Ethan: How’s your summer been?
Phil: Very nice, actually. Balancing work, golf, fishing and time with the family. The stock market has not been friendly to those of us in the financial planning business, and a close college friend passed recently, so that was hard. But a good reminder to enjoy every day. Life is short. How about you?
Ethan: Also nice. Started doing some work for MoveOn.org trying to help them protect the planet from the return of Donald Trump, so it has been busy. But I too have tried to spend some time with loved ones. My partner Stephanie has had her kids in town, so that is always fun. But no fishing.
Phil: Did you want to talk about great summers this week or something substantive? It’s very unlike you to avoid bloviating about the big issues of the week.
Ethan: I know. But in this climate-change-induced, Republican-perpetuated, heat wave, who wants to talk politics? Unless of course we wanted to talk about the great summer Joe Biden is also having! Gas prices down 86 cents a gallon. Over half a million jobs created last month, on top of the almost 400,000 created in June. A climate change and inflation reduction package passed through the U.S. Senate. And Ayman al Zawahri was taken out. Can you feel that red wave receding back into the Red Sea?
Phil: Nice spin. Your Moveon.org training has prepared you well to proclaim victory for a “drop” in gas prices to a level that is still a buck and a half higher than it was when Biden took office. Glad to see the jobs report, however, with two quarters of negative growth, I see a recession looming. And somehow you think Congress passing a huge tax increase, while accelerating debt, makes voters happy? Your advocacy reminds me of President Lydon’s Johnson’s Great Society when he convinced Congress that all we have to do is spend massive amounts of money and empower more government workers to regulate the economy, and this would end poverty in America. Here we are nearly 60 years later…
Ethan: This won’t be as good as what Johnson passed, but lower drug costs, a cleaner planet, and reducing inflation is a winning platform. So, how are you feeling about that red wave you’ve been predicting?
Phil: As optimistic as before. The U.S. House looks to be on lockdown for Republicans and while the Senate is more of a tossup, the economic numbers you try to pretend favor Biden, are not what most Americans feel.
Ethan: You’re gonna need a straight flush to hold the Senate. The open seat in Pennsylvania is flipping. Your incumbent in Wisconsin is hanging on for dear life. And Georgia gets better every day as perhaps the greatest college football player ever, Herschel Walker, shows why he was never quite as good when he got to the big leagues.
Phil: Even if you are right, transferring the House to the Republicans will prevent the liberal agenda from advancing because Biden needs both chambers to pass a law. Our Constitution meant it that way in order to limit federal power and strengthen state power, where citizens are closer to their rulers.
Ethan: How’s that working out for you? Abdicating federal power means millions of women are about to lose access to abortion and control over their own bodies.
Phil: As the people of Kansas showed us, the states can do the right thing.
Ethan: Oh yeah, another good reminder why the red wave is receding. No one wants to join the Republicans in going back to the 1950s.