Take a deep breath my dude. Growth: Spending went up 0.8% from the 3rd qtr to the 4th qtr so I have no idea where you're getting this "insane amount" of spending from. That aside, the House is controlled by the GOP and they have yet to pass a budget resolution other than continuing resolutions. Authoratarianism/Conquest/Genocide: The authoritarianism that I'm talking about is Putin's authoritarianism that Republicans are currently deep throating. The latest case and point was Tucker and his fawning tour of Moscow and propaganda interview with Putin. I also don't give a fuck who is on office when Putin decides to invade. What I do care about is Republicans being content to give him everything he needs to succeed, a fractured West. It's abhorrent. The genocide I was talking about was also in reference to Ukraine. The Russian authorities have set up a systemic process of removing Ukrainian children from there homes and taking them to re-education camps to 'Russify' them. Again, this doesn't seem to bother Republicans. Healthcare: Universal healthcare would not be a nightmare for a country the size of the US and it doesn't have to be a single payer system as proposed by Bernie. All you need is a public option that provides a floor for care. The US is already the highest paying nation per capita on healthcare. Why do you think a system that works for literally the entire developed world wouldn't work for the US? Social Security: Some people would be better off investing their own money but a lot of people wouldn't. Social Security is a good way of ensuring people aren't left to rot after finishing their working lives. It's a social investment but i'm not particularly hung up on it. There are other ways Wages are absolutely above inflation. Since the start of 2023, [wages have been outpacing inflation](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/#:~:text=U.S.%20inflation%20rate%20versus%20wage%20growth%202020%2D2024&text=The%20rate%20of%20inflation%20exceeded,wages%20grew%20by%20five%20percent.) Jobs: [The private sector is doing just fine](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/04/private-payrolls-added-164000-in-december-beating-expectations-adp-says.html). Also it's not surprising that the public sector has taken more time to return to hiring after layoffs during Covid.

What do you mean there shouldn't have been inflation on food? There's inflation on everything, always. The Fed tries to keep it between 2-3% and it was back to 3.1% annual average in Dec after being as high as 6.4% last year. There are many potential reasons for the inflation, a lot of which stems from the upheaval of Covid which turned supply lines on their heads and had a lot of people hoarding cash as spending dropped. Once everything opened up again, there was a lot of people looking to spend and not enough supply to meet the demand so prices go up. The same is the case or gas prices. It takes time for the market to react to the ramp up in demand for fuel once people started operating normally again. The point is that things are improving rapidly. High job creation, higher than inflation wage growth, inflation coming down to the desired level, productivity increasing, low unemployment, stock market climbing...

[This is all the Republicans doing](https://apnews.com/article/congress-ukraine-border-security-zelenskyy-bf932727abd5e8ff3cf5c9c848a3cf78). It was them that demanded the border bill be included in the Ukraine bill. The Dems said ok and worked with the Senate to get border provisions included that continue construction of the border wall, provide a hard cap of people that can cross with the border shutting down if it breaches that. There was also big funding boosts for the border patrol. The deal was even endorsed by the Border Patrol Council who has been heavily critical of Biden. Also the bill wasn't killed because of Ukraine funding, it was killed because [Trump told them to kill it](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/05/border-bill-trump-00139584) because he wants something to run on. He is gambling with the border for his own politics but he will need all 3 chambers to get anything passed. If I were Republican, I wouldn't want to be rolling the dice on such an important issue when you have a standing offer that gets you a majority of the way to what you want. The only person this helps is Trump (as with anything he does). For further proof that it isn't Ukraine that is holding up this bill passing, here's a quote from the [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/13/senate-republicans-forced-issue-ukraine-aid-now-comes-hard-part/) >Every Ukraine funding vote in the House has received at least 73 percent support. Ukraine funding opponent Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) reportedly acknowledged Tuesday, “If it were to get to the floor, it would pass; let’s just be frank about that.”

[Gas prices are below 2014 levels](https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m) and [inflation of food is well and truly back under control](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/food-inflation). Not only is inflation of things like food back into the desired 2-3% range but [wages are above inflation](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/) which means that while prices are still going up (as they always do), there is an effective price cut as people are earning more than the price increase.