FDL Review

John James, the 2018 Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Michigan, is running again this cycle. This time, he is up against little-known incumbent Democratic Senator Gary Peters. John James James' entry into the race has caused the Cook Political Report to shift their rating of the Michigan Senate race from "Likely Democratic" to "Lean Democratic." They observe, James was the GOP’s U.S. Senate nominee in 2018. He got very little attention last cycle, and yet managed to raise $12.7 million, and take 46 percent to 52 percent for Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. According to GOP strategists, Peters begins the cycle in a considerably weaker position than Stabenow was last cycle. From a numbers standpoint, James is crushing it. Cook notes, "If fundraising is any indication of how competitive a race will become, Democrats have to be a bit disheartened by the 3Q FEC reports. James outraised Peters, taking in nearly $3.1 million to $2.5 milli...

On Friday, the U.S. federal deficit hit a seven-year high. The New York Times responded to the news with an editorial from Alan Rappeport , who says that President Donald Trump "has allowed deficits to balloon by enacting sweeping tax cuts and increasing government spending." Rappeport expounds on this claim by writing, The deficit is growing in large part because tax receipts are falling, as Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts continue to siphon revenue from the Treasury. The numbers reflect the fact that Mr. Trump’s most significant legislative achievement is not paying for itself, as Republicans have said it would. In fact, tax revenue for the last two years has fallen more than $400 billion short of what the Congressional Budget Office projected in June 2017, six months before the tax law was passed. However, this take is not accurate. The deficit is skyrocketing because of rapidly-increasing federal spending, not because of a decline in tax revenues. In fact, tax revenues ar...