Debt Ceiling and Republican Propaganda

 Under Joe Biden’s leadership employment has continued to increase with total nonfarm payroll employment rising by 253,000 in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment is down nationally to 3.5% and holding steady, while it is 4% here in Texas. All this good jobs news comes while interest rates keep rising due to the actions by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as they try to slow inflation.

It’s unfortunate that the Board of Governors has mis-diagnosed the cause of inflation as apparently they’ve been listening to the corporate media like the Washington Post instead of economists doing actual research. Had board studied the research by Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, they’d realize that only 8% of total inflation has been caused by increased wages while more than half has been going to increased corporate profits as can be seen by the record earnings reports from a slew of big names.

As reported by David Sirota of Level News: In March, UBS Chief Economist Paul Donovan released a revealing commentary concluding: “Recent inflation has been driven by an unusual expansion of profit margins.”

He explained: “Profit margin-led inflation is not caused by a supply-demand imbalance. Profit margin-led inflation is when some companies spin a story that convinces customers that price increases are ‘fair,’ when in fact they disguise profit margin expansion.”

Donovan noted that “widespread reports of rising agricultural prices allow supermarkets and restaurants to raise the price of food.” Other spinnable stories include “supply chain disruption (in fact global trade is at a record high), labor shortages (in fact wage costs are rising far less than prices), and in the most circular of arguments ‘general inflation,” he wrote.

Two weeks ago House Republicans voted to cut veterans’ services significantly and limit their health care. That’s just one aspect of Republican extortionate debt ceiling and budget cuts bill they passed 217-215, with all but four Republicans voting for it. Those four thought the cuts should have been deeper.

The bill is estimated to cut 22% of funding from the Veterans Administration which would mean the immediate loss of $2 billion in funding for veterans services, and 30 million fewer veteran outpatient visits. The VA would lose 81,000 jobs. That would mean fewer employees to answer veterans’ phone calls, schedule health visits, process their disability claims, and provide other critical services.

Remember, Republicans claim they are the only ones who support our veterans. With supporters like that I’m afraid our veterans are better off in the hands of those awful Democrats. By the way the Department of Defense’s budget is the only one not affected by the Republican proposed cuts.

While we’re on the subject of the Department of Defense you should know that Senate Republicans are allowing a single member to block the confirmation of 184 Defense Department nominees over an abortion policy dispute. Not only is Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville blocking those nominees, he’s holding up pay raises for men and women in uniform, blocking key senior military leaders from taking their posts, and jeopardizing national security.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified that the obstruction is harming national security. The delay, according to Austin, has caused a “ripple effect in the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.”

Tuberville’s block includes “five three-star officers” who were supposed to rotate to new jobs by summer, including “the commander of the Navy’s 5th Fleet, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, and the Pentagon’s representative on NATO’s military committee,” according to another senior defense official. 

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 10, 2023