Leaders need to show courage

When economic news is good politicians love to congratulate themselves and their party and when economic news is bad, blame others and the other party.

Politics plays a part in the economy but only moderately so. There are quite a lot of variables besides politics involved with inflation. Milton Friedman, the Nobel economist, felt the most important one was the money supply- the more money released in the economy, the less it is worth and vice versa.

This is way too simplistic a partial explanation for inflation. In the past 5 years, we have had a huge tax cut (the Republicans) and a huge increase in spending (Democrats) both of which significantly increase the money in circulation in the economy. There has been zero activity to counter this — namely increase taxes and decreases spending which decreases money in the economy. To do this requires courage on the part of politicians, which is extremely rare. What politician wants to tell their constituents they must pay more for less?

In the past years I have only seen two politicians step up his time in the courage department. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who cut his own parties huge welfare bill almost in half, and republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who similarly stood up against her own cowardly party by putting truth, justice and our constitution ahead of her own political career. Both are profiles in courage that JFK as a senator in the 1950s wrote about.

Marcus Lehmann

Spokane