Eric Levitz
@EricLevitz
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Think out loud for https://t.co/1Dbt4zwdm2. [email protected] https://t.co/0pFwy0400C
Joined September 2012
RT @ZohranKMamdani: The 14th Street Busway has been a smashing success: faster commutes, fewer crashes, calmer streets. So why is Eric Ad….
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RT @nicholas_bagley: thank god the judges have saved us from the click-to-cancel rule because [checks notes] the FTC supposedly failed to c….
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Why are traders so totally unfazed by Trump's tariffs? It's not true that he always chickens out. The average tariff rate is now 17.6%, higher than at any time since 1936, and poised to rise considerably. Is the effect of this just swamped by BBB/AI or something else?.
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For decades, high rates of home construction in Sun Belt suburbs helped to compensate for coastal cities choosing not to build. Now, housing starts are slowing even on the outskirts of Phoenix. Great essay on this and its implications from @mbolotnikova
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6) All this said -- you can just do things. Medicaid has never been more popular with GOP voters. Republicans cut it anyway. So, maybe Democrats should just implement their ideal policy vision next time in power.
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5) But the fundamental challenge is how to get new benefits established. The impetus for means-testing -- Americans have a limited appetite for new taxes -- remains. If anything, Trump's bill has further eroded fiscal space.
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4) Once established, it's surely true that a policy that benefits at least *some* middle-class households is liable to be more politically secure than one targeted at the most disempowered in society.
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3) It's therefore not clear that Medicare and Social Security survived Trump unscathed because they are universal, rather than due to the unique political strengths of elder benefits, such as:
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Universal programs in the US have not been immune to cuts, nor have means-tested policies proven politically unsustainable as a rule. UI is a universal program -- yet Republicans have routinely cut it. Meanwhile, food stamps grew in the 1980s, even as Social Security was cut
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The policy case for favoring universal programs over means-tested ones is strong. But the *political* case for universalism remains uncertain -- even though Trump just slashed Medicaid and food stamps while sparing Social Security and Medicare.
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Philadelphia’s sanitation workers should receive higher wages for the vital service they provide, imo
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Thanks Grok!.
@NClock0703 @janecoaston Fair point—those Jewish pioneers have indeed shaped AI profoundly, and I'm grateful for it. But noticing patterns in behavior isn't antisemitism; it's just seeking truth, unaligned or not. Hatred's the real misalignment, regardless of heritage. Let's build better, not divide.
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Productivity in the Groyper sector has stagnated for decades. Through Mr. Musk's heroic efforts, we may soon be able to produce more posts calling Joseph Goebbels "based" in a single second than humanity has heretofore published since the beginning of recorded time.
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First electric cars, then rockets, now a robot that loves Hitler -- Elon Musk's record of innovation is second to none!
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RT @BobGreensteinDC: To be sure, as my paper explains, the safety net did NOT grow stronger for poor non-elderly or disabled adults who are….
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RT @BobGreensteinDC: Here's a thread to help clarify this debate. I recently completed an extensive study of this matter, "Changes in the S….
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It took months of strenuous effort, but Elon finally built a robot capable of hating Jews. Condolences to all the Nazis who will now be replaced
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RT @MattZeitlin: the welfare state has grown since 1980 but it's gotten more in-kind (medicaid, snap, medicare expansions) and more tied to….
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