If you are a die-hard “Trump can do no wrong” Republican, this is not for you
I figure about half of his approval ratings come from that category. No more. For the record, I think Trump’s an asshole and I hope he’s replaced with a improved Republican in 2020. But I do think he and his team know how to run an economy.
The Republicans who don’t buy into Trump’s bigotry and divisive rhetoric but are willing to let it go because you are fiscal conservatives. The old guard Reagan/McCain types.
Well, you’re close to defining me; I do believe that we’re better off with an a-hole President that knows how to run an economy than a nice one who doesn’t. *Everything*, ultimately (racism, mysogeny, etc) forms itself around economic priorities, after all.
But, more importantly, is that you’re assuming as fact what is not proven; that we agree with you that Trump’s a bigot. The jury is still out on that one for us; and as for “divisive rhetoric”, well, I’m not sure how you want the POTUS to address certain issues having to do with immigration (for example) WITHOUT rhetoric that some people will take personally.
My sense is that people were willing to ignore Obama’s divisiveness (bitter clingers, always taking the side of his own race in a police dustup — and being proven wrong each time) because he said things so nicely. Trump prefers blunt, harsh language, and we haven’t had a blunt-language president in a very long time.
Clearly, today’s GOP is Trump’s Republican Party.
Not so clearly. Trump has addressed certain priorities which the GOP rank-and-file have been demanding of their elected officials for decades. Wanting a wall on the Mexican border is nothing new; nor is ending birthright citizenship for illegal aliens; nor is believing that the media is biased against us. None of that is in discourse right now because Trump originated it; it’s in discourse because Trump was the first to not bury those priorities after his election. This is exactly why the term RINO is so commonly used on the right; it’s a politician who says they’re going to address our core priorities, and then decides afterwards to not rock the boat.
I know you probably love the idea of the tax-breaks but like me, you’re all too aware of the fact that it turned out to only benefit the wealthiest among us.
No, we’ve actually done the math and know that that’s bullshit.
Trump’s plan would save middle-income households an average of roughly $2,700 per year in taxes, or about 4 percent of their income, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (TPC). But richer people would net considerably bigger savings.
The gripe here is that on a percentage and full dollar basis, the rich made out. OK, fair enough. But to say that it “ONLY benefitted the wealthiest” is disingenuous. At any rate, I’d be perfectly OK, with kicking up the top bracket a few percent and netting that out with a larger standard or child deduction, or something like that.
His anti-migrant rhetoric is also quite hurtful on many fronts.
It’s not HIS anti-migrant rhetoric. It’s OURS. We want illegal crossings stopped. Period. Rule of law. And that priority isn’t just the “Trump base” it extends into the GOP regulars, independents, and to some extent, into the Democrat centrists as well.
Think of the farmers who rely on these migrant workers to harvest the food we eat.
It would be nice if somebody would propose a sane plan to address foreign workers, and present it in a form that doesn’t look like amnesty. But nobody does. The (D)’s know they’d freak out their base if they proposed anything that didn’t include a pathway to citizenship, which is a nonstarter on the right. Trump’s not the problem here, it’s political cowardice.
Those tax-breaks, coupled with his rhetoric, makes doing business more expensive across many fronts. Have you seen the price of fuel lately?
Yes. It’s currently $2.44 on average here in Houston. At any rate, oil is a commodity which is subject to more variables than just supply and demand. It’s priced according to headline risk as well.
Can you imagine what fuel will cost next summer? It’s scary, but we have to start thinking ahead.
Somewhere between two and four bucks here in Texas, I’d guess. Trying to sharpen that pencil is a fool’s errand.
These are all issues, that when combined, could spell death for a company of a dozen employees. Your competitor who has 50 employees can sustain it better than you and will price you out of the market in mere weeks. The upcoming peak-season for many industries will tell us all the truths we need. By then, it may be too late for the small guy.
Hm……so now we have to regulate our oil prices because of the risk they pose to undercapitalized businesses?
Dude. If a small company might go out of business because of gas prices, they need to check their business plan, not rant about politics. They might not be a going concern.
So far, the only option Republicans have on the table is to pillage Medicare and Social Security.
Nobody’s pillaged anything.
The wealthiest among us already have retirements in place for generations to come, yet somehow the Republicans in the pockets of the rich feel justified in allowing them to accrue even more wealth on our backs.
I’d be perfectly OK with means testing SS and Medicare. But every time it gets brought up, usually by Republicans, the (D)’s lose their shit.
Currently, they’re only representing themselves.
That’s been true of both parties for as long as I can remember.
