FOLIO
Trump’s economic proposals are going to set the stage for another recession. The infrastructure proposal, military expansion, and massive tax cut that Republicans are drooling over, will result in skyrocketing debt and deficits; interest rates will climb.
What took the American people eight years to rebuild is likely to be wrecked in less than half of that time by Trump and a failed Republican economic ideology, “trickle down economics.” Democrats better get ready, because when Trump leaves office, another economic disaster will likely be waiting for them.
Then there is Trump’s tariff of up to 45% on goods from China, and up to 35% on good from Mexico. If implemented, China and Mexico will retaliate, very likely causing a trade war, and with it a recession. The unemployment rate would soar and millions of jobs could be lost. Not a good scenario for an already struggling white working class that voted for President Trump.
At the heart of the economic plan is a very large tax cut and deregulation. Trump claims this would boost economic growth, despite the fact that similar cuts in the past (for example, under President George W. Bush) had no such effect.
Trump promises to rescind the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, despite wide agreement that deregulation contributed to the financial train-wreck that destroyed more jobs than any economic crisis since the 1930s. The Recession devastated the wealth of the middle class, deregulation solved nothing, making it much easier to loot taxpayers.
The theme of President Trump’s inaugural address was the return of power to “the people”—the “forgotten” Americans, the victims of “American carnage.” It is not a return of power, but an unambiguous transfer of income and power to the rich, with 2/3 of the benefits going to the richest 20%.
Trump’s promise to empower “forgotten Americans,” again and again … even as his administration and party consider and enact laws to cut, voucherize or privatize support for their insurance, public health care, housing, education, environmental protection, and Social Security, is certainly not what returning power to the people looks like.
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