Trump: His Desire, Style, Strategy for Outcomes That Favor and Benefit Only Him

The flock will follow regardless of turmoil

In the limelight with more false voter fraud accusations

Only Trump matters – no one else, and all the time at home or abroad.

Everyone must be 100% loyal to him in every conceivable way or get insulted, bashed, and if working for him, get fired or forced out.

He brags on himself and accomplishments to the umpteenth degree and always with extreme exaggerations and false statements passing as his version of the truth – yet he insists that he, not the facts or truth, matter – examples:

•  His #1 Bragging Topic is the economy: Yes, it is healthy, but it's not “unbelievable or unprecedented,” or as he claims “the nation's greatest economic success ever.”

•  The Facts: The economy expanded at a 4.2% annual rate in the April-June quarter, and then by 3.5% in the July-September quarter. Those are the best two quarters in just four years.

But, growth reached 5.1% in the second quarter of 2014, followed by 4.9% in the third quarter of that same year (under Obama – Trump’s arc-rival). And, the economy has boomed much more dramatically in the past.

In the late 1990s, growth topped 4% four straight years, after it had reached 7.2% in 1984 (under Reagan).

That unemployment rate is now at an impressive 50-year low of 3.7%.

But historically, it remained below 4% for nearly four years in the late 1960s (during the VN war years and “great society” under LBJ).

So, did the Trump-GOP 2017 tax cut drive the economy the way he says it did? Facts about tax cuts in general and the 2017 cut in particular:

1. First of all, and yes, we all love tax cuts. Politicians will argue that they will improve the economy by boosting spending. Those who oppose say tax cuts only helps only the rich (as see most of the time).

They also say tax cuts hurts by reducing government services which lower income people rely on (e.g., food, gas, healthcare, affordable housing, education, job training, etc.).

2.  High tax rates usually discourage work, savings, investing, and innovation. Specific tax preferences can affect the allocation of economic resources, too (food, gas, healthcare, consumer goods, etc.). 

Tax cuts can also slow long-run economic growth by increasing deficits – which is exactly what we now see since that 2017 cut.

3. Basic economics rule 101: When the economy is weak, the Federal Reserve tries to boost consumer and business demand by cutting interest rates or purchasing financial securities. Congress for its part can help boost demand by increasing spending and cutting taxes. 

Tax cuts increase household consumer demand by increasing workers' take-home pay.

4. The Trump-GOP tax cut (2017) was sold as “a pig in a poke” as they say and now it will hit home – and hit hard, e.g., the Senate's Official Scorekeeper says the tax cut would add $1 Trillion to the deficit. The Senate’s non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation says the $1.5 trillion tax cut will not pay for itself.

And now, Trump wants to push through a big 2nd tax cut – consider this from a Washington Post analysis: The so-called “tax reform 2.0” would make permanent many of the individual and estate tax provisions in the 2017 tax law – and which the CBO said would already add about $1.9 trillion to the deficit, factoring for interest costs.

A second round would cost $631 billion before 2028 and an additional $3.15 trillion in the decade after that (again to the Tax Policy Center).

And, once again his flat-out lies about voter fraud because he didn’t get the results he wanted (or needed) – target the FL recount:

Trump cannot help himself but lie incessantly – from the article:

Trump on Monday suggested that the ongoing recounts in Florida should be halted and the razor-thin races called for Republican candidates while floating baseless claims of voter fraud – in a tweet (as usual):

“The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged,” the president tweeted. “An honest vote count is no longer possible — ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”

Trump did not officer evidence of the alleged massive ballot infection.

My 2 Cents: Not much else to add – we pretty much know the man and his methods (lie and con 24/7) – end of this saga cannot come soon enough.

Thanks for stopping by.