Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Mike]

The question then becomes: is it more moronic than ushering in 8 million migrants that don't have much way to support themselves and placing that burden on federal, state, and local governments?

[Da Geezer]

Anyhoo Trump has proposed

* Raising taxes by 10% on ALL imports. Raise taxes on Chinese imports specifically, which is a lot of what we buy, by closer to 60%
* Will do nothing serious to reduce spending on entitlements. Spew word salad gibberish to pretend he's simply going to close the deficit through "better management"
* More tax cuts for businesses! More tax cuts for the wealthy!
* Pressure the Fed to get interest rates to zero as fast as possible. Install a sycophantic goon at the Fed once Powell's term ends in 2026.

If you spent the past 3 years bitching about inflation and Biden's policies being directly responsible for it, you may want to check out Trump's platform and ask yourself if it sounds deflationary to you.

*Tariffs are not raising taxes. There are countervailing benefits to American workers from tariffs. But as Hanni says, ultimately tariffs raise prices. Taxes, on the other hand, always stifle economic output because wealth is transferred from productive businesses to the government (which is a decidedly unproductive entity).
* Better management would include doing something about the disability system. It would also include paying benefits only to US citizens. The best thing that could happen to this country would be for there to be a "voting card" in which citizenship is proven either by a birth certificate or proper naturalization documentation. If Trump is thinking about sending millions of illegals back, he will need a way to determine just who is legal.
* Tax cuts always and forever pay for themselves because letting people keep their own money leads to productive use of that money rather than allowing government to destroy production with regulations and the hiring of ever more bureaucrats. I might add that there is no way out of the National debt trap we are in other than economic growth
* The Fed does not "set" interest rates. The market does that. And when you see all this 3.7% "core" inflation talk, keep in mind this does not include food and energy.

[Tom W]

His only problem is that he is Ron DeSantis.

Which isn't much of a problem when you see what the other options are.

[Mike]

Or the fact that he's been a highly effective and successful governor of the county's 3rd most populous state.

[Hannibal]

Slapping 50% tariffs on foreign-made jeans or foreign-grown bananas is moronic.

It's not moronic if you prioritize saving the jobs in the domestic jeans or bananas businesses over having cheap jeans or bananas.

But you do need to impose tariffs on every industry if you want to be fair, so the guys making cars or Oreos don't end up worse off. The people who lose the most are people working in jobs that don't compete with foreign imports. Which is lots of us. I don't love the concept, but I can see where the motivation comes from.

[Hannibal]

The question then becomes: is it more moronic than ushering in 8 million migrants that don't have much way to support themselves and placing that burden on federal, state, and local governments?

You think it's only 8 million? 🤣

[Hannibal]

He spent the better part of a year avoiding any criticism of Trump. If Trump was great, why are you running?

He should have attacked Donald Trump from the right, purely on policy, while acknowledging his importance in creating a new movement.

[Hannibal]

* Tax cuts always and forever pay for themselves.. growth

I don't think that's true at the US's current tax rates. If the marginal rate was 50% -- I can believe that cutting it spurs enough economic activity to overcome the cuts. 25%? Eh -- I think that's debatable. The concept of the Laffer curve is that there is an optimal tax rate where you maximize taxation revenues. I think that we are probably pretty close to that. I have seen some studies that suggest that we are below that.

[Rob F]

Which isn't much of a problem when you see what the other options are.

While this is true of most of the options in both sides of the aisle, nobody in the GOP other than Christie (and then finally Nikki Haley, but too little too late) had the guts to take a strong stance against Trump.
I've always been an independent voter, never a member of either party, and I mourn the fact that the GOP continues to implode itself. What used to be an intelligent/intellectual political party with well thought-out and sensible policies has devolved into near total buy-in of crackpot conspiracy nonsense, trumpism, and idiots like MTG, Gaetz, Gosar, Boebert, Tucker Carlson, Kerri Lake, etc.

Until the GOP comes back to its senses, no thank you.

[Tom W]

I can agree with that, Rob.

The GOP also needs to get their "Pro-Life" zealots under control. The mindset of "No Exceptions" applies to losing elections.

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's not moronic if you prioritize saving the jobs in the domestic jeans or bananas businesses over having cheap jeans or bananas.

But you do need to impose tariffs on every industry if you want to be fair, so the guys making cars or Oreos don't end up worse off. The people who lose the most are people working in jobs that don't compete with foreign imports. Which is lots of us. I don't love the concept, but I can see where the motivation comes from.

Are textile manufacturing jobs so needed and desirable that it's worth it to society if the cost of clothes are significantly higher than they are now? How many jobs would you create? Some things we're just better off having made overseas. And obviously that goes for any agricultural products that aren't economical to grow here.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Ken Buck of Colorado is resigning next week instead of finishing his term. Will mean a 218-213 House once he's gone (The current Congress started at 222-212). Johnson can only afford to lose 2 votes now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Meanwhile the House GOP is supposed to have their annual retreat this weekend and less than half are planning to show up. Some because they can't stand their colleagues, others because they'd rather try and get on Fox or NewsMax.

[crashcourse]

so no covid--trump gets reelected--finishes his 2nd term this year

who would be the candidates this year if that would have happened

anybody but these two clowns--they would be off into the sunset

should have left trump alone

now your going to be stuck with him til 2028