A controversial budget maneuver is gaining steam on Capitol Hill that could help make Donald Trump’s first-term tax cuts permanent while also making room for additional tax break pledges he made on the campaign trail.
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This is just another version of “trickle down”. Tax cuts aren’t going to pay for themselves.
intercst
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No sweat, another accounting trick will have you covered. True, the US will go further into debt, but foreigners are going to shoulder the cost, according to the ‚Mar a Lago accord‘ considered. Zero coupon bonds with a pay day in a hundred years only - so, honestly, who cares. What could possibly go wrong?
As part of the deal, U.S. creditors would agree to swap U.S. bonds held by their central banks for 100-year nontradeable “century bonds.” Otherwise, Washington could threaten to push them out from under the U.S. security umbrella. These bonds wouldn’t carry a coupon, but they could be redeemed at a slight premium once they mature. […] Miran also proposed charging “user fees” to foreign central banks that hold U.S. debt, essentially retaining a portion of the coupon payments typically paid out by the Treasury and easing the financial costs of borrowing.
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I had to look for a link to confirm that bit. That’s extortion. Any organized crime boss would recognize it.
For the non-students of history, the Shinies in the US have a track record of using tactics like that.
Following WWI, when the Harding administration entered office…you remember the Harding administration, best known for the Teapot Dome scandal of official bribe taking by the Secretary of the Interior…Congress passed a law requiring our erstwhile allies to pay back all their war debts to the US, on time, in full, with interest, or they would be locked out of US financial markets. Fortunately, there were some adults in the room, primarily Secretary of State Hughes, and Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, as in Mellon Bank. Mellon, a banker, and a good one, realized that imposing payments that were beyond the debtor’s ability to pay, would only result in default. The threat to lock our allies out of the US financial system did bring them to the bargaining table, but the terms agreed on were much easier than what Congress had demanded.
Do our allies paid up, until the depression started. France defaulted quickly. The UK and Italy made partial payments, as best they could, considering their own finances were quickly becoming precarious. Congress passed another law, stating that partial payment was the same as default, with the debtors locked out of the US financial markets. With the same consequences for partial payment. as outright default, the UK and Italy defaulted.
Acting like a loan shark is nothing new for Shiny-land. Only difference now, is that Shiny-land has the finances of a banana republic, so runs a protection racket like a gangster, to force our allies and trading partners to accept worthless paper to stay in the US’ good graces.
Steve
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Time to listen again, as FDR saved the USA from similar short sighted egoistical greedy policies 9 decades ago. Here is his great speech at the Democratic Convention of 1936, when he laid defeat of economic manipulation on the line as his primary platform, even while beginning his preparations for WWII and its aftermath.
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Specially charming also the ‚user fees‘ piece. As in „We charge you, our debtholder, for the privilege of us allowing you to hold our debt. It is a great honor, you know. Hey, you did not say ‚THANK YOU’ once!“.
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“NO SALE”. …
Typical “JC” mindset. I have commented before, how the President of Radio Shack, responding to a question from a store manager about the increasingly uncompetitive RS pricing, said “we do people a favor when we sell them our stuff”, as if people should be happy to pay the 40% premium, for being allowed to buy RS product.
A “JC” mindset that they are entitled to people’s money, rather than needing to compete for it.
delusion noun
*de·lu·sion di-ˈlü-zhən *
1: a something that is falsely or delusively believed or propagated
b psychology a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary
Steve
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I’ve heard it’s actually “tinkle down.”
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Time for a new FDR, if one can be found.
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FDR was kind of an anomaly. Prior to him, the Presidents were, in order:
McKinley (Republican)
Roosevelt (Republican)
Taft (Republican)
Wilson (Democrat)
Harding (Republican)
Coolidge (Republican)
Hoover (Republican)
That is, 30 years of Republican vs 8 years of Democratic rule. And Wilson only won because there were three Republican candidates who split the vote. Wilson actually only got 40% for the vote.
Then came Hoover, well regarded in Republican circles and across the country, until 1929 happened, and his administration flailed helplessly for 3 1/2 years (yes, the crash happened just 6 months into his term) which was enough to sour the public on Republicans for quite a while, as FDR’s 4 elected terms demonstrates.
It’s going to take quite a bit to “sour” the red hats on these guys, but perhaps 4 years of these kinds of antics will do the trick, dunno. Anyway, if we’re waiting for a savior I think the wait is going to be long.
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I think after these 4 years you will see someone like Bernie Sanders take over. People will have lost everything and living in the poor house is going to want them to have more of a socialist government. That is what I think is going to happen but I could be wrong.
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One reason why I think that is going to happen is what happened in Deep Red Montana.
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If by “socialist” we mean “making the billionaires pay their fair share of taxes” which Bernie Sanders has been saying forever. Well, then… NAH. Americans still won’t go for it, because, “Ew, socialism.” They’d rather eat their own shoes and bootstraps.
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You don’t think Bernie is a socialist?
A socialist form of government is characterized by collective or state ownership of the means of production and centralized economic planning, aiming to achieve equitable distribution of resources and wealth.
I’ve never heard Bernie want to take over ownership of companies. Or to centrally plan the economy.
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There are many types of socialists with different views of socialism. Bernie says he is a socialist so I just take him for his word. Medicare and Social security are socialist programs. Some socialism never hurt a society. Even those who say they are against it are always happy when they get it.
Bernie is a self-described “democratic socialist”, closer to a Canadian, or German, or Brit, than to the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” sort of socialist.
Steve
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That’s actually the communist form of government. Socialism is when the government uses laws and regulations to achieve fairness and safety for all its constituents.
Historically, NO, it ain’t, but that posturing battle was lost in the USA long long long ago, primarily because the brilliant Theodore Roosevelt created Progressivism to counter monopoly power. Most “socialism” is NOT a descendant of power concentrating quasi-religious Hegelians such as Lenin, Karl Marx, and Mao, but rather descends from ancient egalitarian Social customs of Nordic peasants and Christian mystical communities concerned about power concentration, and those political groupings opposed the concentration of power that usually accompanies pure bred capitalism.
Notice that almost all European nations, our long time anti-communist allies, have major non-collectivist, anti-despotic, Democratic Socialist parties either leading or serving as coalition members in government since WWII.
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