“What do (they) want?” MONEY! “When do (they) want it?” NOW!
You might’ve heard a similar cheer at a high school sporting event – minus the money part – chanted by cheerleaders imploring their school’s team to kick up their efforts and throw the fans a proverbial bone, like a touchdown, or a first down or a defensive stop… or something. At least that’s the way it used to be, before folks stopped going to football games or calling for simple things like pecuniary valueless team accomplishments.
But one place you could likely still find the “give ‘em money!” feeling is at a Democrat party event, where liberal politicians are conditioned to rewarding their voters with cash – or goodies, or stuff, or checks, or favors, etc. – so as to increase the person’s dependency and therefore assure their colleagues of another voter for life. Take away the grifters’ subsidies and the voter bloc would cry foul!
The naked greed feeling is subsiding, however, and there’s evidence that public favor for more government spending is beginning to erode. In an article titled “Biden’s big spending hasn’t swayed as many voters as he’d like: Poll”, Jack Birle reported at the Washington Examiner:
“President Joe Biden has touted many of his major spending bills as he seeks a second term in the White House, but voters are not being swayed, according to new polling data.
“The poll from Politico-Morning Consult released [last week] shows that Biden’s bevy of laws passed during his first two years in office — including the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act — are not viewed as favorably as the president would want. The survey shows that only 26%-29% of voters view any of the four bills as having positively impacted their community…
“In another negative sign for Biden, voters are generally pessimistic about how the country is doing now compared to four years ago. When asked if the country’s economy is better or worse off than four years ago, 61% said the economy is somewhat or much worse off, and 34% said the economy is somewhat or much better off than four years ago.”
Where the heck did the Politico pollsters get 34 percent of people to say the economy is somewhat or much better off than four years ago? Maybe the top earners – and illegal aliens — are making money in this economy, but wage earners and the middle class have been hit hard by inflation, so much so that their daily lives are impacted in significant ways.
Americans with any amount of understanding of how the economy functions realize that government spending is primarily responsible for driving today’s inflation. Why? Government doesn’t make anything. Government doesn’t sell anything (other than buildings, etc.); and government doesn’t do anything other than take money from productive people and redistribute it to others – some are in need, but others are mere political transfers.
More money chasing fewer goods and services equals inflation. So does government policy that purposely makes resources – like gasoline and heating oil – scarcer, driving up the price of such commodities. That’s basic economics, which everyone except the 34 percent mentioned in Birle’s article seems to grasp.
Dumping money into this scenario is like adding kindling to an already raging inferno. Perhaps that’s what senile Joe and company really want.
Yet Democrats still push for more and more spending – and taxing. Senile Joe Biden is out on the campaign trail trying to convince his gullible base to allow him to increase taxes on the so-called “rich” to “pay their fair share”. Why? So Democrats can then take the money and spend it on their priorities – “climate change” and “green energy” and DEI programs for government agencies and the military. More federal control; more bureaucracy; more government jobs and more bureaucrats devising more semi-permanent regulations and paper pushing. Where does it all go? Does anyone truly appreciate?
It’s pure waste. Wasting money – that’s ONE area where the government excels!
Besides, from a political standpoint, it’s more than arguable that 2024’s voters don’t want more federal spending – they demand results and value from what’s already being billed to the taxpayers.
Look at the issues that seem to motivate the bases of both parties – and very few of these actively involve Uncle Sam digging further into his empty bank vault to pull out more IOUs for politicians to distribute to creditors of the country.
First and foremost, according to many surveys, voters are worried sick about the open southern border and the ill effects of unchecked illegal immigration, namely crime, human trafficking, fentanyl importation, competition for jobs, competition for living space, competition for government benefits, overcrowding in schools and much, much, more. Yes, the federal government could stand to spend more on border security – the wall, etc. – but senile Joe Biden and his Democrat congressional delegation would prefer additional funds be devoted to helping the aliens themselves rather than purchasing the illegal squatters a one-way ticket to that place from which they came.
Or, are Democrats advocating for additional measures to detect and prevent the inevitable terrorist attack that will result from letting in hordes of military-aged single males from nations that are considered enemies? Not a chance. Many an observer has suggested that a terrorist strike is a when, not “if”, proposition. More aptly put, nothing good can possibly result from the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
And it’s got nothing to do with money – unless you count the business interests who thrive on cheap labor and love the status quo.
Liberal feminists are up in arms over abortion “rights” supposedly being taken from them, which, again, has very little connection to the Democrats’ spending ways. Democrats seem to know better than to visibly advocate for more abortion spending since even they are smart enough to realize that the American citizenry wouldn’t accept it. But still, Democrats believe they can generate more votes from unmarried women (their most devoted constituency) by spreading more distortions and untruths about existing state pro-life laws.
Further, the left appears to be demanding additional federal and state level laws regarding transgender “rights” and inclusion for their voters in society – specifically in women’s sports. The Biden administration recently altered Title IX by changing the definition of which self-identified human beings are covered by the law that was passed in the early 1970’s when biological men and women didn’t dispute such sex classifications.
It’s another issue where spending more money won’t stimulate voters’ responses.
There are others – leftists want to defund traditional institutions, not pour money on them. Leftists want to defund the police; and they certainly can’t stomach sending money to Israel to be used in the nation’s ongoing war against the region’s Hamas perpetrators. Senile Joe’s gotten himself into hot water by suggesting that money needs to be sent to both sides for “humanitarian” uses, a wishy-washy compromise that pleases no one.
No wonder a majority of those questioned in the above survey responded that Biden’s boondoggle programs from his first two years haven’t helped them at all.
Conservatives also demand that federal spending be slowed or stopped or reversed. As mentioned above, spending for “climate change” remediation has had either zero or incredibly negligible actual results. The United States has already reduced its carbon footprint over time (compared with other nations of the world such as big polluters India, China and Russia). Has it resulted in measurable impact on the “climate”?
Everyone who’s paid attention realizes that senile Joe Biden’s administration has made a serious push to convince Americans to start replacing their gas guzzling cars and trucks with electric vehicles whose batteries’ materials originated in China. The only problem for Democrats is that demand for the EVs has fallen off the charts, resulting in car dealer sales lots with a glut of the expensive, questionably useful vehicles.
Anyone want an electric car in a cold climate? Or was “global warming” supposed to help them warm up their batteries?
Meanwhile, conservatives want government reform, not more spending. As amply demonstrated by this year’s multitude of legal witch hunts against Republican presidential nominee-to-be Donald J. Trump, the current Democrat regime is devoting big chunks of the government’s outlays to prosecuting ridiculous charges against political opponents. And what for?
Another frustrating aspect for Democrats is they may have run out of voters to bribe and poke with promises of more federal spending. It seems evident that the recent nationwide leftist protests regarding Palestine and Israel concern the government’s involvement in overseas human conflicts – not by a lack of U.S. dollars flowing outside of the country.
Have there been any protests about not enough government dollars for infrastructure projects? To repair the nation’s crumbling bridges or aging airports or air traffic control system? Doesn’t the citizenry want more pipelines built to increase oil production and therefore lower energy prices? Is there a clamor to allow private entities to assist with improvements?
Here’s also guessing that more and more people are becoming aware of the $2 trillion annual federal government budget shortfalls as well as the national debt climbing with no hope of balancing the budget. With interest rates the way they are, interest payments to service the debt consume a major portion of the discretionary budget.
Again, with no plans to reduce spending among Democrats. In fairness the Republican establishment isn’t putting forward realistic plans for debt reduction, either. It’s not just a one-party ailment – the swamp spending disease is bipartisan and out of control.
Senile Joe Biden’s and the Democrats’ main problem is that Americans can’t see any real benefits from all the spending the party has begged for the past few years. They can lead a cheering session for more money, but the “fans” themselves don’t want any part of it. Without promising more “free” money, what do Democrats really have to offer?