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OT: Current Affairs and Politics

Bandwagon

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Staff member
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41,833
I don’t buy that for a second. Without JobKeeper we would have been f**ked.

It was pretty obvious to anyone watching the numbers in Sept and Dec qtrs of last year that there was inherent weakness in the economy and that the government was reluctant to spend in order to protect their projected surplus.

Economists were almost universal in their appeals to government to provide some form of stimulus, and there were projections of a recession being possible, perhaps even likely before the advent of covid.

The government wasn't listening, because they valued the political upside of a surplus far greater than the economic reality that running a surplus is contractionary policy. Obviously they thought that growth would have held enough to have avoided a technical recession. womp womp.

This is thole f**king problem with the economic argument in this country, running a surplus is seen as the gold standard of economic management, when in reality it's the last thing you want to be doing if growth is insipid, as it was.

It blows my mind that people can still hang on to these myths, such as the constant warnings by the government prior to the pandemic that we needed to save for a rainy day, lest a shock come along and we couldn't afford to react. Or that the only reason we could respond so effectively to the GFC was that we had money in the bank. Yet here we are with the government apparently magicing 200 odd billion dollars of deficit out of thin air, and it's cudos all 'round from the deficit hawks.

I think we can count our lucky stars Shorten wasn't in charge. Half of us would be on the street by now.
It was a brilliant performance by the government.Prob best in the world.

So a Labor government who were consistently vilified through the GFC for overspending on stimulus, by the very same people who are now in charge, who howled like banshees over a so called "debt and deficit disaster", would not have spent enough in order to keep people afloat?

As opposed to the ideologically committed deficit hawks of the LNP.

What is the basis of this fantasy land in which you dwell?

The only argument I can see where this is a possibility is that the LNP in opposition would hammer the government so hard on deficit spending, that they might have been a little gun shy and slow to pull the trigger.

Now I 'aint knocking the governments response thus far, it's been pretty effective, despite some massive misallocations in their spending in terms of need, but this is all pretty basic stuff. It's amazing though how they simply get a free pass here. Despite a recession that in reality we really didn't need to have.
 

Gronk

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
73,536
In a country where this kind of leadership exists, how in god’s name did they end up with the two dead shits running for office this year?
Old farts voting for old farts probably.

I know that the DP have some young blood like Kamala and Pete Buttigieg, however does the GOP have anyone who can oust a 78 year old Trump ?
 

Bandwagon

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
41,833
There's no evidence of fraud.


See for mine the question this poses is why is it they have all this evidence of fraud, yet have failed to even make allegations of fraud in court, let alone provide any of this so called evidence to a court in order for it to be scrutinized?

Oh, and the testimony of the drunk chick was far more entertaining.
 

Gronk

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
73,536
The positioning by the GOP over Georgia is cheeky. When Lindsay Graham called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he wanted all envelopes that had signatures were not exactly the same as enrollment records top be thrown out. Apparently in Georgia the black and hispanic community plus the younger voters can rarely re-sign their autographs in a similar manner. This cohort also happen to be largely DP voters. Raffensperger to him to f**k off and allow the state to hand recount and not interfere.

Well the Trumpers are not happy with him.

Along with the continued attacks on Raffensperger from Mr. Trump and some Republicans, the Republican secretary of state said he and his wife have received death threats, which he attributed to "everyone that's been spinning people up."

"I'm a conservative Republican, always have been. I've never voted for a Democrat. A lot of these people that are spinning up the crowd used to be Democrats," he said. "I've always been a conservative Republican and I want to make sure we have a lawful process because I think integrity still matters."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-election-brad-raffensperger-lindsey-graham-throw-out-ballots/



 

Obscene Assassin

First Grade
Messages
6,083
It was pretty obvious to anyone watching the numbers in Sept and Dec qtrs of last year that there was inherent weakness in the economy and that the government was reluctant to spend in order to protect their projected surplus.

Economists were almost universal in their appeals to government to provide some form of stimulus, and there were projections of a recession being possible, perhaps even likely before the advent of covid.

The government wasn't listening, because they valued the political upside of a surplus far greater than the economic reality that running a surplus is contractionary policy. Obviously they thought that growth would have held enough to have avoided a technical recession. womp womp.

This is thole f**king problem with the economic argument in this country, running a surplus is seen as the gold standard of economic management, when in reality it's the last thing you want to be doing if growth is insipid, as it was.

It blows my mind that people can still hang on to these myths, such as the constant warnings by the government prior to the pandemic that we needed to save for a rainy day, lest a shock come along and we couldn't afford to react. Or that the only reason we could respond so effectively to the GFC was that we had money in the bank. Yet here we are with the government apparently magicing 200 odd billion dollars of deficit out of thin air, and it's cudos all 'round from the deficit hawks.



So a Labor government who were consistently vilified through the GFC for overspending on stimulus, by the very same people who are now in charge, who howled like banshees over a so called "debt and deficit disaster", would not have spent enough in order to keep people afloat?

As opposed to the ideologically committed deficit hawks of the LNP.

What is the basis of this fantasy land in which you dwell?

The only argument I can see where this is a possibility is that the LNP in opposition would hammer the government so hard on deficit spending, that they might have been a little gun shy and slow to pull the trigger.

Now I 'aint knocking the governments response thus far, it's been pretty effective, despite some massive misallocations in their spending in terms of need, but this is all pretty basic stuff. It's amazing though how they simply get a free pass here. Despite a recession that in reality we really didn't need to have.

I don't think people realise Wayne Swann was named finance minister of the year in 2011 by Euromoney, the only other Australian financial minister to win the award was Paul Keating. The liberal PR team, the msm, have sold the lie to the Australian public that the liberals "jobs and growth" means they're the best economic managers when in fact they just have a surplus fetish
 

Gronk

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
73,536
I don't think people realise Wayne Swann was named finance minister of the year in 2011 by Euromoney, the only other Australian financial minister to win the award was Paul Keating. The liberal PR team, the msm, have sold the lie to the Australian public that the liberals "jobs and growth" means they're the best economic managers when in fact they just have a surplus fetish

Seems a perfect time to re-post this gem

 

Bandwagon

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
41,833
I don't think people realise Wayne Swann was named finance minister of the year in 2011 by Euromoney, the only other Australian financial minister to win the award was Paul Keating. The liberal PR team, the msm, have sold the lie to the Australian public that the liberals "jobs and growth" means they're the best economic managers when in fact they just have a surplus fetish

The real kicker for mine is how a surplus is achieved. Literally it means the government have taxed the Australian people and business' more than they have needed to meet expenditure.

And people think this is good?

I don't get it.
 

strider

Post Whore
Messages
78,603
What MSM have agendas and make the general public think a certain way? Who would have thought
 
Messages
11,677
See for mine the question this poses is why is it they have all this evidence of fraud, yet have failed to even make allegations of fraud in court, let alone provide any of this so called evidence to a court in order for it to be scrutinized?

Oh, and the testimony of the drunk chick was far more entertaining.

That, my old friend, is actually a good question.

Fraud, fraud, fraud, blah, blah, blah.

Cool, man. Go to court.

Despite what the Fake News is telling everyone, Trump has not lost 40 lawsuits. They've only submitted 3. OK, cool, put this damned video in one of them!

I think what they're doing at the moment is pushing the whole state legislature thing while simultaneously trying to get cases to the Supreme Court. Can they introduce more evidence further down the line, when it gets to the SC, if they haven't put it in the earlier versions of that case? I dunno. I'm no Lionel Hutz...

One theory is that they're holding off in court for now to let everyone incriminate themselves through the hearings. *shrugs*

One thing I do know - the State Farm video could very well be the Zapruder film of the 2020 election.
 
Messages
11,677
The real kicker for mine is how a surplus is achieved. Literally it means the government have taxed the Australian people and business' more than they have needed to meet expenditure.

And people think this is good?

I don't get it.

That's OK if you've got good growth and can afford to hold back on a few things in the near term and put some money in your pocket. The alternative is to always borrow more, which is stupid.

So, when times are tough, you spend and kick things back into gear. If that works then when things turn you take the opportunity to pay down if withdrawing that spending won't put the brakes on.
 

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