Happy January Rapp Up! readers. It is supposed to be winter, so we are starting off with a picture of a lovely local snow scene from… last year. If only our politics looked this calm! Unfortunately, our newspapers aren’t so calm — they are full this week of two issues that might seem to you like politicians just being politicians.

Actually, however, those issues - the national debt ceiling debate and the Governor’s scuttling of a potential Virginia site for Ford’s battery plant —matter very much to the rest of us. And that is why this newsletter will take a deeper dive into what is really at stake.

So read on, please share with your friends, and if you haven’t yet done so, please subscribe.

You are hearing a lot about the national debt ceiling right now. You may think that’s just politicians talking and it doesn’t matter to you.  But in fact, it could really affect programs that matter to you and your family, like Social Security and Medicare, and cause you great financial harm. A prolonged impasse over the debt ceiling could wipe out millions of jobs — and as much as $15 trillion in household wealth.

Republicans argue that the debt is so large that drastic measures must be taken to cut it. They do have a point. It is too large and it does need to be reduced.   

Republicans, however, also want you to believe that the Democrats created the debt. Not so much. In fact, the national debt exploded by 40% under Trump! That’s $8 trillion of added debt – and the Republicans voted for all of it. In fact, in the post-war era, the two largest % increases in the national debt have been under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. So why have the Republicans in Congress suddenly decided now that the debt is such a problem? 

That said, there are a couple of ways to responsibly reduce the deficit.  One is to eliminate the huge tax cuts that Trump gave big corporations and the wealthy. Those tax cuts are a major reason why the rich are earning record profits. The radical right, however, wants the wealthy to keep all of those tax cuts. They have argued for decades that cutting taxes improves the economy.

In fact, the exact opposite has been the case, as wealth is more and more concentrated at the top, and the “trickle down” they have argued for has just not materialized. Not only that, but they want to gut the IRS so that wealthy deadbeats can avoid paying their fair share of taxes!  

So how does the right want to reducing the debt? By cutting deeply into everything the government does for the rest of us. In fact, their plans would certainly cut or radically change Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as hundreds of programs that make our country work for regular Americans. 

And if Democrats (and more moderate Republicans) don’t agree? Well, the radical right says it is ready to use the debt ceiling to force the government to stop paying its bills.  Political blackmail. Do you feel like you have heard this story before?  Well, you did. Twice before, under Clinton and Obama (Democratic presidents of course), the Republicans actually shut the government down. And, you may remember, it was a complete mess.  

There is a better way: reduce the debt gradually, in a way that does not create havoc in the essential government programs that support working Americans. This is completely doable.  

One other thing you can be sure of: Republican politicians are going to be fund-raising off of their supposed fiscal conservatism. So if they reach out to you asking for money, just ask them: If you are so opposed to debt, why did Republicans vote for $8 billion of it under Trump? And why do you want working people to bear the brunt of debt reduction, not the wealthy? Good questions.

To learn more, check out these links:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article266851596.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-15/republicans-wont-budge-on-spending-cuts-to-boost-debt-ceiling-james-comer?sref=30wknaRo

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/analysis-what-is-the-debt-ceiling

Saying no to 2,500 jobs & new technology …what was our Governor thinking?

You have probably heard this story by now. Governor Youngkin pulled Virginia out of consideration for Ford’s $3.5 billion plan to build, with a Chinese partner, a massive new lithium battery plant that would have brought not only 2,500 jobs to Virginia but also access to cutting edge technology.

Such a facility could be “a generational game-changer” for parts of rural Virginia looking to reestablish lost manufacturing jobs, says Del. David Reid (D-Loudoun), former chairman and current member of the Virginia Manufacturing Development Commission. “And is there any better example of an all-American brand than Ford?” 

So what was the Governor thinking? His stated reason was that he didn’t want to “recruit Ford as a front for China to America.” Wow, that sounds like the Governor thinks that the executives at Ford are stupid. In fact, however, Ford knows exactly what it is doing: it is investing in a big way in an electric vehicle future, but it knows that the best battery technology in the world is with the Chinese company it chose to partner with. So this partnership is Ford’s — and its workers’ — chance to catch up on the technology.

And that is why Ford is going to build this plant anyway. Just not in Virginia. In fact, Michigan is ecstatic about Virginia’s withdrawal from consideration. Michigan understands the value of being an early leader in a global electric vehicle battery market projected to grow from $56.4 billion in 2022 to $134.6 billion by 2027. It knows that the states who get in on the ground floor of a new technology are likely to keep their advantage. That’s a lot of future investment and jobs — that are now less likely to come to Virginia.

Of course, some of the Governor’s constituents will be happy - those who think electric vehicles are just a liberal boondoggle and would rather see new investments in coal or some other dying industry. And others will like the idea of bashing China. In fact it may be no coincidence that this decision came on the heels of recent China-bashing statements by other governors jostling for the 2024 Republican nomination for president - Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texan Greg Abbott. 

Of course, being tough on China is one thing that we can all agree on. But not blindly. Not in a way that hurts Virginia workers more than the Chinese. That might be good politics in the short run, but it’s sure not good for Virginia in the long run.

To learn more, check out these links:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-ev-battery-market-report-204500871.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/youngkin-says-he-blocked-ford-battery-plant-on-china-concerns/ar-AA16jVjH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CATL

https://cardinalnews.org/2023/01/20/virginia-is-in-a-race-with-other-states-to-land-electric-vehicle-battery-plants/