In which we remember the current corruption from the Trump family is nothing new. Trumps have always been open to bribes and taking advantage of the public trust. It's kind of what they do. And the gullible Republicans are just glad to breathe the same air as their cult leaders. This is how monarchy works, fellas. You are the doofuses hanging out around palaces straining for a glimpse of the royal family.
5-6-2017
Sister of Jared Kushner, the president's advisor and son-in-law, solicits investments from Chinese business owners in return for American visas.[183]
Trump 1 Scandal Blotter
In which remember the Trump campaign repeatedly colluded with Russia and then tried to cover it up. Shameful for as long as people care about America and the law.
5-8-2017
President Trump issues a series of tweets which describe allegations of collusion with Russia as a hoax, and which suggest that the ongoing investigations are a waste of taxpayers' money.[186]
Former acting attorney general Sally Yates and former director of national intelligence James Clapper testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Crime and Terrorism subcommittee about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.[187] Yates asserts that the Trump administration knew that former National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail at least 18 days before he was dismissed.[188] Clapper says he was unaware of the FBI investigation into Russian electoral interference during his tenure.[189]
Trump 1 Scandal Blotter
Big day on the blotter! Trump-Russia hits a crescendo with the cover up in full go-time and smoke pouring out of the oval office. You absolute idiots.
05-09-2017
President Trump removes James Comey from his position as FBI Director. The White House explains that it is acting on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein[193] and Attorney General Sessions, citing Comey's public statements about the Clinton email investigation as the reason for the decision.[194]
Andrew G. McCabe becomes acting director of the FBI.[195]
In an interview with CNN, President Trump's Counselor Kellyanne Conway denies that Comey's dismissal is part of a White House cover-up.[196]
The point is that people who avoid the tarriffs will not need to increase their prices, meaning that people who do have to pay tarriffs will NOT be able to pass that cost onto the consumer, because consumers will choose not to buy it.
Read that again carefully. I know it's a long sentence.
The absolute state of anyone still defending this idiot 🤡
Winning feels a lot like inflation.
“Prices will come down,” Trump told voters during a speech last week laying out his vision for a return to the White House. “You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.”
What a f*cking moron.
Eggs are way down. I thought you were going to have a heart attack over those prices.
oh, and the Fed rate unchanged because they said the economy is solid, doing well.
And then there is gas prices. It’s endless really how MAGA has helped poorer people. And the way you were screaming, you must be poor so you are welcome.
The point is that people who avoid the tarriffs will not need to increase their prices, meaning that people who do have to pay tarriffs will NOT be able to pass that cost onto the consumer, because consumers will choose not to buy it.
Read that again carefully. I know it's a long sentence.
this is america. we choose to buy. There isn't a finite number of dollars out there. We don't say no.
We all have wiggle room with credit cards and savings rates. We will choose to buy stuff, even if it means our credit card balances go up or we have to get second jobs or we reduce our 401k contributions. This is what Americans do.
Credit is an amazing thing - it lets us buy things even if we shouldn't. Will anyone stop buying because their credit card has a $12,500 balance instead of an $11,000 balance? Of course not.
Will people say 'eh I can't afford a 401k contribution this year so I can buy more stuff? 'Of course they will.
Never, never, never underestimate the American consumer.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
The point is that people who avoid the tarriffs will not need to increase their prices, meaning that people who do have to pay tarriffs will NOT be able to pass that cost onto the consumer, because consumers will choose not to buy it.
Read that again carefully. I know it's a long sentence.
If a Cambodian import costs 10% more dollars do you think the American comparable product is now cheaper?
Lagging? It never got above 2.9% for Trump's first term. And Biden jacked it up to 9.1%.
You cannot be serious. You are dumb and their is not point arguing with you
Donald Trump (2017–2021) Average YOY Inflation Rate: 2.46% The average year-over-year inflation rate under President Donald Trump (in his first term) was 2.46%. Inflation remained low during Trump’s presidency. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, bringing a brief but severe recession along with it, the Trump administration declared a state of emergency and passed stimulus measures such as the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in an attempt to provide relief to individuals and businesses.28 The economic policies followed by the first Trump administration are now known as Trumponomics. Joe Biden (2021–2025) Average YOY Inflation Rate: 4.95% The average year-over-year inflation rate under Joe Biden was 4.95%. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package to help the country recover from COVID-19. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery and the soaring gas prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, inflation rose to record levels not seen since the 1980s.29The White House (Biden Administration) via Internet Archive. “President Biden Announces American Rescue Plan.” 3031 Inflation peaked at 9.1% year-over-year in June 2022, the highest increase in 40 years.32
I say this with seriousness and respect, but your department is out of control. You’re spending like you don’t have a budget. You are running out of money for this fiscal year. You are illegally refusing to spend funds that have been authorized by this Congress and appropriated by this committee. You are ignoring the immigration laws of this nation, implementing a brand new immigration system that you have invented that has little relation to the statutes that you are required to follow as spelled out in your oath of office. You are routinely violating the rights of immigrants who may not be citizens, but whether you like it or not, they have constitutional and statutory rights when they reside in the United States. Your agency acts as if laws don’t matter, as if the election gave you some mandate to violate the Constitution and the laws passed by this Congress. It did not give you that mandate. You act as if your disagreement with the law, or even the public’s disagreement with the law, is relevant and gives you the ability to create your own law. It does not give you that ability. Let’s start with your spending. You are on track to trigger the anti-deficiency act. That means you are on track to spend more money than you have been allocated by Congress. This is a rare occurrence and it is wildly illegal. Your agency will be broke by July, over 2 months before the end of the fiscal year. You may not think that Congress has allotted enough money to ICE, but the Constitution and the federal law does not allow you to spend more money than you have been given or to invent money. This obsession with spending at the border has left the country unprotected elsewhere. The security threats to national security are higher, not lower, since Trump came to office. To fund the border you have illegally gutted spending to cybersecurity. As we speak, Russian and Chinese hackers are having a field day attacking our nation. You have withdrawn funds for disaster prevention. Storms are going to kill more people because of your illegal withholding of these funds. Your myopia about the border fueled by President Trump’s prejudice against people who speak a different language have shattered most of this country’s most important defenses. Now let’s talk about the impoundments. When Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose the administration has no discretion whether or not to spend that money unless you go through a specific process with this committee. Let me give you two of many instances of this illegal impoundment. The first is a shelter and services program. Senator Britt may want to zero that account out, but that account is funded in a bipartisan way. You may not like the program. Your policy is to treat migrants badly. I think that’s abhorrent, but it doesn’t matter that you don’t like the program. You cannot cancel spending in this program, and you cannot use the funds, as you have, to fund other things, like ICE. You have also cancelled citizenship and integration grants, which help lawful permanent residents become citizens, helping them take the citizenship test. I know your goal is to try to make life as hard as possible for immigrants, but that goal is not broadly shared by the American public. That’s why Congress, in a bipartisan way, for decades has funded this program to help immigrants become citizens. Now let’s talk about why encounters at the southern border are down so much. This is clearly going to be your primary talking point today. You will tell us that it represents as success. But the prime reason why encounters are down is because you are brazenly violating the law every hour of every day. You are refusing to allow people showing up at the southern border to apply for asylum. I acknowledge that you don’t believe that people should be allowed to apply for asylum, but the White House doesn’t get to choose that. The law requires you to process people who are showing up at the border to apply for asylum. Why? Because our asylum law is a bipartisan commitment, an effort to correct for our nation’s unconscionable decision to deny entry to Jews to this country who were being hunted and killed by the Nazis. Our nation, Republicans and Democrats, decided, wrote it into law, that we would not repeat that horror ever again, and thus we would allow for people who were fleeing terror and torture to come here, arrive at the border, and make a case for asylum. Finally let’s talk about these disappearances. In an autocratic society, people who the regime does not like or who are protesting the regime are often picked up off the street, and spirited away, often to open-ended detention. Sometimes they’re never seen again. What you are doing, both to individuals who have legal rights to stay here, like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, or students who are just protesting Trump’s policies, is immoral and, to follow the theme, it is illegal. You have no right to deport a student visa holder with no due process simply because they have spoken in a way that offends the President. You can’t remove migrants who a court has given humanitarian protection from removal. Now, reports suggest that you are planning to remove immigrants with no due process and send them to prisons in Libya. Libya is in the middle of a civil war. It is subject to a level 4 travel advisory, meaning we tell American citizens never to travel to Libya. We don’t have an embassy there because it is not safe for our diplomats. Sending migrants with pending asylum claims into a war zone, just because it’s cruel, is so deeply disturbing. Listen, I understand that my Republican colleagues on this committee don’t view the policy as I do, don’t share my level of concern for the way the government treats immigrants, but what I don’t understand is why we don’t have consensus in the Senate and on this committee on the decision by this Administration to impound the spending that we have decided together to allocate in defense of this nation. We as an appropriations committee worked interminable hours to write and pass this budget, and so we make ourselves irrelevant when we allow the administration to ignore what we have decided. And then when we look the other way when the administration rounds up immigrants who are here illegally and have committed no offenses worthy of detainment, we also do potential irreversible damage to the Constitution. These should not be partisan concerns—destroying the power of Congress, eroding individuals’ Constitutional rights. This should matter to both parties.
Post COVID inflation was global and the US fared better economically than most of the world.
Prices in the US are rising right now because of Trump's tariffs. The brunt of that rise is still at least a month away as the supply chain breakdown propagates through to the consumer. Layoffs are happening which will also weaken consumer activity. Hopefully, there will be agreements and stabilized trade soon. The longer it takes the more likely a recession and/or inflation.
Post COVID inflation was global and the US fared better economically than most of the world.
Prices in the US are rising right now because of Trump's tariffs. The brunt of that rise is still at least a month away as the supply chain breakdown propagates through to the consumer. Layoffs are happening which will also weaken consumer activity. Hopefully, there will be agreements and stabilized trade soon. The longer it takes the more likely a recession and/or inflation.
How did the US fare better than most of the world?
The Biden administration saw the greatest increase in inflation in 40 years.