Money can be ugly by either its presence or its absence

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The foregoing is a short form that doesn’t include my years at WSU and UC Berkeley, my wife Jean’s early sacrifices, her belated retirement at age 67 as finance officer of the local school district, our time in Northern California, etc. But first and foremost of the reasons for which this all is published is to lend testimony to the reality that Donald Trump doesn’t know squat about the average citizen whom he claims to represent. Nor does he really care squat about those of us who don’t (or didn’t) have a fat income.

Learning to bully the meek just doesn’t cut it. Blaming the poor and/or the non-white for society’s shortcomings also goes beyond egomania. And can you believe he’s actually planning to woo the black vote in 2020?

I was there during Donald’s earlier years as a racist, womanizing and self-aggrandizing money-grubber. He’s gotten a little fatter (which is why he wears his ties long and his coat unbuttoned). He’s gone through a few major bankruptcies. Overall he hasn’t changed much and he is aging with a total lack of grace and dignity.

It’s actually ridiculous that Trump claims great economic wisdom. The federal budget deficit hit $1 trillion in 2019, for the first time since the calendar year of 2012. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)’s recent report showed that tax collections are considerably weaker than they would have been without the 2017 Republican tax law. That’s the law that Trump sold like a side-show barker to the public but used basically to benefit the wealthy and the corporate coal-burners.

So now we have those long on money and short on vision playing with the stock market and the Trump regime boasting of great strides in general prosperity that somehow eludes us commoners. It seems to me that wealthier sorts who can afford stocks and bonds will prosper in a deceptive way through the length of a presidential term if Trump wins another election.

Can you imagine another 4 1/2 years of Trump? Or, Heaven help us, even the vengeful “lame duck” period from Nov. 3 to Jan. 20 if he loses the election?

Soon as he gets through lying his way through the 2020 election, Donald will get to cutting Medicare and Social Security in general‚ while raising national defense (including his new Space Force). Donald already has told aides he will look for big spending cuts his second term. Just more deceitful words for the inattentive, words of anguish for those in need. The 2017 law locked in power rates for many corporations while creating only temporary savings for ordinary households.

The CBO Jan. 29 said the U.S. deficit will be more than one trillion per year and reach $1,700,000,000 for the 2030 year. The ballooning deficit is fueled by the federal government spending more than it takes in. By 2030 it is projected that the amount of debt held by the public will have increased to $31 trillion—about 98% of the size forecast for the entire nation’s economy.

On Monday of this week Donald released his proposed $4.8-trillion budget for the coming year.

He promised to pay off the federal debt as president, but during three years in office he has instead raised the deficit with big tax cuts and increased spending‚ leaving us little but short-term gaiety in the stock market . . . as many of us look back at his own bankrupt casino, airline, college, etc.

The budget for the coming year is expected to include big increases to fund the wall, Mexican border security and law personnel—yet 5% net cuts in domestic discretionary spending, including cutting the budget for the centers for Disease Control and Prevention despite the spreading coronavirus.

Here’s a site that shows all sorts of ever-changing numbers, including a U.S. budget total well over $23,000,000,000,000: https://www.usdebtclock.org/#
Wikipedia agreed that “As of February 2020, federal debt held by the public is 23.2 trillion" and every man, woman and child now owes $76,534. The federal deficit already has grown by about $3 trillion under Trump.

The new budget will make compromising difficult for the House of Representatives as it will contain various excesses that can be transferred for use in wall funding. “As in past budgets,” notes The Washington Post, “this one would cut heavily into low-income communities, including slashing community development block grants and home heating assistance. The Education Department would be cut by $6 billion.”

Present interest on the national debt is over $378,550,000,000 and, of course, climbing.