Category: Fiscal Policy

That’s Right–40 Trillion

The news has come up that the deficit has risen to $40 trillion….up from about $29 trillion….what the Hell happened?

Of course the Repubs will blame policies and somewhere it will be Biden and the Dems to blame….after all there is an election coming and what better time to try and sway the more economically ignorant?

But the truth is more in-line with reality……

Congressional Republicans have seized upon news that the US national debt reached $40 trillion to bash what they described as “unaffordable socialist policies” and out-of-control spending.

But economists and policy analysts say Republican policy decisions—from massive tax cuts for the rich to disastrous wars of choice in the Middle East—are primarily responsible for the explosion of the national debt over the past quarter-century. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly promised to eliminate the national debt, has so far overseen an $11.6 trillion debt surge across his two White House terms.

“I have never been a deficit hawk, and I’m not about to change my religious affiliation now,” Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote Thursday. “But whatever we think of debt and deficits, there is one point that should be very clear: It has been run up almost entirely due to Republican tax cuts and their inept management of the economy.”

Economist Paul Krugman similarly wrote that while the $40 trillion figure “has no special significance,” it underscores “the incredible irresponsibility of the Trump administration, with its unfunded tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, billions in wasteful military spending—redesigning aircraft carriers because Trump doesn’t like the way they look!—and more.”

“As Jared Bernstein and Bobby Kogan have shown, our deficit would be far more manageable if first [George W.] Bush, then Trump, hadn’t rammed through tax cuts that hugely favored high-income Americans,” Krugman added.

Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, estimated in 2023 that tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration and Trump’s first term were “responsible for 57% of the increase in the debt ratio since 2001, and more than 90% of the increase in the debt ratio if the one-time costs of bills responding to Covid-19 and the Great Recession are excluded.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/economists-trump-40-trillion-debt

All this deficit some of it can be blamed on our forever wars….I am not talking just about Repubs….Dems are just as damn guilty.

Another chunk of the deficit can be blamed on the constant passing of tax cuts over the years and yes the Dems are just as damn guilty here as well.

Maybe it is time for the American people to wake up to the lies and the reasons for this deficit….if we are to cut this deficit then revenues must be improved and a cessation of these lame ass wars.

And no tariffs will not change anything regardless of what the pseudo genius from Wharton tells you.

The rich have had a free ride for decades time for them to become contributing members of society (other than buying the Congress)….

That is that.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Fruit And Vegetables

The price of all food has skyrocketed into the stratosphere and the government is doing nothing about the drain on the wealth of the public.

But there is a Rep that is at least trying to bang some help through the House but she must contend with the pseudo-human Johnson.

Rep. Jayapal is using a Seattle program as a guide….

As Americans face rising grocery prices under President Donald Trump and rally behind progressive policies and primary candidates, US Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Thursday introduced a bill that shows what kind of proposals could become reality with more Democrats like her in Congress.

Inspired by a program in her own district in Washington state, the chair emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus introduced the Fresh Bucks for Fresh Produce Act, which would create a pilot program at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that gives households earning 80% or less of their area’s median income $60 per month to buy fruits and vegetables.

The USDA pilot would be modeled on Seattle’s Fresh Bucks initiative, in which enrolled households “experience a 31% higher rate of food security and consume at least three daily servings of fruits and vegetables 37% more often than those assigned to a program waitlist,” according to University of Washington (UW) research published last August.

“I would classify both of those numbers as pretty large,” study co-author Jessica Jones-Smith a professor at UW and University of California, Irvine, said at the time. “We don’t routinely see interventions that work that well. It’s a pretty big impact on diet in terms of what we can do from a policy perspective and expect to make a difference in food insecurity.”

In Seattle—generally ranked as an expensive but livable metropolis—a single person living within city limits on a monthly income of $7,070, or $84,850 a year, can apply for the program. For a family of four, it’s $10,095 per month, or $121,150 annually. In January, the city the welcomed over 4,500 more local households off its waitlist and increased monthly benefits from $40 to $60.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-food-assistance

A good program but will probably go nowhere as long as the MAGA morons run the House….that could change come 2027….we can only hope that there will be some help for the people of this nation coming with the next election.

God knows we are not getting much from the slugs in power now.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Fraudsters Can Run Wild

Yesterday I posted about Donny’s new thing of letting corporate bosses have instant access to his babblings of Truth Social so they can run to the markets and make money before the fact….that is disgusting but there is more disgusting stories….

The DOJ is abandoning the Corporate Crime Enforcement stuff.

US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is systematically taking a softer approach to corporate crime, letting companies and executives that have admitted to wrongdoing off the hook with no charges.

The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that “so far this year, 12 companies have pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges. At least six companies have reached deferred prosecution agreements, including refiner Phillips 66 and medical-waste specialist Stericycle, acquired by Waste Management in 2024.” The Journal added that while Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche and other officials have signaled that the Justice Department is “focusing on prosecuting employees rather than companies, it has also granted leniency or dropped charges against people it accused of wrongdoing.”

“The Trump DOJ’s grotesque retreat from corporate crime enforcement leaves Americans increasingly vulnerable to tainted food, workplace exploitation, environmental destruction, widespread ripoffs, and all-around illegal corporate predation,” said Rick Claypool, a researcher at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen who has been tracking the fall of corporate enforcement during Trump’s second White House term—which has been rife with corruption and profiteering at the very top.

Claypool called the Trump Justice Department’s lenient approach to corporate criminals “an absolute outrage” and that the trend is “going from bad to worse.”

The Journal lays out several examples of the Justice Department abandoning enforcement efforts against prominent companies. “In matters involving Alibaba, EagleBank, and Abbott Laboratories, the department declined to charge companies even when prosecutors thought executives or managers were involved in the wrongdoing,” the newspaper reported. “In those cases, the department didn’t charge any individuals.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-corporate-crime-enforcement

This is pathetic that he would allow these pieces of shit have such freedoms…..all this sounds like his buddy Putin’s playbook in Russia for over twenty years.

Where are those elected cowards we call Democrats in all this corruption?

Well most are sitting in their offices counting the cash lobbyists throw at them….what I am saying in case you missed it….the Dems are NO better than the GOP when it comes to corruption.

I have said my piece.

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Is This Legal?

Donny done a lot of things that I consider illegal and for the most part got away with it….but his latest idea I think goes a bit too far….

You knbow that our idiot Donny has his own social media, right?  It is called Truth Social and he spends every waking hour on it and degrade something or someone…..now he is giving instant acdcess to certain people….

President Donald Trump’s media company is launching a new product that will allow banks and financial traders to access Truth Social’s data at the “fastest” speed for a fee, giving them exclusive real-time access to posts that may affect the markets, as Trump’s posts frequently do.

The product is known as “Truth API,” and Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social plans to leverage it into a “meaningful source of revenue for the company,” said interim CEO Kevin McGurn.

“Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” McGurn said. He also added that the company hopes to “create a lot of friction” for firms that have already been scraping Truth Social data, which the company says is against its terms of service.

The new product comes as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over potential insider trading, spurring the White House to send a warning to staff discouraging them from making bets related to the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran on prediction markets. This followed reports of unusual activity surrounding bets before the start of the war, which came unannounced, during which traders placed over $500 million in bets on the war starting as well as $950 million in bets on oil prices.

Trump himself is also under scrutiny for questionable trading activity. In an analysis published Thursday, CNN documented over 20 times in which Trump promoted companies just days after buying stock in them. Breaking from prior presidencies, Trump’s assets aren’t in a blind trust, which means that he can see stock trades being made in his portfolio — and could, consequently, be manipulating markets for personal gain. Last year alone, managers of Trump’s assets made over 20,000 stock trades.

“This is why we’ve long said government officials should not be able to trade stock while they’re in office,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, interim vice president of policy and government affairs for the Project on Government Oversight, to CNN. “That definitely applies to the president and the disproportionate power of that office.”

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/truth-social-is-selling-instant-access-to-trumps-posts-to-banks-and-traders/

This, to me, is basically saying that insider trading is okay as long as you use Donny’s magic site…..

Do you feel me on this or am I being overly critical?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pentagon Needs Money

The $1 trillion budget the Pentagon is trying to push through Congress is not doing so well….and now the Speaker Johnson in true MAGA form is trying to make a non-existent problem into a money maker for the Pentagon.

As he pushed for Congress to approve $350 billion in new spending requested by the Pentagon, House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Tuesday that some of the funds were needed for “fighting communism on our own shores,” an ominous notion in light of President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy the US military against his domestic enemies.

In addition to the already record-breaking $1.1 trillion military spending bill that was approved last month by the House Appropriations Committee, the Pentagon has requested a separate $350 billion package to be passed through a separate GOP-led spending bill known as “Reconciliation 3.0,” which can pass without Democratic support.

Johnson (La.) has faced pushback from some GOP senators, including Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and the hospitalized Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as he’s sought additional spending. During a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson made his case for Republicans to back the reconciliation proposal.

The speaker argued that the package included “transformational funding that will help us change the dynamic of the Department of War and make it more efficient and effective,” including Trump’s request to “effectively double the funding for national defense.”

“Look, we live in dangerous times,” Johnson said. “We’re fighting communism on our own shores, and we’re fighting evil terrorists and tyrants around the world, and we have to be able to protect our national security.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/johnson-us-military-communism

They came and made the movement known as antifa illegal and a domestic terrorism hub…..so now they want to make your vote illegal by saying that Democratic Socialist are commies.

Do I need to tell you how utterly moronic that statement is?

But I am sure that there a at least a few that will believe such crap….for it is easier to believe crap than search for the answers….and that makes them lazy cowards.

This whole ‘commie’ thing is getting ridiculous…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Inflation By The Numbers

This post is no news to working families for their wallets are being hit and hit hard thanks to this dolt of a president, who by the way cares NOTHING about your lives as long as he and his butt buddy billionaires keep raping the country….but the numbers tell the tale of the tape….

Federal data released Tuesday showed US inflation rising to the highest level it’s been since May 2023, as President Donald Trump’s Iran War has led to increases in the costs of both energy and food.

The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that prices in April posted a year-over-year increase of 3.8%, above economists’ expectations of a 3.7% increase, driven by energy prices that surged nearly 18% from April 2025.

The price of groceries also notched significant increases during the month, the report notes.

“Five of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased in April,” says the report. “The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 1.3% over the month as the index for beef rose 2.7%. The fruits and vegetables index increased 1.8% in April and the nonalcoholic beverages index rose 1.1%. The index for dairy and related products increased 0.8% over the month and the index for cereals and bakery products rose 0.1% in April.”

…

Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, observed that the cost of living in April rose above average monthly wage gains, meaning US consumers are no longer just treading water but falling behind.

“Inflation is now eating up all wage gains for the first time in about three years,” she wrote. “This is painful for Americans and a true financial squeeze.”

University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers highlighted just how much the latest CPI report exposes the false promises President Donald Trump made during the 2024 presidential campaign.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-inflation-april-cpi

I realize that this is nothing new to people that have to live on their wages….but they need to know just how bad it is and just how bad it is going to stay.

The way things are going I do not think that elections will bring any change soon…we are stuck in this cycle thanks to the ‘brilliant’ mind of a ‘stable genius’….which saying that makes me laugh at the stupidity presented as policy.

Sorry to be redundant or giving you the news you may already be aware of but seeing the numbers may make it more clear on what we can expect in the near future.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Are We Force-Fed “Facts”?

There is so much propaganda out there, not just the Donny years but for the last several decades, ‘facts’ that we all buy into that are not ‘facts’ at all…..

1. The idea that tax cuts or bailouts for the wealthy will stimulate the economy (aka “trickle-down economics”) is, at best, a failed experiment and, at worst, an all-out deception. The term “trickle-down economics” was first used in relation to Herbert Hoover and his economic policy during the Great Depression. However, Hoover’s oft-attributed commitment to laissez-faire free market economic policy is debatable, and he actually raised taxes on the rich.

2. The major modern player in trickle-down economics was Ronald Reagan, though the term he actually used was supply-side economics, which purports to boost economic growth through lowered individual and corporate taxes and regulations. His first major move toward such an economy was the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which, according to Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget director David Stockman, was really just “a Trojan horse to bring down the top [tax] rate” and essentially trickle-down in a trench coat.

The Act slashed the highest income tax from 70% down to 50%. Lower incomes also received tax cuts, but they were much smaller. It also reduced estate, capital gains, and corporate taxes. This massively increased the deficit to such a disastrous level that some of it was actually reversed before it went into effect just a year later in TEFRA, including a few of the tax breaks and slashes that had not gone into effect yet; it also closed tax loopholes and increased other taxes like the cigarette tax. However, Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986 later provided further massive tax cuts, slashing the top income tax from 50% to 28%, and decreasing the corporate tax rate by 12 points to 34%.

All of this was purportedly done to boost the economy, which was in a recession when Reagan came into office. So, did it work? Kind of, temporarily. Unemployment dropped, finance (particularly stocks, bonds, and real estate) and technology expanded, and low-level positions (in addition to high-level ones) saw pay raises. However, Reaganomics also led to the income gap widening considerably, with the richest now able to lobby the government for further policy to support them. Oh, and Reagan massively increased the deficit…again.

There is so much more bullshit that was fed to the less intelligent among us

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/american-propaganda

All this was propaganda which equates to damn lies and yet voters flocked to the promise of a better America…..and how has that worked out for you?

Reagan among others have been pulling our chains and manipulating us to the point of us actually being the problems we face today.

For christ sake learn something…..for we have the power to change this assassination of our system by politicians….all we have to do is learn and vote for the change we need to right this country from the destructive course these politicians have set us on.

Do you want to continue on this journey of destruction or do you want the country we use to have?

It is your choice.

Choose wisely.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Marvelous ‘Golden Dome’

Let’s take a break from Donny’s clusterf**k with Iran and move on to his less than brilliant idea of the Golden Dome.

Golden Dome is Donny’s version of the budget busting program proposed by Reagan, the Strate4gic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)….and guess what Donny’s ‘brilliant’ idea is a budget buster as well….to the tune of $1 trillion….a far cry from the bullshit Donny said but then why would he ever tell the truth?

President Trump’s plan to put weapons in space—pitched as a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program—is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a 20-year period, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a far heftier sum than the initial $175 billion price tag he gave last year. The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal,” the AP reports.

  • The futuristic system was ordered by Trump in an executive order during his first week in office. He said then that he expected the system to be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which wraps up in January 2029.
  • “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems,” Trump said in his executive order, justifying the need for the missile defense system.
  • The CBO’s estimates are in part based on a lack of details from the Defense Department about what and how many systems will be deployed, “making it impossible to estimate the long term cost” of the Golden Dome system, the report says.
  • The concept for the missile system is at least partly inspired by Israel’s multitiered defenses, often referred to as the “Iron Dome,” which played a key role in defending it from rocket and missile fire from Iran and allied militant groups as it prosecutes the war on Iran alongside the US.
  • The US Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground and space-based capabilities able to detect, intercept, and stop missiles at all major stages of a potential attack. Congress has already approved roughly $24 billion for the missile defense initiative through Republicans’ massive tax and spending measure signed into law last summer.
  • Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, who requested the estimate from the CBO, said in response to the report that the missile defense project is “nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans.”
  • Last May, the president said the Golden Dome would cost $175 billion. The CBO last year estimated that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

This will be on the backs of taxpayers like everything else Donny does….we get stuck for his bullshit ideas.

There is some concern that all that cash spent maybe in vain….

Even under generous technical assumptions, the viability challenges facing Golden Dome are severe. When it comes to reliably defending the United States against peer and near-peer intercontinental nuclear threats, those challenges are effectively insurmountable. They include the number of interceptors required to reliably defend the United States, with some estimates suggesting ratios as high as 1,600 interceptors for every incoming missile; the ability of adversaries to deploy countermeasures designed to defeat missile defenses; and the risk that a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere or in space could significantly degrade or disable the system’s ability to track and intercept additional threats.  As a budget watchdog, one of our guiding principles at Taxpayers for Common Sense is, “if it doesn’t work, don’t fund it.” The evidence presented in this report strongly suggests that Golden Dome will not work.

Read the report by Taxpayers For Common Sense

https://www.taxpayer.net/national-security/missing-the-mark-why-golden-dome-is-bad-for-american-taxpayers/

Just another one of Donny’s lame ass ideas to waste taxpayer money….and people, taxpayers, still support this clown…..why?

Just trying to keep an eye on what our half-ass government will do with the taxes we all pay.

This is NOT what I signed on for….how about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Inverted Fascism–WTF?

For years now we have been having a conversation….well most sane people have been…..is a Donny a fascist or not?

His actions to me say he is…..and the actions of his sycophants say they are as well…..the tech bros are for sure…..but with all that what is this thing called ‘Trumpism”?

I argued that Trump is a fascist, but more specifically, borrowing from the language of Sheldon Wolin, he is an “inverted fascist.” Inverted fascism, like the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany, is animated by a totalitarian drive, but puts corporate interests above those of the nation state. The Trump administration’s war on Iran is the most extreme manifestation of inverted fascism that we have seen yet.

Inverted fascism is more than simply a collection of policies that are repressive and in the interest of billionaires. It could be understood as a condition in which popular input, at every level, has been usurped by corporate power. This condition is marked by media concentration in the hands of a tiny group of conglomerates facilitated by FCC-authorized mergers; social media owned by right-wing billionaires; lobbyists, campaign donors, and corporate-backed think tanks determining policy; and underfunded schools, mass deportations, and militarized police.

But inverted fascism is also a global condition. In their report on 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term, Oxfam found that billionaire wealth around the world grew by more than 16%, reaching a record $18.3 trillion. This while right-wing governments around the world have taken up different versions of inverted fascism. Benjamin Netanyahu engages in brazen genocide in Gaza and land grabs in the West Bank and Lebanon while hollowing out Israel’s own social services. Narendra Modi oversees unprecedented inequality while forwarding his own Hindu nationalism.

This order, however, is fundamentally unstable as made evident by the inability of the Trump administration to pry open the Strait of Hormuz, the reverberating economic consequences of the war, Iran’s remarkable success in its assault on US and Israeli targets in the region, and the reluctance of US allies toward participating. This war marks a major step in the decline of US hegemony. As that decline unfolds, the brazenness of the violence of capitalism becomes increasingly evident. The assault began with the bombing of a girls’ school that killed over 150, the vast majority of whom were between the ages of eight and twelve.

Decline has been a reality for US global hegemony since it reached its peak following WWII. In 1949, the Chinese Revolution succeeded despite billions in US aid to the Kuomintang nationalists and tens of thousands of marines working alongside Japanese imperialists endeavoring to defeat the Red Army. One letter from US ambassador to China, John Leighton Stuart, to the secretary of state relayed, “Killing, assaulting of peaceful Chinese civilians and raping of Chinese women and robbing of Chinese shops by American forces in China. One United States Marine in Tientsin had thrown 9 year old Chinese girl into river [sic].”

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-going-to-get-a-lot-worse/

Donny’s actions and policies smell suspiciously like fascism…..this point has been debated for years now….the Donny loyalist do not see it….those effected by these policies see it so very clearly….

I know this is all debatable….but I would love to hear you thoughts….good or bad….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“I Am The Destroyer Of Countries”

It appears that our leader (I use the term loosely) that it is his right too destroy countries that deems unworthy.

He proved just what a complete idiot he is and his lack of knowledge of the Constitution…..this after SCOTUS slipped him a mickey on his dumbass tariffs.

Reacting to a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling his tariffs policy unconstitutional, U.S. President Donald Trump launched into an unhinged rant on Friday confirming that he considers himself above the law as any tinpot authoritarian leader would.

The court ruled 6-3 that the U.S. Constitution makes clear that only Congress can levy tariffs, which are really taxes, on the U.S. population. Thus Trump’s extensive tariffs, imposed since January 2025, are illegal and American consumers and companies are due a refund of around $200 billion, the court said.

The ruling unleashed Trump in full psychotic mode, railing against justices as “fools and lapdogs;” the plaintiffs in the lawsuit the court ruled on as “sleazebags, major sleazebags” serving an unnamed foreign power and he announced a new 10 percent worldwide tariff “over and above our normal tariffs already being charged” in defiance of the court.

Trump argues he is still allowed to impose tariffs over the heads of Congress by the authority of the 1974 Trade Act. That act allows a president to unilaterally impose tariffs of up to 15 percent (hence the new 10 percent measures), but only for 150 days, after which Congress must continue them.

However, Friday’s ruling means he must vacate the existing tariffs, which he is so far refusing to do.

Trump tries to justify his existing tariffs as having been imposed under an emergency act. But the court struck that down, arguing in essence there is no economic or national security emergency in the United States today.

In his madness, Trump furiously claimed he had authority to impose embargoes and “destroy countries” but the Supreme Court dared rule he couldn’t even put a single dollar tariff on a nation’s imports. He exclaimed:

“I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country. In other words, I can destroy the trade, I can destroy the country. I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo. I can embargo, I can do anything I want, but I can’t charge one dollar because that’s not what it says, and that’s not the way it even reads. I can do anything I want to do to them, but I can’t charge any money. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge them a little fee.

Think of that. How ridiculous is that? I’m allowed to embargo them, I’m allowed to tell them you can’t do business in the United States anymore, ‘we want you out of here,’ but I want to charge them $10. I can’t do that.

It’s incorrect, their decision is incorrect. But it doesn’t matter because we have very powerful alternatives … .”

In fact, Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution asserts Congress has the authority to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.  Embargoes, such as those on Cuba, North Korea and Iran, are imposed by Congress, not the White House (unless there is an emergency).

Trump: ‘I Can Destroy Countries’

This arrogant twat needs to be chopped down a peg or two….he clearly thinks he is an absolute ruler…..time for him learn differently.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”