Wednesday, February 7, 2018

State of Union: Independent View

The Republicans control the ball as Trump gave his first state of the union speech. He is becoming more of a politician rather than an outsider. The Democrats gave their response and here, I will offer as what I feel is the independent view. As my readers know, I believe that both of our political parties are corrupt and only by forming a new third party can we hope to save our republic.
Republican View:
Give Donald his do. His corporate tax plan will help American industry, create better paying jobs and it will help the economy. There is still a battle over unionism versus non-union employment. This cannot be dealt with over-night, however the pendulum's positive move will help wage earners with higher wages. Our nation is already seeing some of the positives from the corporate side. Many companies are giving their workers higher pay or bonuses. Apple said it plans to build a US based plant and create 20K jobs. I say, finally! This will be a first by that company. They sell here, but they never offered manufacturing jobs here. We can only hope more will follow.
The only problem with Trump's tax plan is on the individual side. As always, the Republicans lie about spending which they blame on the Democrats. This tax bill increases our national debt as it is really a spending plan. The bill should have raised the tax bracket on the wealthy as they already benefitted from the corporate side. They are the owners of stock, corporate positions of rank and pay as well as other benefits of the upper class. If Trump raised their taxes, the tax bill would have been neutral to our deficits. He didn't. He could have taken some money from the military complex too, but he didn't. In fact, he increases our debt by adding to their budget. He appeased the military complex.
He used phrases like "...steel spine that will pull through together." This implies many things of which one is actually steel. The problem is our steel industry is up against state sponsored companies with little protection. State sponsored is protectionism. Trump implies this understanding, but so far, he is all talk and no action with helping our manufacturers or trade deals. The Republican Party is for these corrupt trade deals. Trump may eventually claim some renegotiated trade deal to save face, but I don't have any faith in the final outcome. I see the same old same old.
His politician side became more apparent when he included the phrase, "In God we trust." He used it in conjunction with the NFL protests during our national anthem. He claims our economy grew $8 trillion in his first year. He said he produced the greatest tax cut in our history and he repealed the Obama medical mandate. I was against Obamacare. I was for First Payer. As for the greatest tax cut, the Federal Reserve has destroyed our currency, so the numbers always grow. One must look at percentages. He did noting on the individual side except increase our national debt. As stated, Trump appeased the military complex by asking more for them. He called for an infrastructure program of $1.5 trillion. The country needs this, but it does not need outside investment. At present, foreign companies build local roads and tax the locals to death with excessive tolls. This needs to be stopped, but Trump favors this approach.
Trump claims that he eliminated the most regulations in history. He is hurting alternative energy in favor of old energy like oil and coal. Drinking water will be a big problem in the future and it will trace the negative tide to Trump's veto pen. He also spoke of the Opioid crisis, and he said that he will continue the "War on Drugs" campaign. This is more money down the drain and bigger deficits. I'm waiting for Sessions to attack the cannabis industry in California and elsewhere. Then, I'm going to buy a weed stock.
He reminded everyone that he recognized Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. He stated that future foreign aid will be for allies only. In his campaign he said no foreign aid as this is money down the drain. He said he pushed the FDA to approve new drugs with a politician slogan, "The right to try." I can see the late night lawyer TV adds in ten years about compensation over so and so new drug on the market. Drugs should always be tested to ensure all of our safety. If someone wants to risk a new experimental drug, I say okay as long as that person or family agrees that they cannot sue afterwards if things go wrong. Finally, Trump aggravated the Democrats by declaring he favors issues that usually only Democrats suggest. He says he is for family leave and more opportunities for ex-cons, by giving them a real second chance. This is just rhetoric to which no Republicans stand behind. It gets worse. The next day Trump becomes guilty of grand-standing in the worse way by saying Democrats are un-American and even treasonous for not clapping during his speech. This is demigod actions. Nevertheless, I did love his ending thought, "The people dreamed this nation and it is its people that made America great." Note: he never mentioned the "Wall" or its funding unless he considers that infrastructure?
Democrat Reply
Basically, they claimed that the economy recovered thanks to Obama. There is still work to do and that Republicans do not talk about those issues. The emphasis was on that Democrats favor or originated many of the issues that Trump claims domain. Since unemployment is low and the economy is doing better, it was more like, "Me too!" in tone. This speech made the "Wall" a focal point that Democrats oppose. There was no mention of trade deals like NAFTA which Clinton signed into law. It is like I said, the two parties are corrupt and they will say anything for your vote, but they never do what the nation really needs. As for my other points on issues, I stated my belief directly after offering the view of the political party.