That stimulus thing seemed like a double bind. Lower stimulus would have meant less inflation but worse unemployment, right?
The whole pattern feels like a repeat of the country using Democrats to clean up messes (in this case, the mess was more Covid's than Republicans'), at which point they kick out the Democrats again. I don't think another massive tax cut (or extension of the last one) is a good idea.
> Lower stimulus would have meant less inflation but worse unemployment, right?
Yes, this is likely what would have happened. And in that case the Dems would still lose because people would be upset about the high unemployment.
> Lower stimulus would have meant less inflation but worse unemployment, right?
Yes, but you can target where that unemployment goes.
Democrats were probably too fair in distributing the pain. (As well as the fruits. Both the IRA and CHIPS Acts massively invested in counties that would have always voted Republican. That boosted turnout in an adversarial way.)