What the fuck does anything you fellas are now yapping about have to do with the silly ass subject of this thread about Biden and his extreme level of stupidity due to his age? LOL
Originally Posted by Lucas McCain
Tell us how you really feel.
Just kidding.
I don't care.
None of that bullshit has anything to do with Biden's IQ.
Get back on topic.
Originally Posted by Tigbitties38
Gentlemen, I'll tie it together. There are three stages of political life,
1. Stage 1 - Youthful idealism. During this stage my heroes were people like Elridge Cleaver, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, 1960's radicals I'd read about and seen on late night television.
2. Stage 2 - Middle Aged Conservatism - As you see more of the real world, conservatism sets in. I became a Reagan Republican.
3. Stage 3 - Idealistic Second Childhood - I haven't hit this stage yet, although I am re-reading Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" right now. My Uncle, who was very politically involved, went back to idealism (Stage 1) during old age. He was a Kennedy Democrat who evolved into a fan of socialism with an obsession about Thorsten Veblen.
One important thing to note about Stage 1 and Stage 3 is that people in those parts of their lives are very suggestible and will do what other people tell them to.
At one time, during Stage 2 of his political life, before he became Vice President, Joe Biden was part of the Democratic Party mainstream, like Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama. He wasn't nearly as smart as either, but would have been inclined to seek out and take advice from smart, mainstream-economic types like Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, who ran economic policy for Clinton and Obama.
Biden, who's in Stage 3 (Idealistic Second Childhood) does have Janet Yellen around for window dressing. But he's letting the Progressives call the show, people like Jared Bernstein, his chief economic advisor.
Now while Biden's advisors haven't gone full "Stephanie Kelton," they came up with spending proposals that busted the budget and kicked off inflation. The spending resulted in a sugar high. GDP at the end of Biden's first year in office was up about 5% YoY, and it's up 2.9% YoY now. This makes the Obama recovery look downright anemic. And yes, stock market performance during Biden's time in office, is solid, up about 10% per year since he took office.
GreenBook points to data like this, particularly stock market peformance, and credits Bidenomics. I don't know about the stock market, but yes, GDP growth has been impressive.
The Waco Kid and I look at life after the sugar high. Biden presided over legislation that created $5+ trillion in new unfunded spending, and annual deficits close to $2 trillion as far as the eye can see. The debt and the deficits are a huge problem. We're going to have a tough time dealing with them.
And the irony is that the sugar high doesn't even feel like a high to the working man. GreenBook has seen the value of his shares increase, but the workingman has seen increases in the cost of goods and services outpace his paychecks. Biden and the Democrats pumped too much stimulus into the economy, which is part of the reason increases in the prices have outpaced increases in wages.
I don't believe this would have happened under the Biden of 20 years ago. He was mainstream back then and more "hands on." Instead of coming up with the American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure billl, the "Inflation Reduction" Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act, his administration and Democrats in Congress might have come up with something like Obama's $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Yeah, Obama's bill wasn't ideal, it included too much pork. But it didn't bust the budget or contribute to inflation, like what happened under Biden in 2021 and 2022.