News Story of the Day: Social Security benefits are expected to get an increase next year, according to the Senior Citizens League.
The group estimates that SS will likely get a 1.6% cost-of-living adjustment in 2020, down from the 2.8% boost in 2019.
This will represent roughly $23.40 per month, down from $40.90 this year.
The COLA is scheduled to be officially announced in October.
Chart of the Day: Has gold reached its peak? CNBC’s Jim Cramer suggests it has. But that is nonsense – it’s only going to go higher in the future.
Illustration of the Day: With the (thank god!) firing of John Bolton, somebody decided to make this illustration that merges Michael Bolton and John Bolton. Freakin’ hilarious!
Quote of the Day: Recently, we posted a clip of the similar positions on trade between the Democrats and President Donald Trump. The primary debate on Thursday night showed that both sides are the same on this issue. Reason wrote about this concerning trend:
First, they likely assume that polls showing that Democratic voters favor trade can be ignored without negative consequences. Those poll numbers are driven at least in part by negative partisanship—if a Republican president is being protectionist, Democratic voters say they want the opposite—rather than deeply held convictions. In other words, the Democrats are betting that being the not-Trump candidate in the general election probably carries more weight with those newly pro-trade Democratic voters than any specific stances on trade issues.
Second, Democrats hoping to unseat Trump probably see the Rust Belt as key to winning a close election, since that’s how Trump narrowly won the White House in 2016. They may think that taking an unabashedly pro-trade stance would give Trump another opportunity to rouse support from disaffected factory workers, and would allow the president to demagogue against trade as being a threat to American industry. But Trump is likely to do that anyway, no matter how much protectionism his general election opponent promises. Indeed, he’s already started doing it
Finally, there is Trump’s scrambling of traditional political alignments. Republicans did flirt with protectionism under both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, but the GOP has generally been a more pro-trade party in recent decades than the Democratic Party. Warren might be ramping things up to a higher level, but hearing a leading Democrat call for restricting trade based on environmental and labor standards in other countries is far more ordinary than having a Republican president who so openly disdains global trade.
Trump has stolen the Democratic playbook on this issue, and that has left the left scrambling to figure out how to respond. Thursday night made clear that the leading candidates still have work to do.
Tweet of the Day: One of the most annoying things about the Democratic primaries so far is that all the candidates have some sort of phrase to stall for time that allows them to think. For Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), it’s “Let’s be clear.” For former Vice President Joe Biden it’s “The factor of the matter.” There’s a bunch of others.
During debate night, Liberty Nation had this funny tweet:
Every candidate on the #DemDebate stage (courtesy of Graham Noble): “Thank you for asking that great question. I’m glad you did. Let’s be clear: The fact of the matter is … “#DemocraticDebate
— Liberty Nation (@libertynation) September 13, 2019
Video of the Day: The Washington Free Beacon also put together a supercuts of the Democrats’ key mantra:
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