You're Probably Getting Screwed... 2024 Election is Here

Joe Biden is the best President in my lifetime and I’ll tell you why…

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t caucus for Biden in Iowa in 2020 and that I probably underestimated him. 

When I look at President Biden’s record, I could talk about

1. Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill which was a historic investment in the country’s infrastructure, including new funding for water pipes, trains, roads, and high-speed internet.

2. The Inflation Reduction Act which was the greatest investment in clean energy and enables Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with the goal of lowering the costs to millions of Americans.

3. The CHIPS Act which is bolstering semiconductor manufacturing here in the U.S.

But those aren’t the reasons why I think he’s the best president of my lifetime.

I am an old school prairie populist who thinks huge corporations have too much power. And the concentration of wealth is a great threat to our economy and our democracy.

So here’s why I respect President Biden so much “Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism, it’s exploitation!”

While previous Presidents have given tax breaks to huge corporations and the super wealthy, one of the first things President Biden did in office was issue his Executive Order on Competition.

Do I think more needs to happen and do I want things to go a lot faster, absolutely. But after decades of going in the wrong direction, he’s laid the foundation for us to go in the right direction. 

So as we get into 2024 and we see news like this, where over half of the inflation is due to corporate greed, we have a choice to make.

Do you want a self-absorbed, wealthy guy from New York who inherited his money and, when he was in office, the biggest legislative accomplishment was to pass a tax break for huge corporations and the super wealthy?

Or re-elect President Biden who is trying to fight for an economy that works for everyone… For me it’s a no brainer…

YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

Equipment Manufacturers

Manufacturers of everything from smart phones to tractors have created lucrative repair monopolies that make it impossible to fix your stuff. The Federal Trade Commission has begun the process of creating rules that will crack down on repair monopolies and is collecting feedback from the public through tomorrow.

Mergers

Less than three months after Microsoft completed its acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, which the FTC tried to block, the company is laying off 1,900 workers. The layoffs also came with an announcement the company was canceling development of a much anticipated new survival game. It is all a reminder that mergers destroy jobs and kill innovation. 

Hospital monopolies

Just 76 hospitals in Minnesota, down from 110 two decades ago, offer birth services according to a recent story in the Minnesota Reformer. Not mentioned is the role hospital consolidation plays in closures like these, which have hit rural communities particularly hard. 

Corporate Subsidies

Mississippi has backed up the Brinks truck to shower Amazon in taxpayer-funded corporate subsidies for data centers, which create few jobs and use massive amounts of water. Someday economic development will not just mean giving bags of cash to massive corporations, but we are not there yet. 

Trump Tax Cuts

While some are using a recent study of the Trump Tax Cuts to tout its success in spurring investment, the study finds that NEARLY ALL of the benefits of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA), as it is also known, went to wealthy executives and shareholders. Some investment! 

Private Equity Billionaires

Is the owner of your favorite baseball team so bad that selling the team to two private equity billionaires might be cause for celebration? That scenario is playing out in Baltimore where John Angelos (he is the worst), who inherited the Baltimore Orioles from his father Peter, has an agreement to sell the team for $1.725 billion. 

However, while a private equity firm will not own the team, the industry’s growing reach in sports (did you know that one PE-backed firm owns nearly a fourth of minor league baseball teams?), cannot be a good sign for fans, athletes or taxpayers. 

Algorithms 

In 2022 ProPublica dove into the use of price-fixing algorithms by RealPages to jack up rents across the country in a scheme that resembles AgriStats impact on rising meat prices. Earlier this week members of Congress introduced legislation to crack down on the practice. 

Big Tech/Private Equity/Hedge Funds

From the LA TImes to Sports Illustrated the start of 2024 has come with a wave of layoffs in the media industry as Big Tech and financial firms tighten their grip on the industry. Fortunately, none of this is inevitable as Phillip Longman recently wrote about in Washington Monthly. 

BEFORE YOU GO

Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.

Standing Tall for All,

J.D. Scholten

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