Tump and Musk's Bait and Switch

If it walks like a bribe, and talks like a bribe, it's a bribe.

So let me get this straight. All of the inflation we experienced in 2020 and 2021 was President Biden’s fault, caused by too much government spending. Never mind that Trump sent out two rounds of checks, adding up to more than the one check that Biden sent out after taking office. And never mind that this was during the largest pandemic in modern times, with millions of people out of work, businesses closing, and millions of U.S. families losing loved ones to Covid. In fact, if I were being generous to Trump, those payments sent out under his watch were probably the best action he took while in office, along with operation Warp Speed. The three rounds of payments, a total of approx. $814.4 billion, is largely what kept us out of a major long term recession, and helped to propel us to the best recovery from the Covid pandemic of any major economy on the planet.

Yes, this added to the accumulated national debt. But times like the Covid pandemic are precisely the kind of times when nations SHOULD borrow and add to the debt. In hind sight, it is obvious that the federal government should have done MORE in the aftermath of the great recession. But the relative speed of our economic recovery after the pandemic, as compared to the long time it took to recover from the great recession, should be taken as pretty good proof that the support provided by the government during that phase of the pandemic was not excessive, but necessary.

And somehow now we are to believe that if Trump and Musk send every taxpayer a $5000 check, that will NOT be inflationary? The total of that, if they follow through with it, will be more than the total of the previous three rounds of checks added together, closer to $900 billion. Unemployment is around 4 percent. The GDPNow forecast from the Atlanta Fed is 2.3% GDP growth for Q1. And throughout the election cycle, Republicans have constantly harped on the debt, of course not acknowledging that Trump added a huge amount to the total.

But now, Musk/Trump dangles a $5000 bribe in front of the MAGA base, and all you hear from these deficit hawks is silence. Crickets. Not a peep about how this is going to inflate the debt yet again by huge numbers. Meanwhile, these same people are doing there best to push a giant tax cut for the wealthiest of Americans through Congress. AGAIN!

Wake up people. If they manage to send out these checks, it will be the largest scam in history. The entire amount will be added to the national debt, YOUR debt. Meanwhile, during a time when a responsible group of wealthy individuals would be willing to pay more for a time to help the country as a whole and help get that debt under control, these selfish assholes want another tax cut, making our inequality just that much worse.

Trump is trying to buy your loyalty for a $5000 bribe, using your own money. If you let him succeed, this will go down as the largest con in history. And the U.S. people will be the largest group of losers ever.