Economics #3: Poverty and the Social Safety Net

This month, we are discussing economics. We have already discussed unemployment and compensation, as well as deficits and debt. This week, we will discuss poverty and the social safety net.

Hillary Clinton wants to double the Child Tax Credit and expand it to 1.7 million more families. Despite that, and her important input into the creation of the Earned Income Tax Credit, Clinton and her husband did a lot of damage to the social safety net in the 90s by attacking the Welfare program.

Gary Johnson thinks that we should get rid of the social safety net. He believes that having less government means that markets can work better.

Jill Stein wants to increase access to food stamps, housing assistance, and clean water. Despite the fact that this sounds like something right up Stein's alley, this is all I could find on the social safety net. She simply doesn't talk about it.

I am not sure if I will be continuing to update this blog. Grad school is eating my brain, and this is just one more thing which requires brainpower. If you want more information on the three candidates, please watch John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight", on the same subject as this blog.

Economics #2: Deficits and Debt

In October, we are talking about Economics. Last week, we talked about Unemployment and Compensation. This week, we will talk about Deficits and Debt.

Our country has a schizophrenic relationship with money: we have one party which wants to spend lavishly in order to improve peoples' lives, and we have another party which wants to let Americans keep as much of their paycheck as possible after taxes. The party which likes to spend has been unsuccessful at raising taxes, and the party which likes to keep taxes low has been unsuccessful at reining in spending. This has led to some major debt issues in the past ten years.

Because Clinton wants to increase spending, she has a tax plan to counter-balance it. The Wall Street Journal says that Hillary Clinton's economic policies would increase deficits in the short term, but lead to economic growth which would eliminate those deficits within her first term. Clinton has said that our current debt levels pose a "national security threat". The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says that Clinton did a good job paying for her proposals.

When Gary Johnson was governor of New Mexico, he followed through with a campaign pledge to veto any bill which did not pay for itself, eventually vetoing almost 750 bills in 8 years. Though the budget of New Mexico grew under Johnson, he slowed the growth from 10% per year to 5% per year. A large portion of the increased spending in New Mexico was due to federal mandates, over which Johnson had no control. Johnson believes in small government, and wants to eliminate the income tax.

Jill Stein wants to reduce spending by ending the expensive "wars for oil" in the Middle East, which are major drivers of our debt. Even if we were to end all spending in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria right now, though, that would only save about $130 billion per year. Our current deficit is almost $600 billion per year, and Stein has proposed raising taxes to compensate for this. The Green Party proposes a wealth tax of 50 basis points (half a percent) per year, and also raise income taxes on the wealthy.

I apologize on the delay in publishing this week's discussion of the candidates' views on the economy. Next week, I really hope to be on time in publishing a discussion of Poverty and the Social Safety Net.

Late this week

This week's post will be posted late, due to the amount of homework I had this weekend.

Economics #1: Unemployment and Compensation

In August, we discussed American health policy. In September, it was crime in America.

For October, I would like to discuss economics. As with the previous three months, I would like to break this into three topics: This week we will discuss Unemployment and Compensation, next week will be Deficits and Debt, and the third week we will discuss Poverty and the Social Safety Net. After these three, there will still be two Mondays in October to talk about Foreign Policy, and I will spend the first week of November on another silly post about TV characters. I will probably change up which characters I talk about, though one or two will likely be the same.

Hillary Clinton believes that the minimum wage should be raised to $12 per hour. She has said that she would not veto a move to raise it further to $15 per hour. Clinton also wants to lower taxes for middle-income families and small businesses. Raising the minimum wage does have its detractors, but most current research implies that it will have a positive impact. Even if it doesn't, Clinton supports expanding the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit), which she helped to create back in the 90s.

Clinton also has plans to directly address unemployment, such as providing parental leave for childcare, being paid 2/3 of your income for 12 weeks. This would create two three-month openings, so that firms will need to replace both parents. Clinton backs a plan to fix our infrastructure, employing mostly Millennials.

Gary Johnson wants to eliminate minimum wag, claiming that if you show up on time and wear clean clothes, then you will make more than minimum wage.

Johnson wants to give the economy a little stimulus in the form of eliminating all payroll and income taxes, in exchange for a Fair Tax, a 23% consumption tax on all newly produced goods and services. Johnson believes that if government can get out of the way of the common person and the market, then jobs will be created.

Jill Stein favors raising the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, if not more. She also wants to eliminate student loan debt, which would effectively give most people under 35 a $300 per month raise.

Stein wants to break up the big banks, which would create new white collar jobs by increasing redundancy in our banking system, and also create big profits for investors.

Next week, we will talk about deficits and debt.