False Friend

Yesterday was Labor Day in the United States, and a great opportunity to articulate how Donald Trump is the most anti-worker President in at least a century. Two excellent articles document this from a different perspective.

At the New York Times, labor journalist Steven Greenhouse penned a terrific piece (link here) that starts: "Donald Trump promotes himself as a friend of 'forgotten' workers, but in ways large and small his administration has undermined what has traditionally been the biggest champion of workers: labor unions."

Greenhouse then lays out, point by point, how Trump has tirelessly shafted workers and boosted billionaire employers at every chance he could.

He closes by saying: "in the face of decades of fierce employer resistance, compounded by the Trump administration’s hostility, unions are not making the gains they need to reverse their decline. If America’s unions don’t rebound, that will most likely mean even more income inequality and wage stagnation and even more control of the levers of power by corporations and wealthy donors."

Sure, the stock market is up. The rich are getting richer, thanks to Trump's huge tax cuts just for them. But income inequality is getting worse for those in the lower 90 percent of the income range, meaning nearly everyone.

Over at Salon, Bob Hennelly wrote a great essay (link here) with the ominous title "A Labor Day warning: We’re all working to support Donald Trump’s empire of debt. What if it falls?"

The wealthy are making out like bandits now, thanks to the Trump tax cuts. But the national debt and deficit have skyrocketed to historic highs, a burden on American workers that will last for decades.

Not only is this economically suicidal, it's fiscally irrational. You cut taxes when the economy is sagging, but the opposite is happening now. Essentially, Trump is gambling with the nation's equity as well as future borrowing power to pay for unsustainable millionaire and billionaire tax cuts.

And the GOP is happily letting him have his way. Whatever happened to debt-adverse Republicans who claimed to be fiscally responsible? It's certainly not in the national interest nor the interest of ordinary Americans to incur massive new debt to pay for tax cuts.

The Trump fiscal model is not sustainable. But as long as Republicans remain in power, the insanity will continue. But what will they do when America runs out of credit?

Billionaires with savings stashed overseas will hardly feel the pain. Ordinary Americans, however, will be brutalized. The potential financial meltdown could knock America off its peak of primacy. Something that Russia, by the way, would love to see happen.

The system can be righted somewhat by a shift in power this November, but only if the GOP loses control of one or both houses of Congress. That's why it's essential that all of us volunteer and vote. If we don't, we'll pay the price down the road.