With his Senate acquittal, Trump literally takes a victory lap around Daytona, only to have the race postponed due to rain. Nancy was sure to remind everyone that the stain of his impeachment can not be removed, but as far as our attention-grabbing president is concerned it no longer matters. He is now free to do whatever he wants, and made sure to purge those pesky members of his administration who refused to heed his order not to testify so that there will be less rats in the kitchen.
Like so many descents into autocracy, what appears comical at first increasingly becomes more tragic. There are still enough checks and balances to keep his administration relatively contained, but the big fear is that if Trump were to be re-elected in the Fall, that oversight would diminish to a whisper. Not only would he be able to stack the federal courts with favorable judges but turn the Department of Justice into his Ministry of Vengeance, seeking charges on all those who he believes conspired against him. Attorney General Barr is already doing so. It would all be in the name of national security, which Alan Dershowitz has told us is AOK. A president has the right to protect himself in the name of the people.
The Trump administration has already done a great amount of damage at the federal level and threatens to do much more. His budget proposal for 2021 would shift vast sums of money from domestic programs to national security, essentially militarizing our country and its borders the way a South American dictator would do. At a whopping $4.8 trillion, we would see yet another trillion dollar debt increase, as this administration and its Republican cohorts in Congress have made no attempt to balance the budget during his tenure. All those worries about a ballooning national debt during the Obama years appear to be suspended, as Republicans had no problem raising the debt limit with Trump in the White House.
You don't even hear much from conservative economic advisors. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell continues to cut interest rates, despite his initial resistance to do so. This is a stimulus measure. If we had a strong economy, Powell wouldn't need to be doing this. However, he received so much pressure from the Trump administration that he eventually relented, much like Greenspan did with Bush back in the early 2000s.
What the Trump White House had hoped to replicate was the huge economic boom that occurred between 2004 and 2006. Ben Bernanke had warned against this approach, but by the time he took over from Greenspan it was too late. Congress had freed up the banks and other lending institutions to provide as many home and business loans as possible to help create the "ownership society" George W. Bush imagined. All these bad loans finally came due, but as is so often the case the borrowers are blamed and not the banks. Everything would have been just fine if we turned over Federal Housing Finance Agency to Bush's administration.
Obviously, we don't learn from our mistakes. All those foreclosures allowed real estate developers like Trump to pick up vast amounts of property on the cheap thanks to bank fire sales. These banks can always apply to the government for bailouts to cover the shortfall, as they did in 2008. Too big to fail, they said, well here we go again.
It doesn't do any good to sound the alarm because no one is listening. Trump supporters have their heads so far up their asses they couldn't hear an air-raid siren at this point. They will vote for Trump and their MAGA legislators come hell or high water. For them, it is more important to protect unborn babies and keep gays out of wedding chapels and lock down our borders against nasty immigrants.
They don't seem to realize that the level of mendacity among businessmen of all stripes is so high now that not even trailer parks are safe. These guys will literally buy up anything that turns a profit, leaving the vast majority of Americans, Republican and Democrat alike, fighting over whatever scraps are left available. More and more Americans find themselves living on the edge of poverty, but woe be it to anyone to suggest providing a bigger economic safety net. That would be Socialism!
Mostly, we have to eliminate the predatory lending practices that put so many persons on the edge of economic ruin. If you truly want to make America great again, reduce the number of temptations that increase the risk of personal bankruptcy. Personal debt is enormous, and some of this debt is impossible to get out from under even if you do declare bankruptcy.
Student loans are a prime example. Rather than easing this ever-increasing personal debt by offering some form of debt forgiveness, Trump's 2021 budget would eliminate public service loan forgiveness, and no longer provide any subsidies while still in school. You would be responsible for the accruing interest from day one, where before this interest was covered by the government until you completed school, and deferments given depending on your economic situation after completion. It's not likely that this mendacious plan will get through the House, but it is worth noting how this administration thinks.
For all the talk of taking back the government for the people, this horrendous budget lays bare Trump's pernicious greed for all to see, at least for those who choose to do so. Many will simply see it is tightening the reins, not taking into account that these domestic cuts aren't being used to reduce the annual deficit, but rather transfer the money to other parts of the budget, which government contractors can more easily exploit. By labeling anyone who calls him out as "fake news," he assures that his blind followers will take him at his word on twitter.
For Trump, the world is his stage and he has proven remarkably adept at convincing just enough persons to allow him to keep this reality show going. He survived a Senate trial not because conservative senators thought he was innocent, but because they were willing to look the other way to maintain their own seats in Congress. Trump has so thoroughly taken over the Republican Party that there are very few Republicans left to challenge him. William Weld continues his fruitless campaign in the Republican primaries, and Mitt Romney became a national hero by voting for Trump's impeachment on the first article of abuse of power, but that's about it.
As long as he can keep the Democrats fighting among themselves and unsure as to what position to take in regard to a party platform, he ensures a low voter turnout next fall. Disgruntled Democrats simply won't turn up at the polls. That certainly seems to be the case among Black and Latino voters, who have virtually no choices left that represent their best interests.
Not that his current poll standing can't change at the drop of a flag. We have seen his fortunes rise and fall throughout his tenure. For now, Trump can smile gleefully out the window of the Beast as it takes a victory lap around the Daytona motor speedway, knowing that many Americans live vicariously through him. As long as he continues to play on their wish fulfillment, he has their votes in his back pocket.
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