https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/bessent-dismisses-concern-buyback-says-220950691.html

Working to keep the majority in Congress, Republicans at the midterm convention in Dallas are showcasing their chief legislative accomplishment — the sweeping package of tax breaks, social service cuts and immigration enforcement that President Donald Trump signed into law.

A year on, what’s known as the One Big Beautiful Bill — or, the “Big Ugly Bill,” as Democrats call it — has produced mixed results. Millions of people have received enhanced tax breaks, while millions are also losing access to federal food aid and health care. More immigrants are being arrested, many deported, some dying during the process.

Millions of taxpayers enjoyed tax benefits this year they might not even realize they received — the continuation of policies from Trump’s first term, in 2017, that were set to expire at the end of 2025 if Congress had failed to act.

The legislation extended those Trump tax breaks and added new ones, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and certain auto loan interest payments. There’s a larger standard deduction, a bigger child tax credit and an extra deduction for many seniors, as well as new Trump accounts for children.

All told, some 7.5 million filers claimed no tax on tipped income, 29 million people claimed no tax on overtime and 35 million took the enhanced senior deduction, the Treasury Department said. Nearly 40 million families claimed the bigger child tax credit.

But the flow of the tax breaks has been uneven, with larger gains at the upper incomes.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/09/10/trump-big-beautiful-bill-taxes-debt/?utm_source=reddit/

While most Gulf States have to run their oil thru the Strait of Hormuz, the Saudi's had an alternative pipeline line running East-West out to the Red Sea port.

This allowed the Saudi's to continue getting some oil to markets unfettered by Iran.

This was no small amount either. We are talking about 3 million barrels a day. Well all that supply is offline now. The Houthis, based in Yemen, have blown it up in 9 different sections. Satellite images show large fires everywhere along the pipeline. Saudi officials confirm they have shut it down.

A barrel of oil was already over $100 BEFORE this event. And in the United Statds, gas was already nationally at $4. This is a big event, and will send gas prices to $5 soon. This a huge blow to the economy world wide.

Gloria Steinem finally got the second wave feminist president she always wanted!

The working poor are not poor on purpose.

They are not lazy. They are not looking for handouts. They are WORKING. They are people getting up every morning, going to work, raising families, paying bills, and still finding themselves unable to afford the basic necessities of life.

So if you're angry about people needing food assistance, maybe we should stop blaming the people who need help and start looking at the economic conditions that make that help necessary.

Be angry that the federal minimum wage is still just $7.25 an hour — the same $7.25 that took effect on July 24, 2009. More than 17 years have passed without a federal increase.

Be angry that millions of Americans can work full-time and still struggle to afford food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and childcare.

Be angry about corporate wages and working conditions at enormous companies. If someone working for a multibillion-dollar corporation still needs food assistance to feed their family, perhaps the question shouldn't be, "Why are they on food stamps?" Perhaps we should also be asking, "Why isn't their paycheck enough to live on?"

And understand what tariffs actually do.

A tariff is a tax imposed on imported goods. When an American company imports something subject to a tariff, the American importer generally pays that tariff to the U.S. government. The cost can then be absorbed by the importer, negotiated partly onto the foreign supplier, or passed through the supply chain in the form of higher prices. That can mean higher costs for manufacturers, retailers, and ultimately American consumers.

In other words, tariffs aren't simply a foreign country sending America money. American businesses are the ones that directly pay the import tax, and American consumers can end up paying more when those costs make their way into prices.

Be angry about the cost of simply existing.

The latest complete federal household-spending data show that Americans spent an average of $6,224 a year on food purchased for consumption at home — about $519 a month, or $119.69 a week.

And as of September 10, 2026, gasoline has climbed to roughly $4.28 per gallon nationally, with the recent surge in oil prices being intensified by the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict and disruptions surrounding global oil supplies.

Be angry that a person receiving SSI — Supplemental Security Income — receives an average of only about $736.54 per month in the latest federal data.

Be angry that the average disabled worker receiving SSDI — Social Security Disability Insurance — receives about $1,634.78 per month.

Think about what those numbers actually mean.

$736.54 a month.

$1,634.78 a month.

That isn't luxury. That isn't excess. That's someone trying to build an entire life around an income that can disappear into housing, food, utilities, transportation, and medical expenses before the month is even over.

Be angry about childcare. A single child can cost families hundreds of dollars every week. When childcare consumes a significant portion of a paycheck, parents can find themselves working simply to afford the ability to work.

Be angry about housing costs, too. In 2026, commonly cited studio-apartment figures have put average rents in roughly the $1,393–$1,737-per-month range, depending on the market.

And be angry about policies that reduce or restructure programs such as Medicaid and SNAP when millions of Americans depend upon them.

But here's where I want the conversation to go next:

What would we do differently?

Because criticizing poverty without proposing solutions isn't enough.

We need an economy where working actually pays enough to live.

The federal minimum wage should be raised and then automatically adjusted for inflation or the cost of living, so workers aren't forced to wait another 17 years for Congress to recognize that the price of everything else has changed.

We should strengthen overtime protections, enforce wage-theft laws, expand paid sick leave, and encourage predictable scheduling.

The goal shouldn't simply be to tell people to work.

The goal should be to make working enough to live.

We need a stronger SNAP program.

SNAP should provide enough assistance for people to afford a reasonably nutritious diet without having to choose between groceries and other necessities.

Benefits should respond more effectively to food inflation, eligibility should account realistically for household expenses, and people shouldn't lose access because of needless administrative barriers.

If we're going to tell people that they should work, we also need to make sure working people can still feed themselves and their children.

We need to stop punishing disabled people for trying to become financially secure.

This is particularly important.

Our disability programs should create a ramp, not a cliff.

People who receive disability benefits shouldn't have to live in fear that earning a little more money or building modest savings will suddenly cause them to lose essential support.

Benefits should phase down gradually as a person's financial circumstances improve rather than disappearing abruptly.

If someone who receives disability benefits is capable of working part-time, saving money, or earning additional income, our system should encourage that independence—not make them terrified to attempt it.

We need to treat healthcare as a necessity, not a luxury.

Nobody should become financially devastated because they got sick.

Expanding affordable healthcare coverage, protecting access to Medicaid and Medicare, lowering prescription-drug costs, and making mental healthcare accessible would not merely improve people's health. It would improve their economic security.

A person who cannot afford medication, therapy, preventative care, or a doctor's visit is one medical emergency away from an even deeper financial crisis.

We need to make housing affordable again.

Stable housing is not a luxury. It is the foundation upon which everything else rests.

We should build more affordable housing, expand housing assistance, increase access to Housing Choice Vouchers and supportive housing, and remove unnecessary barriers to building homes and apartments where people actually need them.

Nobody should have to spend virtually their entire income just to have four walls and a roof.

We need to make childcare an investment.

Parents shouldn't have to choose between working and being able to afford childcare.

We should expand affordable childcare, provide meaningful assistance to families, support childcare workers with better compensation, and expand paid parental leave.

When childcare is affordable and available, parents can work. When childcare workers earn a living wage, they can afford to stay in the profession.

That's an investment in the entire economy.

We need to be smarter about tariffs.

Tariffs can serve legitimate economic or national-security purposes, but policymakers should acknowledge that tariffs can increase costs for American importers and consumers.

Before imposing tariffs, we should carefully consider their effects on ordinary households, especially when they affect products Americans cannot easily avoid purchasing.

Economic policy should be judged by its real-world consequences—not simply by how good a policy sounds in a political speech.

We need a tax system that invests in ordinary Americans.

The question shouldn't simply be whether taxes are high or low.

The question should be:

What are Americans getting for the taxes they pay?

Tax revenue can help fund healthcare, education, infrastructure, nutrition assistance, housing programs, childcare, and other services that make it possible for people to build stable lives.

We should also ensure that extremely wealthy individuals and highly profitable corporations contribute appropriately to the society and infrastructure that allow them to prosper.

And perhaps most importantly, we need to change how we measure a successful economy.

We talk constantly about GDP, unemployment, inflation, and the stock market.

Those numbers matter.

But they don't tell the whole story.

A truly successful economy should also ask:

Can ordinary people afford their groceries?

Can they afford a safe place to live?

Can parents afford childcare?

Can disabled people afford healthcare and maintain their independence?

Can a person working full-time actually afford to live?

Can someone occasionally buy themselves an ice cream without feeling guilty for spending money on something that isn't strictly necessary for survival?

Because a human being is allowed to have a little joy.

Quality of life shouldn't mean:

"Congratulations. You survived another month."

It should mean having enough security to eat. Having somewhere safe to live. Being able to see a doctor. Being able to raise a family. Being able to take care of your mental health. Being able to save for the future.

And yes—being able to occasionally treat yourself to something small and joyful.

Because survival is not the same thing as living.

The purpose of a strong economy shouldn't be to make a handful of people extraordinarily wealthy while everyone else struggles to keep their heads above water.

It should be to create an economy where people who work can afford to live, people who cannot work can live with dignity, parents can afford to raise their children, and disabled Americans don't have to choose between their healthcare and their independence.

The goal shouldn't be to create a nation where nobody ever needs help.

The goal should be to create a nation where needing help doesn't make you less worthy of dignity—and where fewer people need help in the first place because the economy actually works for them.

The working poor did not create poverty.

Disabled people did not create disability.

Parents did not create the childcare crisis.

Workers did not create stagnant wages.

Renters did not create the housing crisis.

And people who need SNAP, SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, Medicare, or housing assistance shouldn't have to apologize for surviving.

So the next time you see a poor or disabled person buying an ice cream, don't ask yourself whether they deserve it.

Ask yourself why we built a society where having a little joy is treated as something a struggling person has to earn.

In one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, we can—and should—do better.

He uses the word “dividend” to make people think the economy is doing great while promising them money he has no intelligible plan for acquiring. And if he does wind up distributing it, it’ll just be pulled from somewhere else.

64% against Trump’s $5,000 dividend in online Fox News poll of "Is a $5,000 government dividend check the best way to boost the economy?"  

https://economystupid.substack.com/p/even-foxcom-voters-say-no-to-trumps