I’ve been writing recently about how the unease and discontent in our country is not something that naturally occurs but is a result of choices made every day and every year by elected officials and voters. Choices that reflect our elected officials - and our own - values and priorities.
Here is a look a the latest University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey:
It is at its lowest point EVER since its inception.
Economists and others are gnashing their teeth trying to figure out why people are so negative on the economy. While I am NOT a professional economist, I did major in Mathematical Economics in college and obtained an MBA in Finance and Accounting. Good credentials, you might say. I’d say my real knowledge and experience came from knocking on thousands of doors while running several times for federal office in a deep red state.
My boots on the ground, non-statistical (yet large sample size) gut view: life kind of sucks economically for most people. They’re struggling & don’t see a way out. The politically engaged chattering class (including me) will never get what it’s like to be in their shoes. Most likely none of us will ever be in the position of what one young woman told me she and her family dealt with while she was growing up: “thinking poor”.
This is what I mean by saying most of us in the political class will never know what it’s like to be “thinking poor” heymistermix.com/p/david-brooks
— Joe is Wypoxic (@wypoxia.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T12:00:57.136Z
Which brings me to choices made. I previously wrote about this and am re-upping because it becomes more relevant by the day.
Senate Republicans had a choice to make when passing the OBBB Act last year. Specifically, two programs were expiring: 1) tax credits for lower income people in the Affordable Care Act, and 2) previously enacted tax cuts for the wealthy. I wrote about these two budget items in two earlier posts: Inside Baseball and Inside Baseball (Part 2).
Hmmm. Access to healthcare which will eventually pay for itself or lower taxes for the rich which will continue to blow up the deficit/debt? Tough choice. What was the priority for Senate Republicans?
In the words of the ancient knight are in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, “They chose… poorly”.
Not only did they choose poorly, but they resorted to fiscal gymnastics and twisting logic into knots to make their choice. As I wrote previously,
As I mentioned in my last Inside Baseball post, the Republicans played some truly sleazy games in order to pass the tax cuts in the abomination that they called the OBBBA (I refuse to call it by it’s official sycophantic name).
In summary, the Republicans in the Senate wrote a law 9 years ago that they knew blew up the deficit/debt, so they made most of the tax cuts temporary and scheduled them to “sunset” (expire) in 9 years. They now just voted to make those same tax cuts permanent by now claiming the opposite of what they said 9 years ago - that they somehow, magically, don’t increase the deficit/debt this time around.
They basically said the extension of expiring tax cuts doesn’t contribute to the deficit/debt because it’s just an extension of the way things already are, even though 9 years earlier they voted to sunset these same tax cuts because they would not have been allowed under 51-vote reconciliation because they…INCREASED THE DEFICIT/DEBT.
To repeat, in their Orwellian world, tax cuts that they voted to end after 9 years because they increased the debt/deficit do not continue to increase the debt/deficit in future years if they are extended when ending them would have reduced the debt/deficit in future years.
OK - writing that last paragraph actually hurt my brain.
But their hypocrisy is even worse than we thought. You see, in addition to the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts, another law provision that was due to expire in 2025 is the Premium Tax Credits in the Affordable Care Act. The credits reduce the premiums that lower income (and only lower income) people have to pay to get health insurance through the ACA marketplace.
So…..
Extending a tax cut that will increase the debt by trillions over time is ok, but not extending tax credits cost much less up front and that will pay for themselves over time is too expensive.
I bring this up again to illustrate that Republicans made a choice, and choices have consequences. In this case, the consequences for society as a whole and the vast majority of people who live here in the U.S. are demonstrably negative: higher costs for families, less access to healthcare, larger deficits/debt and more money redistributed upwards to people who don’t need it.
These choices need to be hung around Republicans necks every chance we get, and those of us who are politically involved must find a way to inform those who aren’t that it doesn’t have to be this way. That they have agency in determining what choices are made by electeds. That their voice and vote matters.
