Shutdowns Hurt Millions, Depressions Hurt More, More Pain Coming from Trump

Country under Trump’s reckless & misguided policies

(Trump Tweet: Bright Christmas CNX)

Excellent article and analysis from a very smart man, Robert Reich writing in The Guardian.

Introduction Highlights:

On Friday (December 21, 2018), Donald Trump said: “We are totally prepared for a very long shutdown.”

It was one of his rare uses of the pronoun “we” instead of his preferred – and in this case far more appropriate – “I.”

The shutdown is indubitably his. Congress offered him a way to continue funding the government without the money to build his nonsensical wall along the Mexican border, but Trump caved in to the rabid rightwing media and refused.

I was in Bill Clinton’s cabinet when Newt Gingrich pulled the plug on the federal government in 1996. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

A long shutdown hurts millions of people who rely on government for services and paychecks.

Trump’s shutdown also adds to growing worries about the economy. The stock market is on track for the worst December since the Great Depression. World markets have lost nearly $7 trillion in 2018, making it the worst year since the 2008 financial crisis.

The shutdown is stoking fears that Trump could do something even more alarming. He might fail to authorize an increase in government borrowing before the federal debt reaches the current limit, which Congress extended to March 2nd. A default by the U.S. on its obligations would be more calamitous than a government shutdown.

All this brings us closer to the economic precipice. It worsens America’s most fundamental economic problem.

Continue article at the link. 

Related story on the same topic here and also from The Guardian.

Bye, bye America & world – it’s been a heluva ride

This from Trump says it all and it's pitiful: “I am in the White House, working hard. News reports concerning the Shutdown and Syria are mostly FAKE.” Trump tweet. 

My 2 cents: Regardless of doom and gloom and timing of all this turmoil, we somehow always manage to pull through, and we will this time, too.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all – may 2019 lift the dark cloud now hovering over us.

Keep up your hope and good old-fashioned American “can-do” spirit… things will get better –

We, the People cannot and must not allow or let let this man bring us down or to any lower standard he has levied on us now – thus we must prevail and we will.

Thanks for stropping by.