Trump is not Cary Grant
By all means support Trump.
By all means vote for Trump if you wish (I’d prefer you didn’t).
But stop the insanity! Stop making excuses for Trump.
A few months ago, multiple commenters told me that Trump wasn’t to blame for the excessively large CARES Act. To get needed aid, he had to acquiesce to the demands of the big spending Dems in Congress.
Sorry, but that’s not true:
“Here’s the problem: she doesn’t want to do anything until after the election, because she thinks that helps her,” Trump said on Fox News Tuesday. “I want to do it even bigger than the Democrats. Not every Republican agrees with me, but they will,” he also said, reiterating that he’s willing to go beyond the $2.2 trillion top-line number Democrats favor.
Trump is more of a socialist than Pelosi. Deal with it. He also favored big spending increases during 2018-19, even though spending growth would normally slow during a boom, as programs like unemployment compensation decline.
So by all means support Trump (I hope you don’t.)
But stop pretending that the GOP is forced into these big spending packages.
In the entire history of the world, only one man has ever been forced to get drunk (Cary Grant in North By Northwest.) Donald Trump is no Cary Grant. If someone’s drunk with spending, we can safely assume they chose to end up in that condition.
PS. At $2.2 trillion, this is the most expensive election in global history. American elections cost more than the GDP of all but a handful of countries. And I haven’t even included the absurdly large farm welfare spending that’s already been paid out to all those lazy single moms, er, I mean to all those rugged individualist farmers in the heartland.
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20. October 2020 at 09:00
“Trump is more of a socialist than Pelosi.”
Neither is a socialist, so the comparison is invalid. One might ask which will push more transactions across distorted thresholds. For my money it’s President Trump.
20. October 2020 at 09:01
Thomas, I’m using the term sarcastically, as a right winger would use the term.
20. October 2020 at 09:14
Farm net income shares: https://twitter.com/cvpayne/status/1318557505111416833/photo/1
20. October 2020 at 09:29
Uh oh, it looks like the huge, influential and powerful CARES act constituency has some explains to do.
Your definitely speaking truth to power here. This is sure to change minds
20. October 2020 at 09:47
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and every other central banker on the planet, are screaming for larger fiscal outlays and deficits.
Maybe they are wrong. Some, such as former Vice Chair Stanley Fisher, advocate that the (independent) Federal Reserve have its own fiscal facility, so that it can simply sidestep the US Congress or President and boost the economu unilaterally.
The present hold-up against larger fiscal deficits appears to be the GOP-controlled Senate. Why now?
I think we can safely rule out the idea that a matter of principle is involved.
20. October 2020 at 09:53
yes, Trump is like a traditional big spender Democrat—and neither he nor Pelosi are Socialists. But her party might be. And while I am highly sympathetic toward the luck argument on pre (and even post) covid economy—-it is unknowable.
When I ran various entities and subentities at financial companies—and we had a record good run—-I would often say something like “well, at least I did not prevent a good run”. Of course, all counterfactuals are like hearsay.
So that is why I prefer Trump.
20. October 2020 at 10:17
Destroying the dollar is practical method of restraining our white supremacist government. The less the dollar spends, the less ability the feds have to subjugate minorities to their prejudice whims.
Trump doesn’t realize it, but he’s doing the lord’s work. We should encourage his deficit spending to further break the government.
20. October 2020 at 10:28
Foosion, Yes, there wasn’t even a slump in farm income that would justify the surge in relief.
Kevin, “The worse, the better?” Didn’t Lenin say that?
20. October 2020 at 11:19
Of course Trump wants bailouts that will help him personally. That’s kind of his entire shtick in life….
20. October 2020 at 11:57
‘I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders depending upon me.’
Such an excellent film.
20. October 2020 at 12:21
From what I have read during the last weeks, you are misrepresenting the current case once again. A second massive corona spending package has been pending for weeks, if not months, and so far it has always been the Republicans in Congress who have blocked it, arguing that it is far too expensive, which is kind of weird, because this will hurt them in the elections. So what are you even saying?
Right now, the package seems to be stuck in the House once again, maybe the House ends its resistance soon, but then, and even Politico writes about this, the GOP Senate is still resisting it, and according to Politico a majority in the Senate is anything but certain.
20. October 2020 at 14:59
$2.2 trillion in election spending?? OpenSecrets says $11 billion.
And, so Trump is a traditional big spender of Other Peoples Money (which everyone should have known going in). Does that mean we should vote for Biden if we want to rein in the federal government?
20. October 2020 at 16:12
“Destroying the dollar is practical method of restraining our white supremacist government. The less the dollar spends, the less ability the feds have to subjugate minorities to their prejudice whims.”
And there you have it! The thug from Gori, Georgia has finally returned. I hope this lunatic reads the gulag archipelago by alexander Solzhenitsyn. I’m curious: when the government collapses what utopia will you replace it with? Please do humor me! I’m waiting with bated breath.
20. October 2020 at 16:21
Ted, Trump is trying to buy his re-election with other people’s money. About $2.2 trillion to be precise.
You asked:
“Does that mean we should vote for Biden if we want to rein in the federal government?”
Yes. Spending rises more rapidly under GOP administrations.
20. October 2020 at 16:24
Christian, No, you are missing the point. Trump wants to spend even more than Pelosi.
20. October 2020 at 16:56
Sumner- I got a feeling your whole party is going down…
How is Biden capable of reigning in government when he can’t even rein in his own son from inadvertently disclosing evidence of years of corruption and kickbacks from foreign nationals? Yeah, yeah, it’s not confirmed yet but only a matter of time…
And don’t tell me about Trumps own “corruption” as even the mueller report and an impeachment couldn’t turn up anything.
Enjoy and buckle up.
20. October 2020 at 18:11
Do you ever think for yourself? Anything original? Every article about Trump is a talking point from a NYTs article. How about discussing the Biden corruption? Any words of wisdom here, or do you need the NYT to help you?
I will say this about Trump: he has exposed the extent of corruption in American politics and media. For that, historians may select him as one of our greatest presidents.
21. October 2020 at 02:44
OT, but ugly.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/10/20/is-europe-having-a-covid-19-second-wave-country-by-country-breakdown
Pan-Euro C19 rates at all-time record highs, easily eclipsing—indeed, dwarfing— the rates of spring or summer.
I did not think lockdowns would work. You have a naive population and a novel (perhaps artificial) virus. End the lockdowns, people talk to each other…and boom.
So, if lockdowns are futile, but fantastically expensive ….what next?
More lockdowns.
21. October 2020 at 08:14
Scott,
“The worse, the better?” Didn’t Lenin say that”
Okay boomer
Xu,
“I’m curious: when the government collapses what utopia will you replace it with?”
Thanks for the book suggestion. The federal government was founded on white supremacy and slavery, as the NYTs 1619 project explains. Trying to reform it is like trying to reform AIDs.
Distengrating the federal apperatus is a calculated risk, but one that anyone concerned with racism is willing to take.
Ending racism means ending racist power. If you want to bask in the power of racist whiteness, that’s on you.
21. October 2020 at 08:18
@janice:
LOL, don’t hold your breath on that
21. October 2020 at 08:54
@Kevin A
You said:
Using the 1619 project as your authoritative source on US history is about as effective as referencing Trump’s tweets as your authoritative source on coronavirus science.
21. October 2020 at 10:06
LOL at all these commenters who think Trump is trying to reduce corruption. It about as plausible as claiming that Saddam Hussein was a woke snowflake, sensitive to the rights of women and minorities.
Is it something in the water?
21. October 2020 at 10:20
“Who would have thought that the first socialist president of the United States would be Donald Trump? He gave people universal basic income for a few months, and they took possession of companies. If that’s not socialism, I don’t know what is socialism. “
https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco-visionaries/497321-taleb-covid19-socialism-america/
21. October 2020 at 11:36
“LOL at all these commenters who think Trump is trying to reduce corruption.”
There’s a word for that: chumps. Trump’s whole scam since he’s been a public figure (and probably before) is fleecing chumps. His approach only works with a certain type of chump, but there are plenty of them. No matter the outcome of the election, he’ll continue to fleece them. He’s not going away quietly. He’s going to blame everyone but himself, and that includes the disloyal and incompetent Republicans who he will think let him down. It’ll be fun watching people like Dobbs & Hannity react to Trump attacking sitting GOP pols for his failures.
“Is it something in the water?”
Fluoride or lead… maybe both? Something is corrupting our precious bodily fluids.
21. October 2020 at 12:08
Scott,
Every time a legitimate objection is raised, you claim that this person has missed the point. No, the point was not missed. You talked about the GOP, my quote was about the GOP, it was your quote.
The GOP has been preventing programs over 2-3 trillion in Congress for months, so your specific claim is simply wrong. The GOP rejects drinking right now.
Trump may have other wishes, but then again, this proves exactly my point: The GOP has not granted his wishes for months, they simple reject drinking.
What they will do after the election is pure speculation, but currently everything speaks against them changing their minds after the election, especially since Trump will no longer be in power, so why should they change their minds. They won’t. If anything then they will do it before the elections.
The behavior of the GOP before the election so far is quite astonishing because it is well documented that governing parties love to drink like crazy right before the election, so the expectation would have been that they would have simply waved this second large spending package through weeks ago. What are they even doing, they want to win, right? Maybe they don’t.
Tom,
One reads such commentators here quite often. My approximation is that theories based on the assumption that 40% of the electorate are “chumps” most likely are idiotic theories themselves.
21. October 2020 at 19:00
Christian, Look at the graph in my post, and ask yourself who controlled the Senate when those spending surges occurred. Then ask who controlled the Senate when the Cares Act was passed in 2020. Yes, the Senate has not yet made up its mind on the new bill, but I suspect they’ll go along with Trump. And I’m certain they’ll do whatever they think is to their electoral advantage.
During the Obama years I had lots of commenters telling me the GOP was “changed” by the Tea Party, and no longer were big spenders like during the Bush administration. How long did that last?
Trump’s mistake was waiting too long to negotiate with Pelosi. he should have done this in August. Now she may end up stringing him along. Now he’s so desperate he’d agree to any demand from Pelosi
22. October 2020 at 04:39
Just as John Wayne was not even John Wayne, so too Cary Grant was never really Cary Grant…and neither was Donald J. Trump ever either man.
The Election Day question, however, is what is the alternative to Trump? While Biden will probably be better for your portfolio if you live in a top 10% household (i.e. follow the big donor money), Trump is an American who does not despise his country and proudly campaigns about protecting the jobs of the bottom 60%. Trump, apart from Joe Biden and his power elite followers is not outwardly contemptuous of the uneducated and manual laborer lower classes.
So, you can either vote your portfolio or your country in 10 days, but maybe not both.
22. October 2020 at 06:41
Packard, You said:
“Trump is an American who does not despise his country”
There’s never been a president who despises America as much as Trump. He mocks the service of our soldiers, viewing them as suckers. He thinks poor people are losers. He doesn’t like people from shithole countries. He tells dark skined Congresswomen who were born here to go back to their “own country”. He doesn’t want lower middle class workers to be able to live in the suburbs. He wants the blue states to rot in hell because they didn’t vote for him. Every day, in all sorts of ways, his twitter feed expresses disdain for America.
And he’s willing to waste trillions in our money to get him re-elected. Trump only cares about Trump—to hell with America.
Now he says he might leave the country if we don’t vote for him. I hope so.
22. October 2020 at 12:15
Since the budget impoundment and control act of 1974 the executive branch has very little influence over how the federal government spends money. So, while I don’t disagree that Trump will use federal spending to bolster his case, especially with rural voters in the swing states, your claim that he is spending $2.2 trillion of OPM on the election is absurd. Every member of Congress is going to lay similar claim to that money in their own election bids. In the end, all you can really say is the the R/D Duopoly is spending $2.2 trillion of your money to ensure they stay in power so they can continue to spend $11 (12…13…14….) trillion of your money annually. The battle between R and D is a marginal battle over exactly whose money is being spent and where, with each part hoping to use it to tilt the field a bit in their own favor.
22. October 2020 at 20:54
Ted, Sure there some hyperbole on my part, but this rush for stimulus is all about the election, otherwise Trump would have no interest. And he has to sign the bill.