Prime The Pump, Stupid

President Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” should have bipartisan support.  One would think that everyone would want Americans to be employed, and, that they would like to see our crumbling infrastructure rebuilt.


Nope.  Republicans do not care about either of those things and Moscow Mitch McConnell is leading the way to stop it in its tracks.


Not only would the plan invest in roads, bridges, domestic manufacturing, water, clean energy, and broadband expansion, but it would also help the disabled and elderly access decent housing, while increasing the pay of caregivers.  

Republicans care more about an increase in the corporate tax rate than they do about Americans who are experiencing third-world conditions like food insecurity, even though those corporations will greatly benefit from most of the things this plan will do.


They are too short-sighted (or just racist and classist) to understand that this will make America stronger.  There is no benefit to having a lot of weak links in a chain, but Republicans either don’t understand or they don’t care.

President Biden’s plan will prime the pump of local economies.  For every paycheck generated by this bill, money will be spent locally by that newly-employed person on housing, food, big ticket items and, post-pandemic, entertainment.  Those workers will pay taxes on their earnings, as well as sales tax, and be actively engaged in our nation’s recovery.

A jobs program is not a hand out. What was a handout were the tax cuts corporations were handed by Republicans three years ago.

Instead of being a heartless obstructionist, Mitch McConnell should do the right thing and lead his fellow Republicans to to prime the pump.

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29 thoughts on “Prime The Pump, Stupid”

  1. The national debt has long been portrayed as a burden we’re placing on future generations. John Oliver discusses how national debt works, why people are so concerned about it, and why it might be more helpful that you think.

  2. be sure to hang in there for john’s whole harangue; but especially don’t miss, starting at 19:52 minutes, a really cute segment put on by some really really cute kids. 

  3. Companies making rebar and providing other goods for those projects are probably all for the plan, despite an increase in the corporate tax.   Three companies (2  US, 1 Brazil) control the lion’s share of rebar manufacturing.   What I didn’t find was where the manufacturing plants are located and if that rebar is made with US or imported steel.    

  4. The LP could put out an ad about the real welfare queens: Corporations  (and their sugar daddies in Congress)
    Folks used to complain about the help small farmers were getting, but the should’ve looked at what enormous corporations like Archer Daniels Midland were getting.  

    (I love John Oliver. Does a jobs plan fall in line with agenda of the Republicans at the LP? Maybe not.)

    ADM doesn’t mind taking tax dollars.

    Despite hundreds of millions in tax dollars, ADM’s carbon capture program still hasn’t met promised goals

    Oooh, a subsidy tracker.

    https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/archer-daniels-midland

  5. The GOP wants just enough spent to make it look as if they are doing something but not enough to actually get a job done so that they can point to the failures of the Democrats.

    They need to take a good look at the tax rates at the height of paying off the last of the Great depression and WWII costs while building a national highway system.  It led to the boom of the 1960s.  

    1956

     

  6. Republicans will either be held responsible for preventing folks from being employed or they can be part of the solution.  (They are afraid that it will be popular and help Dems, but that they won’t get credit.). 2022 will be here before they know. Choose carefully.  

  7. Ms.s Bronc and Dallas,
     
    A little info about rebar suppliers.  One of the top 5 global rebar suppliers is a US company – Nucor. (through Harris Rebar).  Harris has locations in 32 states and Nucor has manufacturing locations in 15 states.    But remember, everywhere that rebar goes, so goes concrete, and concrete is going to be a local product in almost every instance.
     
    So the Georgia and MLB story starts to get a little more complex.  Dumbass Kemp said over the weekend that MLB needed to stop listening to Stacey Abrams. Problem is, Stacey did not ask to have the game moved and rather implored businesses to take a stand against the changes that disadvantage black and brown voters in Georgia, and let’s face it, she knows moving the game is going to cause economic harm to the city and to the people who would have worked the game.  In fact the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that she said that “critics of Georgia’s restrictive new election law shouldn’t rush to boycott the state’s leading firms and biggest events “yet” over their refusal to forcefully oppose the far-reaching overhaul.”  Instead, it was the MLB Players Association that appear to have been the primary source of pressure on MLB to relocate the game venue.  I was in favor of moving the game, realizing the stadium and hotel staff would take hits financially by virtue of the game being moved.  There are always consequences, but I tend to favor long term, not short term goals, and I believe that taking such a stand and moving the game will have more effective long term consequences with respect to reforming the act than talking about what they will do.

  8. I posted one of Prof. Carlo M. Cipolla’s Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity.  Here are all fo them:

    Cipolla’s five basic laws of human stupidity:

    Law 1: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
     
    Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
     
    Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.  (My favorite)
     
    Law 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
     
    Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
    And its corollary:
    A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

    Bandit is a little dated, but you get the idea – we’re all old enough to have watched Westerns and Burt Reynolds movies.

  9. BiD…   nice work!
     
    Methinks Mitch (and other republicans) don’t care because the voters handily voted them back in.  During the debate with McGrath… Mitch just laughed at her.  He knew that Kentuckians would vote him back in no matter what.  Until that changes…  republicans are going to keep being obstructionist.
     
    It’s not republican Congress critters that need to change….  it’s the voters, stupid.

  10. I heard this morning about one more T____ scam on his voters and contributors this morning. A prechecked credit card donation form to make recurring monthly donations to Dumbass that took digging through boilerplate to opt out of.  Supposedly the campaign had to refund $125M to donors after complaints to credit card companies.  And he implored donors to fund his refunds by donating to Stop the Steal.  I’m thinking that the reptile eldest son came up with that scam.

  11. rr – You are correct.   Voter education would be a good thing.  I don’t know how that happens in any meaningful way, as the garbage truck of ads drowns out everything.  

  12. good idea.  hope they do it.

    excerpt the hill:

    Yellen said that the Biden administration wants to end a global “race-to-the-bottom” on corporate tax rates by working with other countries in the G20 on an agreement for a global minimum tax rate. She said that this effort is important in order to ensure that countries can raise the revenue they need to provide needed public services.
    “Competitiveness is about more than how U.S.-headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids,” Yellen said. “It is about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.”
    A Treasury official said Monday that the G20 has set a goal to reach a political agreement on international tax issues by July and that the administration is still working toward that goal. The official acknowledged that some countries may not end up signing onto an agreement on a global minimum tax, but said that a number of Biden’s tax proposals are aimed at preventing U.S. companies from shifting their headquarters, assets and jobs to tax havens.

  13. ms petri

    Opinion | To Matt Gaetz’s colleagues: This should not happen more than once – The Washington Post

    There are several details of the Matt Gaetz story that keep sticking in my head, but the one that sticks in it most is the report that the Florida Republican used to wander around and show his colleagues nude photos of people he had slept with. There’s a kind of grim weirdness to the idea of these interactions (which Gaetz denies) — a very “I Read On eHow.com That Men Bond Over Conquests” bewilderment. The callousness and the violation involved are enough of a sock to the gut. But the fact that this was allegedly known about him is what keeps getting to me. The fact that this, or something in this neighborhood of bad, occasioned senior staff from then-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s (R-Wis.) office to have a talk with Gaetz about professional behavior.

    Over all of this I keep hearing the uncomfortable laughter of Billy Bush. I keep coming back to the fact that it takes two to make a locker room.

    [continues]

  14. yeah, i get this feeling that the Dismal one just wanted to be a real Capo de Tutti Capi……a real wise-guy…..A bad Pinocchio wanting to be a real little made man.    The real McCoys…….the ones who were actually born to it and had no choice in the matter other than play or be played, as they saw it, must have looked at him like  Col Sanders looked at a chicken.   He wanted it so badly, so desperately, but in the end it all just slipped away…..He couldn’t keep all the balls in the air, couldn’t keep all those plates spinning on the sticks……….try as he might.

  15. ..and sturg, that right thumb of his must be exhausted – it seems to be thumbed up in most of the pictures of him they are running these days.  Speaking of which – I really wish the media would quit running pics of Dumbass at the WH, getting on and off AF1 and Marine 1 (except the one with the umbrella – I could watch that one over and over…). They need to get into the present and show him as he is now – his fat ass in those stretched to the limit golf pants and white shorts cheating on the golf course – a decidedly less flattering image that standing in front of Biden’s house and plane and chopper in that goddamned overcoat and crotch length tie.

  16. Oh, and Rafael, before I forget – the son of a Cuban refugee who wants to be president of the US one day really shouldn’t be practicing his best Fidel Castro imitation, sans the cigar – it won’t play well when the posters with the two of you on it and the caption “Fidel or Ted, Choose the Right one and Win a Prize” hit the campaign trail.

  17. Work with the G20 on corporate tax fairness?  My goodness, diplomacy still exists.   

  18. Jamie – Thanks for posting Randy…and for the info on the origin of the song.  

  19. dimwit takes a picture with miller the toad after announcing coke boycott with coke bottle on his desk.
    they ain’t all that bright.

  20. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/us/greg-abbott-declines-throwing-opening-pitch-rangers-game-trnd/index.html

    Oh, Greg Abbott, you racist jerk.

    “…he will not throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Texas Rangers home opener because of Major League Baseball’s stance on voter integrity laws.“

    “Abbott also said he will no longer participate in any event held by MLB, and that the State of Texas will not seek to host the All-Star game or any other MLB special events.“

    (Have you seen our ugly, new ballpark? It looks like an airplane hangar.)

    https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/01/american-airlines-dell-voting-texas/

    What about the corporations who are already weighing in? Will the state ban use of AT&T or flights on American?

    The racists are doubling down, but they are going to lose. Again.

  21. Thank you BiD

    It’s always a toss up for me between politics and musicals.  Musicals usually win.  🙂

     

  22. Well there are maybe what, a couple dozen ign’ant Texans plus one who think Greg Abbott has the brains to think his way out of a paper bag, but the consensus is that he’s possum stupid. And those who are in the consensus group are giving him the benefit of the doubt. Stupid shit. 

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