Drop in retail sales and higher prices don't mean recession yet. But if it keeps happening...

In addition to the horrendous HR work that Elon Musk's crew is pulling in DC, there was bad news on the overall economy released on Friday. Retail sales had a surprising loss for January, not a good sign when 2/3 of this country's economy is based on consumer spending.

American shoppers pulled back on their spending last month for the first time since August as stubborn inflation continued to bite and harsh weather curbed economic activity.

Retail sales plunged 0.9% in January from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Friday. That’s down sharply from December’s upwardly revised 0.7% gain and well below economists’ expectations of a 0.4% decline. The figures are adjusted for seasonal swings but not inflation.

Shoppers reined in their spending across multiple categories last month. Specialty stores and auto dealers were hit hardest, with spending falling 4.6% and 3%, respectively.

I'd quibble with one item there, as retail sales are not adjusted for inflation. So the 0.9% decline is even larger than it seems, given that it came in spite of the 0.5% increase in prices that consumers paid last month.

I will agree with the point that the drop in auto sales skews the picture, as sales beyond autos were only down a little bit after a jump in December. It seems likely that consumers pulled some purchases of autos and other products ahead in November and December as the prospect of tariffs loomed with Trump's inauguration in January.

It also doesn't look like prices are coming down any time soon in this country, as the Producer Price Index followed up a 0.5% increase in December with a 0.4% increase in January. And even more concerning to me is that prices further up the supply chain were rising by more than that.

Some of this might be profiteering to front-run on the tariffs, but it also means that there's nothing in the pipeline that will keep prices from rising in the coming months.

UW-Madison professor Menzie Chinn put a lot of this information together, and while the inflation-enhanced drop in retail sales is concerning for January, it just retraces the growth we saw in the second half of 2024.

Professor Chinn adds that he doesn't think there's any recession happening in this country until jobs start getting lost and income growth slows down.

Oh, did we say job loss?

List of ALL DOGE Layoffs This Week - And Potential Danger krassencast.com/p/list-of-al...

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— Krassensteins (@krassenstein.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 8:52 AM

🚨NEWS: Massive layoffs are about to hit the IRS -- around 10,000 employees -- potentially in the middle of filing season. Of particular interest to the DOGE: Cutting IRS enforcement capabilities. -- with @jeffstein.bsky.social + Hannah Natanson

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— Jacob Bogage (@jacobbogage.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 2:31 PM

Tribal Organizations Say Trump’s Mass Layoffs Have Life-or-Death Consequences flip.it/ISlLk0 so, despite centuries of law, treaties, contracts & common sense, DOGE categorized anything Native American as “DEI”—& cut off funding for everything… including hospitals, police, fire fighters & schools.

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— Sarah Szalavitz💡 (@dearsarah.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 7:23 PM

Seems like if some people slowed their spending for another month or two, whether they are threatened by unauthorized techno-dweebs or because they simply choose to, this country would fall into recession pretty quickly.

We're not there yet, but you can sure see where things are heading.

INFLATION WATCH - back with a vengeance in January

Guess what's back? It's INFLATION WATCH!

JUST IN: Inflation ticked back up to 3% (y/y) in January --> the highest since June. The monthly gain was 0.5% (above expectations). Rent made up 30% of the increase. Gas and food also contributed. "Core CPI," which excludes food and gas, rose 3.3%. Core CPI has basically stalled since June.

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— Heather Long (@byheatherlong.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 7:39 AM

What's more concerning than the year-over-year numbers leveling off is the fact that the CPI has ticked up for each of the last 3 months.

This means CPI has gone up by an annualized rate of 4.8% for the last 3 months, and 3.6% for the last 6. And it's also worrying that core CPI was up by 0.4%, and an annuaized rate of 3.6% over the last 3 months. Sure, some of this is probably businesses jacking re-setting prices for the start of the year (something we saw last year as well), but there also isn't much to indicate prices will stop rising anytime soon.

For example, food at home (aka groceries) was up by 0.5% in January, and has gone up by a total of 1.2% over the last 3 months. Not surprisingly, this was led by a 15.2% increase in the price of eggs for January, but it also includes sizable increases in beef and veal (+0.7% Janaury and +3.4% in the last 3 months) and in pork (+0.7% in December and +1.9% over the last 3 months). Our current President sure spent last fall doing a lot of complaining about the prices of eggs and meat, so I'm sure he has a plan to get thse price increases under control.

No no you see he was misspelling a google search for "Biden inflation RP"

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— Son of a Programmer, Daddy (@videocrime.48minutesofdogsbarking.com) February 12, 2025 at 9:54 AM

Nope, nothing. Well, except for tariffs on aluminum and other products, which will (wait for it....) RAISE prices that consumers pay.

That high CPI number and new tariffs is going to make it even less likely that Fed Chair Jerome Powell will lower interest rates any time soon, no matter how much Trump/Musk want it to happen (cough - HEAVILY INDEBTED - cough). But it does make me wonder if Trump/Musk try to make January the last time the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells the full truth about what's happening with prices in this country.

We've got producer prices and retail sales information coming in the rest of this week. Let's see if prices are likely to stay high in the coming months, and see if consumers cut back in January as the prospect of a 2nd Trump Administration and tariffs loomed. If so, you might start hearing the "s" word being thrown around that no elected official wants to hear - stagflation.

We're not there yet, but the trend of the last couple of months and the Trump/Musk policy agenda sure don't make me think that it's a short-term blip and we'll be back to lower price increases and better growth soon.

The big news in the Jan jobs report was what it told us about 2023 and 2024

After a busy weekend out of town, I wanted to catch up on what was a solid jobs report to start 2025.

The U.S. added 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than economists expected, but the unemployment rate inched down to 4% from 4.1%, beating forecasts and still near historic lows.

Forecasters surveyed by Dow Jones had anticipated 169,000 payroll gains in January, after a blowout 307,000 jump in December, according to revised tallies. The numbers released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics include routine annual data adjustments, in which November and December payroll levels were revised up by a combined 100,000.

But to me, the big story with this jobs release was less about what happened in January 2025, but what was changed about what we knew about jobs numbers in 2024 and 2023.

The BLS revised down the monthly pace of job gains for 2024, to an average of 166,000 from a previous estimate of 186,000, reinforcing widespread expectations that hiring last year wasn't quite as robust as earlier data had suggested. For the period covering 2023 and early 2024, the U.S. added 589,000 fewer payrolls.

At the same time, millions of people's paychecks continue to swell. Average hourly earnings rose 4.1% over the past year, partly thanks to minimum wage hikes that took effect last month in 21 states and dozens of municipalities, noted Mark Hamrick, senior economist at Bankrate. The Economic Policy Institute estimated in December that more than 9.2 million workers would see increases in January totaling $5.7 billion.

Interestingly, the downward revision of 589,000 through March 2024 is quite a bit less than the 818,000 that was the preliminary downward revision from August.

Move forward to December, and the total amount of jobs was revised down by 610,000. There was a notable slowdown in job growth in mid-2024 with 3 straight months of (seasonally adjusted) job growth below 100,000, and private sector job growth of 66,000, 40,000 and 33,000 for June, July and August. But as 2024 has ended and 2025 began, job growth has picked up, with 3 of the last 4 months seeing job growth of 240,000 or more. So any thought of things tipping over into net job losses has been set aside for now.

It's still an overall good picture, as jobs continued to grow at a 12-month rate near or above 2 million throughout 2024. But the revisions show a consistent slowdown from the boom we saw as COVID vaccinations became widespread, and the growth slowed earlier and more signficantly than we knew.

In addition, the revisions confirm that there was a drop in manufacturing jobs as interest rates rose and stayed high over the last 2 years, including a loss of 107,000 manufacturing jobs in 2024. That’s in notable contrast to the consistent increases in construction that have continued, including another 23,000 in that sector for January.

There also were revisions to the household survey, which had changes in the other direction when it came to the number of Americans working. It was revised up by 2 million compared to previous numbers, and it goes along with December’s updated Census numbers which showed the US population grew by its fastest rate in more than 20 years. This chart from UW-Madison economist Menzie Chinn illustrates the closing of the gap we had previously seen.

This revision also puts down a talking point that Trump/GOP frequently used, which used the household survey to make a questionable claim that there was a decline in Americans working over the last year, and or that any new jobs were going to immigrants. The new numbers say that the number of native-born Americans working went up by 766,000 between January 2024 and January 2025. That’s not a huge jump, and unemployment among native-born Americans did go up slightly in that time, but certainly not a loss.

These revisions to the household and payrolls surveys are yet another bit of data that makes me say "It would have been nice for voters to have this information BEFORE the election." And for policymakers, because if the Fed had seen job growth slowing down as much as it was in 2023, maybe they wouldn't have waited until September 2024 to start cutting rates from their 23-year highs, and we would have recognized that the US labor force was growing by a sizable amount, showing that there was more slack in the labor market, leading the less inflationary pressure.

Lastly, I can trust these numbers for January because the survey data happened before the Trump Administration took office, and before Elon Musk and his pack of dweebs started trying to wreck the work and information gathered by the federal government. Given the way these guys roll, am I going to be able to trust the numbers that Trump's DC folks produce, especially as inflation and austerity seem likely to slow our job and economic growth further in 2025?

Even red Waukesha County is struggling to pay its bills. Maybe get a sales tax like the rest of us?

Even with increases in shared revenues from the state, the many years of neglect before 2023 meant that many local governments are still not able to make ends meet. And it's worth noting that one place whose local government is especially struggling is the Republican stronghold of Waukesha County.

For years, Waukesha was able to rely on shared revenues, property taxes and other means to pay for their services, to the point that it is 1 of only 2 counties remaining that have not put in sales tax. And despite their top elected official admitting the financial difficulties and wanting to take action to allow for more resources, he said this week that he is going to back down and not ask for a sales tax to help pay the bills.

Instead, he's going to hope his fellow Republicans in the Legislature use some of this state's $4.3 billion surplus to help him out.

Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow introduced a measure to implement the 0.5 percent sales tax in October. It would have generated an estimated $60 million a year for the county.

But speaking to the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors last week, Farrow said the sales tax measure is now officially “dead.” He withdrew the plan after it was met with backlash from some in the community.

“Without a significant change in how the state funds local government, or a change in how our local government funds itself, our future balanced budgets will come at the cost of deep service cuts starting in 2026,” Farrow said during the meeting.

$60 million a year seems like a lot of money to pass up, especially if some of those sales taxes could reduce the property tax burden in Waukesha County, where the median-priced home sold for $456,000 in 2024. It’s also worth mentioning that Farrow wanted $12 million of those funds to go to property tax relief.

The property tax relief part is worth mentioning, as Waukesha County's high property values generally translates into lower state aids, especially for schools. But at the same time, Waukesha County hasn’t been allowed to take advantage of their median home sale prices going up by more than $200,000 since 2015, because the Walker/WisGOP regime limited property tax increases to the rate of new construction, NOT the increase in home values.

Those limits on property tax levies means that Wisconsinites are paying their lowest property tax rates in decades. Check out this chart from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

That's small solace for us who are still paying more in property taxes despite the lower rates. But in theory, local governments have had to deal with limits to their resources that the state has not had to deal with, because the state got higher income, sales and corporate taxes with that inflation, and from growth in the economy.

And because of those limitations, Waukesha Executive Farrow asked for the sales tax last Fall. And guess who was one of the leaders of the "backlash" from Farrow’s suggestion, which led the Waukesha County Board to back down?

Tonette & I live in Waukesha County. We are shocked that the county board will be considering a sales tax increase on Tue, Oct 22. I encourage residents to let their supervisor know their opinion before 10/22.

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) October 16, 2024

I want to back up and note that the Wisconsin Department of Tourism says that Waukesha County had the 4th highest amount of direct visitor spending out of any county in the state in 2023, with over $900 million spent. Yeah, kinda surprises me too, but apparently a lot of people stay or stop by there when they’re doing things in Milwaukee, or even take in events in the 262.

And given the large amount of tourism spending and high population that lives there, Waukesha County would seem to be a place that especially would benefit from such a sales tax. They can’t just rely on sprawl and home-building at this point (and at this point, do they even want any more of that?), so getting that extra revenue source and taking some burden off the property tax seems like an obvious solution.

At the same time, while I have sympathy for how Waukesha County isn’t allowed to get all the resources that they need from property tax or state shared revenues, not having a sales tax is a self-inflicted wound. Therefore, I don’t see where they should get much extra help from the state to pay their bills until they install a sales tax like the overwhelming majority of the rest of the state does.

It's a two-way street where you have to do something to get something. But when did BubbleWorld BSers like Scott Walker ever do tradeoffs and actual solutions like that? After all, that clown thought you could pay for increasingly costly road repairs with the same amount of gas taxes and registration fees.

2024 ended with strong consumer spending and overall econ growth.

At the end of last week, we got two important reports from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that showed the US economy finished up 2024 in a good place. On Thursday, we got the first look at Q4 GDP, which indicated that growth kept up as the year ended.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced across the sprawling U.S. economy during the period, showed that the economy accelerated at a 2.3% annualized inflation-adjusted pace in the fourth quarter. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting an increase of 2.5% after growth of 3.1% in the third quarter.

The report closes out 2024 on a somewhat downbeat note, though growth held reasonably solid. For the full year, GDP accelerated 2.8%, compared with 2.9% in 2023. Growth was 2.5% from Q4 of 2023 to Q4 of 2024. Thursday’s release was the first of three estimates the department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis will provide....

Growth held up largely on the backs of consumers who continued to spend briskly despite the ongoing burden of high prices on everything from homes to cars to eggs at the supermarket. While inflation is well off the boil from its mid-2022 40-year high, it remains a burden for households, particularly those on the lower end of the income scale.

Consumer spending rose at a robust 4.2% pace and, as usual, amounted to about two-thirds of all activity. Government spending also provided a boost, accelerating at a 3.2% level.

Not bad at all, and the 2.3% rate is a bit misleading, as the number would have been closer to 3.3% if it wasn't for a drawdown in inventories. In fact, if you look at the GDP number without the volatile inventory figure and keep it to the private sector, we had our strongest quarter of growth in nearly 2 years.

It's also worth noting that consumption was even stronger than it had been, adding more than 2.8% to GDP in the last 3 months of 2024. But at the same time, I'd note that almost all other components of GDP shrunk compared to what we'd seen for much of the last year.

Following that GDP report, we got the always-important income and spending report on Friday for December, and it showed that things were still in the same solid growth trend that we'd seen for much of this last year.

The personal consumption expenditures price index increased 2.6% on a year-over-year basis in December, 0.2 percentage point higher than the November reading and in line with the Dow Jones estimate.

Excluding food and energy, core PCE registered a 2.8% reading, also meeting expectations and the same as the prior month. Though the Fed considers both readings, historically officials have seen core as the better gauge of long-run inflation.

On a monthly basis, headline PCE rose 0.3% while core increased 0.2%, both in line with forecasts as well....

The report Friday also showed that personal income increased 0.4% in December as forecast, while spending rose 0.7%, or one-tenth of a percentage point ahead of the estimate.

Inflation-adjusted consumer spending continued its consistent growth pattern that's been going on for the better part of 2 years, as inflation subsided from their peaks of Summer 2022.

I'll also note that this report revised its per capita income numbers based on December estimates from the Census Bureau that showed larger population growth from immigration than previously known. And as a result, it's slowed the growth of inflation-adjusted disposable income per capita from what we had, although it still shows decent growth over the last 2 1/2 years and is well above where we were 5 years ago.

So maybe this lower per capita figure could explain why some more Americans could believe the economy wasn't as good as the overall numbers indicated, but it still didn't stop them from spending money over the last couple of years. The gap between spending growth and income growth does seem to be getting larger, however, and the US savings rate is now under 4%, the lowest rates since the high-inflation times of 2022.

What I see out of this is that the economy was in a good place as Donald Trump took office, but that growth could be significantly slowed and/or stopped if consumers stopped spending so freely. And if something would happen to reignite inflation, maybe consumers wouldn't be as keen to pay those prices, and the economy would quickly fall into recession, since there isn't a lot else to maintain the momentum if the consumer stops contributing.

In response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, Canada announced 25% retaliatory tariffs on American goods — beer, wine, bourbon, fruits, vegetables, clothes, perfume, household appliances, plastic, lumber, etc. I bet Americans will soon learn a very painful lesson about how tariffs work, eh?

— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) February 2, 2025 at 7:09 AM

Oh....

Sure enough, Wisconsin tax revenues revised higher for next budget

I predicted this after seeing the numbers from November and December, and today, Wisconsin's Legislative Fiscal Bureau concurred.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau today projected the state will now finish the 2023-25 budget with a $4.3 billion surplus, while upping expectations for how much Wisconsin will collect in tax revenue over the next two years.

In November, the Evers administration projected the state would finish this budget with a $4 billion surplus.

But the LFB today said it now expects tax revenues to be $894.3 million higher than what the administration had expected in November, driven largely by revised estimates for sales tax collections through mid-2025....

Along with a $4.3 billion surplus at the end of this biennium, LFB projects the state will see an additional $1.85 billion in tax collections in the next two years.

Well that seems like a big deal, and indeed, it means that we should have between $256 million and $354 million in additional funds to utiltize in each of the next 3 fiscal years. Which is pretty close to where we I estimated we were trending based on December's numbers.

That being said, there are a lot of economic assumptions the LFB had to go on, in a time where there is a LOT of uncertainty as to what policies are going to be in place in the next 2 years, and the effects of the policies. Here's what LFB is going with.

The 2025 forecast is based on the following key assumptions. First, Treasury is expected to undertake "extraordinary measures" to meet its debt obligations, now that the debt ceiling is no longer suspended, and the debt ceiling is expected to be increased without a government shutdown. The forecast assumes: (a) an extension of the individual income tax provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA); (b) some exclusion of tip and overtime pay from federal income taxation; (c) the corporate tax rate is reduced from 21% to 15% on domestic production; and (d) Medicare and Social Security benefits continue to be paid. Second, it assumes that state and local budgets have returned to deficit, after having been supported by stimulus relief measures in 2021 and 2022. However, unspent pandemic-era stimulus funds and ongoing [infrastructure bill] funds are expected to mitigate pressures to reduce state and local spending. Third, the forecast assumes a reduction in net international migration by 500,000 per year (equal to 0.15% of the U.S. population) for the next four years. Fourth, S&P Global anticipates that the Federal Reserve will reduce the federal funds rate by 25 basis points both in March and June of 2025, before pausing until the third quarter of 2026. Fifth, the forecast assumes a 10% universal tariff and a 30% tariff on imports from China, which is expected to increase the average effective tariff rate from 3.0% in the first quarter of 2025 to 16.4% by the first quarter of 2026. Finally, it assumes that growth in real, trade-weighted foreign GDP will remain at 2.0% in 2025 and rise to 2.2% in 2026. Foreign CPI inflation is expected to fall to 2.5% in 2025 and 2.2% by 2028.

Lots of "we'll see" there, especially on no government shutdown, extending the GOP Tax Scam and in Congress signing off on Trump's gimmick involving income from tips (and corporate bonuses?). I suppose a lot of this will be cleared up in the next 6 weeks, when funding runs out for the federal government and any tax plan will likely be debated as part of that.

Also, did you catch the items about a relatively small decrease in immigration and the assumption of tariffs being put in place? Let's see where that goes as well. Interestingly, the LFB thinks that the tariffs will give a boost to the state's tax revenues, because it'll raise the prices on products.

CPI slowed to 3.0% in 2024, down from 4.1% in 2023 and 8.0% in 2022. As predicted, core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, exceeded overall CPI, growing 3.4% in 2024. S&P Global expects the growth in CPI to slow to 2.9% in 2025, before increasing to 3.3% in 2026. Higher CPI growth in 2026 is based on S&P Global's expectation that President Trump's proposed tariffs will increase domestic prices. CPI is projected to slow to 2.2% in 2027. S&P Global estimates core CPI growth at 3.2% in 2025 and 2026, and 2.1% in 2027...

Sales tax revenues in the next biennium are estimated at $8,140.0 million in 2025-26 and $8,375.0 million in 2026-27, reflecting growth of 4.9% and 2.9%, respectively. These estimates reflect higher November and December collections (compared to November projections) and utilize an updated forecast from S&P Global that incorporates President Trump's proposed tariff policies, which are expected to increase inflation and nominal consumer spending.

So with expectations of inflation around or above 3% in each of the next 2 years, it likely means there should be some kind of allowance for spending to rise by more than what might have been expected a few months ago.

And because there is nearly zero certainty over what fiscal policies are going to be coming out of DC in the next few months, and the effects those policies may have on state funding and services, it would be insane for Governor Evers to sign off on any WisGOP tax cut that they try to push through in the coming weeks. In fact, if I were Gov Evers and Capitol Dems, I would go out of my way to mention that the good economy of the Biden years and Evers' stewardship as governor have led to this good revenue picture, but the Trumpian idiocy in DC is stopping any immediate tax cut to take advantage of these higher-than-expected numbers.

Regardless, the LFB estimates show that there should be plenty of funds available in these coming years to take care of the many needs in this state that have been neglected during the 14 years that Republicans have run the State Legislature. Or this surplus can help to make up for Trump/GOP budget cuts in DC. Either way, let's take advantage of these good times and get real investments and changes in place with the billions we have to play with.

Trump Admin is stealing federal tax dollars! Cmon Dems, make GOPs pay for this THEFT

As others have said, don't look at the stupid stuff and words coming from TrumpWorld. Look for the real damaging stuff that is being done behind the scenes.

NEW — OMB temporarily pauses all agency grants and loans programs. Per copy of memo: "The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve."

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) January 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM

The @washingtonpost.com now confirms my earlier reporting:

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) January 27, 2025 at 8:10 PM

Everything is extremely chaotic but the best info we have so far suggests that Trump’s “stop funding” EO would cover: Medicaid ESSA funds IDEA Snap School meals WIC Head start grants Child care block grants Pell grants Student loans Higher Ed grants Housing vouchers CTE Devastating beyond words.

— Leah Greenberg (@leahgreenberg.bsky.social) January 28, 2025 at 7:54 AM

This is THEFT, folks. The Trump Administration is stealing money that BY LAW was allocated and set aside for specific things, and now they're just holding onto it and could redirect it to go in their own pockets and/or the pockets of whoever kisses up to them.

Ok, Dems? There's your easy message. The Trump Administration is STEALING TAX DOLLARS for no legitimate reason beyond self-enrichmwent and power-grabs. Not only do I want immediate lawsuits this morning against this impoundment (which I will repeat, IS AGAINST THE LAW), this is worthy of impeachment.

Sure, GOPs in the House and Senate won't go along with it, but fuck em. Make them go on the record and say that their job in Congress is a phoney-baloney gig without power, because they allow a sundowning 78-year-old President and his wack-job puppetmasters to do whatever they wants, including ignoring whatever Congress passed into law.

And most of these stolen funds go to states, including Wisconsin, as Marquette professor Phil Rocco reminds us.

To put the OMB grant freeze in context, roughly 17.5% of Wisconsin’s revenue comes from federal grants in aid last I checked. Overall, federal grants account for roughly 36% of all state government budgets in US. In a number of states the federal share is even higher.

— Phil Rocco (@philiprocco.bsky.social) January 27, 2025 at 9:12 PM

It's not like the WisGOPs don't know this. Check out this comment from when asked why we are only 1 of 2 states that have not guranteed a full year of Medicaid benefits to help new mothers.

“I think it’s a little premature to have any discussions about the Medicaid budget right now. We have a brand new administration coming into D.C.,” Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth, said last week. “I think the Trump administration is actually going to put some common sense into some of these programs federally.” Assembly Number 2 Tyler August

"Common sense"? From the Trump folks? That's hilarious, Number 2.

What August means is that Trump/GOP wants to use Medicaid cuts to keep the GOP Tax Scam going beyond this year, so they can't count on the feds covering enough of the bill if postpartum Medicaid was expanded. One problem, Tyler. We'd have to make up the lack of federal spending on all forms of Medicaid, which accounted for well over half of the $14.25 billion that our state spent on benefits.

So if those funds get cut, we're going to have to spend more state dollars. Which means that Governor Evers and every Dem at the Capitol should tell Rep. August, Robbin' Vos and the rest of the GOP Legislature that there won't be any tax cuts at the state level if the Trump/GOPs insist on stealing funds from the US Treasury.

Also, most GOP-run red states need that federal money more than Wisconsin. The taxes that states like New York and California send to DC get redirected to those in need, and because red states are wracked with poverty and underinvestment, due to lousy GOP policies at the state level, they get more of those funds than most. I would hope Dems in Congress go on the attack and hammer every GOP from a GOP-leaning area, and tell their constituents they are choosing Donald F'ing Trump over their everyday needs. And that Trump will raise the taxes of everyone by cutting off aids to states.

Yes, this impoundment by TrumpWorld is an outrageous move. But I'm not a Dem lawmaker and it's not my job to be consumed by the Trump/GOP douchebaggery of the day. It's up to our elected officials and others who have jobs in politics to make this THEFT an issue and mess up all other GOP plans until the theft stops. And there is no compromise to be had on illegal BS like this.

PS - Gov Evers has already sent a letter that basically asks "Hey Trump. WTF is going on here?"