Neighborhood Ministries

Democrats continue to try to blackmail Republicans to give in to Obamacare subsidies. It is a tactic they have used in just about every budget since Obama took office. They demand massive new expenditures for worthless programs to benefit their supporters and then force a government shutdown and hold the American people for ransom until the Republicans give in. They don’t care how many they hurt as long as they get what they want.  Republicans have tried to hold out to maintain a balanced budget but eventually give in to save the people hurt by the shutdown. This time the Republicans have refused to give in to blackmail and are refusing to budge. They care about the people who are hurt but know we can’t go on giving in to blackmail because every time we allow massive new spending it pushes the country that much closer to bankruptcy. The issue is the same old one Democrats have been pushing since the housing crisis. Then the banks and automakers were faced with closing. Now it is the people without health insurance. The Democrats put the money into the banks to keep them afloat and they paid big dividends to their stockholders. That does not help because the people still owed the money to the banks so the businesses stay open but have to be continually subsidized until the people are able to pay back what they owe. If the money went to the people in the form of vouchers, they could pay off the banks so the banks could stay open and the people could still support the banks. The money went to the car manufacturers so they could still pay the workers but there is no work because the people couldn’t afford to buy cars. If the money went to the people in a voucher, they could buy cars and the workers would have work and get paid. In the first instance only the companies benefit but in the second, everyone benefits. It is the same way this time. The subsidies were to help the insurance companies through Covid. The Covid shutdown is over but they still want to continue the subsidies draining billions of dollars from the treasury to help the insurance companies. The subsidies have no guarantee that the companies will lower insurance rates and they have not lowered the rates. Obamacare was supposed to help people that could not afford insurance but it only made things worse. For instance, if a family paid $200 a month for insurance, the government offered a $200 subsidy so the insurance companies jacked the price up to $400 a month and the government paid $200 to the insurance company and the people still paid $200. The insurance companies have been raking in massive profits while the people still suffer. The only difference is that everyone’s taxes went up to cover the subsidy  so they are worse off then before. If the money went to the people, they could bid among the insurance companies who would have to keep their prices low or lose customers. It is all about power. The rate hikes drove those people who could not afford to get insurance to apply for subsidies making them dependent on the Democrats to keep the money flowing. The more people dependent on the Democrats, the more votes they can count on in upcoming elections.

We saw the same thing with welfare. When I worked for the welfare department back in the 1970’s, many of those on welfare did not want to go to work because most jobs available to them paid less than they got on welfare. I encouraged them to get starter jobs which would reduce their welfare check but their pay plus the remaining welfare assistance would be more than the welfare alone. However, the other welfare workers discouraged them from getting low pay starter jobs because the workers had to refigure the client’s checks every month which was a lot of extra work. When politicians realized that people were making no effort to get off welfare, they realized they had to limit the time that clients could get assistance, or the clients would never make any effort to get off welfare. Now Democrats are pushing for a guaranteed minimum income. It would encourage those earning under the minimum amount to quit work since they would still receive the income which would be more than if they worked. It would also  increase the control of Democrats who continually tell those receiving government subsidies that if Republicans get in power, they will abolish the program so the people receiving subsidies will continue to vote for Democrats.

During covid, we saw in a small way why socialism is attractive and why it is destructive. The government expanded unemployment to help those out of work. That is a noble gesture designed to help people. The government also extended small business loans to help businesses continue paying the salaries of their workers while laid off, however there was a very angry reaction of workers against those businesses that got the small business loans because the workers could receive more from unemployment than they were making while working and they didn’t have to work for the unemployment. Socialism creates the same problem. Why work if you get paid anyway and if you have to work, there is no incentive to work longer hours because you do not receive anything extra. Therefore, the first do not work at all and the second work only as much as they are required. That is why socialism always fails and results in poverty for everyone. Everyone wants to take but very few want to give and those willing to give don’t give anymore than the minimum required.

President Biden pushed financial institutions to support investments that promote Social and environmental programs rather than picking investments that show a solid base with good promise of being profitable. This is risky because many such investments are new and do not have a solid track record. Many of those investments were environmental companies owned by Democrat lawmakers or ones that they had major stock holdings in. Since those stocks would ordinarily be very risky, they would not have much value and could be bought cheap. Since Democratic politicians knew ahead of the announcement, they could  have bought up additional stock in them. By directing financial institutions to support them, it drove the value of those stocks up and enabled those lawmakers to profit from it. That is called inside trading and is illegal. There is increasing evidence that such risky investments may have led to the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank which in turn led to the fall of a number of other major banks and set off a banking crisis. While President Trump canceled that order and allowed banks to return to choosing investments based on sound business procedure, the threat remains if another Democrat President is elected.

Democrats blame Republicans for refusing to pass the budget but they aren’t willing to give in either. Democrats want to increase the debt limit and spend billions of dollars on health care for illegal immigrants but don’t want to increase payments to Medicare insurance providers. In fact President Biden cut payments to Medicare in the last couple months of his term, forcing Medicare insurance providers to cut services covered under Medicare or increase copayments hurting Seniors who are already hard pressed to meet expenses. Republicans are trying to hold the line on the debt limit and reduce spending so they can begin paying off the national debt. The mid-term elections are coming up next year. Voters need to decide if they want Democrats to continue bankrupting the federal government to benefit illegal immigrants who will then illegally vote to elect Democratic Congressmen or if they want Republicans to cut spending and stimulate the economy so the American people benefit.

https://www.udemy.com/course/economics-102/?referralCode=A64E23B9A6657623E1D8

Many people see the price increases resulting from the new tariffs, and don’t bother to understand the reasons behind them.  The United States prospered after World War II because the manufacturing plants in Europe were destroyed and the United States was supplying the manufacturing products to the world with no competition. In addition, many of the homes and businesses were destroyed so they needed a lot to rebuild. Our manufacturing was not destroyed in the  war and had greatly expanded to produce a lot of the war materials for the Allies. They were quickly converted to peacetime production. Without competition, unions forced pay increases which greatly increased the cost of goods and companies did not bother to modernize equipment to cut production costs. With the newfound prosperity, Americans could afford to pay the higher prices. When Europe began to rebuild its manufacturing, they built the most modern facilities.  Their  wages were far lower and with new cost saving equipment, they were able to sell far below our cost. In addition, Europe imposed tariffs on goods from the United States to protect their manufacturers from American competition, but the United States did not impose tariffs in return. As a result, we lost the overseas sales and our retailers began importing goods from overseas because they were cheaper than American made goods. It destroyed our manufacturing and forced many manufacturers to move their plants overseas where they could produce goods cheaper.  It not only cost us jobs, it also reduced the money received from taxes on the goods produced. In addition, it made us dependent on foreign manufacturers which was evident after 9-11 and after Covid when our borders were sealed cutting off goods from other countries, because our manufacturers were not ready to produce what we needed. By President Trump imposing tariffs on other countries, he increased the cost of goods from overseas so our manufactures could compete.  It also forced other countries to reduce their tariffs on our goods. More important, it encouraged manufacturers to move their plants back to the U.S bringing the jobs and the money from taxes with them. It will raise prices some because we will no longer have low cost foreign goods available but that should have been done a long time ago before we became addicted to low cost foreign goods. It boils down to which you want more, a job, or low cost foreign goods you can’t afford.

Critics accuse President Trump of causing price increases by instituting tariffs. They forget  some critical things. President Biden raided the treasury in the last three months of his term to give out trillions of dollars, which were not in the budget. A lot of those funds were untraceable. The huge government spending further fueled the inflation beyond that from his previous spending.  In addition, it added a tremendous amount to the national debt. It was designed to break the bank and force the country into a depression which they would blame on President Trump. He also added a large number of new workers which vastly increased the cost of government. Many of those workers were assigned to  spy on and harass those who opposed their socialist policies. We have no record of any previous President going so far to ensure that his successor failed.  To avoid a financial meltdown, President Trump had no choice but to make drastic cuts in spending to offset the trillions of dollars that President Biden spent. In addition, he had to lay off many of the workers that President Biden hired since they served the Democrat party and not the country.