Switching tracks to our allies for a bit. Who would you put in that category and how have the relationships changed? In my view, the major allies are the likes of England, Germany, France, Mexico, and uh....Australia, maybe? I dunno. But I look at European countries, they've allowed massive waves of immigrants, and created for themselves a whole new pot of problems they are trying to sort out now. Immigration is a major topic - how much to help others at their country vs allowing them into yours? What does that mean for your own population? We've had similar from South and Central America for decades that many Presidents have spoken about, some have made efforts to address, but Trump's the first to make it a real priority. But I'm spinning out, let me refocus. As to our 'allies', how much of the global burden have they shared in name versus in practice of boots on the ground, or dollars in areas of need? How much has America footed the bill compared to our 'allies'? And at what cost? Those dollars we wish to cut military spending for so we can bolster our social services...I'm starting to spin out again real quick, but my point is America has been the global policeman, and financial supporter, for decades. We've been paying for our 'friends' and gotten little in return. I'm fine if we cut back on foreign aid, both in military might and in funding, and focus those monies on our own people. Bah, I'm totally borking this up. I better quit for a bit. But I can come back to it if you're up for it.
Our pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, as well as Trump's discussing of backing out of NATO, as well as tbhe withdrawal of the Mid-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, have all caused our allies, the other countries in these agreements, whom we made promises to for the mutual benefit of everyone, to view us less favorably and trust our word less. Ukraine has been our ally against Russia, and Trump blackmailed them. The worst one, to me, is how he abandoned the Kurds when he pulled out of Syria. The Kurds were one of our biggest allies in the fight against ISIS, putting their own people into constant battle to protect our interests as well as their own. When we withdrew and left them to Turkey (ostensibly to stop policing the world and bring our troops home, but they actually just got sent to Iraq), that was a huge "fuck you" to them. The Turkish want to subjugate and kill the Kurds and our presence there was the main thing stopping them. Our withdrawal was us leaving them to their fate and snubbing them after promksing them we would help protect them. There was an agreement of "you help me, I'll help you", but we backed out at a crucial point, when the Turks were advancing and had declared they would not stop until they had defeated the Kurds. Not only does this severely damage our relationship with our allies the Kurds, it also tells the rest of the Middle East and the world that you can't trust our word. It also passed the power and control in the region to Turkey and Russia. We claim to want to bring Democracy to the world, but we abandoned an ally to the attack by an authoritarian government bent on conquest (Turkey).
The net result of this is that people see that we can't be trusted. It is also turning our backs on people who put their lives on the line for years to help us, and were in charge of holding ISIS prisoners, right when they needed the protection we had promised the most. To me this would be unforgivable even if we really did bring our troops back home, but we didn't even bring them home. I think we should never have gotten involved the way we did in the Middle East, but we are where we are, the situation over there is partly our responsibility because of our oil wars, and the way Trump handled it was awful and callous. Something that really concerns me is that, for better or worse, we live in a world where there is a global economy, and isolationism is no longer viable. I am concerned that our global position will be disrupted to the point that the US dollar will no longer be the world's reserve currency. Right now we are in a strong position because our currency is what the world's economy is based on, so we can print money willy-nilly and it is worth something. If we lose our status as the world's reserve currency, we will start to see a profound reduction in the dollar's actual value on the world stage and it could spell very big trouble for our economy and spending power. Russia and China are vying to usurp our role as the biggest economy in the world and our foreign policy decisions are pretty crucial right now. Trump's actions thus far have not given me confidence that we have the right person in charge at this uncertain time.
A few questions here. On the economy he 'inherited'...how long until he can have credit for economic performance in your book? In my book, all Presidents take credit for good things beyond their actual control. As Obama was the most recent, he provides the best comparison. I saw Obama getting kicked in the nuts by the housing bubble - something he had NO control over, and rightfully didn't get blamed for a tanking economy. He oversaw our hitting the bottom shortly after he took office, and rode-guided us back to decent economic performance. How much did he actually have a hand in for the recovery? Does he get any credit? Or blame? Part of me thinks the economy would save itself regardless of who was in office, back to that bit about taking credit where it isn't earned. And I've got several issues with what he did such as TARP program and bailing out Detroit auto makers. There was a LOT of gov't spending to try and save-revive these parts of the economy. I'm more of a mindset to let the strong survive - don't have others bail you out, and get yourself lean if you want to get through the tough times and prosper again. However, at the end of the day, are we going to give Obama credit for us getting out of the recession? Letting you slide on specifics of what he may have done, does he get credit for saving the economy? How long does his 'influence' last?
I don't know exactly what to tell you, I don't think it's super clear cut how long it takes to give a president credit for economic movements. If you look at economic graphs (stock markett, unemployment, etc), the upward trend stays around the same rate of upward mobility when Trump gets into office, and then begins to slow. We won't be able to say what the effects of his policies are for sure until he's not president anymore, not fully anyway. What I know is that the trade war he is waging with China and Europe has coincided with economic growth beginning to slow. Could be coincidence, as we are rather due for a slowdown since we're late in the market cycle. But foreign investment has slowed down which suggests a lack of confidence in investors.
Besides that, Trump and/or his administration have been behind a number of policy decisions that bode ill for the middle class, and quite well for the ultra wealthy. For example he is ending the public servant student loan forgiveness program. He appointed Betsy DeVoss who wants to privatize primary school. We have a student debt crisis, and these things are pushing the needle towards even more difficulty with people accruing signific ant debt to educate themselves. His tax plan substantially cut taxes to the already wealthy, and raised taxes on 83 million middle class families by 2027. The tax bracket changes change slowly over a decade so as of yet it appears to be a win for the middle class but that's a smokescreen. Since inflation is still outstripping pay raise, in 10 years from now there will be an even wider gap between the haves and have nots, which is going to be terrible for the economy, since a strong and sustainably strong economy arises from a prosperous middle class of consumers. The yearly deficit is has also raised to the largest in history under Trump. He is also repealing a varietyt of worker protection policies:
majorityleader.gov said:
In June of 2017, the Trump Administration attacked America’s workforce by rescinding joint employer guidance and other regulations meant to protect workers and their ability to collectively bargain. In the last two years, the Trump Administration has removed a
number of critical worker protections, including limiting tip protection rules, halting records of workplace injuries, implementing rules limiting worker retirement plans, and awarding lucrative government contracts to organizations with known workplace-safety violations.
And let's not forget health care, one of the most expensive costs for Americans... he tried to entirely repeal Obamacare, which, though not perfect, resulted in tebns of millions of people being able to afford healthcare who previously could not. He didn't repeal it but has been dismantling it piecemeal:
Sabotaging the Affordable Care Act
After failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans have taken action through executive orders and legislation to undermine the law’s critical protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, force 13 million Americans off of health coverage, and raise costs. As a result of the Trump Administration’s actions, the number of uninsured Americans has now
increased for the first time since 2014. Here’s a look at a few of the ways the President has sabotaged the law:
Attacking Women’s Health Care
Over the last two years, the Trump Administration has attacked women’s health care through
rules intended to restrict access to contraception, and
restrictions to family planning services that put employers in charge of women’s reproductive health care choices.
All of this certainly will have an impact on the economy by making millions of people poorer and less able to buy things. Many of the results of these policy changes will take a while to manifest.
