[Ronald Reagan’s knew that recessions were a healthy correction to too many reckless economic decisions.] Not Donald Trump, however. Even before the egregious fiscal insanity of the 2020 pandemic [stimulus measures], the Trump deficit had soared to $983 billion by FY 2019.
Thereafter, of course, it was Looney Tunes time. The FY 2020 and FY 2021 deficits soared to a combined total of $5.9 trillion. Both years were drastically inflated by Donald’s [stimulus] measures, including their extensions in Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Actually, the total for these two years is equal to the entire public debt incurred on the watch of all 43 presidents during the first 212 years of the nation!
Let that sink in. That $5.9 trillion will saddle US taxpayers for generations to come and is therefore just unforgivable madness under any circumstance. But it is flat-out unacceptable behavior for any politician elected on the Republican ticket.
For avoidance of doubt, check out the federal deficit chart below. The deficit was marching downhill in typical cyclical recovery fashion and then went [very, very extremely] crazy.<1>
See original article for the chart mentioned above. (Warning. Disturbing images!)
Do not lightly read past that point in the second paragraph above. The Biden deficits in two years exceeded the total of all deficits run up by all 43 presidents in 212 years!
Trump is if not the wisest presidential candidate out there the most electable one. But, as Mr. Stockman points out, he was clueless about correct economic policy. If he wasn’t clueless and just caught up in reams of bad advice from Fauci and the other charlatans and toads, then it’s still on him.
He sucked his thumb while unbelievable policies were put in place and seemed to have no independent expertise or judgment to call upon to ask what the hell was being done. And what allies he initially did have inside the White House he early on abandoned for no discernable reason. And replaced them with even more toads, including Jared the Sphinx whose agenda has never been revealed to mortal men, certainly not in any public utterance by said sphinx.
I get it that Trump was the target of a full-court press to discredit him from the git but that is what he had staff to take care of. Even Bull Halsey and Douglas McArthur relied on staff officers as basic military doctrine dictates. Military operations are infinitely complex. Operations officers develop plans to deal with enemies identified by intelligence officers and with the bullets and rations provided by supply officers and personnel identified by the adjutant. Being the chief executive of the executive branch of the federal government is even more complex but Trump acted like he thought he was a rifleman with one rifle. His strategic judgment involved taking on enemies like Rosie O’Donnell in a Twitter war SHMG.
His basic virtue is that he does indeed believe in serving American interests and the American people rather than slobbering over every foreigner on the planet. He gets it about immigration though he was inexplicably late in getting the ball rolling on the wall and he never did send troops to the border.
One of the sad ironies is that American troops are deployed here and there in the world doing Lord knows what and for whom but NOT ONE American troop is defending our own borders. For a man who says he cares about American interests and the American people that was an extraordinary feebleness and blindness that he demonstrated in failing to use his authority as commander in chief to make the point that it’s time for American troops to be brought home to defend America.
When have American troops ever been on the border except as typists, taxi drivers, nursemaids, and “observers”? That’s right. Never, unless you recall the adventures of Blackjack Pershing. Would actual troops on the border have electrified the nation and defined the debate for decades? You know the answer to that. The Mexican president, might have gotten the message that Americans are serious about defending our borders but we know they all laugh at that absurd notion.
It’s a Western disease. Every Western leader with the exception of Orban and Putin is gutless and worthless on stopping immigration cold and the current DHS toad, Alejandro (“the border is secure”) Mayorkas, sees his role as, again, taxi driver and nursemaid for invaders flooding over the border. He’s Biden’s butt boy, of course, but when was it decided that American immigration policy revolved — exclusively — around (a) what legal rights and welfare benefits to shower on invading foreigners once they set one @#$% toe on American soil and (b) how to goose “a path to citizenship” for them?
The thought of preventing foreigners from getting over the border in the first place has been banished to the Arctic wastelands. So has the idea that patriotic NGOs and scumbag billionaires should be “discouraged” from send luxury buses to pick up foreigners in the Darien Gap in Panama and have them transported to the so-called “homeland.” Whose “homeland” is it these days is a pretty fair question. (For extra credit, is the Darién Gap wider than the gap between Stacey Abram’s teeth? No fair using AI.)
Vivek is far an away the best presidential candidate I’ve seen since Reagan but realistically clueless RINOs and “moderates” are lukewarm about him. Even the execrable, neocon war pig, Nimrata Haley, is polling better than he is. Go figure. She’s the one who became a millionaire after her “service” as Ambassador to the United Nations. Vivek’s twanging that particular nerve during the debates was priceless.
Oh, well. I’ll be happy with Trump and will most definitely vote for him, though I have some anxiety about who he has in mind as “his” VP. I won’t put it past him to make one of his infamously horrific personnel picks, in which case it’s a new ball game. I won’t tolerate Nimrata for who she is and if Trump has the bad judgment to choose her I’ll take that as proof positive that he’s learned zilch from his experience so far. Lord hear our prayer!
Under the heading of “Sadder But Wiser,” there’s good reason to think that Trump’s coast-to-coast legal persecution and the persecution of his allies and the J6ers may have put some iron in his soul and opened his eyes. Maybe if he gets back in he’ll have an appreciation for the hideous persecution of Julian Assange, whom he earlier appeared never to have heard of. Maybe.
These are not normal times.
Notes.
<1> “America’s Stagflationary Mess.” By David Stockman, LewRockwell.com, 12/24/23.
At least they have nice white clothing. "Swan Lake." That's choice.