The Lords of Karma Kick-In the White House’s Front Door…

The Lords of Karma Kick-In the White House’s Front Door…

All who have ever written on government are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.

-Edmund Burke

By J.M. Hamilton   (3-24-2017)

That didn’t take long. 

Day sixty-four of the Trump Presidency ended not with a bang but a whimper, and very well may have set the tone for the coming four years.

Some were curious how long it would take for POTUS Trump to betray his base, and the answer is: not long at all.

The poor, the unemployed, & underemployed - who had voted for the Cheeto Messiah - received a taste of the true Trump, with the ACA replacement legislation that Trump and Team Plutocrat (aka the GOP establishment) were attempting to push through Congress’ hallowed halls.  But the pig didn’t even make it into the python’s throat, before the python heaved up said pig.

The pig in question, Trumpcare, was nothing more than another tax break for the wealthy, while piling greater co-pays and higher insurance rates upon those who could least afford it (the 99%).  Meanwhile, Trump, himself, admitted that the ACA replacement legislation would do harm to his own constituency.  The irony must have been bittersweet for Dems to see the conservative wing of the Republican Party balk and refuse to support Speaker Ryan and POTUS Trump (sometimes the enemy of one’s enemy, truly is one’s friend).  The latest version of the pig, per the CBO, was said to lower the deficit by only $150 billion over 10 years, while leaving 24 million Americans uninsured within the same time frame.

And so Obamacare remains the law of the land.  Sadly, both Obamacare and Trumpcare are absolute failures, because neither administration had the guts to take on the rogues of the American healthcare system – responsible for runaway medical costs: Big Pharma, Hospital monopolies, and lobbyist for the holy of holies, American doctors.

Facing defeat today, Trump administration acolytes – per standard operating procedure – reverted to Plan B and threw Speaker Ryan under the bus, placing full blame upon the hapless congressman from Wisconsin. 

The fate of many Trumpian initiatives, like tax reform and an infrastructure-spending bill, are all now called into question.  Keen observers of Washington, however, have seen something more alarming, since Mr. Trump entered executive office.  There has been a noticeable slide away from his populist agenda, originally designed to help the working poor and unemployed, and a greater adoption of GOP establishment policies, clearly designed to help the oligarchy.   Let’s take a look:

1)  POTUS Trump, instead of reining in runaway defense costs, proposed to increase defense spending $54 billion.  Meanwhile, the DOD hasn’t been successfully audited in years and the US Army is known for trillion dollar rounding error(s).  All but forgotten, 20 to 25% of American children live in poverty.  When America already spends more than the G8 combined upon offense, the President's proposed martial expenditures is a kick in the face to all Americans and a commitment to America's endless warfare policy.

2)  Instead of treating cable and internet cartels and monopolies like the utilities they are, the Trump administration is likely to eliminate citizen privacy and allow internet service providers to sell client data to the highest bidder.  Net neutrality also appears to be for sale, which will allow the internet cartel to exhibit full blown monopsony powers, and will force companies and multinationals to pay for greater access to consumers (further reinforcing the power of said internet cartel).

3)  Irony of ironies:  POTUS Trump accused POTUS Obama of tapping his phone lines, but Mr. Trump has failed to take on both the obvious and real issue that all Americans are monitored – and spied upon - by the NSA on a daily basis.   Don’t take JMH’s word for it, but please do take Senator Rand Paul’s word for it.  Why Trump won’t take on the Surveillance State/the Deep State raises several alarming questions: first and foremost, just how compromised is POTUS Trump?

4)  Mr. Trump ran against nation building - throughout the campaign – and the resulting abuse of our brave women and men who serve – but has not lifted a finger to pull America out of Afghanistan or any foreign wars.  Instead, POTUS – arguably in an abdication of responsibility – is handing drone strike authority over to the CIA.  Heh, who needs civilian oversight and control over the military… Kiss Articles I & II of the Constitution goodbye.  The reality is the DOD/MIC (per Eisenhower's warning) have exercised undue influence over America's foreign policy for decades.  The nation’s highest office appears to be, merely, along for the ride.

5)  Tax reform, as mentioned above, is in serious question.  Why?  Because if the plutocracy – that owns the U.S. Congress - wanted tax reform, we would have already had tax reform.  POTUS Trump’s own tax return – which was released w/out his consent - demonstrates why.  In short, despite having one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, few - if any - U.S. Corporations, worthy of the designation, pays at that tax rate.  There’s a reason why the U.S. is now considered one of the largest tax havens in the world.  As for the middle class and the working women & men, who cannot escape paying taxes, and who had hoped that by voting for Trump to shave a couple of points off their tax bill… forget about it.  Tax reform is, very likely, DOA.  The plutocracy doesn’t need it, and a battle royale is already shaping up.

6)  Wall Street and hedge funds…  some of us remember that Trump spoke harshly of the banksters and suits, who made huge money by shuffling papers on their desks & pure luck.  However, it’s no accident that Government $achs is heavily imbedded w/in this administration; it’s also no accident that Wall Street banks are lobbying for, and are highly likely to receive, a Dodd Frank roll back, the Volcker rule’s demise, and an end to the rule requiring financial advisers to represent the interests of their clients.  In short, it will soon again be business as usual for Wall Street: where profits are privatized, and catastrophes & losses are socialized.  Hence, leaving the American taxpayer to pick up the tab – in ways many of us can’t even imagine.  In short, The Swamp is rapidly becoming an Open Sewer.

7)  As for the Trump budget, the dream budget that will never be, it appears  - as several pundits have noted – to have been written by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation.  The administration’s budget is a right-wing wet dream that guts a great deal of the rules and regulations that protect his base.  Clean water, the EPA, clean air…. These are all dispensable things, and will likely be scrapped.  Someone should explain to Mr. Trump that some rules and regulations actually protect a free society and the citizens – his constituency – that make up that society.  In adopting neoliberal/laissez faire policy, POTUS Trump appears to be embracing the U.S. Chamber's position that anything good for business is inherently good for Americans (when the last 35 years clearly demonstrate that this position is erroneous).

8)  Mr. Trump’s SCOTUS nominee, Gorsuch, appears to be a doctrinaire establishment Republican & owned by a secretive billionaire.  Mr. Trump, however, by nominating Mr. Scalia’s replacement, appears intent on alienating a majority of the voters of the largest gender demographic in our society: women voters.  Gorsuch reminds us once again, that SCOTUS judges - nominated & approved by a political process - are mere politicians.  As such, SCOTUS candidates should be subject to both a popular vote and term limits.

To be sure, the President did promise to do some of the aforementioned during the election, but the zeal with which the Trump administration is pursuing the plutocracy’s agenda – versus the more populist themes he ran upon – possibly, reminds us of how the French must have felt when Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg overran the Maginot Line.

Which begs the question:  Was Mr. Trump’s appeal to a forgotten middle America a con, or – as mentioned above  - is he so badly compromised that he’s owned by the establishment and the plutocracy?  Or does personal financial considerations play a key role in White House decision making?

Mr. Comey, the G-Man, who the Clintons claim took down their campaign, testified this week that Mr. Trump’s campaign is under investigation for possible ties to the Russian government.

This has not been a good week for Mr. Trump or the Republican Party.  Karma appears to have come calling, and Karma can be one angry and vengeful bitch (affording real justice - that rarest of commodities - where seemingly, there is no justice to be found).

JMH’s biggest fear is – not that the Republicans will hit the wall in 2018, which they almost assuredly will (see Dems in 2010) – but that Democrats will have failed to learn 2016's lessons.  Namely, why they lost America’s working women and men to a billionaire.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2017