Off the Editor’s Desk 8-28-24

What are they going to do to make a change?

I spent several hours last week watching the Democratic National convention. Speaker after speaker told how they were going to make changes to lower prices, taxes and more programs.

But they did not spell out just how this was going to be accomplished. Basically the only thing that I got out of this was raising the taxes on the high-income people, but then lowering it on the middle class.

If my memory serves me right, did not Trump’s tax package give us middle income people a break? That tax law which went into effect in 2018 under the “Tax Cuts and Job Act” that was the largest tax code overhaul in three decades. It lowered corporate tax rate to 21 percent and helped lower taxes on individuals and families, but that tax package will expire in 2025.

I wanted to hear President Joe Biden give his farewell speech Monday night, but the party kept him away from the speaker’s podium until way past my bedtime and I fell asleep and missed it.

As I wrote in last weeks column about when Ronald Reagan became president tax rates were as high as 70 percent and economic growth was stagnant.

So, if the government takes away, with high taxes, money from the high earners, that investment money that creates new jobs goes instead to the government, who in turn gives the money away to social programs and pays people not to work instead of creating new jobs. 

It seems like we are probably at that point again with the Federal Reserve releasing minutes from its July meeting, which stated: “The staff’s outlook for growth in the second half of 2024 had been marked down largely in response to weaker-than-expected labor market indicators.” The Fed’s response was right on as the job market has been over stated with the new report telling us that some 818,000 people were overstated in job growth report. 

We can expect an interest rate cut at the September Federal Reserve meeting and at least one more later this year. According to the Capitol Guardian, “Which is what the central bank usually does as inflation eases and unemployment rises, which it has, by 1.47 million people since December of 2022. In the entire post World War II era, every single Fed Interest rate cut cycle coincided with a recession.”

A new twist in this election cycle came about last week when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. dropped out of the Presidential race and threw his support to Donald Trump. Kennedy, in a speech at a Trump rally, denounced the Democratic Party, “that it used to be the party that stood for free speech, the working class, and other causes.” He continued; “In an honest system, I believe that I would have won the election. In a system with a fairly scheduled debate, with fair primaries, and with a truly independent media untainted by government propaganda, everything would be different.”

This one event could make a difference in the out come of the November election.

I was at the Minnesota State Fair last Thursday and I expected to see a great many signs with Harris and Walz, as he is the governor of Minnesota. I did not see very many and there were probably just as many Trump signs as Harris shirts and caps.

Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton