Remember the old GOP? How they used to talk about trickle down economics and keeping government out of the private sector?
Yes, that GOP, the party for whom it would have been unthinkable to raise taxes on private citizens just for a Fox News photo-op?
Well, those days are over.
Publicity stunts at the expense of their states’ (and the country’s) taxpayers are now an unfortunate trend for a GOP that’s slinking steadily toward authoritarianism. Just ask taxpayers in Florida’s Orange and Osceola Counties, where Governor Ron DeSantis’s public feud with the Disney corporation is expected to increase property taxes for local residents by nearly 20%. Or, let’s check in with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and see how his public clown-show at the US/Mexico border is going.
(If you need a refresher on this particular GOP clown-show, look no further than: )
Abbott is seeking a third term as Texas Governor after the previous eight years of his leadership delivered for Texans such hits as multiple epic failures of the power grid during climate catastrophes, reduced access to healthcare for rural Texans at the height of the pandemic, and reduced internet access for Texas’s rural poor. So one might think, in an election year, he’d have incentive to address some of the issues facing Texans today.
Nope!
Not in the era of Fox News, with a Republican voting base that’s so siloed in its propaganda feedback loop it actually believes Trump’s Big Lie.
Instead, he’s dunking on the libs by disingenuously claiming that President Biden is to blame for inflation while personally costing Texas businesses and consumers an estimated $4.2 billion in Gross Domestic Product.
That’s right. According to the Laredo Morning Times, Abbott’s blockade and inspection of commercial trucks at the border “resulted in zero migrants detentions or illegal drug seizures, despite allegedly costing the Lone Star State billions of dollars.”
What it has resulted in is millions upon millions of dollars worth of spoiled produce. Quoted by Business Insider, “Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, told CNN that fruit and vegetable losses added up to over $240 million and that buyers across the country can expect rising prices as producers try to regain some of those losses. “It’s a bad time to be adding this to consumers’ pockets to pay out their pocketbook,” Jungmeyer said.”
So let’s call this stunt for what it is: a plain sight effort to hurt the American economy so he and his fellow Fox News Republicans can spend the Midterms blaming Biden and Democrats for inflation.