying the inflation is so bad, prices are up, and people are hurting.
This seems like a complete fabrication or some kind of misrepresentation of the numbers.
Inflation is up. Don’t get me wrong, and it’s not good. And prices are horrendously up. Prices are 21.2% more expensive since the recession began in February 2020, with 94% of items that the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks being more expensive than when we took office. 6 percent are the same or cheaper though!! How come they never point that out?
Just for comparison’s sake, I did see a report that said prices rose just under 7.8% during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency. So. So what? Who’s counting?
Trump had inflation, too!! The year over year inflation increase during Trump’s administration was 1.4 percent. So there. Well, I guess that’s 65 percent less than the historical average on inflation. Near record numbers.
And our administration? Well, during the Biden/Harris (frankly, let’s just blame the old guy if possible) inflation peaked at 9.1 percent — but who’s counting? Our average year over year inflation is at over 5 percent. Like a 30 percent increase on the historical average. But we did pass the infamous “Inflation Reduction Act” which sounds cool. So.
I did ask a staffer what the price increases during our administration meant to the normal average middle class family.
“Oh, Madame Vice President, I don’t want to burden you with numbers — remember, you’re not good at math.” — This is the reply I got.
“Yeah, but pretend I care and tell me.” I said — staring at him— because they know I’m serious if I look at them, which I rarely do.
And you know what!? He said that roughly the price increases during my administration cost the average middle class family $1,400 a month, $17,000 a year or almost one year’s worth of salary during our administration.
Doesn’t seem a lot to pay to have me in office, does it? I mean…. they could have peace and prosperity under Trump, but they’d really miss my cackle. The cackle alone has to be worth 17k a year (or potentially more, my economic plan is more of a crap shoot than a plan)…
We good. I think.