Friday, August 30, 2024
About 231,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed about 231,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on August 24th. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending August 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 231,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 232,000 to 233,000. The 4-week moving average was 231,500, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 236,000 to 236,250.
Note To Allred: Don't Neglect To Campaign In The Red Areas
The Harris/Walz campaign is doing something I like a lot. They are taking their campaign to the red areas of Georgia - and they plan to do the same thing in other states. That's smart. Even if they can't win those red areas, they can reduce Trump's margin in them (and that might allow them to win statewide).
I think Democrat Colin Allred should do the same thing in his race for the Senate in Texas.
Texas' largest 15 counties contain about 65% of the total votes in the state. And if the election was only in those 15 counties, Democrats would do very well. But Texas has 239 other counties, and most of them are bright red. While they only have about 35% of the vote, they normally give Republican a 30% to 40% vote margin. That huge margin gives the GOP the votes they need to overcome any deficit they might have in the large cities in the state - and it allows them to keep control of the state.
These red areas are mostly rural and they don't get a lot of visits (or attention) from politicians. Many just regard them as hopelessly owned by the Republican Party.
That's a mistake. There are a significant number of Democrats and Independents in those rural counties. While the Democrats can be counted on, the Independents should not be ignored. They could be courted to vote blue, but they need to be asked to do so - in person, not just in a TV ad. They need to be shown they are not discounted or forgotten. Right now, many of them stay home on Election Day because they don't believe anyone cares about them. That doesn't have to be!
Now you may be thinking that even if a Democrat campaigns in these areas they will still lose there. That may well be true. But a Democrat like Allred doesn't have to win in these areas. He just needs to cut into the GOP margin there - lowering it from 30% to 40% to about 15% to 20%. That might well be enough to stop the GOP from overcoming the Democratic advantage in urban areas - and give the Democrats a statewide win.
As someone who lived in a rural red county for many years, I believe the Democrats could help themselves there. But it can only be done by going there and asking for their votes.
Raising the Democratic margin in blue areas must be combined with reducing the Republican majority in red areas if Democrats are to win a statewide race in Texas.
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Trump Would Add More To The National Debt Than Harris
Republicans love to whine about the national debt when a Democrat is in office.
But they don't seem to care about it when a Republican is in office. They helped Trump pass a massive tax cut bill (most of which benefitted the rich and super-rich), ignoring the fact that it added over 3 trillion dollars to the national debt.
Now their chosen presidential candidate (Donald Trump) has an agenda that will add trillions more to the national debt, and they aren't talking about that at all. Trump wants to extend those tax cuts for the rich (which would add another 3.4 trillion dollars to the national debt) and has other proposals that would add hundreds of billions on top of that.
Kamala Harris has some proposals that would add to the debt, but she also has a proposal that would raise the tax on corporations and mitigate that.
Note the chart above (from Axios.com), that shows Trump would add far more to the national debt that Harris would.
Don't let a Republican tell you the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility. The opposite is true!
Latest YouGov Poll Gives Harris A 2-Point Lead Over Trump
The charts above reflect the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between August 25th and 27th of a nationwide sample of 1,368 registered voters, with a 3.2 point margin of error.
View Of Harris On Crime And The Economy Is Improving
The charts above reflect the results of the Reuters / Ipsos Poll -- done between August 23rd and 25th of a nationwide sample of 1,028 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.
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