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If you looked at the website of The New York Times on Friday morning, you might have seen a summary of a story that caused you to stop reading, go back, read it again, read it again, read it one more time, say to yourself What in the actual fuck, and then read it a few more times.
The story was an examination of the dueling plans by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, or whichever debased wingnut gremlin last whispered in Donald Trump’s ear, to ease a pressing problem in the country:
Harris and Trump both have plans to address America’s affordable housing crisis: Hers include tax cuts and a benefit for first-time buyers, and his include deportations and lower interest rates.
See, the problem here is that one of those plans is a sort of normal and lightly detailed campaign promise, which it is good for the nation’s Paper of Record to examine and explain to the American people, as is the charge of journalism.
The other plan is a fantasy Stephen Miller keeps in his spank bank for those moments during the day when he is stressed out from all his evil plotting and needs a relaxing break.
But the article’s thesis is that both candidates’ plans have drawn skepticism from economists. And you can’t be honest and say that Harris might have a serious plan while Trump’s idea is simply downstream from his overriding bigotry to the point where you might as well say that mass deportation would also ease congestion on America’s overcrowded freeways for all the relationship it has to reality. You have to give each candidate equal weight, otherwise this isn’t the sort of normal presidential campaign that Times reporters wish it to be.
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS TOPIC!
To its credit, the Times does manage to actually run Trump’s idea past a couple of economists to shoot down politely, instead of giving the question the answer it deserves, which is, Listen, I’m a very important economist, I have much better things to do with my time than give this the time of day.
Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at Redfin, noted that the acceleration in home prices long preceded the recent increase in the unauthorized immigrant population, so mass deportations would not address its root cause.
Also, it hasn’t been that big a surge, as best we can tell from this report from the Department of Homeland Security. Though facts and data are really beside the point when you’re Donald Trump.
Ms. Fairweather added that it was not clear that mass deportations would even significantly reduce the number of families in need of homes. Immigrants often live with relatives who might not be expelled. More than two-thirds of some 6.3 million households with an unauthorized immigrant are “mixed status,” meaning they contain American-born or lawful immigrant residents.
Simple problem for Trump and his bullet-headed Renfield: Deport everyone you can get your hands on regardless of immigration status. Then you don’t have to consider complexity.
In fact, the policy could prove counterproductive. Ms. Fairweather also noted that 25 percent of construction workers were foreign-born, so mass deportations may also reduce the labor pool available to build new homes and apartment buildings.
This is all before you get to the impossibility of carrying out the mass deportations as Trump and Miller envision them. In their fantasy, the American military runs dragnets through entire urban neighborhoods, sweeping up millions of people, and sticking them in desert concentration camps until they can hustle up enough airplanes and pilots to fly the migrants out of the country.
It’s a ridiculous idea, a Hollywood vision of deportations, and it is not happening. So using it as a leg in your three-legged stool of a plan to make housing more affordable is so insane that it almost isn’t worth repeating to readers of the august New York Times. But, again, the paper wants to pretend this is a normal election and one side isn’t a bunch of slack-jawed dildos driven by their collective lizard brain.
Luckily the Times has Wonkette to do its dirty work.
Wonkette can only bring you the highest quality profanity thanks to the generosity of our readers!
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