Unsurprisingly, the numbers are out, and the national deficit is ballooning. Of course, most of us knew that would happen because literally anyone who knew anything about economics predicted it would. Even the Congressional Budget Office flat out said that this was on the table. We knew it would happen because of the ludicrously obscene Republican Tax Bill/blatant corporate and wealthy handout. Republicans in support of the bill really tried to sell it as the opposite. That the bill would pay for itself. But the fact was that it was never really going to happen that way. Even conservative economists really red flagged this bill as a potential disaster for our overall economic health. So of course when the inevitable happen, Republicans are doing what politicians always do when they screw up: pass the buck. But the really despicable thing is where they’re passing it. The discussion people like Mitch McConnell want to have is how many poor and elderly people do they have to screw to balance out the problem. Important, necessary programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are now one the block for gutting, sacrifices at the alter of the 1%. But listen carefully. Because it’s not hard to hear the hypocrisy and cruelty in the self righteous handwringing of rich old men looking to screw over the little guy. It just takes a little effort.
It’s amazing how quickly the tides can turn when you’re in the habit of making bad decisions. Trump has been riding a weird wave of…I guess better than expected poll numbers. He was certainly riding high among his voter base and Republicans. I don’t know. I guess you can get away with being a total scumbag and face down criminal charges pretty well so long as the economy isn’t in the trash. And that’s even the case if all of your global trading partners are keeping their distance. But over the course of the last week, that sort of ambivalent approval has turned into annoyance and scorn when starting when his open contempt for John McCain kept him from being able to properly memorialize the man. It seems like even Trump’s die hard supporters had trouble explaining away his petty behavior. But it only got worse when he effectively gave all the federal employees a metaphorical middle finger by instituting a line wide pay freeze on all scheduled raises slated to take effect at the beginning of next year. This pay raise was expected to take into account the cost of inflation, essentially keeping the pay for government jobs fair and competitive. As it turns out, when you tell people you’re going scrap plans to maintain a fair wage, those people aren’t going to be happy. And with upwards of 3 million employees being affected…well that’s a lot of ill will. On the same day, he outlined another complicated tax cut that seemed entirely aimed saving rich people about $100 billion. This announcement felt especially frustrating considering the stated reason for the pay freeze was because of it being so cost prohibitive. Which makes such a singularly targeted tax cut feel all the more scummy. If he keeps on this path, even his voter base might start taking a closer look at some of these angry democratic words being thrown around. Words like “unindicted co-conspirator”…
Mind the Exit 