The Trump/Pence Regime Is Clueless About Americans' Finances

Steven Mnuchin -  utterly clueless.

Perhaps it's the result of loading one's regime ("administration" is too complimentary a term) with rapacious billionaires and ideologues who worship vulture capitalism, but whatever the cause the Trump/Pence regime is proving itself utterly clueless as to the finances and lives of average Americans, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.  Among the most clueless is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin seemed to imply that $1,200 stimulus checks would be enough to tide American families over until the coronavirus pandemic crisis passed.  One has to wonder what planet these clueless and uncaring monsters are from.  With 22 million people seeking unemployment benefits over the last three weeks, perhaps Republicans will get a glimpse at how their reverse Robin Hood agenda has harmed so many Americans.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the depths of the Trump/Pence regime's callousness.  Here are highlights:

Earlier this week, a video of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaking on “Face the Nation” late last month began making the rounds. Mnuchin seemed to imply that the government’s current financial support system — the temporary boost to unemployment benefits, the small business lending program and the $1,200 stimulus check — would be enough to tide American families over until the coronavirus pandemic crisis passed.  This is all ludicrously, offensively inaccurate.

There are at least 22 million people who lost their jobs within the past month — and that’s what we know of. Antiquated state unemployment systems cannot keep up with the demand. And despite the fact that gig workers are supposed to be covered — for the first time ever — the Trump administration’s Labor Department is attempting to issue regulations to get around that directive. “We want workers to have work, not to become dependent on the unemployment system,” Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and Small Business Administration head Jovita Carranza wrote in an op-ed published by Fox Business (where else?) this week.

No surprise, thousands upon thousands of people are lining up at food banks, desperately seeking help — and the cost of staples such as eggs is soaring. Food banks, in turn, are increasingly concerned about running out of food, money or both. Meanwhile, the Trump administration needed to be publicly shamed into backing off an attempt to impose work requirements on food stamp recipients, even as jobs have disappeared.

As for the small business loan program designed to keep people employed — the Paycheck Protection Program — it was so underfunded that it ran out of money within days of opening up for applications.

More finance facts: According to the real estate site RENTCafé, the average rent in the United States is more than $1,400, over $200 more than our one-time $1,200 stimulus check. In many cities — including hard-hit New York — it’s more than $2,000. Almost a third of renters didn’t pay their rent bill for April, not because they were suddenly financially irresponsible, but because they didn’t have the money. They lived paycheck to paycheck, and when that paycheck suddenly vanished, so did their financial resources. Those Americans need a rent freeze, not a measly handout designed to make the narcissistic President Trump appear beneficent.

And that check? The American Prospect, in a great scoop, revealed that Mnuchin’s Treasury Department gave banks permission to seize the money if the account holder had outstanding balances for anything ranging from a past-due loan to an overdraft. Moreover, Trump’s insistence on putting his name on the checks means a delay in sending them to people who don’t have a bank account — that is the poorest, most financially desperate Americans.

But what would Trump care about that? He’s a man of inherited wealth who has fooled no small number of voters into believing he assembled his vast fortune all by himself. As president, he then went on to put together the wealthiest presidential Cabinet ever known. Mnuchin — estimated net worth $300 million — is all too typical. . . . Among Mnuchin’s pre-Trump claims to fame: foreclosing on the homes of financially desperate people during the financial crisis.

So instead of meaningful help, Americans get pep talks. Trump, Mnuchin and the Republican Party pursue a financial relief plan that showers gains on Wall Street and corporations, while leaving smaller businesses and individual Americans fighting for mere scraps. No amount of financial literacy is going to fix this bad penny of an administration.

The Kochs - Blessing or Curse for the GOP

Koch Brothers - Greed and Selfishness Personified

The hypocrisy of the Republican Party was on display as numerous Republicans trekked to Dallas to kiss the rings of and prostitute themselves to the Koch brothers. While these Republicans pretend to honor Christian values, they are only too happy to be little more than paid whores of two men who personify the sin of greed more than just about anyone else in America today.  With billions of dollars, it's just not enough for these foul men who would happily return America to a new Gilded Age where most of us struggle to mere survive while they and their cronies wallow in incredible wealth.  Sadly, many in the brain addled GOP base refuse to see that the Kochs are the enemies of working families and decent people.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the mass GOP self-prostitution over the weekend.  Here are highlights:

While most Americans were settling in for a long weekend, many of the potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates — Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Mike Pence — went to Dallas for a convention of Americans for Prosperity, the group through which Charles and David Koch channel much of their political money. If any of the politicians were wary about how it looks to have so many people who want to be the leader of the free world kissing the Kochs’ rings, you couldn’t tell. They’re making a strategic calculation that whatever PR risks are inherent in getting too close to the Kochs, they’re outweighed by the money the brothers bring to the GOP’s table. And if the Kochs plan to intervene in the 2016 primaries — something no one seems sure they’ll do — then every Republican candidate wants to be the one on the receiving end of that fire hose of cash.

At the moment, Republicans couldn’t be happier about the Kochs’ support, because the sums they mobilize are staggering.

So far, the Democrats’ efforts to make voters see the Kochs as a pair of villains have met with only limited success. One poll taken in March found 37 percent of people with an opinion about the Kochs (25 percent negative, 12 percent positive). On the other hand, it might be enough if many voters had only the vaguest sense of who the Kochs are and what they stand for.

[W]hile Democrats certainly want voters to think of their opponents as heartless robber barons, the strategy is more complex than that; it’s also about establishing a context for attacks on Republican positions on economic issues. When you go after Republicans for not supporting an increase in the minimum wage, an association with billionaire oil magnates tells voters why Republicans believe what they do and why their interests are opposed to those of ordinary people.

I’d be extremely surprised if the Kochs actually chose to back a single candidate in the 2016 primary; not only does that risk alienating whoever wins if it’s not the one they picked, it could also turn them into just one faction in a factional conflict. Even if the brothers aren’t toeing the GOP line on some issues (such as immigration or foreign interventionism), they benefit from having everyone on the right view them as a friend to all Republicans. At the same time, it’s in the Kochs’ interest to have all the candidates believe they might back a primary candidate. That way, those candidates will continue to cater to their concerns and maybe even make some promises about actions that could be taken once a Republican is in the White House.

But the closer we get to the 2016 general election, the more problematic it will be for the eventual nominee to be seen as too close to the Kochs. Democrats aren’t going to stop going after them, and if the Republican candidate himself isn’t a plutocrat (none of the contenders this time around approach Mitt Romney’s level of wealth), the next best thing is to say that he’s in a plutocrat’s pocket. So there will be many more Democratic ads with the brothers’ pictures, and many more Democratic speeches tying that eventual nominee to the oil barons from Kansas.

The longer that goes on, the higher the chances that being seen as too close to the Kochs poses a political risk for Republican presidential candidates. But for the moment, they don’t seem too concerned, especially when gaining the Kochs’ favor comes with the promise of so much money. 

Is America Drifting to Oligrachy?

By almost any analysis, today's Republican Party is the party of the wealthy and a return to the worse social abuses of the Gilded Age is the GOP's main goal.  When push comes to shove, average Americans are deemed unimportant other than to the extent that they can be duped into supporting policies that are, in fact, against their own interests (racism and religion are the favored tools in this effort).  Worse yet, the poor and unfortunate are deemed to be disposable trash as time after time the GOP seeks to shred the social safety net.  As for minorities, the GOP seeks to disenfranchise them and limit their ability to vote.  All the while, of course, the GOP pretends to support "Christian values" even as the Gospel message is flushed down the toilet.  It's an ugly picture.  A column in the New York Times looks at America's slide toward oligrachy.  Here are excerpts:

As Mr. Piketty notes, “the risk of a drift toward oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism.”

Indeed. And if you want to feel even less optimistic, consider what many U.S. politicians are up to. America’s nascent oligarchy may not yet be fully formed — but one of our two main political parties already seems committed to defending the oligarchy’s interests. 

Despite the frantic efforts of some Republicans to pretend otherwise, most people realize that today’s G.O.P. favors the interests of the rich over those of ordinary families. I suspect, however, that fewer people realize the extent to which the party favors returns on wealth over wages and salaries. And the dominance of income from capital, which can be inherited, over wages — the dominance of wealth over work — is what patrimonial capitalism is all about.

To see what I’m talking about, start with actual policies and policy proposals. It’s generally understood that George W. Bush did all he could to cut taxes on the very affluent, that the middle-class cuts he included were essentially political loss leaders. It’s less well understood that the biggest breaks went not to people paid high salaries but to coupon-clippers and heirs to large estates. 

Some of these cuts were reversed under President Obama, but the point is that the great tax-cut push of the Bush years was mainly about reducing taxes on unearned income. And when Republicans retook one house of Congress, they promptly came up with a plan — Representative Paul Ryan’s “road map” — calling for the elimination of taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains and estates. Under this plan, someone living solely off inherited wealth would have owed no federal taxes at all.

This tilt of policy toward the interests of wealth has been mirrored by a tilt in rhetoric; Republicans often seem so intent on exalting “job creators” that they forget to mention American workers.

In fact, not only don’t most Americans own businesses, but business income, and income from capital in general, is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people. In 1979 the top 1 percent of households accounted for 17 percent of business income; by 2007 the same group was getting 43 percent of business income, and 75 percent of capital gains. Yet this small elite gets all of the G.O.P.’s love, and most of its policy attention.

Great wealth buys great political influence — and not just through campaign contributions. Many conservatives live inside an intellectual bubble of think tanks and captive media that is ultimately financed by a handful of megadonors. Not surprisingly, those inside the bubble tend to assume, instinctively, that what is good for oligarchs is good for America.

As I’ve already suggested, the results can sometimes seem comical. The important point to remember, however, is that the people inside the bubble have a lot of power, which they wield on behalf of their patrons. And the drift toward oligarchy continues.