Tuesday Edition: Eyes on Chicago
Plus: Dems try to close the patriotism gap.
Bubba
20 Aug
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1. All Eyes on Chicago
The Democratic National Convention is underway in Chicago, a Dem stronghold, and it’s leading to heightened scrutiny of the Windy City. (Fox News)
The latest: Chicago businesses boarded up ahead of the DNC due to concerns over potential protests and unrest.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has 150 National Guard members on standby in case protests escalate.
Over 300 police officers from Illinois and Milwaukee have been deputized to assist with security.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, welcomed protesters, emphasizing their right to free speech.
Zoom out: Chicago’s had its fair share of structural and systemic problems in recent decades, which Republicans blame on Democratic government mismanagement.
Crime: While homicides are down slightly this year, the city still struggles with a crime rate much higher than the national average.
This past weekend, 30 people were shot, 5 fatally, across the city.
Debt: A recent analysis found that nearly half of Chicago’s budget goes to debt and pensions, leaving less for essential services.
Chicago's debt totals almost $40 billion ($43,000 per taxpayer) and debt from the state of Illinois adds another $42,000 per taxpayer.
Chicago has the highest sales tax of all the major cities at 10.25%, and combined city and state taxes consume over 12% of a median family income.
Population: The city’s population has dropped for nine straight years, and fell to 1920s levels last year.
Bubba’s Two Cents
It’s hard not to read some symbolism into Dems choosing Chicago, which has hosted more DNCs than any other city, for their convention this year. Democrats could’ve gone with Atlanta, which lobbied hard for a chance to host the convention and sits in a crucial swing state. Instead they’ve chosen a city with a “deep history of left-wing radicalism” and the site of the violent DNC protests of 1968. With all of America watching, and Kamala Harris attempting to assure voters she’s no progressive radical, is this sending the wrong message?
2. Closing the Patriotism Gap
Democrats are trying to shed their image as the less patriotic of the two major parties. (NYT)
New York Times senior writer David Leonhardt:
Harris has devoted much of her early campaign to narrowing both her party’s toughness and patriotism deficits.
Her stump speech is organized around the idea of fighting for “the promise of America,” and she has made clear that she’s willing to take on both the far left and far right. She excoriated Gaza protesters for burning a U.S. flag. She and Walz also cast themselves as defenders of liberty against Republicans who threaten it, especially on abortion rights. As my colleague Katie Glueck wrote, “Using traditionally right-leaning words and phrasing, they are portraying themselves as the true champions of universal American values.”
Harris at a rally in Philadelphia earlier this month:
We love our country and I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country.
The trend: There is a real divide on patriotism between the two parties, especially when it comes to college-educated Dems, who make up a large and growing share of the party.
65% of Democrats consider themselves "very or somewhat patriotic,” compared to 92% of Republicans, per recent YouGov polling.
While 59% of Republicans are "extremely proud to be American," only 34% of Democrats say the same.
Unsurprisingly, Americans are much more likely to associate the GOP with patriotism.
Chart: The New York Times
Two cents from journalist Michael Cooper, who wrote about patriotism in a new essay for The Liberal Patriot:
Democrats are more likely to believe that America’s best days are still ahead of us. That’s good. But they often have a hard time connecting a vision for the future with the best ideals of our past. That’s an incomplete message. That’s not a full narrative. …
It’s good that we are finally coming to terms with our past as a nation. But criticism will only get you so far as a nation. The American people need to believe in who we are and what we’re doing here.
3. The Cost of Regulations
Donald Trump has made deregulation a major part of his policy platform as studies show burdensome regulations can inflict substantial costs on American businesses and workers. (NYT)
The agenda: Trump has vowed to roll back the Biden administration’s electric vehicle initiatives, as well as restrictions on oil production.
As president, Trump dismantled more than 100 environmental rules.
A recent Committee to Unleash Prosperity study: The Biden-Harris administration is expected to add $47,000 in costs to the average household through new regulations, nearly double what Barack Obama added in his first term.
Zoom out: According to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, it costs U.S. businesses roughly $300 billion a year to comply with federal regulations.
A study by the National Association of Manufacturers found federal regulations in 2022 cost an estimated $3.079 trillion (in 2023 dollars), or 12% of U.S. GDP.
The same study determined the cost of complying with federal regulations has increased by $465 billion annually since 2012.
A 2023 study found the average U.S. firm spends between 1.3% and 3.3% of its total wage bill on regulatory compliance.
Bubba’s Two Cents
Trump is … let’s call it “flexible” on a lot of topics and policy areas, but deregulation is one issue where he’s been remarkably consistent. The guy clearly does not like red tape. We can quibble over how effective his deregulatory efforts were while he was in office, but bottom line this is a pretty clear policy difference between him and Kamala Harris.
4. We’re Getting Scammed
Scams on elderly Americans have skyrocketed. (Bloomberg)
Chart: Bloomberg
The latest: Financial fraud targeting elderly Americans is surging, with annual losses for people over 60 increasing by 255% to $3.4 billion in the past three years, according to FBI data.
The median savings of households aged 60 to 79 is over $400,000.
The trend: Consumer losses for fraud have increased across the board, rising 14% between 2022 and 2023, according to the FTC.
The biggest losses came from investment scams, totaling over $4.6 billion, a 21% increase from 2022.
Consumers lost more money to bank transfers and cryptocurrency scams than any other method combined in 2023.
Related: Trust in banks and financial institutions has been on the decline.
Only 10% of U.S. adults have high confidence in banks and financial institutions, down from 22% in 2020, per an AP-NORC poll from last year.
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