So why were Wisconsinites buying so much more booze in FY 2021?

When the Wisconsin Department of Revenue released the state’s year-end tax revenues for the 2021 Fiscal Year, the numbers were even higher than expected. And while the $2 billion increase in General Fund taxes was mostly due to a big jump in corporate taxes along with solid increases in income and sales taxes, there was another area that also brought in more revenue in Wisconsin in FY 21.

Alcohol taxes collected in Wisconsin jumped nearly 17% in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to state tax revenue data analyzed by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum.

That’s the largest jump since 1972, when the drinking age was lowered to 18 for a little more than a decade.

Data from the state Department of Administration and Legislative Fiscal Bureau show Wisconsin’s excise tax revenue on alcoholic beverage sales are projected to reach about $73.8 million, a 16.6% increase from the $63.3 million collected in the previous fiscal year.

So where did that come from? Let’s start by taking a step back and going over how we collect alcohol taxes in Wisconsin.

A quick check of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s Informational Paper about various “vice taxes” in Wisconsin reveals that liquor, wine, and beer taxes are considered occupational taxes . That means they are generally paid by distributors and direct shippers of the product, instead of being paid by the consumer and collected by the seller (like a sales tax is).

All of the booze taxes in Wisconsin are based on volume, and not price of the product. And none of these taxes have been changed since lower-alcohol hard cider was split off from wine in 1997, which indicates that the jump in taxes is the result of more (volume of) product being sold.

And it’s not just because the COVID-related lockdowns of March-May 2020 cut sales to bars and restaurants, as the FY 2020 numbers for all types of alcohol were not much different than the trend in prior years. Fiscal Year 2021 just had that many more purchases.

In their analysis of the big increase in alcohol sales/taxes, the Wisconsin Policy Forum looked at information from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, and says the increases in alcohol sales started as most of Wisconsin was locked down when COVID first broke out.

We analyzed the DOR monthly excise tax revenue totals since the onset of the pandemic relative to the same months a year earlier. They show an initial surge of increased alcohol tax revenues in April 2020, much more modest increases in the following months, followed by larger increases in the late summer and early fall. Monthly revenues saw sustained but smaller year-over-year increases from November through February before surging again to end the fiscal year.

Under this hypothesis, Wisconsinites were stocking up for consumption at home in the early days of the COVID World, and likely continued in that trend for the rest of 2020 and early 2021. We also saw strong growth in outdoor tourism last year, as people looked for relatively isolated activities during a pandemic and Wisconsin’s natural beauty was a fit, well within driving distance for people in larger Midwestern cities.

As weather warmed in 2020 and more bars and restaurants were able to serve, those businesses saw a need to replace older product that they may not have used in the Spring and Summer, and restocked as well (I recall the Great Dane having a huge sale of beers during the Spring of 2020 they were otherwise going to throw away).

Then after we got through the COVID Winter (where there was often little to do other than to watch TV and drink at home), vaccinations started in large force right as weather was warming again, giving two boosts to restaurants and bars. This increased the volume purchased by those businesses compared to prior months, which explains the big revenue numbers in May (reflecting the sales in April).

And perhaps there is something to be said about the COVID World making people crazier, and some turning to booze more to cope (I am not one of them, and am likely not drinking enough in 2021, frankly). But we also may see a reversion to trend in Fiscal Year 2022. July 2021’s volume of taxable beer sales were 20% below July 2020’s, so let’s see if that decline/settling continues when we see the 1st 3 months of Wisconsin revenues in about a month.

Past COVID spike means deaths in MKE, but rural, low-vaxxed areas getting worst of it now

When COVID cases started jumping in late July and early August in Wisconsin, I was hoping that we wouldn't see a notable increase in death a month later. But that's precisely what has happened.

It was expected that there would be a reporting lag after the long Labor Day weekend but the 32 deaths reported Thursday is the highest mark since Feb 15. And it follows 17 deaths reported Wednesday.

More than half of the recent COVID-19 deaths have occurred in southeastern Wisconsin, particularly Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, but the state reported deaths in other counties as well like Dodge, Rock and Winnebago.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner listed 10 COVID-related deaths in the last 3 days on its website. Those who died this week in Milwaukee County ranged in age from 48 to 90 years old.

The seven-day statewide average of daily deaths has risen to 11 per day, which is the highest mark since Feb. 15. Just a month ago, the seven-day average was one death a day.

On Wednesday, we got a better look at the state of COVID in every Wisconsin county through the Department of Health Services’ weekly summary. The associated map of “high vs very high” amounts of cases wasn’t very different in this week compared to last. But one positive note is that the counties with significantly fewer new cases outnumbered the ones that had significant growth, which is the first time we’ve seen that in quite a while.

The down side is that those places with shrinking amounts of new cases are still having rates near or above the statewide 14-day rate of 463.3 per 100,000 Wisconsinites. And while the Madison area has stayed at a relatively low level of new cases and the Milwaukee metro area has plateaued for the last month, rural Northern and Western Wisconsin are now the sites of the worst outbreaks in the state.

Highest rate of new cases per 100,000 people.
Aug 25 – Sep 7 time period
Forest County 805.9
Taylor County 748.3
Oconto County 711.2
Trempealeau Co. 695.5
Chippewa County 671.1
Barron County 660.4
Green Lake Co. 660.1
Monroe County 634.8
Eau Claire Co. 623.0
Wood County 591.7

In a state where 52% of Wisconsinites are fully vaccinated, 8 of these 10 counties have had less than ½ of its population get all of their shots. And outside of Eau Claire County, the other 9 counties voted for Donald Trump last November with numbers ranging from 57.4% (Trempealeau) to 71.6% (Taylor).

Let’s see if that trend continues for the start of school, as all of these counties outside of Eau Claire and Trempealeau also have their rates of vaccination under the state average for students ages 12-17. We’ll see that school-related data in the next couple of weeks, and if this kind of regional disparity continue, that’ll tell us a lot. It’s not a good situation, and the failure of too many Wisconsinites to get the vaccine when they first had the chance helps explain why we are now seeing the spikes in the places they are at.

But we also have a few more weeks left before the weather forces more of us indoors, so if the recent trend of increased vaccination starts to pay off with a decline in cases and hospitalizations, we might be able to keep things operating at a reasonably normal level. That's what we need to shoot for, because I don't think any of us want to suffer through another depressing COVID winter.

July JOLTS report shows people were already quitting. But we gotta wait to see if it picked up in August

When last week’s August jobs report hit with a “disappointing” figure of 235,000, I said that I wanted to get a look at another report to get a better idea what might be going on. That report was the Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) report, which goes a little deeper into the reasons behind the numbers in the jobs report.

Unfortunately, the JOLTS report lags by 2 months, so we are looking the strong months of June and July instead of the leveling off in August. But it still seems instructive to see where we were at before COVID re-gripped large parts of America, and as August started, a whole lot of employers said they were looking to fill jobs.

Pretty incredible chart: The US had a record 10.9 million job openings in July.

That is about 1.25 jobs for every unemployed person (there were 8.7 officially unemployed in July)

There were more job openings in every industry than pre-pandemic. pic.twitter.com/0WpKPpOa68

— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) September 8, 2021

Part of the reason is that more people have been quitting their jobs than they were in March, as the economy opened up and COVID (temporarily) faded as an overhang. But the amount of people quitting have been more than made up for by the number of hires, which means the jump in job openings reflects employers wanting to add more staff to meet growing demand vs a rash of people leaving jobs.

As you go into the actual JOLTS report, you can see that there are growing needs in the health care field in a time when many emergency rooms and hospital beds are again being overwhelmed, 18 months after the pandemic first broke out.

On the last business day of July, the number and rate of job openings increased to series highs of 10.9 million (+749,000) and 6.9 percent, respectively. Job openings increased in several industries, with the largest increases in health care and social assistance (+294,000) ; finance and insurance (+116,000); and accommodation and food services (+115,000).

Both health care and accommodation/food services had already seen job openings on the rise since March, but reached new levels of need in July.

And while both sectors had seen an increase in the number of people quitting, it was nowhere near the amount of job openings. A big difference between the two is that accommodation/food services were at least hiring a decent amount of people in the Summer, while the level of hiring in health care didn’t change much at all.

Another sector that had big changes in July was retail trade (generally brick-and-mortar stores). There had been a lot of (seasonally adjusted) hires in that sector in June, meeting an increase in openings. But that reversed in July, and also included a notably higher level of quits, which makes me wonder if those individuals were moving out into different sectors.

Now let’s compare how these three sectors performed in the June, July and August jobs reports. And when you do that, you’ll see where that drop in Retail hiring hits in July, while Food Service/Accommodations stay strong, and that Health Care can’t add many jobs.

Change in jobs, US jobs report, June-Aug 2021
June
Retail Trade +175,300
Health Care/Soc.Assist +4,100
Food Service/Accommodations +522,600

July
Retail Trade +11,200
Health Care/Soc.Assist +9,400
Food Service/Accommodations +364,500

August
Retail Trade -64,400
Health Care/Soc.Assist +7,500
Food Service/Accommodations -50,300

The key question becomes “what caused those declines in Retail and Food Service/Accommodations in August”. My instinct is that it is a high number of quits and low number of hires to fill the many desired openings, because new unemployment claims have continued to fall in much of the last month.

So it sure seems that we have a lot of mismatches going on, where companies want to hire, but aren’t paying what workers want. At the same time, quits continued to slowly rise throughout the Summer, meaning employees felt they could get better opportunities or couldn’t afford to keep working because of other needs (be they health-related, caregiver-related, or other reasons).

Now if COVID puts a major crimp into demand (and the Fed is now indicating that this is starting to happen), that might limit the amount of hiring that companies want/need, which could get things a bit back toward normal. But with expanded unemployment benefits ending and some other stimulus supports fading, this also means we could see a lot of people facing tougher economic times, especially if COVID starts spiking layoffs.

These barriers and costs certainly seem to have already had an effect on the number of women working.

Mothers' employment fell in August, even though employment rose for other groups.

With the Delta surge, school and daycare reopenings have been shaky. It's a big burden on mothers and other caregivers.

(New CPS microdata for August.) pic.twitter.com/nD20Ksn78L

— Jed Kolko (@JedKolko) September 8, 2021

So while the July JOLTS report was illuminating, it’s the August report (which will drop in October) that will tell us a lot more. We will see if this exit of women from the work force shows up in increased quits as Summer ended, or if companies stopped wanting to hire as demand sagged.

Of course, if this plague isn’t burning itself out in a month, our economic concerns may be going well beyond job mismatches, and more into whether we should have people working at all in certain jobs and communities. And that will be a bad JOLT of a very different sort.

Record profits in COVID era makes for more reasons to stop the Tax Scam for corporations

When I hear complaints from the "business community" about how they can't find workers, what's rarely mentioned is that these are boom times for corporate profits. As we saw with two reports from earlier this week.

Let me start with the Census Bureau's report on retail profits.

Seasonally adjusted after-tax profits of U.S. retail corporations with assets of $50 million and over totaled $71.4 billion, up $23.3 (±0.6) billion from the $48.1 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2021, and up $32.8 (±0.9) billion from the $38.6 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2020.

Seasonally adjusted sales for the quarter totaled $963.9 billion, up $37.9 (±6.0) billion from the $926.0 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2021, and up $149.2 (±16.7) billion from the $814.7 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2020.

And that was after a big jump in profits in Q1 2021.

The manufacturers’ profit report tells the same story.

U.S. manufacturing corporations' seasonally adjusted after-tax profits in the second quarter of 2021 totaled $255.2 billion, up $26.9 (±0.8) billion from the after-tax profits of $228.4 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2021, and up $222.3 (±1.6) billion from the after-tax profits of $32.9 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2020.

Seasonally adjusted sales for the quarter totaled $1,800.5 billion, up $72.1 (±8.0) billion from the $1,728.4 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2021, and up $499.5 (±25.1) billion from the $1,301.0 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2020.

Much like retail, manufacturing profits are also significantly higher than they were at the end of last year.

The overall economy also has seen a sizable rise in profits at the start of 2021, as shown in the most recent GDP report.

Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $234.5 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $123.9 billion in the first quarter.

That’s a record-high level of profits, coming 1 year after a quick, sharp decline when COVID first broke out in early 2020. The drop was only for 1 quarter, and profits have gone up ever since.

So companies certainly have money available, and it is likely that many of these companies received some kind of assistance to get through the economic and health crises of 2020. The least these guys can do is to invest more in their workers and grow their businesses.

And why should these corporations continue to have their profit-hoarding rewarded via lower tax rates through the GOP Tax Scam? Getting some of those Tax Scam giveaways reversed seems like an obvious move at this point, and given that those taxes can be plowed into infrastructure and added services, it would be likely that many of these companies would benefit from the added business that would result from the bills going through Congress.

Getting back some of those excess profits would start to rebalance our economy and keep our recovery going, which seems especially important if COVID's resurgence starts to leading to job losses. Particularly since those losses would likely affect lower-wage, non-office workers and smaller businesses.

Tell me what I’m missing on this one? Not only is increased taxing of corporate profits good economic policy, bringing up the FACT that these corporations are pulling in fat profits in 2021 while millions of jobs have yet to come back is winning politics. And it reallocates some of the excessive gains that corporations have pulled in over the last year of the COVID World.

PS- On a related note, maybe one area we can beef up our infrastructure on is enforcement of our tax laws.

The wealthiest 1% of Americans are evading as much as $163 billion a year in taxes, according to a new Treasury Department report.

The analysis comes as the Biden administration pushes lawmakers to beef up the IRS's enforcement efforts. https://t.co/LMq8CfYZcm

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 8, 2021

Jobs report shows some COVID softening. But September will tell us if it's a blip, or if it spreads

Friday gave us the US jobs report for August, and after 3 months of big gains, there was a significant leveling off last month.

America's jobs recovery hit a major roadblock in August as the Delta variant threatened the labor market recovery, and the US economy added far fewer jobs than expected.

Only 235,000 jobs were added back to the economy last month, the lowest number since January, vastly missing economists' expectations.

"Delta is reducing consumer demand and threatening the reopening," said Glassdoor Senior Economist Daniel Zhao. "Ultimately it's just a harsh reminder that the pandemic has control of our destiny," he told CNN Business.

And as expanded unemployment benefits expire, it's worth noting on this Labor Day that we are still 4.5 million private sector jobs below our pre-COVID peak, and have 5.3 million fewer jobs overall.

So there's still a gap there. However, I wonder how big that potential gap really is, because the household survey part of the jobs report was pretty positive. Not only did the unemployment rate drop from 5.4% to 5.2%, but it was for the "good reasons" - more people fiunding jobs, and more people looking for work.

Household Survey, August 2021
Labor Force +190,000
Employed +508,000
Unemployed -318,000

And if you dig into the actual jobs report, does it really seem that bad? The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that the previous 2 months were revised up by a total of 134,000, so the 3-month average is still at 750,000 new jobs a month. Beyond cynical GOP messaging, I think the negativity comes from people looking to see if the COVID spike drags down everything else, to see if we are on the verge of an economic slowdown.

We have yet to see any real COVID effect in the amount of layoffs, as new unemployment claims have continued to fall, hittimg another pandemic-era low last week. But it does seem like hiring hit a wall in some industries, especially in industries reliant on face-to-face, in-person contact where people go out to spend.

Employment in retail trade declined by 29,000 in August, with losses in food and beverage stores (-23,000) and in building material and garden supply stores (-13,000). Retail trade employment is down by 285,000 since February 2020.

In August, employment in leisure and hospitality was unchanged, after increasing by an average of 350,000 per month over the prior 6 months. In August, a job gain in arts, entertainment, and recreation (+36,000) was more than offset by a loss in food services and drinking places (-42,000). Employment in leisure and hospitality is down by 1.7 million, or 10.0 percent, since February 2020.

And that’s not a seasonal adjustment item, as that adjustment counts on some jobs being shed in those industries in August. Which means the loss of jobs in those areas were more than normal, so I’m wondering if there were a lot of quits in those industries as COVID spiked back up. We'll have to wait until the JOLTS report later in the month to see if that is the case.

The entertainment industry's gains are intriguing, showing that live shows and sports were still operating "business as usual" last month (and still seem to be today). But the setbacks in accomodations and bars/restaurants are a warning signal, as both of those industries still are operating at employment levels well below their pre-COVID peaks, and both suffered last winter when COVID was at its worst.

A big positive in the jobs report came in manufacturing (+37,000), continuing a recovery in that industry that has seen it gain back 157,000 jobs in the last 4 months. On the flip side, (seasonally adjusted) construction employment peaked with a warm and optimistic March, and has drifted lower since then, especially in non-residential parts of the sector.

Sure seems like we could use an infrastructure package to get that flagging construction sector going, eh?

As mentioned above, I want to see more data on the spending side of things to see if COVID is downshifting the economy as a whole. Logically it should be, because when you have that many people going out of commission (and some ending up dead), it has to drop demand in some way. And with Fall looming, COVID needs to be put under control fast, or else we will see shifts in spending that lead to another dead season in many service industries. And a need to have government support those industries if they don't want to see a repeat of last Winter's closures and job losses.

Feels like developments in September, both by policymakers DC and in the decisions of everyday Americans, is going to go a long way toward letting us know if August was an odd on-emonth blip, or the sign of COVID-induced stagnation that sticks with us for the rest of 2021. Or longer.

Wisconsin now has even more money to play with

We already knew that there was a lot of money in the State of Wisconsin’s bank account, but we found out today that we have even more.

State tax collections continued to exceed expectations in the 2020-21 fiscal year as the state took in $319 million more than what the Legislative Fiscal Bureau had projected just two months ago.

In June, LFB had anticipated $19.25 billion in general fund tax collections in the second year of the budget. Instead, tax collections came in at nearly $19.6 billion.

LFB Director Bob Lang said the bump was due to two factors. One factor was corporate tax collections came in higher than expected after businesses made their estimated payments at the end of June before the fiscal year closed. The second was a better handle on sales tax collections for the fiscal year after additional reports from retailers.

It continued a run of higher-than-expected revenues for the fiscal year despite the COVID-19 pandemic. When the budget was signed in July 2019, LFB projected the state would take in more than $17.6 billion during 2020-21. Instead, LFB’s preliminary tally of tax collections came in at nearly $19.6 billion.

Not all of that extra money will be able to spent, as the Legislative Fiscal Bureau noted that the state’s rainy day fund is going to get a major boost.

Under s. 16.518 of the statutes, half of any excess of actual general fund tax collections in a fiscal year over the amount estimated at the time of enactment of the biennial budget must be deposited into the budget stabilization fund at the close of the fiscal year. Under this provision, it is estimated that, for 2020-21, $967.4 million will be transferred to the budget stabilization fund.

This means that the rainy day fund will have nearly $1.73 billion in it and earning interest, for whenever it needs to be used. The rainy day fund is now so big that the state actually won't be able to put any more money into it, even if revenues come in high in the future.

Yes. Automatic trigger cuts off after rainy day fund balance hits 5% of budgeted expenditures for fiscal year. Will be at nearly 9%.

— JR Ross (@jrrosswrites) September 2, 2021

Even with the huge rainy day fund deposit, there still is a lot of money carried over into the 2021-23 budget that started on July 1, leaving a lot of cushion to deal with whatever needs or wants might come up in the next 2-4 years.

This also means that there could be more taxing and spending decisions to be made ahead of the 2022 elections, if we choose it to be. Dem Assembly Leader Gordon Hintz is certainly hoping there is more to be done in terms of funding public schools.

“It is remarkable that with continued strong economic news the Republican Legislature could add almost zero new funding for K-12 public school classrooms. Today’s news should serve as another opportunity to invest in our future at a time of increased need so local school districts are not forced to make cuts or ask voters to raise property taxes.”

There’s certainly enough money around to put in a dent in the more than $5 billion in property taxes that go into K-12 public schools, and to restructure the way we fund schools in general. And it would be a reform that I think many Wisconsinites would be in favor of.

The best part is that we don’t need to raise state taxes in any way to do this, and we can lay the groundwork for a strong debate and message on the issue beyond “fund schools more” (even though that needs to be done as well). I would hope Gov Evers and the Legislature don’t waste the next 14 months campaigning when they can actually put the billions we have to good use.

Reality: Social Security/Medicare is fine, and can be even better. If we choose to

Earlier this week, we received the annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees report. This report is always worth following, as it gives the future projections for 2 programs that a whole lot of Americans count on.

But that was especially true after the craziness of 2020, with a record number of deaths and a major loss of jobs, and the Trustees' report says that caused some changes in the outlook.

The data and projections presented include the Trustees’ best estimates of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 recession, which were not reflected in last year’s reports. The finances of both programs have been significantly affected by the pandemic and the recession of 2020. Employment, earnings, interest rates, and GDP dropped substantially in the second calendar quarter of 2020 and are assumed to rise gradually thereafter toward full recovery by 2023, with the level of worker productivity and thus GDP assumed to be permanently lowered by 1 percent even as they are projected to resume their pre-pandemic trajectories. In addition, the Trustees also project elevated mortality rates related to the pandemic through 2023 (15 percent for those over age 15 in 2021, declining to 1 percent by 2023) as well as reductions in immigration and childbearing in 2021-22 from the levels projected in the 2020 reports, with compensating increases a few years later. These alterations to near-term data and assumptions all significantly impact the outlook of the programs.

The upshot of this is that Social Security – which is actually the 2 programs of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) – isn’t going to be able to pay for all its benefits on its own in the year I turn 60.

• The OASI and DI funds are separate entities under law. The report also presents information that combines the reserves of these two funds in order to illustrate the actuarial status of the Social Security program as a whole. The hypothetical combined OASI and DI funds would be able to pay scheduled benefits on a timely basis until 2034, one year earlier than reported last year. At that time, the combined funds’ reserves will become depleted and continuing tax income will be sufficient to pay 78 percent of scheduled benefits.

This led to ineivtable headlines and stories in corporate media that went like this.

The Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will now be depleted in 2033, a year earlier than previously projected, according to the report. At that time, the trust fund will run out of reserves and the program will be insolvent, with new tax revenues failing to cover scheduled payments. The report estimated that 76 percent of scheduled benefits will be able to be paid out unless Congress changes the rules to allow full payouts.

Well if the New York Times says Social Security will be "insolvent" in 12 years (well, 13 if you combine it with Disability), then PANIC!!!

Except no government program is "insolvent", and especially not Social Security. If the Social Security Trust Funds don’t pay for themselves, then benefits can still be paid for in the same way we pay for a lot of other items from Washington these days – by borrowing for them. Or we can avoid by borrowing by making the rich pay the same percentage of their payroll as most of us pay (because there is no Social Security payroll tax after someone reaches $142,800 of earnings). Or a number of other fixes.

On the Medicare side, one part is going to need to start borrowing in 5 years, but other areas have no problems paying out benefits whatsoever.

• The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, or Medicare Part A, which helps pay for services such as inpatient hospital care, will be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2026, the same year as reported last year. At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing total program income will be sufficient to pay 91 percent of total scheduled benefits.

• The Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund has two accounts: Part B, which helps pay for services such as physician and outpatient hospital care, and Part D, which covers prescription drug benefits. SMI is adequately financed into the indefinite future because current law provides financing from general revenues and beneficiary premiums each year to meet the next year’s expected costs. Due to these funding provisions and the rapid growth of its costs, SMI will place steadily increasing demands on both taxpayers and beneficiaries.

If you drill down into 2020 in particular, you will see that both “regular” Social Security and Disability were almost dead-even between money coming in and money going out. But Hospital Insurance had a $60 billion deficit, while Medicare Parts B and D ended with a solid $34.8 billion surplus.

As the chart above showed, the growth of the Trust Fund hasn't been keeping up with the increases in cost for Social Security since 2010. But the Trustees go on to say that 2021 is now slated to be the first year where Social Security will spend more in benefits than in makes in its various sources of income, which means the total amount of reserves will start to fall from its current level of $2.9 trillion.

But make no mistake, there is no “crisis” in funding for Social Security or Medicare. These programs can continue to pay for its current benefits and even pay for more services or serve more people if we choose to. As the current Chair of the Senate Budget Committee reminds us in a clip that may be a decade old, but is still as relevant as ever.

Indeed, one of the big items that the “big infrastructure” bill that Bernie is talking up these days allows Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing services for seniors. All it takes is a small tax increase on the rich and/or corporate, either through payroll taxes or regular income taxes, and these needs and many others can be taken care of.

We also could use the savings from other programs that are being phased down and/or out in the coming years. After all, do we really need $700 billion+ a year going to our Defense Department if we’re (rightfully) going to get out of the business of nation-building in foreign lands?

These popular, common-sense solutions to the funding “issues” for Social Security and Medicare is likely why there is a massive lobbying effort going on by the US Chamber of Commerce and other oligarchs organizations to try to keep that from happening. Because the last thing those greedheads want is for Americans to have financial security and not have to be beholden to lousy jobs with bad benefits and little pay.

But after the last year, where we saw how COVID relief kept us from falling into a massive depression despite record unemployment, and how people realized that they didn’t have to settle for poverty wages and a substandard quality of life, I’m not thinking that Koched-up talking points about cutting Social Security/Medicare are going to be accepted by many voters. And saving or (even better) beefing up Social Security and Medicare should be a central line of attack by Dems against Koched-up GOPs going into 2022.