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I could just call the Donald’s maiden Congressional address a potpourri of platitudes and pandering — and then move along.
But I can’t get over the profligacy part. Trump promised more Big Government practically everywhere — the Pentagon, infrastructure, border control, education, veterans, crime, child care, medical tax credits — with nary a word on how to pay for it.
Actually, our wanna-be swamp drainer did not even acknowledge that the fetid waters of the Imperial City were lapping up to his waist as he spoke. That is, there was not a single mention of runaway spending or even a vague directional nod to programs that would have to be cut back or eliminated.
For the record, in his inaugural address to Congress on February 18, 1981, Ronald Reagan mentioned dozens of them under far less desperate circumstances than today. And he did so because he knew that unless the public is told about the tough choices that need to be made, the Congress will never be mobilized to vote them through:
… And I’m asking that you join me in reducing direct Federal spending by $41.4 billion in fiscal year 1982, and this goes along with another $7.7 billion in user fees and off-budget savings for a total of $49.1 billion…
All in all, nearly $216 billion worth of programs providing help for tens of millions of Americans will be fully funded. But government will not continue to subsidize individuals or particular business interests where real need cannot be demonstrated. Therefore, I’m proposing a savings of $85 million in the Federal subsidies now going to the arts and humanities…
There are a number of subsidies to business and industry that I believe are unnecessary. One such subsidy is the Department of Energy’s synthetic fuels program (where) we can save at least $3.2 billion by leaving to private industry the building of plants to make liquid or gas fuels from coal.
We’re asking that another major industry — business subsidy I should say, the Export-Import Bank loan authority, be reduced by one-third in 1982. We’re doing this because the primary beneficiaries of taxpayer funds in this case are the exporting companies themselves — most of them profitable corporations…
By terminating the Economic Development Administration, we can save hundreds of millions of dollars in 1982 and billions more over the next few years. There’s a lack of consistent and convincing evidence that EDA and its Regional Commissions …read more
Source:: Daily Reckoning feed
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