Economic Blackout Is Friday, A Nationwide Revolt Against This

Good points and well said. I have not been visiting your blog for very long. Months maybe. I don’t recall which headline or article drew me here but it was easy to sign up on the message board(unlike some other sites) so I have been trolling here since then. I have taken your words to heart. I believe I will continue to visit your little blog and perhaps comment occasionally. I will promise to try to be less cynical & more professional in a continuing effort to see another point of view. Lord help me I hope it works.

When I said anyone can have an anti Trump blog I wasn’t talking about the business of running one, I have no idea how to do that. I was only referring to the echo chamber part of preaching to the choir. As far as Trump’s policy’s, I believe that I will be happy with them, that’s why I voted for him 3 times. I’m not very wealthy but I do all right as a working class man hoping to retire in a decade or less. Yes, the Trump tax cuts benefitted me last time and I hope they will again. That’s why I get so frustrated with liberals both in the media and elected officials that say they helped the wealthy or his rich friends. That’s just not true! I fully understand that we’re all affected by government regardless of who is in the white house or Congress for that matter. That is why I’m so glad that Biden is out, Harris didn’t get in and Trump is doing what he’s doing so quickly and perhaps aggressively. The left seems to DESPISE every GOP policy, even the ones trying to cut costs & help everyone. At the same time I admit that I don’t see anything beneficial to almost any Democrat policy. So is this ideological divide ever going to begin to close up & steer towards the middle? I hope so or we’re ALL going down.

Ok, now we’re at a point of having back and forth. My sister back in southern Illinois told me she too benefited from the tax cuts during Trump’s term. Reputable economists didn’t deny some average Americans would benefit but even my sister admitted it wasn’t nearly to the degree she’d expected given the talking points back then. And most reputable economists said, and still say the benefits were skewed heavily towards the rich and corporate America. Corporate America said before it passed they’d take the extra money and buy back their own stock and enrich themselves. And that’s just what happened. They were quite open about what they would do and after what they’d done. Took money in amounts you and I can only dream of and pocketed it.

Let me try to put things in regular terms you surely can relate to. Whether you’re from a small town like me or a city you’ve either worked for or have friends who’ve worked for good employers but also employers that will fuck over their people for a buck at every turn. AND create a climate of chaos and fear which in turn leads to high turnover and less productivity. Many a once well run and respected family business has had an heir take over and be that second type of boss. And the business shrinks, often even shutting down or being sold. Think about that and whether government, from the local to the national level can or should be run that way.

The WWII generation left us with a great country. Sure, we had our problems like racism and sexism that were far from being adequately addressed, not to mention a massively costly and useless war to try and prop up a tiny dictatorship on the other side of the Pacific. But we had the largest and most prosperous middle class the world has ever seen. Union membership was at high levels and that raised wages for everyone. And yes, RICH people kept getting richer. Education, from early childhood was huge to parents even in small towns. Public education was pretty good in most places and higher education, college and grad school was affordable. Debate about govt. regulation was fierce as it should be but our water and air was cleaner by the 1970s, food was safe, roads were better, lifesaving things like seat belts leading to air bags, technology was advancing, and our financial system was sound based on regulations put in during FDR. We had the safest food and water, travel (including air travel) and other things in the world because WE PAID for it. Then in 1980 Reagan became President.

He went on a union busting spree and wages dropped all over the country. He created the myth of not just the ‘Welfare Queen’ but suggested they were everywhere. He cancelled out a lot of the farm stuff and set the FmHA on family farmers to bankrupt them and modern agribusiness was formed. HIS tax cuts which WERE weighted towards the wealthy (that’s why they were called ‘trickle down’ – the promise being that the wealth would get so rich they take care of everyone else!) sent the National Dept spiraling out of control. It was a Trillion dollars when Reagan came it. The wealthy didn’t invest their windfall to create U.S. jobs and stimulate OUR economy (they DID move entire industries overseas though) and by the time his successor left office with those Reagan policies in place it had QUADRUPLED.

Education, the silver bullet that allowed anyone with ambition and a working mind to get a college education and a better job shot up in cost. Student found themselves needing more loans to get a degree than their parent’s mortgages! Not all Republicans thought all this was a good thing. And some Democrats, most from the south who’d wind up switching to the GOP during the Reagan years thought it was. In the 1990s Bill Clinton increased taxes on the wealth by a few percent and for a while we saw the kind of economic promise with the middle class that existed before Reagan. There’s a reason that even with the blowjob scandal he left with such high approval ratings.

Then baby Bush came in and gave us another round of Reagan style tax cuts AND added both a new medical benefit for senior AND started a major war with no way to pay for either. When Clinton left we were on our way to literally paying off the National Debt in a decade or so. Since Baby Bush it’s been red ink as far as the eye can see. Tell me again how GOP economic policy makes sense.

While you’re at it, think back to all the things govt. does you DEMAND they do. Build and maintain roads and infrastructure. Make sure the cars you buy are safe to be on the road with you and your kids. Pay out Social Security benefits to those of us who spent a lifetime paying into the system EARNED. Those benefits and Medicare (or even Medicaid) are NOT goddamned ‘Entitlements.’ People pay for them. And Social Security would be fine if Reagan hadn’t started messing with it, basically issuing IOUs so he could use the money on his grand defense spending plans.

I served as a grunt in the Marines. I’ve also spent a good chunk of my life either as a volunteer or professionally in social services work. (I studied Psychology and counseling in college) I know all too well the effect prior Medicaid cuts have had in rural/small-town America with doctors not wanting to have practices mostly of such patients, and hospitals closing. Imagine some farmer getting and arm or leg mangled and instead of a half-hour trip to the only hospital (ER) in the county having to travel to the next county or one beyond THAT! Or a pregnant woman suddenly have a miscarriage. All this cutting you’re so eager to see is going to make that a WHOLE lot more common. So Trumpty and Musk can ‘pay’ for their new tax cut!

I got forced into early retirement when I became disabled myself. I was in my late 50s by then and spent a couple of years trying to get a new job. I wound up homeless. A social worker at the VA helped enroll me in a HUD program which pays a subsidy that keeps me in a decent apartment. I depend on the VA for my health care. I barely get by each month and if forced back into the private sector I won’t be able to afford the higher co-pays I’d face with Medicare. That means not getting treatment for my diabetes and heart problems, as well as some other conditions. I might last a year living in some tent – I have little doubt Musk will kill the HUD program that provides my housing subsidy.

So if I and others who are in my situation but CARE about other people talk harshly about the heartlessness of the GOP ruling class, and frankly voters who enable them I hope you’ll think over what I’ve written. People in this country got fucking SPOILED. If you like I can provide you a link to something I put on Daily Kos years ago about the sacrifices made by my parent’s generation. Including the massive rationing of all manner of items including food and even baby formula. You don’t like the cost of eggs? Imagine having not just those, but coffee, sugar, flour, milk and other food strictly rationed. And of course GAS. Tell me Americans now would put up with even a fraction of all that. Hell, last November almost half of Americans proved they wouldn’t because they voted for Trump! 1.5% is no ‘landslide’ but it was just enough, and while it’s the slimmest in history the margin in the House is GOP. Luckly because of a quirk of geography and two Senators per state the GOP has a bit more breathing room in the Senate.

Yet on issue after issue polling shows when you take the word Democrat or Republican out of the questions strong majorities approve of Democratic policies. But Americans are as I say spoiled and petulant. So for now, since you approve of the DOGE stuff I say be careful what you wish for.