From Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp,” to his draconian healthcare proposal, to his disastrous budget proposal, to his one page tax proposal, Bernie Sanders took a look at the things Trump said during his campaign to fool the American people into voting him into office, and the things he actually tried to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.
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Donald Trump is obviously hiding something.
After Trump promised the country that he would release his taxes if he ran for president, then promised he would release his taxes if he became the Republican’s nominee, then promised he would release his taxes if elected and now saying he has no intention of releasing his taxes, it is clear that this man is a liar, determined to keep his tax secret from the American public.
Well New York Democrats are determined to flush that secret out!
Democrats in the New York legislature have introduced a bill that would require the state to release five years of President Trump’s state tax returns, according to The Associated Press.
The bill would apply to any president or vice president who files a New York state tax return, which would include Trump, the news service reported. The bill would also apply to top state politicians like Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and the attorney general, as well as New York’s two U.S. senators.
New York Democrats say the bill is a chance to force Trump to release more tax information than he previously has.
“This is drawing a line in the sand: Are you for transparency or not?” Sen. Brad Hoylman (D) of Manhattan told the AP. “This is an issue of national security.”
The Democratic-controlled New York Assembly will likely support the bill, but it faces longer odds in the state Senate, which is held by Republicans, the AP noted.
With sincere apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After all, Marquez knew it wasn’t easy to write a book, which is more than we can say about how easy Donald Trump thought (?) being president was going to be. It’s really a stunning admission given that, well, almost everyone else in the country over the age of 12 has an inkling that being president is a terrifically difficult job if you want to do it well, which clearly Trump has no interest in.
What’s not so easy is realizing that Trump has only been in the White House for 100 days. Maybe that’s because the first two weeks of bumbling and blathering seemed like a year in Roosevelt time. And only three years and change to go.
If this past week solidified anything, it’s that President Trump (shudder) is on course to be one of the least effective, least visionary and least truthful presidents in, um, a long, long time. There isn’t an issue he’s given little thought to including health care, taxes, deficits, infrastructure, foreign relations and the environment. On the unthinking agenda of the future is surely human rights, disaster relief, an economic downturn and a full-blown foreign crisis. Note to the president (shudder): these are not easy eventualities.
It’s clear by now that Trump also has little idea about how health care works or what kind of plan might be helpful to the greatest number of people. The conservatives in the GOP just want to help the insurance companies and make the plan as cheap as they can. Their plan will let the states cover what they can afford which isn’t going to be much. Plus, a law like that will have no chance of passing the Senate, so it doesn’t look like Trump is going to get the extra billions he needs to fund a tax cut.
Which now doesn’t seem to be a problem because the new tax plan plows through every assumption that makes a functioning, rational economy work. It’s a giant sop to the already wealthy and it comes with the promise that history has never justified – that we can make up the budget shortfall through…growth. As if Donald Trump’s crack team of Goldman Sachsers and Paul Ryan can guarantee us 3% economic growth for…ever? And this is going to get done despite the fact that Trump’s insular trade policy and his hounding of immigrant laborers will likely lead to a backlash against American goods and services. Add in the global competition from other low-wage countries, and how exactly are we growing so fast?
But again, the whole plan comes from the mind (?) of someone who hasn’t really thought about much since he became president. And given that he hasn’t released his tax returns so we can learn how this new plan will benefit him, it’s unlikely that he’ll get anywhere near what his original proposal calls for. That’s a good thing, because this plan will hurt the very people who voted for him. It’s irresponsible at best and destructive at worst.
Now that Trump is unshackled from the 100 day expectation, it will be interesting to see how he approaches the long slog that is the presidency. The tweets will continue, as will the bragging and misdirection that has already buried the Russia hacking from the news headlines. Some in the media have reported that Trump started out as horrible, but that he’s become a rather predictable Republican president. Honestly, I don’t see the difference.
But I did make a decision a few weeks back that has made my life infinitely easier I’m just not going to take anything Trump says at face value. If he says it, I immediately disbelieve it and look to find independent, verifiable information. Which I do in the responsible press.
You know, the one Donald Trump doesn’t believe.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
On Wednesday, Donald Trump released a 1 page tax plan that is geared towards putting more money in the pocket of wealthy people like himself. With the little information and lack of specificity outlined in plan, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calculated that based on the plan, America would lost a whopping $5 to $7 trillion in lost revenue over a 10 year period.
CRFB estimates the overall cost could go as high as $7 trillion if limits on tax breaks that the plan suggests apply only to high earners. Or the cost could fall to $3 trillion “assuming credits and exclusions are eliminated as well as deductions.”
But what about economic growth? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has asserted more than once that the tax plan will pay for itself by generating a lot of growth because the proposed changes will spur investment and create jobs.
CRFB doesn’t buy it, noting that even if tax cuts create more growth than it estimates, there’s “no plausible amount” that can offset the lion’s share of the plan’s cost.
I imagine that to a Trump supporter, the president’s moves seem like a new direction for the country.
For me, we are taking giant steps backwards.
It’s not just the denial of climate science or the reversal of protections for LGBTQ citizens, or the hounding of Muslims or threatening North Korea with a ship that was going the wrong way. Or any of the other executive orders undoing any number of worthwhile things like protecting consumers from financial advisers who might value commissions over investors, or net neutrality, or allowing cable television companies to continue to monopolize set-top boxes, or trying to repeal a health care law and replace it with a law that covers 24 million fewer people.
No, despite all of those gems and more, I see the country going back to a time when it was fine to say terrible things to women and minorities and to create groups that deserve protection and those that do not and the ones that do not are usually weaker or vulnerable.
But then there’s the light that illuminated the swamp that is FOX News, resulting in the toppling of Chairman O’Reilly and, perhaps, more executives who tolerated his abuse. And there’s the energy in Georgia and Montana and the other places where Democrats will be challenging Republicans on their own turf. After all, Trump went into the Midwest and won the election. Surely, Democrats can go into the South and the Plains and win some races there.
The big plus, though, is that Republicans are actually in charge and they are proving the point that it’s very difficult to run a government when you want that government to disappear. Yes, the GOP is making noise about reviving the health care bill, but the problem of cost and coverage, especially for those who voted for Trump but still need Obamacare, will doom any attempt to gut the bill, which is really what the rank and file want. They will rue the day.
And tax reform? Show us your returns, Mr. President, so we know how you benefit from the system. Then maybe we’ll support an overhaul that actually helps the middle class. But I don’t see that being a priority for the right. Get rid of the mortgage and state tax deductions? Slap an import tariff on my Kohl’s clothes sprees? Get into a trade war with Canada over milk? Good luck with that.
So maybe things are looking up? A monosyllabic chief executive can only say “great” so many times before he actually has to do something, or get Congress to pass some actual laws. In the meantime, the country will continue to slip backwards, harking back to a time that might have been great for some, but not for all.
It’s a shame that we’ll have to wait to move forward.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
From repealing Obamacare to Trump’s desire to lower taxes for the rich, Republicans and Trump are in a bubble when it comes go gauging what Americans really want.
Only 36 percent of American voters say Republicans in Congress should try again to repeal and replace Obamacare, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, while 60 percent say the Republicans should “move on.”
Voters disapprove 65 – 29 percent of the way President Donald Trump is handling health care and say 54 – 22 percent that he is handling health care worse than former President Barack Obama. Another 19 percent say he is handling it about the same as President Obama.
American voters are opposed to several proposals supported by President Trump and
Republicans in Congress:
American voters now support 57 – 38 percent allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S., reversing opposition of 51 – 43 percent in a December 23, 2015, Quinnipiac University national poll. Republicans are the only listed group opposed. White men and white voters with no college degree each are tied.
Trump’s Travels
Trump spends too much time at properties owned by his company, voters say 55 – 34 percent. He does not spend enough time at the White House, 50 percent of voters say, while 2 percent say he spends too much time and 38 percent say he spends the right amount of time.
A total of 35 percent of American voters are “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” with the amount spent on security so President Trump and his family can stay in places other than the White House, while 60 percent are “not so comfortable” or “not comfortable at all.”
You got Vladimir Putin and Russia saying that relations between the U.S and Russia is at an all time low. You got Donald Trump authorizing 60 missiles dropped in Syria, you got another massive bomb called, The Mother of All Bombs raining down in Afghanistan and you got Donald Trump and North Korea threatening nuclear destruction. And all this is happening within Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Put all that together and you have a recipe for global destruction, a time that concerns a seasoned veteran of U.S foreign affairs history.
“I’ve been through the Cuban missile crisis, I’ve been through the Bay of Pigs before that, Vietnam War, the two Iraq wars and so forth,” Former Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told MSNBC. “And I’ve got to tell you, though, I’ve never been so concerned, as I am now, for the state of this country and world relations.”
Donald Trump has dicked the American people around for so long, that even reporters are beginning to call him out on it. One issue in particular that has the public concerned, and is Trump’s insistence on keeping his taxes hidden from the people.
Trump is the first American president in recent decades to fool the American people into voting him into office without allowing us to see who he is financially connected to. In a recent press conference, White House spokesman Sean Spicer was asked whether Trump would release his 2016 taxes, to which he answered that those taxes were already under a routine audit.
“I think it’s been covered before. It’s the same thing that was discussed on the campaign trail. The president is under audit. It’s a routine one and it continues. And I think the American public [knows] clearly where he stands. This is something that he made very clear during the election cycle.”
ABC reporter, Johnathan Karl heard enough!
“You’ve been asked about this obviously a thousand times. You always talk about you’re under audit, the president is under audit. Is it time to say once and for all, the president is never going to release his tax returns?”
“We’ll have to get back to you on that,” Spicer replied. A well practiced phrase indeed.
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On the (months ago) heels of a 40 watt light bulb going off in the president’s head about how complicated health care could be, comes another revelation – unstated, about how dangerous the world could be.
Perhaps Donald Trump believed that throwing 59 missiles at Syria would startle Presidents Assad and Putin to the point that they would give up the fight and flee. Or maybe Trump giving his generals the green light to MOAB the Afghani desert would cause ISIS to run a white flag up a flagpole like the Vietcong did (not) when Richard Nixon decided we had too many leftover bombs in our arsenal and thought that Christmas would be a fabulous time to send a message of peace war.
In any case, this is now getting dangerous.
Never mind that North Korea’s attempts to rattle us ended in a failure that can be traced back to President Obama’s program to disrupt Kim Jong-un’s military through cyber-warfare. President Trump (shudder) will try to take credit for waking up in the morning and thinking that his actions will solve any and all real world problems. This is the kind of diplomacy we’ve seen before from politicians who believe that sending a military message without any diplomatic follow-up will yield meaningful fruit. It will not. Add the yeasty smell of a candidate who questioned the validity of NATO, and you have the makings of a loaf of something that makes matzah seem like a 7 layer cake.
For three months we saw Donald Trump’s attempts at domestic policy and the utter failure that resulted from his ineptitude. Foreign policy is much trickier and, as we’ve seen, can kill far more people than repealing the ACA. Rex Tillerson has his work cut out for him.
Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to have a president with some foreign policy and diplomatic experience? Like…
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
The younger brother of Eddie Murphy passed away on Wednesday, April 12th, in a New York hospital. He was 57 years old.
Although living in the brighter light of his older brother, Charlie made a name for himself, with frequent appearances on “Chapelle’s Show,” Harlem Nights and The Perfect Lady. He also co-starred in TV series like “Are We There Yet?” “Black Jesus,” “The Boondocks” and “Meet the Blacks.”
The news of his passing was conveyed by his publicist, who told TMZ that Charlie was undergoing chemotherapy in New York when he died. He suffered from Leukemia.
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Rest well Charlie Murphy. Thanks for one of the greatest comedy sketches in the history of time and space. pic.twitter.com/KHz1MqGjci
— Travon Free (@Travon) April 12, 2017
Police Brutality has not stopped, although it’s not front and center in the news these days.
The Sacramento Police Department on Tuesday announced a formal investigation into the actions of one of their officers who was seen slamming a black man to the ground and beating him — all sparked by an alleged case of jaywalking, NBCNews reports.
The video, released Monday, has sparked national outrage. It shows the officer confronting the man, identified as Nandi Cain Jr., as he crossed an intersection and attempting to talk to Cain but the situation quickly escalates.
After some words are exchanged while Cain is standing in the street, the officer then violently throws Cain to the ground and begins to punch him in the head.
The events leading up to the incident were not captured by the camera, and it is not possible to hear the conversation between Cain and the officer before the incident occurred.
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The White House Spokesman who recently proclaimed that Hitler did not use chemical weapons to kill his own people has a reputation of saying dumb things that make you go, huh?
Like no one else can, Rachel Maddow from MSNBC broke down the many misstatements of the man who speaks for the White House, Sean Spicer.
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