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.

Television Characters Talk about Politics

So far, this blog has only talked about legitimate candidates for the presidency. This week, I would like to talk about the political views of television show characters on the various issues we have covered so far. I will frame each topic below as a debate among three of the following characters: Cookie Monster, Donald Trump, Mickey Mouse, Stannis Baratheon, and Pop-Eye.

On Healthcare

Mental Health

Stannis Baratheon has suffered crippling depression himself, especially after the Battle of Blackwater. He believes that faith is a cure for mental illness.

Donald Trump doesn't much care for faith or the mentally ill.

Pop-Eye believes that the cure for all illnesses is spinach.

Coverage and Affordability

Donald Trump wants to eliminate the individual mandate, but otherwise keep ObamaCare. This would raise the cost of healthcare to an unaffordable level for most Americans, but he has a plan to deal with this: import drugs from Canada.

Pop-Eye says that spinach is inexpensive enough already, and solves all medical problems.

Mickey Mouse's name is synonymous with health plans which do not cover enough, but his corporation actually provides high quality health care for its workers. It is unclear whether he would extend this quality to the rest of the country.

Preventative Care

Cookie Monster is a hypocrite. When it comes to himself, "C is for COOKIE and that's good enough for me", but when it comes to anyone else, "Cookies are a sometimes food."

Pop-Eye appears to believe that preventive care is unnecessary if you have access to spinach.

Stannis Baratheon doesn't really believe in prevention, risking everything on a brutal war and sacrificing his own daughter to an evil god in exchange for victory which never comes.

Crime

Prisons and Sentencing

Stannis Baratheon believes in capital punishment for people who question his religion.

Donald Trump believes that reporters should be punished for reporting the truth about him, verifiable by videos of his own statements.

Woe be to anyone who gets between Cookie Monster and a cookie.

Corruption and White Collar Crime

Stannis Baratheon believes that anyone who has committed any act of corruption should be removed from power. He is the only candidate in the War of Five Kings who took his responsibility as king seriously, and defended the Northern Wall against the external threat from the North.

Mickey Mouse doesn't approve of the "soul-less" management of some of the CEOs who have taken over his company.

Donald Trump has committed so many white collar crimes that they can't figure out which ones to prosecute. He bragged about attempting to commit election fraud in a televised debate in the spring.

Guns and Violent Crime

Pop-Eye doesn't think we need guns, unless you include the guns between his incredible muscles.

Donald Trump thinks that all violent crime is due to Muslims, a group which includes more doctors and nurses per capita than any group other than Jews.

Crime 3: Guns and Violent Crime

The month of September has been spent talking about the politicians stance on crime. So far, we have discussed prisons and sentencing, as well as corruption and white collar crime. This wee, we will discuss guns and violent crime.

For this discussion, I will not be making a distinction between terrorism, hate crimes, and other violent crimes, unless the candidates themselves do so. American citizens losing their lives or being injured due to violent crime is a bad thing, and each candidate responds to this in a different way.

Hillary Clinton wants to violate the fourth amendment further by taking guns away from anyone on the terrorism watch list. She is in favor of expanded background checks, and wants to patch the gun show loophole. The Gun Show Loophole actually has nothing to do with gunshows, other than that people sometimes meet outside of gun shows as convenient places to sell guns to other private citizens. She also wants to increase accountability and liability for people who facilitate violent gun crime.

Clinton has worked to protect people from domestic abuse (including protecting pets). She considers sexual assault against women to be a top priority.

Gary Johnson believe[s] in the bumper sticker: If you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns." He and his running mate, Bill Weld, have both commented that, had someone at the Orlando shooting had a gun, there would have been less loss of life.

Johnson's plan to reduce violent crime is to legalize drugs. In an interview with Playboy, he said that violence is caused by making drug users act outside of the law. Other than saying that more people should be armed and that drugs should be legal, he has made no public statements in regards to violent crime.

Jill Stein wants to reinstate the assault weapons ban, and pass laws in violation of the Heller decision which said that local municipalities cannot make laws banning particular kinds of guns.

Stein refers to gun violence as a public health emergency. She wants to expand background checks, demilitarize the police, and address the deeper issues that cause gun violence.

There are so many articles (followed by Snopes, FactCheck, or Politifact articles declaring them false) about Clinton and either rape or sexual abuse that it is really hard to find information on her policies in these regards. I apologize for the quality of the links regarding her this week.

This is my last post on the subject of crime. Jill Stein the clear winner on crime, as the only candidate who is moving in the right direction on sentencing, non-violent crime, and violent crime. Gary Johnson struggled with the facts this month, but he did better than on healthcare. Hillary Clinton comes in a close second behind Stein; though she has a lot of policy proposals in regards to crime, they are very bland and moderate.

Next month, I will discuss the economy, followed by two posts on foreign policy. My last post to this blog will be on the day before the election.

Sad News

For those who haven't heard, there will not be a debate including the three legitimate presidential candidates this year. The commission on presidential debates set the bar so high to qualify to participate that only Hillary Clinton met the standards they set.

Strangely, in addition to the moderators, the TV networks have decided that a reality TV star will be allowed on stage with Secretary Clinton. I hope they change it up from debate to debate, so that we will get Simon Cowell in one debate, and Donald Trump in another. (I can't actually name any other reality TV stars. They should probably get a third one, too.)

In the last post that I make this month, I will discuss the political views of television personalities like Simon Cowell, Cookie Monster, and Super-Man. That post will go live on the same day as Clinton debates... herself, I guess.