The Coronavirus thread

Quote: SOOPOO

I care about them. Have for as long as I can remember. My household doesn’t run a deficit. I hate debt.

The last time there was zwro deficit was 1960
https://www.thebalance.com/us-deficit-by-year-3306306

Back when there was a 91% top marginal top rate. Much lower now.

Years with very high revenue and very low expenses have a lower chance of having a deficit.

But, if you tried to raise the top rate to 90 or even 80 (or even 60, shoot people go crazy over talks of 40....) people on the right would lose their minds..... People hate income taxes in America....

You can't have zero deficit with our current tax rates.....

Quote: Gandler

The last time there was zwro deficit was 1960
https://www.thebalance.com/us-deficit-by-year-3306306

Back when there was a 91% top marginal top rate. Much lower now.

Back when America was "great".

Quote: JimRockford

Oh, I forgot. It's almost time for Republicans to pretend to care about deficits again.

I've posted about this a few times. Perhaps it is too difficult for some people to comprehend. Perhaps they hear something from the talking heads on CNN or MSNBC, and accept it without question, having lost the ability to think for themselves.

The House is the ultimate authority on spending. The dem controlled House controls spending. Not the President. Not the Republicans.

The dem controlled congress repeatedly rejected Trump's proposed budget cuts, and never offered any budget cuts of their own.

Nearly all the increase in spending is due to mandatory spending.

Under Trump, discretionary spending increased by a total of about $400 billion spread over three years.

As a percent of GDP, discretionary spending is at a historic low.

The rest of the $3 trillion increase in the deficit was due to mandatory spending, which passed the tipping point, and began accelerating at an increasing rate as a percent of GDP in 2000.

What spending bills passed during the Trump administration were veto proof? You would think that the POTUS who promised to "eliminate the debt" would actually exercise some veto power in order to make good. But then his economy wouldn't of been propped up by federal spending. Can't have that now can we?

And if your argument is to blame the House, just to point out the obvious, the House of Representatives has been controlled by Republicans for 14 out of the last 20 years. They controlled it for 3/4 of Obama's two terms.

Consistent low infection rates and deaths across East and South East Asia.

One possible explanation.

They’ve developed immunity over centuries of exposure to corona viruses.

Just as the European settlers had stronger resistance to the diseases they carried to America, which wiped out 95% of the Native population.

“Tatsuhiko Kodama of the University of Tokyo said preliminary studies show that Japanese people’s immune systems tend to react to the novel coronavirus as though they had previous exposure, and notes that there are centuries of history of coronaviruses emerging from East Asia.”

“The enigma of lower death rates in East Asia can be explained by the presence of immunity,” he said.

Quote: Tanko

Consistent low infection rates and deaths across East and South East Asia.

One possible explanation.

They’ve developed immunity over centuries of exposure to corona viruses.

Just as the European settlers had stronger resistance to the diseases they carried to America, which wiped out 95% of the Native population.

“Tatsuhiko Kodama of the University of Tokyo said preliminary studies show that Japanese people’s immune systems tend to react to the novel coronavirus as though they had previous exposure, and notes that there are centuries of history of coronaviruses emerging from East Asia.”

“The enigma of lower death rates in East Asia can be explained by the presence of immunity,” he said.

The reason why Taiwan has done so well is SARS , Severe acute respiratory syndrome, contagious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness. SARS first appeared in China in November 2002
In 2003, SARS hit Taiwan pretty hard
Ever since
Stringent protocols are in place when there is any sign of a spreading virus

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/opinions/taiwan-covid-19-lesson-united-states-chen/index.html

Quote: Gandler

But, if you tried to raise the top rate to 90 or even 80 (or even 60, shoot people go crazy over talks of 40....) people on the right would lose their minds..... People hate income taxes in America....

People hate income taxes anywhere. Rational people anyhow.

Quote: Tripdufan

What spending bills passed during the Trump administration were veto proof? You would think that the POTUS who promised to "eliminate the debt" would actually exercise some veto power in order to make good. But then his economy wouldn't of been propped up by federal spending. Can't have that now can we?

You asked that same question nearly one month ago.

Had Trump vetoed the dem spending, they would have gladly shut down the government, as they threatened to do in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Trump threatened to shut down the government as well, but the dems really meant it.

That 'propped up' economy began during the Obama administration. Trump's hope was to eventually wean the economy off QE and create a strong foundation for recovery by re-building the manufacturing sector and making us energy independent. The corporations that prefer to keep their jobs overseas don't want that, which resulted in the corporate takeover of our government we saw on Nov. 4.

While the rest of the world is collapsing, China's industrial production rose 7% this year. Their exports rose 21% in November. Their benchmark CSI is up 27% this year, beating the 'propped up' S&P by 13 percentage points. China shares ETF's ASHR and MHCI have returned 28% and 25% YTD.

The yield on China's ten year bond is 3.32% vs 0.90% for the US Ten Year Treasury.

That is what a strong manufacturing base does. 80 million Americans rejected that on Nov. 4.

Quote: Tripdufan

And if your argument is to blame the House, just to point out the obvious, the House of Representatives has been controlled by Republicans for 14 out of the last 20 years. They controlled it for 3/4 of Obama's two terms.

Unfortunately the Republicans didn’t control it in March 2010 when Obama’s expensive Affordable Care Act was passed.

That acceleration seen on the graph in Mandatory spending, beginning in 2014, was when the bulk of the Obamacare changes kicked in. Net Interest on the debt has nearly doubled since then, and is nearly equal to defense spending.

The nation was trying to recover from the great recession of 2008. Increased spending was necessary to stimulate the economy, save corporations and banks, save jobs and create millions more to replace the nine million that were lost.

Would you rather Congress cut spending and increased taxes during that recession?

Where would you suggest they make budget cuts today?

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

It's interesting how little variation there was in Trump's approval ratings over 4 years compared to other presidents. I was not aware how badly Ronald Reagan's approval rating slumped midway through his first term.

George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson had very high approval ratings for their first three years, only slumping badly in his fourth and final year.

Trump's biggest mistake was trying to make people feel better about the coronovirus. If he had put Dr. Fauci in front of cameras every day and said we are listening to our expert, he would probably have been re-elected.

Quote: Pacomartin

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

It's interesting how little variation there was in Trump's approval ratings over 4 years compared to other presidents. I was not aware how badly Ronald Reagan's approval rating slumped midway through his first term.

They were indeed. I remember they had "give the man a chance" ads with a woman saying how prices were still going up but not like they were before, and other similar things that while not great were in the right direction.

People that do not remember the late 70s do not remember how bad things were. It makes the china virus look like a piker. What Reagan did to fix it so fast was amazing.