Category Archives: political economy

Only an Inch

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That’s how much President Joe Biden (D) said inflation rose, after it rose more than 8% in August.

It’s about to get worse.

Earlier this month, the NEADA [National Energy Assistance Directors Association] projected that the average cost to heat a home would increase by 17.2% since last winter, rising from $1,025 to $1,202. Heating oil costs will jump an estimated 54% to $1,876, while natural gas costs may increase 24% to $709, according to the NEADA.

Nick Loris, Public Policy‘s C3 Solutions Vice President, emphasized the impact on those in the lower economic strata—”folks” Biden pretends so piously to care about:

[M]ore money dedicated to paying for heat means fewer resources are essential for human well-being[.]

And that means

…will be regressive, hurting the poor the most since they spend a higher percentage of their budget on energy costs[.]

I suppose that’s only another inch of increase in Biden’s mind, though, so it’s all good.

Right Idea, but…

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…details in the implementation will matter, also. Competition always drives costs to a level approaching the cost of production, and that’s to the good, not only of consumers but for competitors and others looking to enter the market, as well.

However.

On Monday, [Congresswoman and MD Mariannette (R, IA)] Miller-Meeks along with three of her colleagues introduced a bill titled the “Biologics Competition Act,” which seeks “to evaluate the process by which interchangeable biological products are approved to be used in pharmaceuticals.”
“So in essence, what we’re trying to get is biosimilar drugs that are the same chemically—that they have an equivalency to let those be prescribed as generic drugs, which would bring down the cost of medication[.]”

There’s a reason generics, in general, are delayed in getting authorization to be marketed: to allow the drug’s initial developer(s) time to recoup the costs of development and to begin realizing profit, and thereby encourage further drug development.

Such permission delays would need to apply to the biosimilar drugs, too. With a fillip: defining how much change is necessary while remaining biosimilar without leaving the required change so trivial that the new drug is an outright plagiary with only a token item grafted on.

That may well be the eye of a needle—passable, but with difficulty, especially when trying to write down a specific law. Worth going for, though, absolutely.

Manchin’s Permit Reform Legislation

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It’s in serious jeopardy from House Progressive-Democratic Party members—70 of them—and Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV) hasn’t even released the language of his permit reform proposal (but West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Senator Shelly Moore Capito, has released hers). Despite this, Manchin blames Republicans for the jeopardy.

On top of that, Manchin says he’ll release his proposal in the coming days.

This, of course, is nonsense. Manchin, responsible Senator that he is, has had his proposal written since early in the days when he was negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) the price for which Manchin would sell his vote on the Progressive-Democratic Party’s then-latest spendthrift bill.

Manchin has no reason at all for withholding his proposal from public scrutiny for so long, much less from the other party’s scrutiny before demanding their vote on it.

Backdoor Guaranteed Income

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The DC city council is getting ready to give holders of the city’s municipal bus and rail system fare cards a recurring $100 balance. Card holders will have that much fare money given to them, repetitively, by the taxpayers among the District’s residents (given to themselves to the extent there’s overlap between the two groups).

A slice of guaranteed income for council-approved persons. If Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) government were serious about lowering city transportation costs for its residents, those personages could, instead, simply lower the fares, so that all the residents could share in the program.

But, no….

Inflation? What Inflation?

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President Joe Biden (D) and his White House spokesmen have been bragging about what a strong economy we have.

Even CNN waved the BS flag at that. Here’s how strong our economy really is.

The Labor Department on Tuesday reported its consumer-price index rose 8.3% in August from the same month a year ago [albeit down slightly from the prior two months’ year-on-year inflation]

And

[C]ore CPI, which excludes often volatile energy and food prices, increased 6.3% in August from a year earlier, up markedly from the 5.9% rate in both June and July

And

Food prices continued to climb sharply this past month, rising 0.8% in August from July, as did those for new vehicles leapt 0.8%. Prices also rose last month for medical care, education, electricity, and natural gas

Inflation in energy cost is especially troublesome. That’s the price of heating and cooling our homes, our places of business, our schools, how we power our industrial facilities. The impact on our health and finances from that exacerbates our demand for/need for medical care.

That inflation is made the worse by the growth in wages that’s been occurring since inflation took off with Biden’s ascension to office (if not since his election). Wage growth had been at half the rate of inflation, meaning us Americans’ income actually had been shrinking relative to the prices we face. But last month, despite that 8.3%/6.3% inflation, our wages grew…not at all.

Median household income was essentially unchanged last year on an inflation-adjusted basis….

Our wage dollar buys ever less in the Biden version of a strong economy.

Biden and his Progressive-Democratic Party are either wholly unaware of the real economy us average Americans face, or they’re blatantly lying about the situation.

Meanwhile, they partied on the White House lawn the day those numbers were released, celebrating this wonderful news.

Remember their obliviousness or their dishonesty this fall.