Inflation – that’s what’s important

Give your attention to CNAV for a moment. (Again we apologize to Actor Alec Baldwin, as “Mister Blake,” in Glengarry Glen Ross from 1992.)Democrats are talking about … what? They’re talking about Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s, about twenty-six States that could ban abortion (as West Virginia did last week, according to ABC News), even about whether a developing child has a heartbeat at six weeks (Stacey Abrams says no, according to Gateway Pundit; the Cleveland Clinic says yes). And they have spent upward of $124 million talking about this on television, according to the Associated Press. And now Ronna McDaniel, head of the Republican National Committee, is wondering whether Republicans need to talk about it, too. No, Madame Chairman! With an election coming up, let’s talk about something important! Which is inflation, the hidden tax that is robbing people blind every day – a fact everyone knows all too well.

Disclaimer

CNAV has covered already where the Democrats are spending their money. And yes, Stacey Abrams did take part in a panel for candidates in the Georgia Governor’s race. There she actually said the heart tone at six weeks’ gestation “is a manufactured sound.”

The Twitterverse exploded, almost entirely with refutations of that statement. Here’s our favorite:

In this video someone shared a screencap of the Cleveland Clinic page discussing how a child develops before birth.

Here’s another video of an actual early-term sonogram:

We knew the anti-life crowd had become absurd, but apparently few expected anyone to take the absurdity to this level.

And that’s as much as CNAV feels the need to say on this subject now, except to repeat one more thing Chairman McDaniel said about Democrats:

It’s very clear that that’s the only thing that Democrats have to run on, right? They don’t run on a good economy, they can’t run on community being safer, [and] they can’t run on education. So, what are they going to do?

What, indeed? Well, here’s what CNAV recommends that Republicans do. Run on the economy Joe Biden trashed, and run on our communities turning into war zones. (Those “bipartisan” bills the House passed to throw a sop to the people, do not change that.) Run on education. And then run on how the Democrats vote to harass the people, and what you’re going to do about it.

Biden denies inflation

The pResident, of course, turned in an awful performance on CBS’ Sixty Minutes last Sunday. He said five things the White House then had to roll back or “clarify” later. One of them was that inflation was not as bad as the statistics plainly say. “Up just an inch,” he said after Scott Pelley reminded him that it stood at 8.2 percent, then 8.3 percent. This after he celebrated passage of his “Inflation reduction Act,” and the stock market dropped 1200 points that day.

The newsletter Civil Deadline today reported on the results of a Trafalgar Poll in Minnesota. According to it, Minnesota voters are talking about the economy, and about crime. Maybe they’re talking about illegal immigration – and that could be in these other contexts. If you admit people to your country and they can’t find jobs, they’ll become public charges, which we can’t afford. Worse, some of these illegal immigrants have committed crimes, and not just burglary. Everybody knows that, and everybody’s talking about that. Very few voters are talking about the one thing on which the Democrats are spending all their money.

Even The New York Times admits that inflation tops the list with voters in this election cycle. Their own polls say that. Republican candidates know it, and they’re talking about it. As they should.

Does anyone win when prices go up?

Oddly enough, the Times felt the need to talk about who wins with inflation. The Times named the winners – starting with debtors. Lenders never adjust their balances for inflation. So as borrowers get ever larger nominal incomes, their debts become easier to pay. Of course, the Times did not say that the rest of us, who “neither a borrower nor a lender” are, end up paying their debts for them, indirectly. Inflation robs the prudent and gives to the profligate. (With this exception: savers sometimes benefit from higher interest rates, which their savings can earn.)

Sometimes workers’ wages rise to outpace price increases – but not always. In addition, Social Security always raises benefits to keep up with inflation.

But most of us know that “gaming” inflation is a losing proposition, long-term. Robert J. Schiller, surveying people in America, Germany and Brazil, found not one respondent saying inflation helped them. Read his now out-of-print analysis here.

The Trafalgar Group knows all this. Here’s Robert C. Cahaly’s take:

Specifically, the student loan forgiveness announcement “enraged middle and working class voters” as nothing else has.

Add to it: the Independent Journal Review reported, two days ago, that gasoline prices have reversed their decline. They fell for ninety-nine days – largely because Joe Biden released nearly all the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That must have run dry, because now they’re headed back up, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). The New York Times knows that, too.

Inflation isn’t the only issue, either

Nor is inflation the only issue weighing on voters’ minds. That same Inflation Reduction Act that probably will hurt rather than help, authorized 87,000 more IRS agents – and armed them. Already Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Leader, pledges to repeal that as Republican’s first order of business.

We want an economy that is strong. That means you can fill up your tank. You can buy the groceries. You have enough money left over to go to Disneyland and save for a future — that the paychecks grow, they no longer shrink.

Kevin McCarthy knows, as did then-Governor Ronald Reagan. He’s asking, “Are you better off?” The answer is no. The economy is weak. It’s more difficult, not easier, to buy groceries or gas. And the people are less safe, not safer.

McCarthy also knows how conscious people are about government harassment.

Our job is to work for you, not go after you.

Tell that to the Democrats. While they make specious arguments about how “women will die” if Republicans win, they voted to weaponize the Internal Revenue Service – literally.

The FBI as a weapon

As they have already weaponized the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At least twenty Special Agents have broken ranks and filed “whistleblower” complaints. They alleged that the agency is trying to paint a picture of a right-wing movement bent on trying to take over the government. The FBI has even discontinued several investigations into the exploitation of children. One agent told Liberty One News that the FBI has more agents investigating than the number of people they can legitimately identify as possibly engaging in dangerous activity.

The worst case is that of Special Agent Steve Friend, who filed a complaint with the Justice Department’s Inspector General on Wednesday. The New York Post has the details, including his suspension from duty.

The suspension came after he refused to take part in an August 24 raid on a January 6 event subject. His bosses declared him absent without leave. What he was actually doing was applying the Nuremberg Principle – which states that one does not obey unlawful orders. He even made the most serious allegation yet against the FBI regarding that event. According to him, the FBI designated the Capitol lawn a restricted area after the fact. This is close to an ex post facto law, and as such violates the Constitution.

That’s what’s important

This, then, is what’s important. Nothing anyone says about social issues means a thing to people who can’t afford to put food on their tables. (Or put clean water in their glasses, or keep a roof over their heads.) It means even less when the government is spending its time harassing law-abiding citizens while letting criminals go free. We already knew the second part was happening at the local level. Now we know it’s happening at the federal level, too. Is their narrative of a risk of an overthrow of the government that important? Or mightn’t they actually sympathize with people who exploit children in such ugly ways?

Even if that’s not the case, this is: the Democrats have nothing but failure to show for having effective control of the White House and both chambers of Congress for more than a year and a half. Republican candidates know this, and anyone can know it if they merely ask people what concerns them. So while the Democrats are spending over a hundred million dollars on an issue that won’t change any minds, they are also harassing people. And while they do that, the problems people really care about, get worse.

That’s what’s important, and that’s what Republicans are talking about. Those issues will win the day. The only thing left for the Democrats might be to suspend the election. Will that come next? Stay tuned.