Donald Trump Promises Economic Crash, High Taxes, Fewer Jobs, No Insurance. How Can He Lose?
We'll have our hardships, but Trump reassures us he'll be just fine.
Like us, a lot of you nerds probably watched Kamala Harris give her “closing argument” speech at the Ellipse in Washington DC last night, where she sage-smudged the starting point of Donald Trump’s failed January 6 coup and promised to be a president for all Americans, building an economy that’s fair for everyone, and turning the page on all the hatred and division of the Trump years.
We don’t know if Trump has been asked to comment on her closing argument, but he would probably say that the woke “experts” told him not to look directly at the Ellipse, but he did anyway and he can see just fine.
Still, Donald Trump has a “closing argument” too, although it’s not any kind of coherent appeal to voters, since Trump left “coherence” behind long ago, and the only appeal he cares about is the one that might make 34-count felony conviction go away. His bizarre Madison Square Garden Nazi Rally over the weekend may be as close as he gets. That’s the one where he said America is the world’s garbage can, because not-white people want to come here.
THIS RIGHT HERE.
While Trump’s real reason for seeking the presidency remains avoiding going to prison, he has consistently focused on two policies he thinks everyone will love, and because Trump supporters are hateful idiots like him, he’s mostly right. His central promise is that he’ll deport, or try to deport, millions and millions of immigrants, and please everyone ignore the fact that serious economists point out that would make inflation skyrocket, as would his other great idea, massive tariffs on everything, which would raise everyone’s taxes and help offset (not by enough) his new round of huge tax cuts for the rich and corporations — if corporations can find workers and make things after the tariffs fuck up supply chains.
Still, Trump’s closest aides and advisers haven’t been shy this week about also making their own closing arguments for Trump. Trump’s running mate Elon Musk, whom Trump wants to put in charge of government “efficiency,” took time from planning his own baby ranch to explain Sunday that he could eliminate about $2 trillion in federal spending — about a third of the current federal budget — at a single go, although maybe some whiners who aren’t already billionaires would probably whine about it. No, he didn’t go into specifics; he’d simply eliminate “wasteful spending,” and nobody supports wasteful spending, do they?
Friday, the world’s richest man also told a “virtual town hall” on his private fluffing platform Twitter that it would be easy-peasy to eliminate America’s debt through changes to the tax code and enormous spending cuts. And sure, it would cause an eensy weensy global recession, but that’s what you people have to be ready to shoulder when you vote for a brighter future that will eventually arrive, trust him:
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means. And that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
The hardship would last as long as necessary, and Trump and Elon will decide what that means. He added that he’d “balance the budget immediately,” and that the beauty of his plan is that only useless takers would be harmed, and they have it coming, being useless and taking like that:
“Obviously, a lot of people who are taking advantage of government are going to be upset about that. I’ll probably need a lot of security, but it’s got to be done. And if it’s not done, we’ll just go bankrupt.”
The US, as MSNBC’s Ja’Han Jones points out, isn’t actually at risk of bankruptcy, but Elon is a deep thinker who’s willing for us to endure some Deep Hurting for the good of all billionaires.
As it happens, Jones also notes that Musk’s dream of cutting federal spending by a third is already getting a tryout in Argentina, under its new Trumpy president Javier Milei, who is all the hot shit with Republicans these days. And look how well austerity is making Argentina have temporary hardships, just like Musk wants for us (but not him):
Those policies have helped skyrocket Argentina’s poverty rate to over 50% in the first six months of Milei's presidency. The hardship Musk is predicting sounds quite hard, indeed. Between Trump repeatedly praising the Gilded Age and Musk priming everyday Americans for “hardship” if MAGA retakes the White House, it seems quite obvious that a vote for Trump is a vote for extreme wealth inequality and all the suffering that comes with it.
But don’t you see, it’ll be good for us!
This is where we yell again that the Joe Biden economy has been amazing actually, growing wages at the bottom and actually reducing income inequality for the first time in decades, and it’s unbelievably dumb that we’ve let people poormouth it so long and so hard.
Trump’s pal — for the moment — House Speaker Mike Johnson also has a great plan, promising at a rally in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Monday that if Trump is reelected, he’ll help Trump gut the Affordable Care Act, just like that JD Vance fellow who used to hang around Trump called for.
“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,” [Johnson said]. […]
“No Obamacare?” an attendee asked Johnson, referring to the law Democrats passed in 2010, also known as the Affordable Care Act.
“No Obamacare,” Johnson responded, rolling his eyes. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”
Hooray! Everyone with pre-existing conditions will lose their insurance or at least pay through the nose for it, but maybe the jobs they lose in the Musk Austerity Depression would have covered them.
JD Vance Explains Trump's 'Concepts Of A Plan' For Healthcare. They Are Bad Concepts Of Bad Plans!
[Meidas Touch / MSNBC / NBC News]
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The Las Vegas Sun isn't o̶w̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶c̶o̶w̶a̶r̶d̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶f̶u̶c̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶ "above the fray"...
𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹:
𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽’𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻
The nation must confront the fact that beyond his hateful character, he is crippled cognitively and showing clear signs of mental illness.
There’s no need to resort to armchair psychology to interpret what’s apparent...
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2024/oct/30/trumps-decline-has-been-alarming/
My offspring and her hubby just walked 3 miles to early vote - YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀