Part Three – Trump’s Immigration Plan Lost in Deplorable Rhetoric

Economy Section

Trump just made another asinine statement showing him to be a despicable racist & bigot!  We’d better hope the Russian scandal or 25th Amendment allows us to legally remove this deplorable excuse for a human being, since he has no business being anywhere near the Oval Office!  It’s simply a DISGRACE for all Americans to have this morally-reprehensible degenerate as our president.  Remember, this shows the judgment of an infantile man-child who presides over our nuclear codes!  Looks like MAGA has become MAWA, since Trump seeks to Make America White Again by taking us back to pre-Civil Rights days.  MLK’s birthday takes on a special meaning more important than ever.  When our prez has the gall to call nations with a predominately dark-skinned population as “s***hole countries,” such language raises an obvious question, when is it finally going to dawn on the GOP base we have a s***hole president?  To the extent the echo & their Trumpeter audiences justify those comments, well, that’s why I call that bubble-world evil.  Regardless of what the economy does, Trump’s crude/corrosive/divisive attitude leaves a lasting legacy & image around the world, which along with his blatant assault on our democratic institutions & constitutional laws, diminishes America to the point he may have already secured his standing as the worst president in our nation’s history!  The world clearly sees we’ve elected a lunatic!  And to add to it, we may well find proof here in 2018 the prez is also a criminal.  Every logical patriotic American should hope & pray for his constitutional removal from office!

Let’s trace back to what led up to those hateful remarks.  I was actually impressed with Trump’s bipartisan meeting on Tuesday with congressional members discussing border security & DACA.  It occurred to me that if the prez could show this reasonable side of him much more often & really endeavor to govern by getting both sides involved, it could actually produce positive results through getting important things done.  As the renowned deal-maker, it sounded like Trump was really ready to make a deal!  And then it hit me.  In light of the doubts going around about his mental health from all the hoopla surrounding that best-selling book, plus the rumors his limited schedule makes him more a part-time president, Trump sought to beat back against those narratives by doing what he does best….putting on a show!  Having his leadership called into question & with him being so conscious of optics/image, it was time to play The Apprentice card & stage a reality TV show in front of live cameras, which plays perfectly to his strengths.  No doubt his orchestrated production in front of selected congressional leaders was to some degree planned out & even rehearsed.  Plus our expectations have been so lowered, we’re impressed when he comes off as merely coherent.

While he sounded almost presidential without the combative outbursts we’ve come to expect from him, I was encouraged he was speaking the same language I fully supported a few years ago from the Gang of Eight in seeking a common sense, comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform package.  It looked as though DC had forged a permanent fix for DACA & border security 5 years ago until the radical hardliners on both sides nixed it.  With this new momentum, there looked to be a real chance to push it through this time around.  For liberals, committing $18B towards a wall might be a bargain in exchange for some kind of DACA fix which could allow Dreamers to stay in this country.  For the President & the GOP, they’d need to show the courage to let the far-right extremists stew in their own anger, including the crazies in the House Freedom Caucus, the perpetually-irrational Fox prime-time shows, Breitbart & other echo-media knuckleheads, especially the revolting blowhard Rush Limbaugh & irascibly tunnel-visioned Ann Coulter.  Even a few of the crackpots in the HFC might have been persuaded to come over to the constructive governing side, now that they have the cover of Trump as their president instead of Obama.  And overall it may have finally occurred to Trump he’s most effective as President using the bully pulpit in appealing to a broader spectrum of the people with valuable bipartisan solutions, appearing in these television spectacles as a charismatic showman much like he used the cameras during the election campaign.  But he must be seen as coming across as at least semi-human, not bullying & insulting with the far-right bombasts that only appeal to his Trumpeter base.  In doing so, it could become a game-changer!

So on Tuesday we held out hope our prez had turned a new leaf & found his rhythm for being presidential.  That was then & this is now.  On Thursday, Jeff Flake publicly stated the Senate struck a bipartisan immigration deal, which when a group went to the Oval Office & presented to the president, that’s when Trump erupted with his vulgar insults (which now he just lied about even saying it).  While Trump had declared in that Tuesday meeting he would sign whatever bill Congress brought him, two days later the hardliners had already gotten in his ear, turning the prez back to their hardline positions.  That “bill of love” he had asked for in the original meeting turned into his own shill of hate.  So Trump’s immigration plan turned into a bust.  The end result finds yet again Trump makes big promises as he has done so often on a number of issues, only to subsequently waffle or renege.  If you’ll recall, it was only a few months ago Schumer & Pelosi thought they struck a DACA deal with him, but in the many hours per day Trump watches the hardcore nutballs on Fox complaining with statements like he sold them out with a deal on amnesty, he then tends to cave back to the position in line with his base, those Trumpeters joined at the hip with the echo.  Whichever way the wind blows, it usually pushes him back to the destructive wishes of his adoring fans. 

Of course, he’s still clueless on the details.  So to call whatever comes out of these negotiations Trump’s immigration plan, is a bit of a misnomer, since he has no idea of any of the details or what he really wants, needing to tell Congress to work it out & he’ll sign whatever they bring to him (which as we saw he then refused to accept).  Trump was passing the buck entirely to Congress to do the hard work, always a huge hurdle in the current toxic partisan climate.  We also saw in Tuesday’s congressional meeting Trump was all over the map on his suggestions, so we should never expect his comments/ideas to ever rise above the level of BS.  Kevin McCarthy even stepped in to immediately correct him when the prez totally misunderstood a proposal on a “clean” DACA bill proposed by a Dem (Trump also displayed the same confusion Thursday on the FISA Act after Fox fake-news got him thoroughly bewildered, while press secretary Huckabee-daughter made a fool of herself trying to clarify).  Sometimes Trump can actually use his own cluelessness to his advantage, as a big part of his negotiation strategy out of necessity is to place the onus on others to do the details, so he can blame others if it doesn’t work out.  There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind Trump’s main concern isn’t so much fulfilling his principal role of doing what’s best for America, but rather always making himself look good to his doting fans.

Sadly, as of late I’ve had to do an about-face by favoring Dem candidates (& centrist independents if I can find any), not that I’m a big fan of their policies, but in this new era of Trump & his echo, the GOP has become thoroughly corrupted.  With almost the entire GOP backing unprincipled demagoguery through their support &/or silence over Trump’s subhuman outrages, it’s time for all rational-thinking Americans to send a signal by fighting against the GOP, at least until whatever point this toxic swamp-fever coming from the radical far-right breaks.  Conservatism & the GOP are now seen as walking lockstep with racism, bigotry, nativism, immorality, irrationality & extremist policies.  On fiscal policies as it relates to the economy, the party is also catering almost exclusively to big corporate interests in this era of widening wage/wealth gaps, so their obsolete conservative doctrine from the previous century no longer fits the times.  The media narrative keeps portraying the economy as being strong, & based on much of the data it is relatively strong (which by the way polling suggests Obama gets credit more than Trump, likely somewhat reflecting Obama having a lot higher favorability ratings).  But it’s very concerning that in a perceived strong economy, we still can’t make a dent in persistent problems like stagnant wages, low participation rates & income inequality, so how much worse will those troubles become when we have a downturn?

The tax bill is like a temporary sugar-high that helps spike growth for a little while, but doesn’t get at the core problems.  Further taking the tax burden away from corporations, by providing tax cuts without eliminating deductions/loopholes in making it more revenue neutral, only places a higher burden on the people while ensuring deficits grow.  It also exacerbates long-term trends where large corporations accumulate the wealth & leverage, whereas the working class keeps losing ground.  The recent announcements of bonuses & increased pay to employees by companies like Walmart seem like a feel-good moment with political overtones (also conveniently overlooking their announced closings & layoffs), but I don’t believe such positive trends can be sustained based on the design of the tax bill.  There is very little about trickle-down tax policies in this modern global economy that indicates the benefits will persevere, especially when it only worsens ongoing structural problems like deficits & income inequality.  The one positive article below which makes some sense, making the case for a policy offering long-term valuable impacts is found inside the link jobs-market-booming-and-we-can-thank-trump, which points out there are numerous businesses in various industries which are revved up from having the burdens of regulations removed off their backs.  Of course, deregulation can be a double-edged sword & time can reveal the negative repercussions which evolve, but I sense Obama used a heavy hand in imposing onerous government mandates.

Turning our attention to related articles below, in the first group of links on income inequality (which the U.S. suffers from having one of the highest rates in the world), the one titled finding-relief-from-the-rising-tide-of-income-inequality, it concludes with this cogent advice, since the people have power when we join in on an important cause together:

It is unrealistic to expect innovations in a handful of states or affluent metro areas will build national resilience against a rising tide of economic inequality hitting communities across the country. To spur greater federal action, we must hold congressional policymakers accountable for decisions that actively exacerbate problems of inequality in the near term and insist on adoption of new policy solutions that address the problem in the long term.

Another article in that group shows this graph:

With the link group on postsecondary education, the articles bring up needed changes such as the following: Higher education must change to fit this new global economy, today’s jobs mostly do require education/training beyond high school, 1.4 million of the 1.6 million manufacturing jobs lost during the great recession never came back, federal retraining programs must upgrade from programs rooted in the industrial era when they were created, the meritocracy involved with college admissions perpetuates class warfare, current administration policies look to make much-needed student loans more expensive/problematic, many jobs could be filled without college but do require advanced & targeted training/apprenticeship programs, & there remains a serious skills mismatch between jobs & workers.

The article titled trumps-policies-offer-plutocracy-on-steroids-not-economic-populism reveals despite the bluster, Trump is far from a champion for workers:

The notion that Trump, with his record of callousness and corruption, would ever seriously address the challenges facing working people was always ridiculous. As president, Trump has demonstrated that his interest in workers begins and ends with his ability to profit, both politically and financially, from their anger and pain. He spent much of his first year in office traveling to his own business properties at taxpayers’ expense, and his only significant legislative achievement is a massive tax break for corporations and the rich. This is plutocracy on steroids, not economic populism. It’s not simply that Trump has failed to live up to his lofty promises to protect factory workers and negotiate better trade deals. Since taking office a year ago, Trump has presided over a systematic assault on the rights of American workers that is poised to intensify in 2018.

In the link what-happens-when-the-tax-plan-promises-arent-kept, this excerpt points out the folly of cutting taxes for the wealthy in relying on trickle down, when it’s virtually certain to be a recipe for raising deficits far more than economic growth.  Plus it’s taking away needed funding for important investments like infrastructure & the military: 

And that is precisely what critics, Right Turn included, argued in opposition to the bill. Tax cuts that run up huge deficits are not a long-term solution to sluggish growth. In fact, they are largely irrelevant beyond an initial stimulus (and when the economy is not in a recession even that is a question mark).

Peruse the various links below on the economy, healthcare, Trump’s racist remark, immigration, Trump’s FISA confusion, infrastructure & gerrymandering.  The Dems wouldn’t budge on DACA, with Trump & the GOP not budging on building the wall & other rightwing positions, providing all the ingredients for a stalemate culminating in a government shutdown.  At the bottom, a poll seen in the article why-trump-and-republicans-are-suddenly-talking-up-bipartisanship, it confirms how we feel about the current depressing state of divisive gridlock in DC:

Singing a new tune….

Whether it’s naturalized citizens, Dreamers or those with residency permits, we should do what’s right by humanity.  As the great melting pot, we’re a nation of immigrants!  Rather than listening to the tune coming from his white nationalist base, here’s the tune our president should be listening to repeatedly until he gets it.