Digby has picked up on a big story from Paul Krugman:
The economy is good, but Americans feel bad about it. Or do they?
The more I look into it, the more I’m convinced that much of what looks like poor public perception about the economy is actually just Republicans angry that Donald Trump isn’t still president.
Last year was a very good one for the U.S. economy. Job growth was strong, unemployment remained near a 50-year low and inflation plunged. Some reports I’ve seen suggest that this favorable combination was somehow paradoxical and contrary to economic theory. In fact, however, it’s exactly what textbook economics says to expect in an economy experiencing an improvement in its productive capacity.
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If you, like Digby, have been wondering about persistent reports that Americans are down on Bidenomics, Krugman has looked at some polling data that suggests it’s about partisan differences. Republicans simply choose to believe that there is no good economic news when there is a Democrat in the White House; Democrats aren’t subject to the same kind of knee-jerk pessimism.
(While Krugman doesn’t discuss it, I’d suspect it’s also due to the bubble effect. Republicans get a steady stream of disinformation from their preferred news sources, such as FOX, that continually paint a picture of gloom and doom. And then there’s the mainstream media obsession with finding dark clouds around every silver lining, and ignoring the sun breaking through the clouds — but I digress.)
Krugman concludes with this:
...So maybe we should at least entertain the hypothesis that the historically anomalous behavior of consumer sentiment reflects the historically anomalous nature of the modern G.O.P., two-thirds of whose supporters believe — based on no evidence — that the 2020 election was stolen. Maybe economic polling, like everything else with this crowd, is all about MAGA…
...In any case, the general point is that you just can’t interpret surveys of economic sentiment, or for that matter anything else, without taking into account the fact that the modern G.O.P. bears no resemblance to the Republican Party of past years, or for that matter any political party in modern U.S. history.
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Digby sums it up:
This does not surprise me in the least, neither does it surprise me that the media is happy to elide this distinction and pass on the gloom and doom as if it represents the whole country. Pundits commonly casually assert that both parties are equally partisan when it comes to objective assessments of the economy and other issues and it just is not true.
MAGA is dragging down the numbers because they worship Donald Trump and he lost. That’s what this is. And it really shouldn’t take a genius economist to say it.
If you want to read the entire column, Digby has much of it, but the whole thing is here at The NY Times as a subscriber-only newsletter. (The link goes through the paywall.)
And Trump gives the game away
Digby also picks up on Trump openly calling for the economy to crash this year — because he figures it will help him take back the White House. The White House has Trump on video
For those can’t/don’t want to see the video at Twitter/X, here’s what Trump says.
“When does it crash? I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months, because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president — I just don’t want to be Herbert Hoover.
For context, Digby pulls up a story by Lance Lambert from January 2021 with the headline:
“Trump to leave office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover”
Meanwhile, the Republican maniacs in the House are talking about dumping Mike Johnson for daring to agree to any kind of budget deal that doesn't include their demands. A government shutdown could be in the works if they resort to taking the country hostage. Via Carl Hulse at The NY Times:
“This is a total failure,” the far-right House Freedom Caucus, a group of Republicans who have proved a thorn in the side of a series of G.O.P. speakers, wrote on social media.
“I am a NO to the Johnson Schumer budget deal,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the right-wing Republican from Georgia, wrote on social media. “This $1.6 Trillion dollar budget agreement does nothing to secure the border, stop the invasion, or stop the weaponized government targeting Biden’s political enemies and innocent Americans.”
The backlash from the extreme right underscored anew that Mr. Johnson will most likely have to rely on substantial Democratic support to pass the spending bills underlying the agreement. It also raised questions about the viability of his plan to try to attract Republican backing to spending measures by inserting conservative policy dictates aimed at restricting abortion rights and what Republicans see as “woke” administration policies.
Referring to the Times article, Charlie Pierce gives them about a week before a shutdown.
...The White House budget director seems to have a good bead on the situation in the House. Mainly, that they're all pretty much addicted to the crazy.
White House budget director Shalanda Young said GOP leaders have been “working in good faith to prevent a shutdown.” But she predicted Johnson is likely to face revolt within his conference, complicating endgame negotiations and increasing the odds of a funding lapse. "History has shown us that leadership can work in good faith, and then they go into a raucous conference room after a trip to the border,” said the OMB director, who previously served as the House’s top appropriations aide. “And then the sentiment of … ‘We’ll shut the government down. We control the money,’ wins out the day.”
Government by puppet show really has its limits.
Republicans: reality is not something with which they can cope. Trust them with neither your money nor your life — nor your country.
UPDATE: Robert Reich has a video that just came out showing the difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the economy.