Sen Warren’s Untruths, Hyperbole 

People will die are the three chilling words often uttered by Elizabeth Warren, the fiery senator from Massachusetts. Warren opposes spending cuts. Unfortunately, explains Holman Jenkins in the WSJ, Sen. Warrant should be careful where her digits are pointed.

Unfortunately, people will die as politicians continue with the cover-up. Sen. Warren certainly knows, but would never admit, that the programs which people rely on are not sustainable and must be changed.

• Medicare and Medicaid are certain to produce long waiting lists in the future.
• Social Security benefits, under existing laws, are already scheduled to be cut sharply as soon as 2033

Really, No Tooth Fairy 

The “people will die” trope in the fight over the current GOP spending bill was repeated once too often for Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), who faces re-election next year.

“Well, we all are going to die,” she said to the horror of her handlers.

She doubled down later by saying it was a good thing she didn’t mention the nonexistence of the tooth fairy.

Life’s Greatest Invention 

People will die with a certain panache. Even at a distance, you can feel the thumping.

The late Steve Jobs, in a commencement address, called death “life’s greatest invention”—a cure for human staleness. If the immortality dreamers of Silicon Valley are successful, they may discover that what still seems interesting about life at 80 is a lot less interesting at 200.

Holman W. Jenkins suggests his readers consider Zohran Mamdani, likely to be New York’s next mayor.

(Mamdani’s) Glibness is winsome to 20-somethings or the mental equivalent.

It doesn’t seem so winsome to a listener around long enough to develop a preference for politicians who do themselves no rhetorical favors by speaking plainly about trade-offs and finite resources.

Mamdani’s proposals are “unserious.” Proven failures? Rent controls, government-run grocery stores, and more Palestinian violence to make sure Palestinians do not continue to benefit from their closeness to the Israeli economy.

Do the rich, Jews, whites, wonder’s Jenkins, consider Mamdani a “smiley-faced” way of making their woes fashionable?

These hostilities aren’t instrumental to any programmatic or policy end, notice. They are ends in themselves.

Ressentiment is a French word, pungent with envy and scapegoating. Philosophers often found it useful:

• Freud wrote about how we willingly deny ourselves certain things so others will have to do without them too.
• Sartre spoke about “bad faith.”
• René Girard noted spitefulness toward others for enjoying certain gratifications even if we ourselves wouldn’t enjoy them.

The House and Senate can continue to relax. The federal government can run along OK without competent management. But it’s different in New York. Things quickly run out of control if the city government isn’t on the ball.

Donald Trump and Mr. Mamdani at least have a similar way of being useful to some of their supporters. In the richest country in the world, enjoying one of its best current economies, many voters are indulging a delicious wallow in victimhood.

Mr. Trump has proved to have some other traits in his back pocket that allow him to get a few things done.

Will Zohan Mamdani, wonders Mr. Jenkins, after this new huckster’s likely election in the fall, spend his future administration chasing Bibi Netanyahu around with war crimes charges to cover up his inability to do anything else?