Let's talk about Trump, 200 billion dollars, and a promise.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump, $200 billion, and a promise.

The Secretary of Defense said that they needed $200 billion more for Trump's elective war with Iran. Trump said the war was going to last about four weeks. I want to put that in context.

Do you remember when the Republican party shut down the government because it was incredibly important to strip health care from working-class Americans because the country just couldn't afford it? That was the justification to hurt millions of families while handing billionaires tax cuts. Ending the ACA enhanced premium tax credits saves the government somewhere between $124 billion and $140 billion over four years.

$200 billion for 4 weeks or $140 billion for four years. Always money for the war but never for the poor. But here's the thing. A lot of Americans voted for this. And I don't mean this in the, "Oh, you've reached the find out stage.” I mean they literally fell for a line of rhetoric that caused them to vote for it and they'll vote for it again because they may not get that all of the reductions in service and reductions in what the government does to help Americans and all of the additional costs are a central part of Republican rhetoric.

We need to run the government like a business. The Republican talking heads say it and the base repeats it so often that they never think about what it really means. It becomes a key piece of the idea. That's why it was a good idea to put a rich guy in charge rather than somebody that actually represents them.

Let's take it step by step. If the government is a business, what are you? You might say you're a shareholder, but you'd be wrong. The shareholders are the people who fund candidates. You're just a consumer, a customer. And if you buy corporate PR, that means that the business is there to be your friend. But what's the reality?

A business's job is to extract money from the customer. Further, how do those big businesses on Wall Street keep their shareholders happy? By extracting the most they can from the customer while giving them as little as possible in return. That's how you keep those profit margins high. That's exactly what Trump's doing. Jacking up prices and costs through tariffs, wars, and inflation, and cutting services, and lowering expectations about what a government that's supposed to be one of the people, by the people, and for the people is supposed to do.

A lot of people who voted for Trump thought that by putting a rich establishment guy in charge, it would reduce the billionaire's class influence in government because he wouldn't be swayed by campaign contributions.

He doesn't need to be swayed. He's part of their class and he is representing their interests, not yours. Putting an establishment billionaire in didn't reduce corporate influence. It just cut out the middleman for them.

Every time you hear somebody say they want somebody to run the government like a business, remember that is the rhetoric meant to get you to accept them, taking as much as they can from you while giving you as little as possible in return.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.