Because the Republicans know no history including the history of their own legislation, they have forgotten their own successful jobs program of the 70's under Gerald Ford called "CETA". This program put people to work in the public interest and retrained workers for needed skills. Artists taught art in the public schools, older workers found jobs in senior service programs, private non profit organizations flourished as did public education. Look it up, Congress. Dust it off. You don't have to reinvent the wheel.
91
There's no point in offering advice to the Trump administration. Much better to focus on getting him out! He should resign; Congress should impeach him; The Cabinet should declare him unfit. That's the focus.
Every minute that he is in office is dangerous to America.
Every minute that he is in office is dangerous to America.
39
The problem is that I do not believe that any one can have an honest discussion with Mr. Trump. he surrounds himself with loyalists who tell him what he wants to hear. Take where he gets his news from. Foxnews and Breitbart are outlets that validate his world views.
Leaders in the business world need to focus on their core mission which is to make profits for their investors in a socially responsible way with an eye to the future. This is the only way to create modern jobs. Ignore Trumps foolishness, he will only take you down a dark hole from which you will not be able to compete in the future. Does America's business leaders really believe that Trump can turn back time?
Leaders in the business world need to focus on their core mission which is to make profits for their investors in a socially responsible way with an eye to the future. This is the only way to create modern jobs. Ignore Trumps foolishness, he will only take you down a dark hole from which you will not be able to compete in the future. Does America's business leaders really believe that Trump can turn back time?
23
Just his usual sound and fury signifying nothing- except a worsening economy for all but perhaps the oligarchs. But no jobs for the middle class.
25
And along with getting rid of all those pesky regulations, his health care bill will get rid of those pesky, sick old people.
57
I honestly believe that Trump's biggest problem is that he had no plan for winning the election. I don't think he ever expected to win, and, if it comes right down to it, I don't think he wanted to win.
He was a political outlier who was using what he thought would be an ultimately unsuccessful run at the White House to increase the visibility of the Trump brand. I'm sure he envisioned having pro-Trump/anti-Hillary rallies for at least the next four years while he criticized anything and everything she attempted.
Unfortunately for him - and for the rest of us - he won. All right, Mr. Trump, show us what you've got. So far, it ain't nothin'.
He was a political outlier who was using what he thought would be an ultimately unsuccessful run at the White House to increase the visibility of the Trump brand. I'm sure he envisioned having pro-Trump/anti-Hillary rallies for at least the next four years while he criticized anything and everything she attempted.
Unfortunately for him - and for the rest of us - he won. All right, Mr. Trump, show us what you've got. So far, it ain't nothin'.
68
Trump has to undo decades of bleeding jobs overseas, created by overtaxation, overrgulation and terrible "free trade" deals.
All of this while fighting the establishment in both parties. The swamp creatures will not give up and simply go away without numerous attempts to undermine and belittle his efforts.
Thank goodness he has the stamina and passion to take on all of these people. He will not sit idly by like previous GOP presidents and electees and allow his message and accomplishments to be ignored or distorted. He was elected for this very reason.
The fight is on.
All of this while fighting the establishment in both parties. The swamp creatures will not give up and simply go away without numerous attempts to undermine and belittle his efforts.
Thank goodness he has the stamina and passion to take on all of these people. He will not sit idly by like previous GOP presidents and electees and allow his message and accomplishments to be ignored or distorted. He was elected for this very reason.
The fight is on.
9
He has already proposed a huge job killer: the elmination of many many government jobs. Watch the unemployment rate rise if any of this takes place.
48
NAFTA cost millions of jobs as had been predicted by Ross Perot. President
Trump will correct that. To buy a Harley motorcycle in China, you pay a 100%
import tax. China chips entr the US market without tax. Trump will fix that.
We pay huge export duties to many countries which we charge very low
import duties. Trump will fix that.
Trump will correct that. To buy a Harley motorcycle in China, you pay a 100%
import tax. China chips entr the US market without tax. Trump will fix that.
We pay huge export duties to many countries which we charge very low
import duties. Trump will fix that.
10
Business leaders should "help him forge a plan"? That's so cute. Like he'd listen to anything other than the voices in his head.
78
When it comes to the inter-connectedness of the million spokes in the economic policy wheel, the Republican president is absolutely clueless. He is not about to become enlightened because he lacks the mental acuity and curiosity necessary to learn anything. His ignorance is exceeded only by his ego. The combination of those to traits in an executive makes the prediction of outcomes easy. Neither congressional Republicans nor his executive appointees have the courage or desire to counter his idiocy.
52
President Trump needs guidance on everything.
51
To all those commenting in this space about commenter RL, please understand that he is Exhibit A as to why it is impossible to change the mind of a person who has taken a public position, in writing, on any given subject. Studies have shown that the human brain is hard-wired for consistency. And humans will go to the greatest lengths to avoid behaving inconsistently once they have made up their minds, written their position down, and done so publicly. (Read "Influence" by Robert Cialdini.). It wasn't for no reason that Grover Norquist insisted that Republicans take his no-tax pledge in public, and sign on the dotted line.
If RL, who actually reads the NYT and is intelligent and articulate, cannot be persuaded by facts, you can be absolutely sure that there is no hope whatsoever of ever changing the mind of the typical Trump voter.
Dems need to do one thing in upcoming elections: drive supporters to get their voter IDs, and then drive them to the polls on Election Day. Only by getting out our base will we have any chance of steering the Titanic away from the iceberg.
If RL, who actually reads the NYT and is intelligent and articulate, cannot be persuaded by facts, you can be absolutely sure that there is no hope whatsoever of ever changing the mind of the typical Trump voter.
Dems need to do one thing in upcoming elections: drive supporters to get their voter IDs, and then drive them to the polls on Election Day. Only by getting out our base will we have any chance of steering the Titanic away from the iceberg.
40
The Times editorial board ended this editorial by saying: "Assuming that Mr. Trump is coachable, Mr. Immelt’s prescription is exactly what he needs to hear and act on." On what planet is the editorial board living? Under which rock? Trump has demonstrated over and over that he is anything BUT coachable. Trump gets bogged down by self-protection when he feels the slightest slight. He must defend himself above all else, at all cost.
Trump was and is a remarkable marketer. He knows just what to say to his supporters who hang onto his every word though he has a very limited, if any, world view. He is short-sighted to a fault. Unfortunately, his supporters don't see him this same way, and most Republicans in office are too afraid of him to challenge him. Rather than being a visionary, Trump gets bogged down in the minutiae of his self-defense mode much of the time. And he gets egged on by the adulation he receives and needs so badly from his supporters.
Trump was and is a remarkable marketer. He knows just what to say to his supporters who hang onto his every word though he has a very limited, if any, world view. He is short-sighted to a fault. Unfortunately, his supporters don't see him this same way, and most Republicans in office are too afraid of him to challenge him. Rather than being a visionary, Trump gets bogged down in the minutiae of his self-defense mode much of the time. And he gets egged on by the adulation he receives and needs so badly from his supporters.
64
Assuming that Mr. Trump is coachable,
There's the rub. Donald Trump has displayed over the last two years that he is either unable or unwilling to be coached. Having to be coached would be to admit he doesn't know something and THAT is something Donald Trump shows no willingness to do. No display of "weakness'.
There's the rub. Donald Trump has displayed over the last two years that he is either unable or unwilling to be coached. Having to be coached would be to admit he doesn't know something and THAT is something Donald Trump shows no willingness to do. No display of "weakness'.
24
What is really scary about all this is the disregard for start ups and small businesses, which are the engine of our country. A typical start up takes at least 5 years to get started...so even if you worked for a big company, your COBRA which kept your health care costs in check are gone. So to create a start up is a huge risk...on your health. Small business IS the jobs generator of the US
Then there is all the things that crazy things they are stripping away. DARPA - which was the forerunner of the Internet WAS A Government Project. Were it not for DARPA, we would not be doing this online stuff on NYT.
The fallacy in the defund argument is that a lot of these funds are SEED funds - as above DARPA became the Internet which is now a global trillion dollar industry.
Ronald Reagan is the one who started the "government is the problem" argument while using the things the government had already funded to his advantage.
We need to find a better conversation around "seed funding" for great results like DARPA/Internet vs dumping mega dollars into what President Dwight Eisenhower called the industrial military complex.
Then there is all the things that crazy things they are stripping away. DARPA - which was the forerunner of the Internet WAS A Government Project. Were it not for DARPA, we would not be doing this online stuff on NYT.
The fallacy in the defund argument is that a lot of these funds are SEED funds - as above DARPA became the Internet which is now a global trillion dollar industry.
Ronald Reagan is the one who started the "government is the problem" argument while using the things the government had already funded to his advantage.
We need to find a better conversation around "seed funding" for great results like DARPA/Internet vs dumping mega dollars into what President Dwight Eisenhower called the industrial military complex.
15
Trump has no intention of helping anyone but himself. He really doesn't even care about his cronies. It's Trump all the time and always has been.
17
The headline of your Editorial describes the entire disaster of Trump and his third-rate advisors.
14
Trump pledged $1 trillion on roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and railways, but his budget actually cuts the FTA? I'm shocked, shocked.
28
Donny cannot be taught unless Fox and Friends joins Sesame Street. 45 does not read and you know what they say reading is fundamental. Drumpf is is merely mental. A sick and Sad incompetent clown. Argh.
35
When Joe Biden talked about shovel ready jobs, I didn't realize he meant the presidency.
19
Typical Trump. Promises everything, but incapable of delivering anything.
28
Had dinner last night with friends... and at the mere mention of 'Regulations', a couple of them went off !!
To them, slashing the EPA is good.
Why ? To them all regulations are bad.
Why ? Because they see and hear only the downsides (whose bull gets gored), loaded with lies, because that's what the many of the very rich tell them.
Why ? Because they, not the workers or the citizens, stand the most to gain when they can pollute, endanger, and exploit with abandon.
This is a fraud and a hoax, trumps fraud and hoax, perpetrated on those who remain ill-informed by the shouting media that's in service to the polluters, endangerers, and exploiters....
.... We must, we can, and we will defeat the liars who will sacrifice us all and the planet, for the comforts of their gated, Mar-a-Largo/Trump Tower lifestyles...
To them, slashing the EPA is good.
Why ? To them all regulations are bad.
Why ? Because they see and hear only the downsides (whose bull gets gored), loaded with lies, because that's what the many of the very rich tell them.
Why ? Because they, not the workers or the citizens, stand the most to gain when they can pollute, endanger, and exploit with abandon.
This is a fraud and a hoax, trumps fraud and hoax, perpetrated on those who remain ill-informed by the shouting media that's in service to the polluters, endangerers, and exploiters....
.... We must, we can, and we will defeat the liars who will sacrifice us all and the planet, for the comforts of their gated, Mar-a-Largo/Trump Tower lifestyles...
44
Have to hand it to US business. They've all figured out is all you have to do is stroke his ego, credit him with saving or creating jobs and the tax relief will follow. Whether the jobs promised ever materialize doesn't factor in this smoke and mirrors show.
33
NYT Editorial Board " Mr. Trump needs guidance on his muddled approach to job creation. American manufacturers should stop indulging his vanity, and help him forge a plan."
A well-intentioned policy recommendation but tricky. Editorial can be considered naive at best or misleading at worse.
Here is the reason. The current post-industrial economic system is highly biased against labor (big time losers) and pro-capital/enterprises.
A political economy question. Does any grown up in America believes the 1% crowd is really interested in improving the welfare of the 99%? If the answer is yes, the editorial is on the right track.
A well-intentioned policy recommendation but tricky. Editorial can be considered naive at best or misleading at worse.
Here is the reason. The current post-industrial economic system is highly biased against labor (big time losers) and pro-capital/enterprises.
A political economy question. Does any grown up in America believes the 1% crowd is really interested in improving the welfare of the 99%? If the answer is yes, the editorial is on the right track.
14
When New York City was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001, 343 courageous FDNY firefighters gave their lives in the line of duty, the ultimate sacrifice. It was later reported that the collective firefighting knowledge and experience lost that day was the equivalent of two generations. The enemy carried out its evil from outside our borders.
The Trump presidency and administration is an enemy from within never before witnessed in the history of our country. His blueprint for destruction to education, the environment, vital scientific and medical research, human rights, social programs created with compassion, the law, the economy, jobs and manufacturing, infrastructure, the arts, assisting impoverished countries, global diplomacy, and the American way of life WILL BE IRREVERSIBLE. Make no mistake. This man and his team of traitors in the West Wing and the Republican offices of Congress embody evil beyond all reason. Norman Rockwell would be unable to paint the scenes of America taking place before our eyes. Tears would make it impossible for him to see his canvas and paint.
The Trump presidency and administration is an enemy from within never before witnessed in the history of our country. His blueprint for destruction to education, the environment, vital scientific and medical research, human rights, social programs created with compassion, the law, the economy, jobs and manufacturing, infrastructure, the arts, assisting impoverished countries, global diplomacy, and the American way of life WILL BE IRREVERSIBLE. Make no mistake. This man and his team of traitors in the West Wing and the Republican offices of Congress embody evil beyond all reason. Norman Rockwell would be unable to paint the scenes of America taking place before our eyes. Tears would make it impossible for him to see his canvas and paint.
75
Agreed. The works of Hieronymus Bosch seem more fitting.
10
And Giuliani had advance warning from the architect that the towers would probably collapse from the fires because of the way they had been designed to give long open floor spans unobstructed by columns.
5
It is interesting that trump would compliment GM for bringing back 900 jobs to Michigan but GM didn't tell him that they were importing a new Buick SUV from China, which they are touting as rivaling BMW's suv's. He also wasn't told about Volvos being built in China, to be sold to Wall Street yuppees! So much for cheap Chinese goods!
7
Mr. Trump should be fired, not coached. His values are screwed up and that's going to hurt the country big-time if he isn't gone.
18
What is business supposed to do? He has no plan, no direction.
Tweeting is not planning. Ranting is not planning. Want can anyone do but wait?
Tweeting is not planning. Ranting is not planning. Want can anyone do but wait?
11
It's obvious that Trump and the republicans have abandoned all populous campaign promises and are hell bent on pillaging the nation's coffers and sifting it to the nation's wealthy. The American Healthcare Act is a travesty, taking us back to third world healthcare access for our working poor. But hey, it's a tax bonanza for the wealthy. And it is hard to even imagine what they were thinking with the budget. For Pete's Sake, eliminating funding for Meals on Wheels and after school food programs? One must assume it is to make their real plans seem less horrific. Or is it just a blatant, incompetent clusterf&*%?
14
I just wish they had taught Economics 101 at the Wharton School of Business!
15
"Wheezing job efforts," NY Times Editorial Board?
You don't like it that Trump's "budget blueprint would cut grants and training programs that help laid-off industrial workers qualify for higher-paying manufacturing jobs"?
Do you know anything about the "grants and training programs" of the US government, NY Times Editorial Board?
For decades now, these "grants and training programs" have been funded by Presidents to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each year.
Year after year, Congressional investigators have found massive waste, fraud and abuse at the US Employment and Training Administration, the main agency responsible for administering these grants and contracts.
The percentage of "re-trained" workers who find permanent, well-paying jobs in new fields hovers around zero percent.
These "re-training" programs are cash cows for State and local governments who respond to "requests for proposals" from the US Employment and Training Administration.
I worked as a GS-15 manager at the US Employment and Training Administration (ETA). I personally witnessed retired ETA senior executives (SES) make millions of dollars running consulting companies that "wired" these grants and contracts with their SES cronies at ETA so that their well-paying clients would be awarded these grants and contracts.
Once the current crop of SESers at ETA retire, they, too, will find riches at ETA consulting companies.
Are you wheezing yet, NY Times Editorial Board?
You don't like it that Trump's "budget blueprint would cut grants and training programs that help laid-off industrial workers qualify for higher-paying manufacturing jobs"?
Do you know anything about the "grants and training programs" of the US government, NY Times Editorial Board?
For decades now, these "grants and training programs" have been funded by Presidents to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each year.
Year after year, Congressional investigators have found massive waste, fraud and abuse at the US Employment and Training Administration, the main agency responsible for administering these grants and contracts.
The percentage of "re-trained" workers who find permanent, well-paying jobs in new fields hovers around zero percent.
These "re-training" programs are cash cows for State and local governments who respond to "requests for proposals" from the US Employment and Training Administration.
I worked as a GS-15 manager at the US Employment and Training Administration (ETA). I personally witnessed retired ETA senior executives (SES) make millions of dollars running consulting companies that "wired" these grants and contracts with their SES cronies at ETA so that their well-paying clients would be awarded these grants and contracts.
Once the current crop of SESers at ETA retire, they, too, will find riches at ETA consulting companies.
Are you wheezing yet, NY Times Editorial Board?
7
I don't doubt it. But if waste and self-serving by federal retirees is good enough reason to cancel a program, let's look at the Pentagon and their contractors, shall we?
18
Interesting the juxtaposition of the stories regarding North Korea, our disinterest in jobs and plan to take healthcare away from millions. All in the interest it seems to spend on a military buildup.
This is what North Korea is ... all money to the military at the expense of the people. Hmmmmmm ...
This is what North Korea is ... all money to the military at the expense of the people. Hmmmmmm ...
14
So curious... spend money to create jobs doing?? inventing more kinds of vitamin water or energy bars or who knows what -- or plastic toys to throw away. Consumer economy has meant lots of waste... particle board doesn't last -- wood might. Time to think about what is being produced, durability .. time to think about not being "innovative." what don't we need. ore highways destroying habitats -- many highways to nowhere already exist -- took one into the middle of WV by accident last year.. Gorgeous highway leading to two tane roads (US50) up and down mountains. We need less not more. Altho I am very in favor of Google cars with four passengers per and their own dedicated lane on the freeway. (Ah a sharing economy!! at last... but we don't like to share.. How in-Christian -- how un-Pythagorean -- an early proponent of property held in common!!) BTW start hiring people over 65 and gee a much larger labor market. (Guaranteed minimum income?)
3
What babble. The president uses H1B workers in his private club/"winter white house", Mar-a-Lago.
He's a charlatan.
He's a charlatan.
31
Eric Trump is preparing to bring more HB1 workers to work at Trump Wines for the coming growing season.
At least it is one Trump product made in the US, but using foreign labor, of course.
At least it is one Trump product made in the US, but using foreign labor, of course.
10
Mr. Trump is talking about Rosie the Riveter because his "jobs program" is to start WWIII.
This is evident from his budget proposal, focused on increased military spending and border security at the expense of diplomacy and everything else. This is evident from his Muslim Ban. And this is consistent with Mr. Bannon's self-fulfilling prophecy of a class of civilizations between the West and Islam (which is remarkably similar to the writings of Osama bin Ladin).
This is evident from his budget proposal, focused on increased military spending and border security at the expense of diplomacy and everything else. This is evident from his Muslim Ban. And this is consistent with Mr. Bannon's self-fulfilling prophecy of a class of civilizations between the West and Islam (which is remarkably similar to the writings of Osama bin Ladin).
21
Others can help him with a better plan- or we can just let him fail (which is what he and his supporters deserve).
11
Trump's vocal strategy is to promise the moon to his followers while snuffing out the job efforts of our industries that depend on cheap imported parts for their manufacturing units here.
Since we know that even if all the corporations move back to U.S.A., we'd still need foreign built steel and aluminum to make our cars again Detroit which Trump touted as his first preference to make America work again.
General Motors, which he was proud to announce last week as retaining 900 workers here in U.S.A. rather than shipping those jobs abroad to either Mexico or China, still need a lot of incentives in the form of bailouts that Obama provided to them in 2009.
But instead of helping our industries Trump is hellbent on 'cutting funding from the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Program,kill the Department of Agriculture's $500 million water and wastewater loan and grant program, cut $175 million in spending for rural airports, and eliminate the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program',as stated by you in this article.
On the other hand by rejecting all the environmental rules set by previous administrations before and expanded to the max by Obama administration, it seems like Trump will turn our country's sky and the water as polluted as it is in china and India.
So his call of MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN will remain nothing but an empty promise if we the Americans cannot breathe a whiff of fresh air.
But to Trump all of these problems don't matter.
Since we know that even if all the corporations move back to U.S.A., we'd still need foreign built steel and aluminum to make our cars again Detroit which Trump touted as his first preference to make America work again.
General Motors, which he was proud to announce last week as retaining 900 workers here in U.S.A. rather than shipping those jobs abroad to either Mexico or China, still need a lot of incentives in the form of bailouts that Obama provided to them in 2009.
But instead of helping our industries Trump is hellbent on 'cutting funding from the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Program,kill the Department of Agriculture's $500 million water and wastewater loan and grant program, cut $175 million in spending for rural airports, and eliminate the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program',as stated by you in this article.
On the other hand by rejecting all the environmental rules set by previous administrations before and expanded to the max by Obama administration, it seems like Trump will turn our country's sky and the water as polluted as it is in china and India.
So his call of MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN will remain nothing but an empty promise if we the Americans cannot breathe a whiff of fresh air.
But to Trump all of these problems don't matter.
24
According to Thinkprogress.org, the Chinese will spend $360B to create 12 MILLION clean energy jobs by 2020. Just as the feds invested in the railroad and the interstate highway systems in years past, our "leaders" need to fight for green energy jobs. Clearly, this could be our salvation. However, whether the corporate interests that run our country would switch gears, so to speak, to alow or promote it? Ha.
22
He's not going to listen. Impeachment is the only thing that will prevent disaster. The sooner the better.
54
I don't see what to like better about Pence, Ryan, or McConnell.
12
Dear Editorial Board,
In a way i hope Trump doesn’t read your article, & follows your suggestions.He is currently benefitting from the Obama administration, which he will convince his supporters, the jobs being created is because he cut out regulations.Left to his own devices he will eventually self destruct.As your article correctly points out regulations have created jobs not held back progress. Cutting regulations will probably keep some manufacturing here, but will hurt the public by allowing more pollution, and add to Global warming. There will be downtime on the production line due to accidents caused by the lack of safety measures, but like always, the workers are expendable.Trumps philosophy, like all demagogues before him, is the end justifies the means & the only thing that counts is the bottom line.This approach may indeed save some American jobs, but by not retraining workers to operate our technical advances, like robotics, untrained workers will fall by the wayside.In the final analysis,Trumps twinkle down economy & the lack of regulations will be his downfall.
In a way i hope Trump doesn’t read your article, & follows your suggestions.He is currently benefitting from the Obama administration, which he will convince his supporters, the jobs being created is because he cut out regulations.Left to his own devices he will eventually self destruct.As your article correctly points out regulations have created jobs not held back progress. Cutting regulations will probably keep some manufacturing here, but will hurt the public by allowing more pollution, and add to Global warming. There will be downtime on the production line due to accidents caused by the lack of safety measures, but like always, the workers are expendable.Trumps philosophy, like all demagogues before him, is the end justifies the means & the only thing that counts is the bottom line.This approach may indeed save some American jobs, but by not retraining workers to operate our technical advances, like robotics, untrained workers will fall by the wayside.In the final analysis,Trumps twinkle down economy & the lack of regulations will be his downfall.
5
I met a woman in the supermarket last weekend who just got a job and is positive it's because of Donald Trump. I don't know why but that's the way of the 'true believer'. And if she loses the job, she will be blaming the Democrats in DC. I know because she blamed Obama for every job she lost while he was in office. So much for 'personal responsibility' - and yes, she and her family watch FoxNews, all day, every day.
14
I will no longer buy an American car - period. I have tried hard over the past 10 years to buy American products but when they lobby for the ability to make cars with lower mpg and fewer safety standards - I'm done. I want good quality for my money and I am tired of being taken for a ride by American car companies.
9
No amount of evidence to the contrary will dissuade trump's sycophants that he is anything but the second coming. When his lies and bombast lead us into something from which he can't tweet himself out of, like a war, even then they will blame Obabama. Marching into a pit of doom is easier to swallow when following a crowd of the ill and uninformed.
5
Remember that Trump is the headline president. His jobs strategy is to host events and take credit for jobs that American companies are already creating or keeping. Once the headline is in the bag, there's nothing left for Trump to do. Who knew it could be so easy to save American manufacturing?
9
Remember this "man" wears makeup every day of his life. He is nothing but a showman. He is no more a policy wonk than Professor Harold Hall of the Music Man.
One just hope that he remains as incompetent as he has demonstrated so far. That way, his "Make America a Great 17th Century Feudal State" budget will not get enacted.
One just hope that he remains as incompetent as he has demonstrated so far. That way, his "Make America a Great 17th Century Feudal State" budget will not get enacted.
20
I wonder how many jobs have been created for that man and his family to fly to the winter white house each weekend. How many meals for Meals on Wheels could be served using that money. It's all about him, every minute of every day.
20
Trump's job-growth and industry focus is slyly targeted on one sector only, one that he may investing in: The funeral industry.
3
I think half the fun of being obscenely rich must be enjoying the diminishment of those less fortunate than yourself. I cannot think of another explanation why so many of the rich people in the world act the way they do.
18
"Assuming that Mr. Trump is coachable" - and therein lies the rub. Trump has no desire to deliberately learn anything new, doesn't seem capable of logical thought, and doesn't believe anyone else could be an expert on anything. He is fully occupied with is own bizarre internal world that relies on bullying, conspiracy theories, and enjoying himself at taxpayer expense. He will never amount to anything of true value.
13
The problem with this editorial is that you are preaching to the choir. It's Trump, his advisors and cabinet who need to read this op-ed, however it seems pretty clear that their self interests come first. Their self interests have always come first, just look back at their histories.
7
I agree. The NYT reader is not the same as the waiter living in Oklahoma City watching Fox News. The word needs to get out past the choir and into the masses.
7
Given the high-level lousy of trumpfs great ideas thus far - I'm not convinced that we can afford - economically, politically or otherwise - any jobs "plan" he may come up. In other words - it may be in our overall best interest if he just continues to make promises over attempting to deliver on anything.
7
Since when is "job creation" a proper and constitutional function of the United States government? Except for military operations and those occupations required to keep the government in operation, then is no constitutionally defined job creation function for the U.S.
In ancient Egypt, Pharoh kept the peasants busy cutting stone blocks and hauling them to build Pyramids. Is the U.S. supposed to do that too?
In ancient Egypt, Pharoh kept the peasants busy cutting stone blocks and hauling them to build Pyramids. Is the U.S. supposed to do that too?
6
CEO's are earning their money now...How do you run a large company with the CEO of this country has a business plan that changes every minute. I am no fan of our overpaid CEO's, but, you don't become one, by not understanding profits, bottom lines, time lines, production schedules. Yes, much is made of the benefits of disruptions, but even in well run companies, disruptions are managed disruptions, not disruptions for disruptions sake. What Trump will eventually find out, along with his rust belt followers, is CEO's are accountable to stockholders, not to selected counties in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. They will pay lip service to buy American, but, when they leave the Oval Office, their behavior will represent the bottom line.
7
Maybe we need to back away from the idea that, in America, "anyone" can become president and demand that those running for president or for any government office pass required college courses on the Constitution, American history, world history, philosophy, geopolitics, economics, ethics, health care issues for children, adults and the elderly, classes on the arts and citizenship, technology and classes on science, science, science. These, at the very least. Perhaps, also, contenders who wish to lead this country should be able to pass a personal psychological test.
7
A Federally funded, comprehensive plan for repairing and improving our failing infrastructure would create millions of jobs for decades if not lifetimes.
8
Let's think about this. With the world's top intelligence agencies at his disposal, one might think he would have contacted them before making twitter claims that President Obama tapped his phones. But what we find is that he finds it intolerable to talk with experts.
5
The other thing is that the whole manufacturing sector is only a small fraction of the economy nowadays - that's not something that can be "brought back", it's just the way things work. For policies that really affect the American jobs situation, we have to look where the jobs really are, and could be promoted - service, health care, education...
4
Democratic leadership and the 2012 Obama Campaign wanted to close certain corporate loopholes as one way to increase business competition. (My guess is that after the largest of solar corporations financially outcompeted the Obama Administrations government-subsidized solar start-up company in 2011, Democratic leadership learned first-hand that some loopholes needed to be closed to take away corporation’s huge financial advantages in order for 'all sizes' of companies to compete for business.)
Former Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, knew that GOP Congressional leadership would not agree to close any loopholes to pay for any Democratic proposals, and in 2011, President Obama and Democratic Congressional leadership ‘publicly’ adopted a pay-as-you-go-system. Republican leadership attempted to sabotage both Democratic initiatives, as there would also be no way to offset the costs for 17 small business-initiative’s in President Obama’s proposed Jobs Plan.
I give Trump and Republican leadership no credit for any business-brains in their continuing to want to give the largest corporations ‘more’ unearned tax breaks while the private and business sectors suffer the fourth-long-decade of the GOP’s tickle-down theories.
If Democratic leadership wins back the House and Senate Majority next year, Democrats may have leverage in only giving Trump some of the legislation he wants by his agreeing to close corporate loopholes as a way to pay for any new tax-spending initiatives.
Former Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, knew that GOP Congressional leadership would not agree to close any loopholes to pay for any Democratic proposals, and in 2011, President Obama and Democratic Congressional leadership ‘publicly’ adopted a pay-as-you-go-system. Republican leadership attempted to sabotage both Democratic initiatives, as there would also be no way to offset the costs for 17 small business-initiative’s in President Obama’s proposed Jobs Plan.
I give Trump and Republican leadership no credit for any business-brains in their continuing to want to give the largest corporations ‘more’ unearned tax breaks while the private and business sectors suffer the fourth-long-decade of the GOP’s tickle-down theories.
If Democratic leadership wins back the House and Senate Majority next year, Democrats may have leverage in only giving Trump some of the legislation he wants by his agreeing to close corporate loopholes as a way to pay for any new tax-spending initiatives.
2
This editorial piece is very one sided as a anti-trump piece putting the most negative spin on what it leaves in and leaving out much. My comment is a rebuttal written in the same spirit.
During most of the last 8 years the labor force participation rate, was in steady decline.( https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000 ) For the last two months it has been increasing perhaps due to optimism President. Trump created. Measurable results are already being seen at the border meaning illegal unskilled labor is being reduced helping to increase unskilled labor pay rates and leaving more jobs open for unskilled people such as those in depressed cities.
All the things we buy are made somewhere. In modern times, where that somewhere is depends on economics. President Trump by reducing corporate taxes and making repatriation of money economically appealing is making "here" a better "somewhere" to manufacture.
Yes we need sensible regulations, and tax revenue. However, in cutting taxes to bring back jobs, each time you put a person on the safety net to work, you decrease the drain on Federal and State treasuries, and increase the persons income tax flow into them, in part by adding people, and in part by raising wages.
You also make it possible for two parent families to support themselves rather than resorting to one parent families on the safety net. Lastly I expect employment reduces crime.
John
During most of the last 8 years the labor force participation rate, was in steady decline.( https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000 ) For the last two months it has been increasing perhaps due to optimism President. Trump created. Measurable results are already being seen at the border meaning illegal unskilled labor is being reduced helping to increase unskilled labor pay rates and leaving more jobs open for unskilled people such as those in depressed cities.
All the things we buy are made somewhere. In modern times, where that somewhere is depends on economics. President Trump by reducing corporate taxes and making repatriation of money economically appealing is making "here" a better "somewhere" to manufacture.
Yes we need sensible regulations, and tax revenue. However, in cutting taxes to bring back jobs, each time you put a person on the safety net to work, you decrease the drain on Federal and State treasuries, and increase the persons income tax flow into them, in part by adding people, and in part by raising wages.
You also make it possible for two parent families to support themselves rather than resorting to one parent families on the safety net. Lastly I expect employment reduces crime.
John
3
Sixty days into the Trump Presidency and it is even worse than I had imagined it would be. I now understand his birther thing about Obama. Clear and compelling evidence means nothing to him. It is all about Trump. Nothing else really matters to him. He lives in a dystopian world absent of facts.
Trump will face a crisis at some point in his four years of being President, be it an international or domestic. I have serious doubts about his ability or the ability of those in his cabinet or staff to deal with any emergency situation.
The President of the United States needs to be believable for both the citizens of the country and our allies abroad. Trump makes this a difficult task.
Trump will face a crisis at some point in his four years of being President, be it an international or domestic. I have serious doubts about his ability or the ability of those in his cabinet or staff to deal with any emergency situation.
The President of the United States needs to be believable for both the citizens of the country and our allies abroad. Trump makes this a difficult task.
8
While the Times editorial board is spot on, the problem is that Trump knows that he need only be a marketer. He can take 900 jobs, or credit for a stock market rally in his first days in office, and attach his brand to it to show how the mere power of his personality will move things forward.
We live in a time where knowledge of the core reasons for legislation, or the patience to see the long term result, are simply missing. We have a president who will gut the EPA, despite only having to travel to Shanghai to see the massive impact of pollution in an unregulated country, where you virtually never see the sun due to smog. He will tear up trade deals and move us to be isolationist, destabilizing the world just like the run up to WWII.
More importantly, he will fail miserably to be a thoughtful, pragmatic leader, which you would think we would all want regardless of political affiliation. That is probably where my expectations are too broad.
We live in a time where knowledge of the core reasons for legislation, or the patience to see the long term result, are simply missing. We have a president who will gut the EPA, despite only having to travel to Shanghai to see the massive impact of pollution in an unregulated country, where you virtually never see the sun due to smog. He will tear up trade deals and move us to be isolationist, destabilizing the world just like the run up to WWII.
More importantly, he will fail miserably to be a thoughtful, pragmatic leader, which you would think we would all want regardless of political affiliation. That is probably where my expectations are too broad.
7
Trump goes to Michigan to talk auto jobs and what I heard were Eisenhower's warnings about building the Military Industrial Complex Triangle.
Trump nostalgically looked back to the days when GM factories were used to build war planes and women were given equal opportunities via a male worker shortage--all those GIs on the battlefield and Rosie the Riveteers working overtime.
Did I hear a President with a job plan or a war plan? He's in Michigan pitching a guns versus butter economy while he sends Tillerson off to threaten another crazy man in North Korea.
Almost egging on a lunatic into launching the US into a conflict at the 39th parallel and creating jobs at home.
The question is--which lunatic? Ours or theirs?
Trump nostalgically looked back to the days when GM factories were used to build war planes and women were given equal opportunities via a male worker shortage--all those GIs on the battlefield and Rosie the Riveteers working overtime.
Did I hear a President with a job plan or a war plan? He's in Michigan pitching a guns versus butter economy while he sends Tillerson off to threaten another crazy man in North Korea.
Almost egging on a lunatic into launching the US into a conflict at the 39th parallel and creating jobs at home.
The question is--which lunatic? Ours or theirs?
7
It's a race to the bottom and always has been for republican dogma.
States that have no income tax are generally republican controlled states. You couple that with right to work ( union busting ) and little to no regulation, and you poach jobs from all other states The slack is made up by federal payments that take the profits from blue states and sed them to red states. This is nothing new.
Now, this administration is proposing to do it nationally. There will be protectionist policies that will be massively successful for some sectors making a sliver very rich at the expense of everyone else. The jobs that do come back will be a much lower wages and with no benefits or security.
Buying local would have a much more concrete effect, but people love their cheap goods from the box stores. They essentially, save pennies to ship away their manufacturing and jobs.
It is the same effect as voting republican.
States that have no income tax are generally republican controlled states. You couple that with right to work ( union busting ) and little to no regulation, and you poach jobs from all other states The slack is made up by federal payments that take the profits from blue states and sed them to red states. This is nothing new.
Now, this administration is proposing to do it nationally. There will be protectionist policies that will be massively successful for some sectors making a sliver very rich at the expense of everyone else. The jobs that do come back will be a much lower wages and with no benefits or security.
Buying local would have a much more concrete effect, but people love their cheap goods from the box stores. They essentially, save pennies to ship away their manufacturing and jobs.
It is the same effect as voting republican.
9
And someone expected incoherence and insecure rejection of fact to produce something other than peanuts? The GOP has had 36 years to demonstrate that tax cuts for the already wealthy and even more weaponry will provide jobs and prosperity to working Americans. The fact that those suffering Americans still fall for this scam is beyond tragic.
11
Trump's disciples can't handle the truth. When presented with real facts critical of their Fearless Leader, they dig in deeper. Give him a chance, they say. When, Trumpets, do we begin to see real results? What is the first benchmark we should be looking for? No, not the Unemployment Rate or the Dow Jones. Those are part of President Obama's legacy.
What Never Trumpers want to know what progress is being made on the Big Three: The Wall, ObamaCares, and Locking Hillary Up.
The Wall? Working on it, says Trump. Mexico is not paying for it. Mexico is not reimbursing US. We are paying for this boondoggle and that is where we stand.
Trump's pledge, promise, to repeal and replace with a fantastic plan, that will cover everyone and cost less, is a lie. Trump backs Ryancare, which will do the opposite. Yet, Trump now say he is 100% behind Ryancare. Hypocrisy, anyone?
Now, back to Hillary. Trump pledged on Day One he would order his AG to begin a thorough investigation of Hillary, the implication being that indeed Hillary is guilty of "something". Ole Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions would ferret this out, indict Hillary, convict her, and lock her up in the gray-bar hotel.
Well, we Hillary supporters are wondering; What happened to that pledge? We also want to know if Hillary is guilty. Were we wrong? Is Hillary really a mole for the Russians, not Trump? Looks like we've got a lot of promises to go before we sleep.
DD
Manhattan
What Never Trumpers want to know what progress is being made on the Big Three: The Wall, ObamaCares, and Locking Hillary Up.
The Wall? Working on it, says Trump. Mexico is not paying for it. Mexico is not reimbursing US. We are paying for this boondoggle and that is where we stand.
Trump's pledge, promise, to repeal and replace with a fantastic plan, that will cover everyone and cost less, is a lie. Trump backs Ryancare, which will do the opposite. Yet, Trump now say he is 100% behind Ryancare. Hypocrisy, anyone?
Now, back to Hillary. Trump pledged on Day One he would order his AG to begin a thorough investigation of Hillary, the implication being that indeed Hillary is guilty of "something". Ole Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions would ferret this out, indict Hillary, convict her, and lock her up in the gray-bar hotel.
Well, we Hillary supporters are wondering; What happened to that pledge? We also want to know if Hillary is guilty. Were we wrong? Is Hillary really a mole for the Russians, not Trump? Looks like we've got a lot of promises to go before we sleep.
DD
Manhattan
10
"...assuming that he is coachable." That is the operative phrase, and the last 15 months or so have shown us the answer very clearly. The word "policy" cannot be applied to a reckless, impetuous, unread, thoughtless, purely transactional, and thoroughly selfish human being. The investigative media and the federal courts are our best defense against this usurpation of our true values and our raison d'etre as a nation.
5
"Which raises the question: What is Mr. Trump himself actually doing to meet his campaign pledge of 25 million jobs for working-class Americans?"
Answer:The President should do nothing except sign laws Congress passes to move our economy more towards capitalism and away from socialism and crony capitalism. Congress can start by eliminating any and all subsidies to businesses. If corporations truly believe in the market, they don't need a dime from taxpayers. That goes for sugar quotas and the Export-Import Bank, for starters. The government should not be picking "winners and losers" by favoring one technology over another.
Something else would be the elimination of employer-mandated health care costs, to include the federal government. But no one in Washington is that brave.
Answer:The President should do nothing except sign laws Congress passes to move our economy more towards capitalism and away from socialism and crony capitalism. Congress can start by eliminating any and all subsidies to businesses. If corporations truly believe in the market, they don't need a dime from taxpayers. That goes for sugar quotas and the Export-Import Bank, for starters. The government should not be picking "winners and losers" by favoring one technology over another.
Something else would be the elimination of employer-mandated health care costs, to include the federal government. But no one in Washington is that brave.
1
Don't you just want to shake those auto workers who cheer for Trump but would not have jobs I feel Obama had not bailed them out? Trump opposed the bailout- at least he was once Obama was in office and Pence was strongly opposed to it.
The data is clear that average people do better when Democrats are in office. Bill Clinton oversaw a record number of people moving out of poverty into the middle class. Bush reversed that while squandering the Clinton budget surplus with tax cuts mostly for the affluent.
The data is clear that average people do better when Democrats are in office. Bill Clinton oversaw a record number of people moving out of poverty into the middle class. Bush reversed that while squandering the Clinton budget surplus with tax cuts mostly for the affluent.
12
Not to mention that Trump's erratic, xenophobic and truthless ramblings, which are causing America's standing in the world to plunge, have already significantly depressed tourism: one of America's largest and most profitable exports.
And do you really think that businesses are making decisions for new investments in a climate of cluelessness in executive governance? Or that consumers will continue to make large purchases when they see that their health care costs are going to spiral and any help they've been getting is on the chopping block?
There's some bad economic news coming.
And do you really think that businesses are making decisions for new investments in a climate of cluelessness in executive governance? Or that consumers will continue to make large purchases when they see that their health care costs are going to spiral and any help they've been getting is on the chopping block?
There's some bad economic news coming.
8
Who thinks he'll learn shoud think about someone having success for many years with lying will probably see no reason to change. Especially when the fault always lies on the other side. No alcohol ill can be healthy again by blaiming all the others, it needs self criticicme which he really not seems to have enough. After all he seems living in the past which never will come back. Next maybe he will recreate the apollo orogramm, i would not be astonished!
1
It is fascinating to constantly read these never ending 100% negatives on Trump. Indeed it is all true, many of us knew this from way back but the repetitiveness of these articles is boring and far from helpful. The time has come to focus on America as a whole and the millions who voted for Trump, who in fact still go to his of-the-cuff idiotic speeches were false nonsense is constantly repeated with profound promises based on insanity. It is not just Trump but rather this country as a whole, repeat "as a whole," that has gone totally nuts and is the core of having caused its absolute demise. "America The Beautiful" has become "America The Imbecile." Scary.
3
Yes, if Trump is such a smart business man and actually cared to improve economic growth and the American job market, why doesn't he seek out those "smart people from the business community..."?
And yes, economic and job growth is much more likely to take off with technological innovation, such as green technology, medical and scientific breakthroughs than by stubbornly pushing an antiquated and damaging technology, such as fossil fuels and cutting federal support for medical and science research.
Pay attention, please. President Muppet Trump does not have the imagination or ability to look beyond the nose on his makeup-caked face. Trump is merely a bought and paid for puppet of a certain self-serving segment of the business community, elevated by Citizens United.
Trump makes Harding's Teapot Dome scandal look like peanuts compared to the Trump cabinet appointments, government cuts, and policies favorable to the fossil fuel industry.
Trump is also a puppet of the worst of the financial scam class out to fill their personal coffers and foist their whacked out right wing ideology on the entire country. See the connections between the wealthy Mercer family, Bannon, and DJ Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/how-the-mercer-familys-partn...
And shall we talk about why Trump dances to Putin's tune?
And yes, economic and job growth is much more likely to take off with technological innovation, such as green technology, medical and scientific breakthroughs than by stubbornly pushing an antiquated and damaging technology, such as fossil fuels and cutting federal support for medical and science research.
Pay attention, please. President Muppet Trump does not have the imagination or ability to look beyond the nose on his makeup-caked face. Trump is merely a bought and paid for puppet of a certain self-serving segment of the business community, elevated by Citizens United.
Trump makes Harding's Teapot Dome scandal look like peanuts compared to the Trump cabinet appointments, government cuts, and policies favorable to the fossil fuel industry.
Trump is also a puppet of the worst of the financial scam class out to fill their personal coffers and foist their whacked out right wing ideology on the entire country. See the connections between the wealthy Mercer family, Bannon, and DJ Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/how-the-mercer-familys-partn...
And shall we talk about why Trump dances to Putin's tune?
6
A big if. I doubt Trump is coachable. Not even in little things like learning before Chancellor Merkel's visit, that the US does not negotiate trade agreements with Germany but with the EU. Being that issue one of his talking points, it was amazing.
So real important things like globalization, innovation and, environment seem uncoachable and against his core campaign promises.
However, if Trump mans up to the GOP leadership in Congress, he could push his infrastructure grand promise and create those jobs in a year or so. I am sure the Democrats would support the initiative to get the funds. If Trump is going to keep his macho features, he should use them not only for petty adrenaline rushes.
So real important things like globalization, innovation and, environment seem uncoachable and against his core campaign promises.
However, if Trump mans up to the GOP leadership in Congress, he could push his infrastructure grand promise and create those jobs in a year or so. I am sure the Democrats would support the initiative to get the funds. If Trump is going to keep his macho features, he should use them not only for petty adrenaline rushes.
33
This article is what the press should do all day, everyday. The Democratic party too, if they're paying attention. If trump is to be defeated, and his enablers in the GOP nationally as well as in the states, ask a simple question: where are the jobs?
51
You are spot on. This is the question - particularly in view of many cutting jobs now - that will turn the unhearing Trump voter who aren't in the basket of deplorables, but who bought the snake oil they thought would secure their future.
5
Trump's message to Merkel and the G20 = America first + fair trade.
Every single job that Trump brings back, is one more than Obama ever brought back.
That doesn't sound like wheezing to me, it feels like a breath of fresh air.
Every single job that Trump brings back, is one more than Obama ever brought back.
That doesn't sound like wheezing to me, it feels like a breath of fresh air.
2
Thanks for making my point about the ill and uninformed.
6
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Trump is nothing but a carnival barker!
5
"Assuming that Mr. Trump is coachable"? That would be your first mistake. Your second would be believing anything Trump said while he was running for President. Your third would be believing anything he says now that he is President. He is uncoachable, unteachable and unbearable. I just hope his administration is survivable.
12
It is obvious by now Trump is out to destroy our country. By the time 4th of July rolls around most people will be but empty vessels of what they once were.
Cutting Meals on Wheels is the law straw. What's next Trump? Children in rusty, broken down strollers looking like the starving child featured in Kristof's column?
How far is it going to go Trump? How far?
Cutting Meals on Wheels is the law straw. What's next Trump? Children in rusty, broken down strollers looking like the starving child featured in Kristof's column?
How far is it going to go Trump? How far?
10
Considering how essential gainful employment is to human flourishing and the good of society as a whole,
and considering how easy and unproblematic it would be to give everyone a job,
it is nothing less than criminal to let our fellow Americans' lives go to waste due to unemployment.
Not only is it immoral, it is blindingly stupid from an economic point of view.
Human capital is our most valuable resource. There is nothing more valuable than that - and there never will be.
So to let that go to waste is just economically insane.
When it comes to human capital, it's not "spending", it's investment. And all of history shows that humans are the best investment anyone can make.
"But how are we going to pay for it?" -- Are you kidding me? Are you not aware that the US dollar is a fiat currency? Do you not know that?
For the US Federal Government, the US dollar is an unlimited resource (so yes, Paul Ryan, you have devoted your life to a non-existent problem).
"But what about inflation?" -- Hiring the unemployed will not cause inflation. If they are unemployed, that means no one is buying their labor. You don't get inflation when you buy something no one else wants.
If any politician were serious about employment (I know. Try not to laugh.), they would institute something like the MMT Job Guarantee.
and considering how easy and unproblematic it would be to give everyone a job,
it is nothing less than criminal to let our fellow Americans' lives go to waste due to unemployment.
Not only is it immoral, it is blindingly stupid from an economic point of view.
Human capital is our most valuable resource. There is nothing more valuable than that - and there never will be.
So to let that go to waste is just economically insane.
When it comes to human capital, it's not "spending", it's investment. And all of history shows that humans are the best investment anyone can make.
"But how are we going to pay for it?" -- Are you kidding me? Are you not aware that the US dollar is a fiat currency? Do you not know that?
For the US Federal Government, the US dollar is an unlimited resource (so yes, Paul Ryan, you have devoted your life to a non-existent problem).
"But what about inflation?" -- Hiring the unemployed will not cause inflation. If they are unemployed, that means no one is buying their labor. You don't get inflation when you buy something no one else wants.
If any politician were serious about employment (I know. Try not to laugh.), they would institute something like the MMT Job Guarantee.
4
Donald Trump has proven that he's too old, too stupid and too lazy to learn how to do the hardest job in the world. That's just how his handlers like it. May the upcoming investigations of Trump's Russian partners, and their derailing of the 2016 election, be a genuine first step toward chasing the looters out and returning our battered White House to the people.
14
So for the next few months the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report will likely be positive. Trump will take credit for Obama's hard work. But then as the interest rate hikes by the Fed take hold and starts putting the brakes on the economy in the months ahead, what then?
Yup, it's fake numbers from BLS, the Fed and Yellen are killing jobs, and Trump alone will fix it, The Never Ending Nightmare continues!
Yup, it's fake numbers from BLS, the Fed and Yellen are killing jobs, and Trump alone will fix it, The Never Ending Nightmare continues!
14
Does it matter for Trump and Republicans? The President can lie about job numbers and half of the Americans won't realise it.
By his followers, he is no longer judged by performance on the job. Just like Poetin or Erdogan in recent years.
Silicon Valley needs to realise that California is not a bubble and the Trump administration can hurt their businesses (immigration policies, infrastructure like Caltrain, ...), so they need to step up and match their oil business, pharma, banking, ... peers in political spending. It's the only way.
By his followers, he is no longer judged by performance on the job. Just like Poetin or Erdogan in recent years.
Silicon Valley needs to realise that California is not a bubble and the Trump administration can hurt their businesses (immigration policies, infrastructure like Caltrain, ...), so they need to step up and match their oil business, pharma, banking, ... peers in political spending. It's the only way.
10
To say that Trump does not have a plan is like saying the chocolate does not taste like bananas. Unfortunately, no one in the GOP is standing up to him.
14
Wheezing jobs effort? There is no jobs effort, there is only PR. Nothing that Trump has taken credit for had anything to do with Trump, as you correctly note, it's just rich greedy CEOs like Immelt looking to be seen with the so-called president.
In the meantime layoffs continue, outsourcing continues, and American jobs disappear as a result of automation.
In the meantime layoffs continue, outsourcing continues, and American jobs disappear as a result of automation.
20
Doomsday nonsense, bumfwad and bushwah from the mouth of the most awful President who has ever been elected. Shame on him and shame on his "wheezing jobs effort" and shame on the low-info MAGA red hats who had the wool pulled over their eyes, but good, by Trump the con-man, scammer and carnie-barker and his strategic advisers who advise him seriously that wire-tapping comes from microwaves and that horse-apples are fruit. It's tinfoil hat time in America today.
19
Most of the blue collar workers you talk about who voted for Trump do not care to read anything substantive regarding Donald and his empty promises. You see, Donald has them convinced that anything negative regarding his persona is "fake news". Until he "speaks" the truth, they will jump into the abyss with him. It is the real American tragedy. We are in the Age of Willful Ignorance.
How long will it take for them to realize they have been had? The answer is: after it is too late!
How long will it take for them to realize they have been had? The answer is: after it is too late!
34
Despite all the talk and writing about the so-called disaffected blue-collar folks, they were certainly not alone in voting for Trump. There are millions of middle-class, upper-middle-class and upper-class voters who supported Trump as well. Why blame it all on the working class? In fact, those Rust Belt voters who gave Trump the Electoral College could not have had the impact they did without Republican voters of all classes falling in line behind their party's nominee. And, not incidentally, without a lot of PAC money up and down the ticket from Republican elites behind the scenes. Blame them for the chaos. Trump's cabinet picks should tell you all you need to know about the true sources of his support.
4
Donald J. Trump must do something egregious to be impeached. That is too bad because America should not have to wait for a sentinel event to get back on track.
22
He has. I think we must wait to see what the Russian investigation that appeared to upset Grassley and Feinstein so much. Hopefully, this is all going to come to light soon.
4
From the minute he took the oath of office, Trump was in violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution. Why wait for further crimes?
4
Jay I'm pretty sure Trump has already done something Impeachable and it's just a matter of getting the evidence together. Of course, the Whitehouse will Stonewall any inquiries, and I would not count on the Republicans in Congress to be very helpful. They only know how to investigate Clintons.
4
Since most of us agree that Trump appears clueless over how to run this country, we should be paying attention to Bannon. Isn't it Bannon who really has a plan - to disband the so-called administrative state? I am in shock that whoever the still sane minds are that reside in the GOP have not stood up and sounded the alarm over this President who is in thrall to a man who can't wait to bring it all down. We should all be very afraid and start pounding the doors down in Washington.
27
What this guy needs is a good education and, above all, BRAINS to absorb and understand what he reads. So far he has relied on his smartars instincts of fraud and deception for he never worked an honest day in his life. He has a string of business failures to prove it, from casinos to airline, fake university, and bicycle competition (Tour de Trash).
Every time he opens his mouth only brown matter gashes out. His only way of the mess he has created is his resignation. He has managed to anger every democratic ally but kowtows to despicable criminal dictators like Vladimir.
How much longer do we have to tolerate him?
Every time he opens his mouth only brown matter gashes out. His only way of the mess he has created is his resignation. He has managed to anger every democratic ally but kowtows to despicable criminal dictators like Vladimir.
How much longer do we have to tolerate him?
32
The $337 billion in ACA-related spending cuts should result in some 5-10 million people losing their jobs, and with their jobs, their health care. Does anyone know whether the Congressional Budget Office takes secondary and tertiary effects of budget cuts into account?
6
The resume for leadership as national leader to bring back jobs:
Created a fake university
Trained people to do nothing at the fake university
Charged high fees
Created work for lawyers
Created a fake university
Trained people to do nothing at the fake university
Charged high fees
Created work for lawyers
8
Why do republicans always frame their "innovations" as freedom when it's the opposite that always happens? We will be free to breathe pollution again as god intended, or have our public lands overrun and deforested by job-creators, who will then foul the waters and walk away. Just look at any coal mining operation in West Virginia where they leveled the mountains for proof. The old will be allowed to starve when Meals on Wheels is taken away for the West Virginian miners, and their kids can start working the mines earlier because they can't afford the private equity schools which will replace the once free (read socialist) public schools. Also, women will be free not to have abortions no matter what the medical condition, but you won't even know because your doctor won't be allowed to talk to you about it! They also won't be allowed to tell you about the dangers of having a loaded gun around children as they work to save either your life or the child who's been accidentally shot. And health insurance? Never fear! The mega insurance company whose CEO is a close confidant of the president will hook you up, as long as you meet all the proper credentials for care, like being under the age of 60 and never being ill. And thank god for that wall which is keeping all of the agricultural workers from harvesting the crops which Americans won't touch if they're not in a grocery store, and the biggest, baddest military ever assembled will keep us safely in our isolation bubble. Freedom!
8
Trump amassed much of his fortune selling false promises and screwing over people who trusted him. His voters will slowly and painfully learn exactly what they voted for.
8
The president is stuck in a 1970's time warp. His ideas are from Republicans of that era. It is a disgrace that his family and advisers do nothing to enlighten him about the world. I suspect they are rather happy he goes to Mar a Lago or his various rallies so they can act independently in their own self interest. We may as well have elected Kim and Kanye.
3
Trump has clearly demonstrated he is not fit to be POTUS by stumbling on every front - ethics, foreign policy, jobs, healthcare, etc.etc. 4 years of this will be a disaster for the country. He needs to admit failure and resign. Otherwise he should be impeached.
10
Has it occurred to anyone that the Trump budget is a tactic in a war on "entitlements?" That budget says to people that we need to spend more money on defense, with its profitable contracts, more money for veterans, which is always popular, and less on everything else.
People begin to see what it might look like if everything else is slashed. The actual budget, if one is every passed, will look quite different, but people get side-tracked when their favorite programs are threatened.
At some point, will Republicans throw out the assertion that Social Security and Medicare are the real problems? That is one of the central tenets of their political beliefs.
The only answer is to take money away from rich old people and use it to solve the problems of the rest of the nation. Of course, people who are currently on the system will be exempt, they vote, but the programs themselves will be on the road to extinction. Is that what we really want and need?
People begin to see what it might look like if everything else is slashed. The actual budget, if one is every passed, will look quite different, but people get side-tracked when their favorite programs are threatened.
At some point, will Republicans throw out the assertion that Social Security and Medicare are the real problems? That is one of the central tenets of their political beliefs.
The only answer is to take money away from rich old people and use it to solve the problems of the rest of the nation. Of course, people who are currently on the system will be exempt, they vote, but the programs themselves will be on the road to extinction. Is that what we really want and need?
3
Infrastructure projects could boost manufacturing. Jobs are created by the supply chain for transportation projects - roads, bridges, train tracks. No political party addresses the mass transit problem we have in this country. How about some development of high speed trains between major cities. There are many opportunities for innovation to create manufacturing jobs in transportation alone. The automobile industry should not be the focus for creating jobs. Instead of a "redo" there needs to be an analysis of opportunities for the vision of America's future. It is also noteworthy that Republicans have been union-busting in all of the business sectors so when manufacturing workers are drooling for jobs, they need to be reminded of this. Republicans want to make America great again without unions, without regulations and without a vision of the future with clean air and water.
8
I haven't seen much reporting or analysis on the extent to which Trump's "Make America Great Again" really means "Make America the 1950's Again." Trump and I were born in the same year. It's increasingly clear to me that his "vision" is for the way the U.S. was during our 1950's childhood -- or at least how it appears to him through the prism of an infantile nostalgia. The U.S. had in the 1950's the only advanced industrial economy in the world that WWII hadn't reduced to rubble. Much of the third world was pre-industrialized. We were, in short, the only game in town. Jobs were plentiful and globally we called the shots -- at least economically. So when this man-child gets up and tells us we're going to "win" again, we're going to "win so much we get sick of winning" -- this is really what he's talking about, this is the image (more a warm and fuzzy feeling) to which he's referring. The problem for this unread, uncurious, and unwell man is that the world, to put it mildly, has changed. Changed bigly. But he didn't notice nor wanted to. Now it's much too late to "school" him.
16
The 1950s were actually a dreary and monotonous time of conformism, tract housing, the "organization man" and the "ugly American" with "duck and cover" as the icing on the cake.
6
The question is how such an unschooled man became President. I think one day there will be another Trump-like candidate. He will be every bit as good a salesman, but he will much smarter and much more self-controlled. The new Trump will be an affable, intelligent Trump. He will be a veteran, a church-goer, a former college athlete. He will be a self-made man. The new Trump will know how to shut up the federal civil service, the courts and the media. And that will be the end of our democracy. One way to postpone this inevitability would be to make it a requirement that every child graduating high school have a detailed understanding of the U.S. Constitution. The required examination should be designed by educators from all points of the political spectrum. Of course the new Trump will quietly cancel this requirement. But perhaps such a requirement can buy us more time.
3
Now should be a teaching moment to explain to everyone how the Electoral College denies the people an elected official who can tame the fractious states.
4
The advice of seasoned corporate executives on sucessfully navigating and investing in the 21st century jobs cannot be boiled down to a single page with pictures that our executive can digest. It takes a deatiled, holistic understanding of global economics and trends to do that, and Trump simply will not invest the mental efforts required to learn.
7
It's almost impossible to have a vision for anything with all those voices in your mind competing for only one mouth.
9
We have solid proof that Trickle down economics does not work. The rich have gotten richen and we have more poor in this country. Top 1% keep there money they don't reinvest with their own money. Trump is a great example of that he takes tax breaks any other government hand out he can get.
5
Trump seems unable or unwilling to tackle any improvements in the "system" of unfettered capitalism, simplistically talking about "bringing back jobs" in manufacturing and saying nothing about the likely worker income those job bring. Nothing in his bombast notes the inevitable evolution of manufacturing toward automation. When a worker's competition is a machine with A.I., that never has to take a break and surely won't join a union, "great salaries" is pure ephemera. The system has to evolve too. Worker co-ops that bring labor into the profit stream engages those with "jobs" in making manufacturing more efficient. Rather than pitting workers against automation, co-ops encourage them to use automation even more efficiently, and to train themselves to operate new technology at higher levels. After all, "co-op capitalist" workers share in the profits of their innovation. I am positive this sort of thinking - reducing the income gap and all - is just not in Pres Trump's field of vision.
http://seniorjunior.blogspot.com/2016/11/oldnew-passion-worker-cooperati...
http://seniorjunior.blogspot.com/2016/11/oldnew-passion-worker-cooperati...
6
I've lost count by now of how many times I've asked (here and elsewhere) about those millions of jobs he promised.
He promised the world to desperate people, and I am sincerely quite worried about what will happen when they realise they've been had, to say nothing of the fact that their meagre safety-nets are probably about to be gutted as well...
He promised the world to desperate people, and I am sincerely quite worried about what will happen when they realise they've been had, to say nothing of the fact that their meagre safety-nets are probably about to be gutted as well...
11
I don't think they will realize. They are in a cognitive dissonance concrete vault with only the voice of Fox in their ears.
Detoxing them would be impossible without some new 10-step program, and they won't admit that Trump isn't the greatest until they hit bottom.
Detoxing them would be impossible without some new 10-step program, and they won't admit that Trump isn't the greatest until they hit bottom.
4
Mr. Trump is a showman first and a policy wonk last. He is the pure politician in that his entire focus is on his own image as savior. He has no interest in the workers who pinned their hopes on him and elected him. Lack of empathy for others is part of his narcissistic personality disorder. He is interested in job statistics only to the extent that they bolster his image. If he can get away with taking credit for what others have done, he will. And, as always, he will find others to blame for his failures.
15
Trump's plan for good American jobs was the rebuilding of our infrastructure, or at least that's what he said. Like all his other pronouncements on the campaign trail and now, it turned out to be a lie. One can find the truth in his budget.
I wouldn't call Trump's attempts at creating jobs for Americans "wheezing." It's a ruse meant to dupe voters. Trump's only plan lies in making his class of the top .01% wealthier than they already are.
I wouldn't call Trump's attempts at creating jobs for Americans "wheezing." It's a ruse meant to dupe voters. Trump's only plan lies in making his class of the top .01% wealthier than they already are.
11
A few comments. President Trump is "really, really smart and doesn't make mistakes." He doesn't need to listen to his cabinet and would not even have appointed one unless a vacant cabinet would have been too weird even for Kellyanne Conway and Shawn Spicer, who have to defend his daily lies and his daily nonsense. He still has hundreds if not thousands of sub-cabinet positions unfilled. His behavior is not going to change and we, the people and the press, are going to have to concentrate our efforts on the Congress and the courts. The US is in deep trouble, but they are our only hope. Let's stop wasting time trying to get Trump to listen to and do things that he is never going to do. I feel your pain, as a former president once said.
17
Trump extends his middle finger at everyone every weekend when he takes his $4 million junket to his safe space at Mar a Lago. What a blatant waste that is.
Trump has no care about anyone but himself.
Trump has no care about anyone but himself.
2
There is no need to say much other than that Trump is an utter fool. How long will we have to wait for the Republicans to disavow the Fool.
7
In the old days we had vaudeville. Now we have Trumpville. A figure with foot-long shoes and pushing an xylophone from the theater wings used to be standard vaudeville show. Now we have a figure with a foot-long hairdo and pushing a twitter keyboard from the internet wings. The quality of the vaudeville entertainment from both figures is much the same. In the old days we could laugh enjoyably and go home; with the new Trumpville we can only weep and then weep some more.
9
Trump should be attempting to prepare the American workforce for the next 50 years and not trying to sell them on the past 50 years.
15
You didn’t really think Trump would do anything about creating jobs, did you? Up to this point, his chief interest in the working class has been (1) how to pay them as little as possible, and (2) how to cheat people out of what little he’s contractually obliged to pay them. He’s been cited for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for refusing to pay the minimum wage and overtime. He’s been repeatedly sued for not paying workers and contractors. As of now, for example, he still owes $5 million for work on his new Washington hotel.
So I hope nobody thought that President Tweet would help their job prospects. He’s just not interested.
So I hope nobody thought that President Tweet would help their job prospects. He’s just not interested.
19
Trump is not coachable because he knows it all. He never apologizes because he never does anything wrong. When things go south it is someone else who screwed up.
With just a little bit of luck our economy is resilient enough to stand the catastrophe that even a short Republican domination will cause. Unfortunately, the world will move on without us and it is going to be hard to play catch-up when your only tool is military force.
With just a little bit of luck our economy is resilient enough to stand the catastrophe that even a short Republican domination will cause. Unfortunately, the world will move on without us and it is going to be hard to play catch-up when your only tool is military force.
13
I am surprised of the relatively low press cover of the WH budget that is the real meat behind so much talk. No need to be a nobel prize winner to understand that less education and training, less diplomacy, more war ships and more walls mean that the real plan is not to create jobs but to wage a global war and have a hord of lunatic followers view that as a patriotic act. I am anxiously waiting for mid 2018 and an 'unbeliveable' terror act that will be used by Trump and his clique to try 'take the oil' or 'stop China' or 'make America first' and take the whole humanity into hell. This man must be stopped now !
15
Unfortunately, time has shown that Trump is not only "uncoachable," but has little interest in expanding his knowledge of economics, foreign relations and defense issues. As he has said on a number of occasions when he is asked for documentation of a particular claim, "I heard that." Usually that means that Bannon has whispered in his ear or he saw something on Fox News. He doesn't read anything longer than the first paragraph on a briefing paper, relying on others to read and explain. His "big league" promises to the jobless of Appalachia are already dying on the vine.
16
As someone who was always strongly against Trump and the GOP in general, I am still astounded at just how bad he is turning out to be at this job. Trump really does seem to have no more depth than would any other game show host, completely lost without cue cards to set his direction.
27
As President Trump is discovering, it is only laws that have any long term effect on American policy. What law is he going to pass that makes American corporations want to help the American poor.
10
I keep thinking that the Donald's "promised jobs" are the ones left behind by the 11 million Mexicans who harvest our food, remodel our houses at affordable prices, babysit our kids, clean our office buildings, and take care of our old folks at home to avoid nursing homes, all at rock bottom prices. Who will do those jobs?
17
Yeah, and the fox should guard that henhouse! Asking so-called American multinationals to give a damn about the American workforce as if they noticed that the same people are the American market is useless. These companies are looking to Asia and Africa as growth markets. They know we're maxed out. They are automating as fast as they can and figure they'll do the least amount of common good behavior they can get away with under government regulation. Our companies fail us - that is expected under capitalism, but our government and media fail us the worst, since we lack democracy.
15
The lip service about stockholders is a farce. Management pays itself the profits now.
1
Think of regulations as protections. And thanks to the person who first said it. To illustrate, look at our regulated air over, say, Los Angeles. Then look at the unregulated air over Beijing. Any questions?
1
Good advice, but Immelt is a clown prince whose butt was saved by Mr and Mrs Taxpayer. Ross has the energy of a slug, don't expect much from him. The rest (Kidlow, Cohn, Mnuchin et al) are just sycophants, naves, grifters and fools. Forget it, we are doomed to four years of incompetence and stagnation.
2
The proposed cuts in federal spending along with fewer foreign visitors sure aren't going to help businesses, employment, or the economy.
2
The whole collection of fatuous plutocrats in the US denies that taxation and spending is the fundamental engine of multiplier effect here.
1
It's good to read this editorial's expose of Trump's "plans", but what would be much better is if his "plans" could be exposed as hollow and fallacious on the front page, not just in the opinion section, but in the NEWS section.
For every lie he tells, for every fact he twists, there needs to be unflinching examination of his claims, and contrasting them with facts. He needs to be bludgeoned with the truth until his false bravado is beaten down and he exposed as the carnival huckster that he is. This is no time to be timid. Assert your heritage as the Fourth Estate and give voice to those who are being ignored by the oligarchy, led by the lead oligarch himself.
Your opinions of Trump don't matter to him, but your fact-based reporting will. As John Adams said: "Facts are stubborn things: and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence".
For every lie he tells, for every fact he twists, there needs to be unflinching examination of his claims, and contrasting them with facts. He needs to be bludgeoned with the truth until his false bravado is beaten down and he exposed as the carnival huckster that he is. This is no time to be timid. Assert your heritage as the Fourth Estate and give voice to those who are being ignored by the oligarchy, led by the lead oligarch himself.
Your opinions of Trump don't matter to him, but your fact-based reporting will. As John Adams said: "Facts are stubborn things: and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence".
2
This editorial proceeds under the assumption that (a) Trump has ever had a coherent plan; and (b) Trump is interested in policy. All he focuses on is his message and in so doing he depends on the ignorance of the American voter.
1
Trump may have said things about building roads and bridges, but the problem is it is hard to say whether he really believes in the things he says or plans to follow up on them.
Remember, this is the man who kept talking about the border wall which will be paid by Mexico. Guess what? Trump is asking for $1.5 billion for the current fiscal year and another $2.6 billion for the 2018 budget year to build the wall. U.S. taxpayers, not Mexico, are on the hook to fulfill Trump's promise.
Trump's priorities so far have been the travel ban, deportation, border wall and repealing ACA. Job creatoin, it appears, is not on the top of the list.
Remember, this is the man who kept talking about the border wall which will be paid by Mexico. Guess what? Trump is asking for $1.5 billion for the current fiscal year and another $2.6 billion for the 2018 budget year to build the wall. U.S. taxpayers, not Mexico, are on the hook to fulfill Trump's promise.
Trump's priorities so far have been the travel ban, deportation, border wall and repealing ACA. Job creatoin, it appears, is not on the top of the list.
2
When you consider Jobs, just think about the job that he's don e, well not really. Sure he deported a few working moms, with small children left here, back to Mexico. But, what happened to all of those "Bad Hombres"?
He claims credit for jobs, such as Kack Ma, that had been announced back in October. He's trying to browbeat corporate CEOs with huge tax cuts, tax holidays, the border tax and virtually instantaneous depreciations schedules. But excessive depreciations just shifts profits forward and, then there is no depreciation.
Lastly, small businesses, which are ,more labor intensive, are the job creators.
Large corporations use the additional profits for stock dividends, additional dividends and even higher executive pay and bonuses. What's left just goes into job-killing technology.
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
He claims credit for jobs, such as Kack Ma, that had been announced back in October. He's trying to browbeat corporate CEOs with huge tax cuts, tax holidays, the border tax and virtually instantaneous depreciations schedules. But excessive depreciations just shifts profits forward and, then there is no depreciation.
Lastly, small businesses, which are ,more labor intensive, are the job creators.
Large corporations use the additional profits for stock dividends, additional dividends and even higher executive pay and bonuses. What's left just goes into job-killing technology.
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
2
Yeah, so Trump has lost track of his jobs and infrastructure plans and even does counterproductive things like removing environmental and health regulations. I don't think the majority of Americans expect anything from Trump and his stage performance. Mostly we are just sitting with crossed fingers that he'll trip and fall off the platform.
Congress is another story: there are a few capable and imaginative people there. What's wrong with them? Can't muster enough of you to shame the grifters and grafters into useful action?
Congress is another story: there are a few capable and imaginative people there. What's wrong with them? Can't muster enough of you to shame the grifters and grafters into useful action?
4
President Trump evidently has no respect for the office of the Presidency and none for the person of the previous president. His every "wheezing" effort, not just with respect to jobs, but also in relation to all facets of socio-economic-political policy, demonstrates his unsuitability for that high office.
Mr. Trump has moved on from "The Apprentice" to another tawdry "reality" TV show: "Disgrace the Nation."
Mr. Trump has moved on from "The Apprentice" to another tawdry "reality" TV show: "Disgrace the Nation."
4
The problem with the industrial job training proposals is that, "the bucket's got a hole in it."
What I mean by that is we have programmers and engineers working 'round the clock to kill those jobs.
Take the example of motor vehicle operating. Our people, male and female, young and old, black and white, know how to drive. But "driving" jobs are under attack. We read daily about advances in driver-less vehicles. That technology will be all over us in another decade, or so. Many will be disconnected from their paychecks.
3-D printing will have similar effects upon manufacturing. It'll be machin-u-facturing, all the way.
So what is to be done?
Well, many rural folk are adept at outdoor activities--hunting & fishing, tramping in the mud & snow. They cherish such activities...and as well there are many urban folk who would welcome an opportunity to learn and practice the dirty life. We need camp academies, like dude ranches, where adolescents can attend for extended periods to learn all that country stuff. And who's going to teach and baby-sit them?...Country folk, of course.
And after the general population has developed an appetite for blood, mud and guts, we'll need an expanded network of lodges and resorts where city folk can get at it. More work for Ebeneezer, Homer and Nelly.
What I mean by that is we have programmers and engineers working 'round the clock to kill those jobs.
Take the example of motor vehicle operating. Our people, male and female, young and old, black and white, know how to drive. But "driving" jobs are under attack. We read daily about advances in driver-less vehicles. That technology will be all over us in another decade, or so. Many will be disconnected from their paychecks.
3-D printing will have similar effects upon manufacturing. It'll be machin-u-facturing, all the way.
So what is to be done?
Well, many rural folk are adept at outdoor activities--hunting & fishing, tramping in the mud & snow. They cherish such activities...and as well there are many urban folk who would welcome an opportunity to learn and practice the dirty life. We need camp academies, like dude ranches, where adolescents can attend for extended periods to learn all that country stuff. And who's going to teach and baby-sit them?...Country folk, of course.
And after the general population has developed an appetite for blood, mud and guts, we'll need an expanded network of lodges and resorts where city folk can get at it. More work for Ebeneezer, Homer and Nelly.
3
Job one is to advocate for a revote of the November debacle. Trump is doomed but Pence is no improvement. The will of the people must find its way way back into our choice of government.
8
One problem Americans have is their numbness to numbers. The words millions and billions actually have no meaning, because those numbers are so vast, it would be very difficult to get our heads around. Whether we are talking, money, distances to other planets or jobs, saying several million or billion sounds big, well, actually very big, but that's all.
So when trump says that he will create millions of jobs, it might sound great, but the reality is, just another scam. The only millions that make any sense is the amount of money this administration will make for the trump family. Even I can get my head around that.
So when trump says that he will create millions of jobs, it might sound great, but the reality is, just another scam. The only millions that make any sense is the amount of money this administration will make for the trump family. Even I can get my head around that.
6
Creating what kind of jobs making what? More stuff that is badly constructed and has to be thrown away. Endless plastic for the landfill? Remember when glass bottles were washed and refilled? (soft drinks. More highways to no where -- there are already plenty of those. More housing projects in the suburbs destroying the habitat of many creature. How about some though before develo0pment and many many buildings in many mnay cities should come down to make way for new ones. Or move people to Detroit or Canton -- solve the homeless crisis --0 there are many places with lots of empty and live-able real estate. (forget about jobs -- they are mostly in the service industry. People do not know history... and don't know how to make things or how things are made. I love the term leaner -- meaning fewer jobs.. and with Amazon things can be even leaner. Can we make things better? and with longer life spans.
3
Stop expecting Trump to do anything to benefit the working class. He is nothing more than a bad game show host spouting barely coherent platitudes to dim crowds of people who don't know they are being taken for fools. While Trump continues to spew and tweet his nonsense, Bannon and Ryan are busy destroying the administrative state. You know, the administrative state whose purpose is to level the playing field and work for the majority rather than the 1%. Maybe when Social Security is sold off to Wall Street and Medicare is sold of to Anthem, Cigna, Humana, etc. his conned supporters will finally take notice, but I doubt that even then they will notice. Trump said he could shoot someday in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose a vote. Well, he's taken his voters out to 5th Avenue and has rhetorically shot them with his policies and proposals, and they don't seem to care.
14
As many assessor of the "Great Depression" have opined, the only thing that got the USA out of its economic doldrums, was World War II.
And, as this massive conflict brought full employment to the USA then, President Trump might be considering using a similar "job's creating strategy" now.
Hopefully, the Times Editorial Board will discuss this possibility in the near future.
And, as this massive conflict brought full employment to the USA then, President Trump might be considering using a similar "job's creating strategy" now.
Hopefully, the Times Editorial Board will discuss this possibility in the near future.
1
But after the last P38 Lightening came off the line - it was the after-war programs like the GI Bill that set the pace for decades of American growth, prosperity and economic primacy.
1
This is what people said before we went into Iraq a second time- and the opposite was true.
Donald Trump is not a serious person on an intellectual level. He navigates the world using fraud and illusion as his guides. A concept as deep as investment in American education, rather than building an idiotic southern border wall, for instance, is beyond his abilities of comprehension.
Just enough voters in 2016 chose the path of simplistic, ideological nonsense over a rational approach to complex problems. Now, we all pay the price.
Just enough voters in 2016 chose the path of simplistic, ideological nonsense over a rational approach to complex problems. Now, we all pay the price.
2
The oldest tricks in the book, old in a biblical sense: promise a better after life, invoke the will of good (reinforced with various psychological and physical devises, according to time and culture), invoke the common good and jobs (as Chavez did to end up with a non working economy) and the needed and desperate will vote you. Even they are led to doom and deprive them of health access, to save some money to a few who worry about a long term they will never see. And even if the future is doomed by expenses in weaponry. It is the extreme of deception: exchange your health for mass destruction and Chinese style china walls. To top your program deregulate the financial industry, to make sure you have a financial crisis Republican the III.
3
"Assuming that Mr. Trump is coachable" is the key line in this editorial.
It appears that Mr. Trump is not coachable.
Many people who have written about Trump say that, unless talking about himself, he has a very short attention span. It is not possible to comprehend how to improve the economy (or healthcare, or trade, or foreign relations, etc.) unless you can pay attention to a discussion of that topic long enough to be informed on the subject.
Also, Mr. Trump shows no sign of being able to critically evaluate sources of information. Apparently, he places more weight in information and unproven conspiracy theories from right-wing websites than from the mainstream media, the CBO, the intelligence community, or anything else in the fact-based world.
The inability to sort out what is and isn't a reliable source of information, combined with an inability to pay attention when new information is presented means that Mr. Trump has little if any capacity to comprehend the arguments presented in this editorial. It also explains why he appears not to understand the details of the new health care plan (or his surprise that healthcare is complicated - which is a hint that he didn't understand what was discussed at his meetings on healthcare).
It appears that Mr. Trump is not coachable.
Many people who have written about Trump say that, unless talking about himself, he has a very short attention span. It is not possible to comprehend how to improve the economy (or healthcare, or trade, or foreign relations, etc.) unless you can pay attention to a discussion of that topic long enough to be informed on the subject.
Also, Mr. Trump shows no sign of being able to critically evaluate sources of information. Apparently, he places more weight in information and unproven conspiracy theories from right-wing websites than from the mainstream media, the CBO, the intelligence community, or anything else in the fact-based world.
The inability to sort out what is and isn't a reliable source of information, combined with an inability to pay attention when new information is presented means that Mr. Trump has little if any capacity to comprehend the arguments presented in this editorial. It also explains why he appears not to understand the details of the new health care plan (or his surprise that healthcare is complicated - which is a hint that he didn't understand what was discussed at his meetings on healthcare).
3
What a shame we have a 'bull in a china shop', destroying everything worth saving. As he continues to trample all decency left in the White House, the very people he promised to lead out of 'the carnage' (his?), will be the ones left holding the bag. Crooked lying Trump is a demagogue, whose empty promises are just that, garbage. Can't we see this "ugly american" as the opportunist he is, devoid of scruples, irresponsible, and extremely ignorant by design (as he does not want to learn, nor read, the reason of his incoherence). Having said that, we must give him one "compliment" (Ugh!!!): he has been able to distract us from his sneaky ways successfully thus far. But attacking the Press may be coming to an end, once we demonstrate his collusion with Russia (to successfully assault the WH); and when he is impeached to produce his tax returns (confirming his mafia-like connections and, likely, that he really is a crook).
3
The brain dead nature of Trump's belief that rolling back environmental regulations and fuel economy standards with boost the fortunes of the American auto industry is made manifest by the fact that Trump's authority ends at the U.S. borders.
Fuel guzzling, air fouling vehicles will still be banned elsewhere.
His plan would be the end of U.S. automakers as players in the global market.
Fuel guzzling, air fouling vehicles will still be banned elsewhere.
His plan would be the end of U.S. automakers as players in the global market.
2
What is a nation for but to protect its people. That of course is a fantasy. Since people organize themselves within existing nations and across existing nations as corporations, religions, etc. These groups exist to take care of themselves subverting nationhood through every means at there disposal for their own special tribal benefit. Examples, Rich vs Poor, Christian vs Muslim, Caucasion vs Asian, Global Corp vs Nation Interest.
What we have so far from Trump is mindless self-serving bluster about creating jobs and infrastructure investment. These are in direct conflict with his draconian budget proposals.
Has anyone done the cost-effectiveness math on his absurd southern border wall compared with what the same or even less resources devoted to other national needs would deliver?
There is something for Trump to think about while spending lots of the taxpayer dollars at his resort in Florida.
Has anyone done the cost-effectiveness math on his absurd southern border wall compared with what the same or even less resources devoted to other national needs would deliver?
There is something for Trump to think about while spending lots of the taxpayer dollars at his resort in Florida.
2
As the only economic entity with the power to coerce the flow of money, government is the basic driver of multiplier effect in mixed economies. The Republican Party is entirely unfit to manage a modern public sector.
1
Trump's plan aligns very nicely with today's large company CEOs: short term gains, no vision for the future, tax cuts( money not reinvested but either distributed to the C-club or stock by-backs). What current traditional CEO would criticize Trump for these? Of course, there are some exceptions but they are very rare. While R&D budgets have stayed about the same in large companies, more of the money is being directed to short term incremental developments. Companies are stuck getting their big ideas elsewhere because they lost their explorer nature. Other countries will pick up the slack and with the US's anti-immigrant mindset, inventors and entrepreneurs will go elsewhere.
2
Trump promised to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and restore "the rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation ..."
A suitable reminder for Trump and his voters would be to erect large "Now Open For Business" signs in front every one of these many vacant tombstones. A suitable protest would be to march while holding "Make America Great — and Americans Employed" signs — never leaving until the new president brings those graveyards back to life. (Better pack a lunch — a big one.)
Trump has made promises that can be easily corroborated by the facts.
No need to resort to name-calling. Much better simply to keep score.
Trump’s own promises if unmet will be a self-generated wrecking ball, but it's going to take time plus accurate score-keeping before the truth about his empty promises gains enough momentum.
That wrecking ball is now in his court — and will be for the next four years.
A suitable reminder for Trump and his voters would be to erect large "Now Open For Business" signs in front every one of these many vacant tombstones. A suitable protest would be to march while holding "Make America Great — and Americans Employed" signs — never leaving until the new president brings those graveyards back to life. (Better pack a lunch — a big one.)
Trump has made promises that can be easily corroborated by the facts.
No need to resort to name-calling. Much better simply to keep score.
Trump’s own promises if unmet will be a self-generated wrecking ball, but it's going to take time plus accurate score-keeping before the truth about his empty promises gains enough momentum.
That wrecking ball is now in his court — and will be for the next four years.
2
President Trump & his Cabinet are billionaires who have feverishly been working on their own personal tax cuts via repeal of ACA. Next they will arrange forgiveness and repatriation of their various companies offshore profits at pennies on the dollar. Then they will rewrite the tax code giving themselves another handsome tax cut. And Trumps budget? Rest assured, Trump's Government Sachs only has the interests of the top 1% corporate "job creators" in their sights. Jobs that provide a living wage? Not on your life! This group of parasites will increase income inequality so quickly and thoroughly that we may never, ever recover.
2
Infrastructure jobs will never happen because the preparation for them has not and from all indications will never occur. The shortage of skilled workers has already restricted the building recovery. The wall may present the uptraining opportunity but the concrete may be better spent on the millions of miles of flyover roads and provide a wider national uplift to the economies of Trump supporters.
Democrats are just shocked that Trump has done more for jobs since the election than Obama did in eight years. Trump has created a climate for business investment, corporate and consumer confidence. Of course he favors the private sector over public sector jobs. Washington hates that, but it's the job of government to support the private sector, not dominate it.
Government programs will be cut. That's the unfortunate side effect of 8 years of Obama running wild with the Federal credit card. You can try to spin it whatever way you want, but Trump's supporters see him giving a darn about jobs and making an effort.
Government programs will be cut. That's the unfortunate side effect of 8 years of Obama running wild with the Federal credit card. You can try to spin it whatever way you want, but Trump's supporters see him giving a darn about jobs and making an effort.
1
Yep! And when the unemployment rate was cut by half during Obamas tenure - sad. And all those unfilled job openings out there. Total fail.
1
Wait, so 30 some months of straight job gains in the private sector, and a decrease in public sector jobs following the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, with total obstruction from the Republicans was Obama not giving a darn about jobs?
And Trump's 50ish days, and no signed bills or actual legislation is the creation of a climate for business investment?
Really? I mean really? How do you square that with reality? How has anything Trump has done thus far actually created any kind of climate for business investment, other than to yell about business deals that were settled before he took office?
And Trump's 50ish days, and no signed bills or actual legislation is the creation of a climate for business investment?
Really? I mean really? How do you square that with reality? How has anything Trump has done thus far actually created any kind of climate for business investment, other than to yell about business deals that were settled before he took office?
2
Trump is a chaos of unclear ideas. The only jobs I feel certain he will create will be an increased need for emergency room personnel at the hospitals across the country when the new health care bill kicks in.
His followers seem undaunted by facts. This may change however when they drive their family to the emergency room because they have no job and no insurance. Even then I think Trump and his Republican buddies will somehow blame it on the Democrats.
There is at least one scenario he can't blame on anyone but himself. By the end of his presidency the total cost of flying him to Mar Lago to play golf could easily be in the hundreds of millions. Even his most die hard fans can see that simply be cutting out these pleasure trips he could have funded after school programs or job training programs or etc. etc.
His followers seem undaunted by facts. This may change however when they drive their family to the emergency room because they have no job and no insurance. Even then I think Trump and his Republican buddies will somehow blame it on the Democrats.
There is at least one scenario he can't blame on anyone but himself. By the end of his presidency the total cost of flying him to Mar Lago to play golf could easily be in the hundreds of millions. Even his most die hard fans can see that simply be cutting out these pleasure trips he could have funded after school programs or job training programs or etc. etc.
1
There is no plan, that's clear if nothing else is.
Just the amateur thrashing around of incompetent "business leaders," a term we will come to see for the oxymoron it really is (most of us see it already).
Cf. Tillerson's use of "imminent threat" to signal to the North Koreans they should probably release their nuclear arsenal immediately (the term is used in intelligence to refer to a target that will be taken out pre-emptively; you don't use that term without following it up with action.... at least, if you're competent in intelligence and diplomacy, and Tillerson is neither, so Kim Jong Un can take a deep breath now...).
The real question of the moment and for this week is: has Comey uncovered a plot in Congress to, say, assassinate Trump? Is that why he only met with Democratic representatives of the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees?
Or is it the plan to have the Chinese take over our infrastructure with Elaine Chao's help, by "privatizing it" and selling all the contracts to Chinese corporations, who are doing such a great job in Africa? Then the Communist Party can collect all the tolls, as well as the profits from Walmart.
Fascinating; we will have to wait and see.
Just the amateur thrashing around of incompetent "business leaders," a term we will come to see for the oxymoron it really is (most of us see it already).
Cf. Tillerson's use of "imminent threat" to signal to the North Koreans they should probably release their nuclear arsenal immediately (the term is used in intelligence to refer to a target that will be taken out pre-emptively; you don't use that term without following it up with action.... at least, if you're competent in intelligence and diplomacy, and Tillerson is neither, so Kim Jong Un can take a deep breath now...).
The real question of the moment and for this week is: has Comey uncovered a plot in Congress to, say, assassinate Trump? Is that why he only met with Democratic representatives of the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees?
Or is it the plan to have the Chinese take over our infrastructure with Elaine Chao's help, by "privatizing it" and selling all the contracts to Chinese corporations, who are doing such a great job in Africa? Then the Communist Party can collect all the tolls, as well as the profits from Walmart.
Fascinating; we will have to wait and see.
1
When Henry Ford built the Willow Run plant, he built it in an "L" shape rather than a straight line to avoid having part of the plant cross into a county controlled by the Democratic Party. Of course the 90-degree bend in the middle of the assembly line contributed less than nothing to the plant's efficiency in reaching the goal of cranking out a B-26 bomber every hour to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. But it did help a powerful Republican express his own political convictions.
And so it is with the Trump administration and today's GOP. Who cares if industrial policy or health care policy or tax policy or immigration policy makes any sense as long as we get to tweet about making America great again and tweak liberals in the process? Trump has no policies and he's willing to twist our government and our nation into a pretzel to feed his ego and fill his own pockets. When will the GOP recognize he's not even helping them and put a stop to this chaos?
And so it is with the Trump administration and today's GOP. Who cares if industrial policy or health care policy or tax policy or immigration policy makes any sense as long as we get to tweet about making America great again and tweak liberals in the process? Trump has no policies and he's willing to twist our government and our nation into a pretzel to feed his ego and fill his own pockets. When will the GOP recognize he's not even helping them and put a stop to this chaos?
1
So when the oil glut is depleted and fuel efficient imports compete with American made gas guzzlers, which will American consumers choose? The American auto industry also need to be able to export its cars for sale to countries that require higher fuel efficiency. Should they forget about this market?
1
Public sector tax payer funded jobs are certainly wheezing as vacancies are not being filled but the private sector is thriving and overall more jobs are being created since November than in a long time. Hopefully manufacturing will start thriving and defense and infrastructure related jobs will rise with greater investments. when the Trump budget passes. The best time to assess Trump's Jobs effort would be later this year. For now there is reason for optimism even though there is a shake up and reconfiguration in all sectors.
4
You say "Public sector tax payer funded" jobs are wheezing, but Trump's budget will cause defense and infrastructure jobs to rise. What do you think those jobs are if not taxpayer funded?
And if the private sector is thriving, it is no thanks to Trump but to Obama's policies.
And if the private sector is thriving, it is no thanks to Trump but to Obama's policies.
1
Since the President has done absolutely nothing to engender that job growth, literally nothing, I am baffled by your optimism. It seems about as well-founded as Trump's wiretapping allegations. Did you even read the editorial? There is nothing in the President's budget to address infrastructure or creation of jobs, apart from building a wall (which Congress is unlikely to fund) and military spending. Neither of which will serve the president's working class base.
1
Any jobs report right now is the result of the last administration which Trump claims as his own. And, you are correct that the likelihood of his causing a war would create jobs, but do you want that cause/effect? Not me. Everything else he does indicates a falling off of positive impact.
1
Trump’s pursuit of a 21st Century mercantilism shows no signs of ending up with any better result of than the 16th Century versions that led to continuous wars to seize and protect economic advantage ultimately leading to World War II. Trump’s economic playbook with its underlying beggar thy neighbor and building huge military investments could have been taken directly from 17th century mercantilist treatises. It was the forced learning from the utter devastation of the resulting narrow nationalisms leading to World War II that let leadership emerge in the US, Europe, and Asia to create multinational trade and commerce agreements that have led, in spite small regional wars, to the most peaceful and prosperous 70 years in world history. The need for World War II as the attention getting catalyst to a world of peace and prosperity growing on a substrate of multinational agencies and agreements reminds of the farm legend about the requirement for a 2x4 in for training a mule. Why the 2x4? is the usual question. The answer: First you whack the mule with the 2x4 to get the mules attention. World War II was the 2x4.
Trump’s recently announced budget priories, seemingly led by Steve Bannon, wants us to erase the hard-earned World War II lessons from memory. Instead, Bannon’s substitute, a catechism he titles deconstructing the administrative state, has more in keeping with the Inquisition vs. Galileo than any learning in the succeeding 500 years, much less since World War II.
Trump’s recently announced budget priories, seemingly led by Steve Bannon, wants us to erase the hard-earned World War II lessons from memory. Instead, Bannon’s substitute, a catechism he titles deconstructing the administrative state, has more in keeping with the Inquisition vs. Galileo than any learning in the succeeding 500 years, much less since World War II.
3
Bashing Trump is lots of fun, and I’m glad to see the people here are enjoying themselves.
However, despite what many predicted a month or so ago, Trump has not yet turned into Hitler. In fact, he is trying to deal with what all presidents come to experience as the intransigence of other branches of government. If Trump were really as bad as people here claim, they wouldn’t be just complaining in an op-ed column. They would be secretly planning to do away with him. Those complaining here aren’t serious. Those who are serious are going about their business secretly.
Also, I wouldn’t call Trump’s fear of the deep state paranoia. It was Eisenhower who warned us to beware of the industrial-military complex. That complex is in fact the deep state. Although Trump might not be dealing with it rationally, its existence is real and a real threat to democracy.
Finally, I would predict that Trump will serve out this term and be reelected.
However, despite what many predicted a month or so ago, Trump has not yet turned into Hitler. In fact, he is trying to deal with what all presidents come to experience as the intransigence of other branches of government. If Trump were really as bad as people here claim, they wouldn’t be just complaining in an op-ed column. They would be secretly planning to do away with him. Those complaining here aren’t serious. Those who are serious are going about their business secretly.
Also, I wouldn’t call Trump’s fear of the deep state paranoia. It was Eisenhower who warned us to beware of the industrial-military complex. That complex is in fact the deep state. Although Trump might not be dealing with it rationally, its existence is real and a real threat to democracy.
Finally, I would predict that Trump will serve out this term and be reelected.
1
This piece makes the error of taking Trump seriously. He is as ignorant as he is dishonest. He is merely throwing red meat to his supporters by attacking big government, remember, that thing Reagan convinced all the morons was making their lives worse, not better. It won't matter that it won't work, his followers will believe it is working, even when their lives get worse. And those who actually figure out that things are getting worse will believe Trump when he tells them it is the fault of the Democrats, especially that crafty Obama, who even after leaving office is still trying to sabotage him. Remember, this is the same paranoid maniac who still insists that Obama spied on him even after it became obvious (for most of us it was never even thought of as anything more than paranoia or another lie) to everyone who isn't a Breitbart aficionado that it never happened.
Another detail this piece should have pointed out is that besides the job killing nature of Trump's budget proposal the jobs haven't disappeared for the reasons people commonly believe they have. Most of the job loss is due to increased efficiency, mostly through automation. This is the price one pays when they live in a capitalist economy. The name of the game is profit, not employ people. If these unemployed people are looking for someone who to help them for altruistic reasons they need to ask themselves who cares more, a government charged with serving its people or a corporation whose only motive is profit.
Another detail this piece should have pointed out is that besides the job killing nature of Trump's budget proposal the jobs haven't disappeared for the reasons people commonly believe they have. Most of the job loss is due to increased efficiency, mostly through automation. This is the price one pays when they live in a capitalist economy. The name of the game is profit, not employ people. If these unemployed people are looking for someone who to help them for altruistic reasons they need to ask themselves who cares more, a government charged with serving its people or a corporation whose only motive is profit.
1
Jeffrey Immelt said, “I built my career in a time when productivity, innovation and globalization were essential to success, the way to win.” Well, now you can build your success on polluting the air and water and sticking it to your workers by giving them lower salaries and being able to fire them any time you want to for any reason at all, while abandoning R&D and sticking with 19th century technology.
Of course that means that China and Japan and Europe will take over all the sustainable energy development for the next 25 years, leaving them poised to dominate the post-carbon energy world we are headed for. But that's OK, because the 1% will do fine, they'll be able to afford to rebuild their coastal mansions on higher ground as the oceans rise.
Of course that means that China and Japan and Europe will take over all the sustainable energy development for the next 25 years, leaving them poised to dominate the post-carbon energy world we are headed for. But that's OK, because the 1% will do fine, they'll be able to afford to rebuild their coastal mansions on higher ground as the oceans rise.
2
How JOB statistics they look depends on the eye of the beholder.
Reagan enjoyed a high number of new jobs added (16M), Clinton even higher (23M), Bush 2 poor in comparison (2M), and Obama better than I expected possible (11M of which about 800K were in direct manufacturing). Also we ended up 2016 with a rather low 4.7% unemployment and importantly a market seeking skilled/educated workers.
Still we lost about 300K direct manufacturing jobs net over the last 8 years affecting lower skilled citizens. More importantly only half of the 11M created jobs were high paying jobs.
Worker inequality/innovation/environment are our existential challenges (not Mexico). It's an increasingly modern competitive independent global World. Instead of expecting it to bend to our parochial selfish needs we need to lead.
On average a family needs about 3x more support than when I was young to make it firmly into Middle Class. The 1950/60's are gone – forever.
Necessary as the help is the current abominations in DC will not provide it – helping is anathema to them.
Reality: this “community” help will be periodically needed through life. Re-education will be ongoing, job shifts and unemployment frequent, mobility necessary, regulated worker protection essential, etc. Moreover only active government can support the risks of innovation and the structure to support startup.
Worker/innovation centric we need to be. Good jobs will result. R's philosophy antithetical. We're doomed!
Reagan enjoyed a high number of new jobs added (16M), Clinton even higher (23M), Bush 2 poor in comparison (2M), and Obama better than I expected possible (11M of which about 800K were in direct manufacturing). Also we ended up 2016 with a rather low 4.7% unemployment and importantly a market seeking skilled/educated workers.
Still we lost about 300K direct manufacturing jobs net over the last 8 years affecting lower skilled citizens. More importantly only half of the 11M created jobs were high paying jobs.
Worker inequality/innovation/environment are our existential challenges (not Mexico). It's an increasingly modern competitive independent global World. Instead of expecting it to bend to our parochial selfish needs we need to lead.
On average a family needs about 3x more support than when I was young to make it firmly into Middle Class. The 1950/60's are gone – forever.
Necessary as the help is the current abominations in DC will not provide it – helping is anathema to them.
Reality: this “community” help will be periodically needed through life. Re-education will be ongoing, job shifts and unemployment frequent, mobility necessary, regulated worker protection essential, etc. Moreover only active government can support the risks of innovation and the structure to support startup.
Worker/innovation centric we need to be. Good jobs will result. R's philosophy antithetical. We're doomed!
1
This budget it is the monster child of Mick Mulvaney, the rabid director of the Office of Management and Budget. I seriously doubt that Trump's staff has burdened Trump with anything more that a 140-character overview of the new budget presented in his name.
Mulvaney, a Republican from South Carolina, publicly identifies himself with the Tea Party. While in the House of Representatives, Mulvaney voted against a government-funding resolution in 2015 that would have prevented a government shutdown because it included funding for Planned Parenthood. Mulvaney said, "This is not about women's health. It’s about trafficking in pieces of dead children." That illustrates the sort of fanatic we are dealing with.
Trump gives every appearance of being oblivious and cheerfully indifferent to the contents of 'his' new budget. He is the front man doing what he does best - hawking his fake miracle medicine to the rubes who voted for him. Meanwhile, he luxuriates in the radiant glow of unsurpassed power and unprecedented fame - a narcissist's dream come true.
Mulvaney, a Republican from South Carolina, publicly identifies himself with the Tea Party. While in the House of Representatives, Mulvaney voted against a government-funding resolution in 2015 that would have prevented a government shutdown because it included funding for Planned Parenthood. Mulvaney said, "This is not about women's health. It’s about trafficking in pieces of dead children." That illustrates the sort of fanatic we are dealing with.
Trump gives every appearance of being oblivious and cheerfully indifferent to the contents of 'his' new budget. He is the front man doing what he does best - hawking his fake miracle medicine to the rubes who voted for him. Meanwhile, he luxuriates in the radiant glow of unsurpassed power and unprecedented fame - a narcissist's dream come true.
2
Why would anybody in another country buy our cars and trucks if they are not energy efficient?
Why will US electric utilities build new coal-buring power plants when the cost of the electricity will be 218% to nearly 400% more expensive than natural gas?
Why not promote renewables such as solar, wind, geothermal, and electric-powered vehicles for which we can literally be the world leader due to market power and our ability to advance the learning curve faster than competitors?
Why deny climate change when the facts demonstrate the probability is high and the costs of not pursuing renewables have far higher costs than conversion?
Why should we believe anything this ignorant fool in the White House says when he quotes nonsense from paid disinformers on TV and then doesn't comprehend that if he picked up his phone he would have free access to the global experts?
Why will US electric utilities build new coal-buring power plants when the cost of the electricity will be 218% to nearly 400% more expensive than natural gas?
Why not promote renewables such as solar, wind, geothermal, and electric-powered vehicles for which we can literally be the world leader due to market power and our ability to advance the learning curve faster than competitors?
Why deny climate change when the facts demonstrate the probability is high and the costs of not pursuing renewables have far higher costs than conversion?
Why should we believe anything this ignorant fool in the White House says when he quotes nonsense from paid disinformers on TV and then doesn't comprehend that if he picked up his phone he would have free access to the global experts?
1
We are the laughing stock of the world. Except our president causes genuine fearful laughter. What's he going to say, or worse, DO next? His electorate was sold a bill of goods by a charlatan who always been supreme at selling ephemera, useless entertainment to too many people who see the TV as gospel.
We need to mandate that our candidates for POTUS undergo an evaluation by a team of psychiatric/psychologist specialists who can properly diagnose disorders of the mind. The candidates' fitness for the most important job on the planet would be determined by such diagnoses. I can think think of several presidents whose subsequent aberrant behaviour averted would have put the world in a far better place than it is now.
'So-called' President Trump must be told that he has 2 choices: Resign gracefully (!) or be impeached. And within the next 6 months, if the world as we know it lasts that long.
To avoid anything like this happening again, we must guarantee free universal education to every native-born citizen of the United States.
We need to mandate that our candidates for POTUS undergo an evaluation by a team of psychiatric/psychologist specialists who can properly diagnose disorders of the mind. The candidates' fitness for the most important job on the planet would be determined by such diagnoses. I can think think of several presidents whose subsequent aberrant behaviour averted would have put the world in a far better place than it is now.
'So-called' President Trump must be told that he has 2 choices: Resign gracefully (!) or be impeached. And within the next 6 months, if the world as we know it lasts that long.
To avoid anything like this happening again, we must guarantee free universal education to every native-born citizen of the United States.
2
This is a joke. Trump is already costing the country jobs: in tourism, which is suffering "Trump slump"; in hi-tech; science; higher education; innovation and all the rest of the areas on which the survival of a modern economy depends. Savage cuts in science research will lead to a brain drain to Europe and Asia. Recently I talked to an Indian computer scientist who is making six-figures in a highly innovative company. He was talking about moving back to India where he'll do the same job for the same company - except his taxes and his spending won't benefit the US any longer. Will any of Trump brain-dead voters qualify for his position? We are talking about people who are so lazy or so poorly educated that they refuse retraining programs and are willing to undermine the health of themselves and their neighbors just to get back dead-end, dirty coal-mining jobs. And when they are confronted with facts and figures, they scream and blame the "elites".
1
"Talking doomsday nonsense"? The Editorial Board notes correctly that Trump's point of reference for full employment for industrial America was Rosie the Riveter and peak WWII wartime production of bombers instead of autos. But evidently the Editorial Board still has trouble taking Trump seriously, at his most ominous.
Read Trump's budget. Is it also nonsense or does it make sense as crash preparation for war on a scale not seen since WWII? Everything is slashed, except the military and homeland security. The VA receives more money than it knows what to do with, unless Trump has in mind caring for a sudden influx of more wounded veterans. And Secretary Tillerson, after a mild initial speech, evidently has his chain yanked from the White House and pronounces that "political and diplomatic efforts" with North Korea have "failed." Would Trump lose if his belligerence provoked line-crossing belligerence by North Korea?
"War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. [...] The nation in wartime attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values culminating at the undisputed apex of the State ideal. Other values such as artistic creation, knowledge, reason, beauty, the enhancement of life, are instantly and almost unanimously sacrificed." R. Bourne (1918)
Read Trump's budget. Is it also nonsense or does it make sense as crash preparation for war on a scale not seen since WWII? Everything is slashed, except the military and homeland security. The VA receives more money than it knows what to do with, unless Trump has in mind caring for a sudden influx of more wounded veterans. And Secretary Tillerson, after a mild initial speech, evidently has his chain yanked from the White House and pronounces that "political and diplomatic efforts" with North Korea have "failed." Would Trump lose if his belligerence provoked line-crossing belligerence by North Korea?
"War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. [...] The nation in wartime attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values culminating at the undisputed apex of the State ideal. Other values such as artistic creation, knowledge, reason, beauty, the enhancement of life, are instantly and almost unanimously sacrificed." R. Bourne (1918)
2
Yes, indeed, it's all "sizzle and no steak," regarding this administration and jobs. Something else happened this week that underlines why 45 isn't really interested in solving problems:
The 45 incompetents are removing student debt protections implemented by the Obama administration by allowing collection agencies to charge higher fees and interest rates for defaulted student loans. This is the usual "conservative" answer to most problems: kick people when their down. Instead, if college graduates were given training and job opportunities (you know, by creating new jobs first) they would more likely pay their loans back. Instead, 45 policy is all about putting money in the pockets of the bottom-feeders and loan sharks rather than helping anyone.
All one needs is to do is look closely at what this administration "dose" rather than what it says to see that they aren't serious about leadership. It's all about the money.
The 45 incompetents are removing student debt protections implemented by the Obama administration by allowing collection agencies to charge higher fees and interest rates for defaulted student loans. This is the usual "conservative" answer to most problems: kick people when their down. Instead, if college graduates were given training and job opportunities (you know, by creating new jobs first) they would more likely pay their loans back. Instead, 45 policy is all about putting money in the pockets of the bottom-feeders and loan sharks rather than helping anyone.
All one needs is to do is look closely at what this administration "dose" rather than what it says to see that they aren't serious about leadership. It's all about the money.
1
Wars are fought on the battlefield but won by the strength of economies. The North won the Civil War and American was the instrument of victory in WW2 thanks to its economic might. One might even say, to paraphrase Von Clausewitz, "war is economics by other means".
We find ourselves in a perverse situation. If our economy is successful - regardless if anything Trump does contributes to that success (and so far everything he has done is more economy destroying then building), he and rightwing theology will take the credit.
The take away will be that dirty air, polluted waters, dangerous working conditions, toxic chemicals, consumer rip offs, and more tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else is good for the economy. Its certainly conceivable the economy will do well for a time - if for no other reason then by the foundation of 8 years of recovery under Obama.
But in the end, all this has to come crashing down just as surely as Reagan's tax cuts did not pay for themselves, and Bush's economic policies (and war policies) left us with the Great Recession (how quickly we forget).
Call it the 2nd fighting of the Civil War, if you will, and really the issues haven't changed: The right of states and the wealthy to enslave and exploit people versus the survival of the Union and government for the people.
In this war, every dollar you don't spend is a bullet fired in the battle, and yes like every war there will be innocent casualties of victory.
We find ourselves in a perverse situation. If our economy is successful - regardless if anything Trump does contributes to that success (and so far everything he has done is more economy destroying then building), he and rightwing theology will take the credit.
The take away will be that dirty air, polluted waters, dangerous working conditions, toxic chemicals, consumer rip offs, and more tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else is good for the economy. Its certainly conceivable the economy will do well for a time - if for no other reason then by the foundation of 8 years of recovery under Obama.
But in the end, all this has to come crashing down just as surely as Reagan's tax cuts did not pay for themselves, and Bush's economic policies (and war policies) left us with the Great Recession (how quickly we forget).
Call it the 2nd fighting of the Civil War, if you will, and really the issues haven't changed: The right of states and the wealthy to enslave and exploit people versus the survival of the Union and government for the people.
In this war, every dollar you don't spend is a bullet fired in the battle, and yes like every war there will be innocent casualties of victory.
2
Trump swept into office on a platform based on fear, long on inaccurate rhetoric and short on specifics. He was clearly unprepared to take effective action, rather spending his nights Tweeting angry insults at every imagined slight, every imagined enemy, and picking one pointless fight after another like some petulant 3 year old. Trump may be the thinnest skinned person on the planet, with an astounding ability not to have one unexpressed thought.
If he spent one tenth the time formulating actual approaches to providing decent jobs for Americans that he spends attacking windmills, he would have something solid of offer.
If he spent one tenth the time formulating actual approaches to providing decent jobs for Americans that he spends attacking windmills, he would have something solid of offer.
1
Trump knows nothing nor cares about Jobs and what it will take to keep and bring good 21st century jobs to America. He does not understand the value of education. His Trump University was nothing but scam.
Education and technical training is the best way to bring higher paying jobs to Americans. Manufacturing has gone robotic and technology has displaced millions of jobs that had employ the non educated. And that trend is steepening rapidly . The American work force is so educationally and technologically under-staffed that technology companies are forced to import foreign technological talent and expand in other countries where the labor force is has the large numbers of engineers, computer programmers and chip designers. Trump's promises to bring back the likes of coal mining jobs and assembly line workers ala Rosie is way out of date. His lack of interest for funding for education and technology training will steer us in a direction that will make America un-great for the first time .
How about huge very beautiful programs to increase scholarships for young people to attend technology schools. Funds for elementary and high school technology training is an even better investment as the younger open mind is the best place to start. Or How about offering technological corporations federal funds to pay for new employee's salaries while they are being trained "in-house ". This kind investment with our tax dollars will help keep America Great .
Education and technical training is the best way to bring higher paying jobs to Americans. Manufacturing has gone robotic and technology has displaced millions of jobs that had employ the non educated. And that trend is steepening rapidly . The American work force is so educationally and technologically under-staffed that technology companies are forced to import foreign technological talent and expand in other countries where the labor force is has the large numbers of engineers, computer programmers and chip designers. Trump's promises to bring back the likes of coal mining jobs and assembly line workers ala Rosie is way out of date. His lack of interest for funding for education and technology training will steer us in a direction that will make America un-great for the first time .
How about huge very beautiful programs to increase scholarships for young people to attend technology schools. Funds for elementary and high school technology training is an even better investment as the younger open mind is the best place to start. Or How about offering technological corporations federal funds to pay for new employee's salaries while they are being trained "in-house ". This kind investment with our tax dollars will help keep America Great .
2
Expecting Mr. Trump to have a coherent jobs policy is folly. First, he would have to have a coherent policy on anything else which might serve as an example to extend to jobs policy. He does not. He wants more trade while adding border adjustment taxes. He says he adores and respects women while talking about grabbing genitalia and denying them equal pay and supporting a role for government as an arbiter of reproductive health care. He says he wants to increase infrastructure spending but mostly to support private developers of for-profit projects such as toll roads. He says he wants cheaper, better and universal health care but his "plan" supports a system which will put health and health care out of reach for more and more people.
Incoherent, thy name is Trump.
Incoherent, thy name is Trump.
1
None of this should come as a surprise, should it? We elected a man whose greatest success was as a game show host - a man who wasn't really a businessman, he just played one on television. Trump inherited lots of money and real estate, so he went into the real estate business. He drove that business into the ground, and ruined a lot of lives in the process.
Then he got smart: he became a 'brand,' selling the sizzle of success where there really is none. Other people build things: Donald Trump slaps his name on them and collects licensing fees.
He is now all sizzle and very little steak as President. We are watching Chance the Gardner in the White House. He watches a lot of television, and apparently gets his greatest insights there. He gets up early and indiscriminately 'tweets' the rumors he has just seen on the glowing screen. Then a small army of sycophants try to dress this up as though something deeper and more significant were going on, but clearly, it is not.
The man greets the public, flashes a smug smile, mugs for the camera, makes a few feeble attempts at humor, signs an order, and then retreats to watch more tv, get in a plane for golf at Mar a Lago and to play tycoon President in front of the $200k a head membership, who come for some of that sizzle.
In the end, Trump talks a big game, but really has no clue how to play it. So mad ideologues like Steve Bannon, Paul Ryan and Mick Mulvaney freely run the show, living their fantasies.
We're doomed.
Then he got smart: he became a 'brand,' selling the sizzle of success where there really is none. Other people build things: Donald Trump slaps his name on them and collects licensing fees.
He is now all sizzle and very little steak as President. We are watching Chance the Gardner in the White House. He watches a lot of television, and apparently gets his greatest insights there. He gets up early and indiscriminately 'tweets' the rumors he has just seen on the glowing screen. Then a small army of sycophants try to dress this up as though something deeper and more significant were going on, but clearly, it is not.
The man greets the public, flashes a smug smile, mugs for the camera, makes a few feeble attempts at humor, signs an order, and then retreats to watch more tv, get in a plane for golf at Mar a Lago and to play tycoon President in front of the $200k a head membership, who come for some of that sizzle.
In the end, Trump talks a big game, but really has no clue how to play it. So mad ideologues like Steve Bannon, Paul Ryan and Mick Mulvaney freely run the show, living their fantasies.
We're doomed.
2
I still like David Graeber of "Debt: the First 5000 Years" fame and his analysis of "stupid jobs." There are lots of them. And analyses of jobs to the effect that more is good; less is bad. or high-value added is good; commodity sector bad is probably missing the point. There is a big, perhaps irrational system of economic incentives and production out there. It is truly global now, and if it is true our geologic era is a new one, the Anthropocene, and we've these many links to, and impacts on, non-human systems (climate for example, even ocean currents) that will affect our survival we had best think about production and employment along some new dimensions beyond more and less of a narrow economics mindset.
1
“His jobs strategy, to the extent he has one, is full of switchbacks and detours, the destination nowhere in sight.“ The problem with this statement is that it assumes that Trump has a strategy intended to provide jobs. He made promises to provide jobs during the campaign and made threats to tax companies if they move jobs out of the country. Talk is cheap.
His budget gives us the real story of his strategy or lack of strategy on jobs. It appears his jobs priority is focused on military-industrial complex, border patrol, and maybe we will need more lawyers fighting eminent domain land grabs for The Wall construction. Those jobs will come at the expense of jobs in green technologies, scientific and medical research, and cultural programs. His plan is not about creating more jobs, just emphasizing different jobs. We will have more jobs making nuclear weapons, and many fewer jobs in technologies to reduce air and water pollution.
To understand Donald Trump’s thinking, it is important to remember his family business is selling an image. From his budget, it is fair to conclude that Trump’s strategy is about using military build-up, nuclear weapons, and immigration to create an image of U.S. Toughness with a capital T, presumably to make us more secure. To Donald Trump, environmental protection, and the arts project weakness. It will be up to House and Senate Republicans to tell Donald Trump that more nuclear weapons in his hands will not make us safe.
His budget gives us the real story of his strategy or lack of strategy on jobs. It appears his jobs priority is focused on military-industrial complex, border patrol, and maybe we will need more lawyers fighting eminent domain land grabs for The Wall construction. Those jobs will come at the expense of jobs in green technologies, scientific and medical research, and cultural programs. His plan is not about creating more jobs, just emphasizing different jobs. We will have more jobs making nuclear weapons, and many fewer jobs in technologies to reduce air and water pollution.
To understand Donald Trump’s thinking, it is important to remember his family business is selling an image. From his budget, it is fair to conclude that Trump’s strategy is about using military build-up, nuclear weapons, and immigration to create an image of U.S. Toughness with a capital T, presumably to make us more secure. To Donald Trump, environmental protection, and the arts project weakness. It will be up to House and Senate Republicans to tell Donald Trump that more nuclear weapons in his hands will not make us safe.
127
Years ago the firm I worked for served two manufacturing clients that, through their opposite corporate strategies, provided insight into successful management. It happened that these two companies were in the same industry, so the comparison was not tainted by industry-level dynamics that might have overshadowed the impact of their strategic differences. One company, ironically majority-owned and managed by a former GOP administration commerce secretary, distributed most of its profits in the form of dividends. The other, owned and managed by the then-president of the industry trade association, opted to plow back most of its earnings into the company, and operated using the most modern equipment in the most modern plants. I don't think I need to say which company survives to this day, and which has been long bankrupt. My rhetorical question is this - which of these two does our nation, under the "leadership" of this administration and this congress, most resemble? I think we know the answer to that one. And I think we know all too well where it leads.
95
Let me guess that the one that failed was publicly owned, perhaps by one or more hedge funds. The shareholders screamed nothing but "give us profits, as much and as soon as you can, or else ... as we control the board of directors, we can find a replacement CEO."
The other company was probably privately owned by a family or , if publicly owned, its shareholders were in it for the long haul, like Berkshire Hathaway.
I was in house counsel for the first type of company. A Fortune 100 financial behemoth, whose name you'd recognize. The drive for constant 15% yearly increases in profit caused them to cook the books. Not knowing anything about "high finance", I and my other lawyer colleagues couldn't imagine how the CEO accomplished this feat year after year, as we all thought he was an idiot and saw no real signs of growth. The whole thing collapsed in 2002 and the "book cooking" was revealed.
Fortunately for me, in an effort to diversify my portfolio, I sold my stock and exercised all my stock options when the price of the stock was close to its peak. Many others had not learned the lesson of Enron and saw their nest eggs disappear as the stock price plummeted.
The other company was probably privately owned by a family or , if publicly owned, its shareholders were in it for the long haul, like Berkshire Hathaway.
I was in house counsel for the first type of company. A Fortune 100 financial behemoth, whose name you'd recognize. The drive for constant 15% yearly increases in profit caused them to cook the books. Not knowing anything about "high finance", I and my other lawyer colleagues couldn't imagine how the CEO accomplished this feat year after year, as we all thought he was an idiot and saw no real signs of growth. The whole thing collapsed in 2002 and the "book cooking" was revealed.
Fortunately for me, in an effort to diversify my portfolio, I sold my stock and exercised all my stock options when the price of the stock was close to its peak. Many others had not learned the lesson of Enron and saw their nest eggs disappear as the stock price plummeted.
1
Globally, America's laissez-faire capitalism/domination is breaking down; new models of growth are emerging and working with spectacular success.
In the last two decades, several countries have produced rapid growth and gains for the middle class. Countries as diverse as China, Rwanda, Brasil, India (90 million), Nigeria (2nd fastest growing), Indonesia (world'a 4th largest!) are outpacing the US!
It's time America discussed models with proven success, that will consolidate assistance, break the poverty cycle and strengthen the value and skills of the next generation! Deeply embedded economic myths crowd out innovation.
Committed Democrats should break with traditional fights over taxes and debt. They should propose planning/training/operating models that reorganize economic relationships to share prosperity between the wealthy and the workers, find markets with sustainable growth, emphasize cooperation over competition, and use American core skills to return the US to the world’s number one economic engine and the global leader in quality of life.
Rail is an industry in the midst of rapid, sustained global growth with little US presence, despite its skills match with American engineering (Fluor) heavy equipment precision manufacturing (GE), and financing (Citi, Goldman). Thousands of commuter and cargo miles are on track! We not only don’t make the train, we are being left behind at the station.
In the last two decades, several countries have produced rapid growth and gains for the middle class. Countries as diverse as China, Rwanda, Brasil, India (90 million), Nigeria (2nd fastest growing), Indonesia (world'a 4th largest!) are outpacing the US!
It's time America discussed models with proven success, that will consolidate assistance, break the poverty cycle and strengthen the value and skills of the next generation! Deeply embedded economic myths crowd out innovation.
Committed Democrats should break with traditional fights over taxes and debt. They should propose planning/training/operating models that reorganize economic relationships to share prosperity between the wealthy and the workers, find markets with sustainable growth, emphasize cooperation over competition, and use American core skills to return the US to the world’s number one economic engine and the global leader in quality of life.
Rail is an industry in the midst of rapid, sustained global growth with little US presence, despite its skills match with American engineering (Fluor) heavy equipment precision manufacturing (GE), and financing (Citi, Goldman). Thousands of commuter and cargo miles are on track! We not only don’t make the train, we are being left behind at the station.
43
China's middle class, with 112 million, is four times larger than the US, at 25.3 million. Guatemala is one number globally in middle class growth. (All figures here and above by Euromonitor International.)
8
We are Americans, with a proud tradition of stubbornly refusing to learn from any one else. We are shortsighted, vain, and instead of learning from our Pioneer Spirit, abuse it religiously.
2
Nigeria, an oil-fueled kleptocracy, is hardly a model of growth to emulate.
1
While I don't like to give up on anyone, I am afraid that we have in Trump a good example of the unteachable. We were told time and again of his incredible self-absorption and his delusion that he knows everything and knows better than generals, administrators, diplomats, negotiators, that everyone in government is stupid. Under these conditions, what can we expect from him? We can only hope that Republicans will wake up and start blocking his crazier ideas or that, miraculously, voters will realize their mistake and bring about a balance in Congressional power. Otherwise, we are in for four years of chaos.
119
We're in for four decades of screwed up federal jurisprudence. The empty bench seats to be filled now number 124, out of about 800.
Trump IS unteachable, and the GOP will not wake up because they're in a "sweet spot" now, although that spot was known as collaboration in 1941 France. Unless and until the GOP spot becomes untenable (or, at the very worst, lethal) will anything be done. Sad but true.
1
Frank:
Trump is unteachable?
It's more like the people that voted for him are unteachable and have been for a long time.
Trump is unteachable?
It's more like the people that voted for him are unteachable and have been for a long time.
1
The Donald has demonstrated repeatedly that there is a wide gap between his campaign promises and his ability or actions to actually deliver. His campaign rhetoric was just empty words to win an election. His choices for high positions in his administration are dominated by billionaires and Wall Street Insiders, many from Goldman Sachs. Republican Congressmen and the far right of the party are very unlikely to embrace massive spending to put workers to work to rebuild infrastructure. That would raise Total Debt because Republicans are not about to create taxes that would be necessary to pay for the cost. And the Republican have been preaching cutting the debt for decades. Their agenda has always been tax cuts for the wealthy justified by the failed notion of trickle down economics which has been discredited starting with Reagan's presidency. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would have used my political capital to create jobs before dismantling the very popular ACA. If the Donald loses this contest he will not have the clout to push through the massive job program.
42
It would help to stop referring to him as The Donald, which sounds too much like an affectionate pet name for someone who in reality is dangerous and destructive.
1
It appears that the extreme right has control over D.T.
His campaign promises of silly things such the wall, will be permitted by his controllers, but he will be under their control for the important changes. Starting with the SCOTUS appointment other federal judgeships, and tax policies,
His campaign promises of silly things such the wall, will be permitted by his controllers, but he will be under their control for the important changes. Starting with the SCOTUS appointment other federal judgeships, and tax policies,
25
Shedding crocodile tears for the hard hit American working class or getting the G20 draft forcibly drop anti-protectionist resolve and climate commitment is one thing, while framing and implementing a meaningful job creation plan, that involves productivity improvement, innovation, and competitive advantage in a diversified and interconnected globalised world market economy is quite a different thing. But what to Trump who with the threatening state power at his command now can extract a positive nod even from the industry captains confronting the industrial woes on several fronts- productivity, labour, skill, and competition, likely to be aggravated in the Trumpiion drive for trade protectionism, border controls, and doing away with any regulations?
13
Our standard way of producing good jobs is to do things in an inefficient and complex matter. Without our carefully-preserved complexities and inefficiencies in such areas as taxation and health insurance, many lawyers, accountants, managers, and others would have to find some other way to earn their living, and the economy, deprived of their purchasing power, would shrink.
The health of our economy depends on a large number of disguised jobs programs. Much of our military spending is really jobs and profits programs. We make messes and then have to clean them up; if we prevented them, the cleanup jobs would disappear. If internet systems were designed from the outset for security, the internet security jobs and products would disappear. If we tried to trace and eliminate the causes of our epidemic of diabetes, many of the jobs and business opportunities involved in treating the disease would disappear. If we dealt with pollution and polluters at the source, the jobs and businesses that remediate the effects of pollution would shrink.
Efficient ways of doing things are resisted by those whose jobs and businesses depend on inefficiency. As automation increases, the problem becomes ever worse.
The free market does not eliminate these sorts of inefficiencies; instead, it thrives on them. We need to start thinking outside the box.
The health of our economy depends on a large number of disguised jobs programs. Much of our military spending is really jobs and profits programs. We make messes and then have to clean them up; if we prevented them, the cleanup jobs would disappear. If internet systems were designed from the outset for security, the internet security jobs and products would disappear. If we tried to trace and eliminate the causes of our epidemic of diabetes, many of the jobs and business opportunities involved in treating the disease would disappear. If we dealt with pollution and polluters at the source, the jobs and businesses that remediate the effects of pollution would shrink.
Efficient ways of doing things are resisted by those whose jobs and businesses depend on inefficiency. As automation increases, the problem becomes ever worse.
The free market does not eliminate these sorts of inefficiencies; instead, it thrives on them. We need to start thinking outside the box.
22
Sometimes when one thinks one is thinking "outside the box" one only need think a wee bit more to discover one is thinking nothing at all or something that has been thought before. The fantasy of an efficiently engineered technocracy that would deliver all necessary human goods without human messes has been thought before. It stumbles, as do many similar fantasies of order, on its political prerequisite of some kind of enlightened despotism -- rule by a being or beings infinitely wise and infinitely just in determining human needs and allocating their satisfaction. Do I need to say that theocracy, fascism, autocracy, communism are none of them very "efficient" in the end? Messy, democratically regulated market economies do better.
1
Aside from the public sector, the rest of the economy is basically subsistence.
1
Whatever systems tyrants run tend to be narrow-minded and intolerant of diversity, be they public or private. Public systems can afford more diversity because the real objective is to feed multiplier effect into the rest of the economy, not profit.
1
While Trump boasts about de-regulation as being key to job creation -- our "corporatos" continue to raid the U.S. Treasury. For each dollar America’s 50 biggest companies paid in federal taxes between 2008 and 2014, they received $27 back in federal loans, loan guarantees, and bailouts, according to Oxfam. In Eighteen of the largest corporations paid "0" taxes, reports the Institute of Taxation & Economic Policy. These include G.E., Duke Energy, Sempra Energy, American Electric Power, PG&E, Xcel Energy, CMS Energy, Atmos Energy, FirstEnergy, Eversource Energy, NiSource, Wisconsin Energy, International Paper, Priceline.com, Ameren, and Pepco Holdings. http://www.itep.org/corporatestudy/
66
His budget has borrowed heavily from Reganomics funding an enormous increase in defense spending to create a false increase in jobs and the economy. Most defense-related jobs can't be outsourced to foreign producers created a tax-based demand for employees. As soon as that we'll drys up...CRASH!
9
He's been in office for only 2 months? Really, it is so tedious, it seems years.
But I guess you might be right that he'll get the job stuff done. I do like your take here, "There will be some very serious developments in just a few days / weeks / months / years that I think you will find very interesting!"
Where have I heard that before? We are due a heck of a lot of "interesting developments" at some point. On, oh, so many topics.
But I guess you might be right that he'll get the job stuff done. I do like your take here, "There will be some very serious developments in just a few days / weeks / months / years that I think you will find very interesting!"
Where have I heard that before? We are due a heck of a lot of "interesting developments" at some point. On, oh, so many topics.
5
There is no jobs plan. There is no healthcare plan. There is no infrastructure plan. There is no plan.
108
There are few if any industries who would hire a person with no relatable experience. The Presidency requires some knowledge of and experience in the politics of managing a large organization garnering support from all parties, experience in hiring people with experience and ability execute its functions. A functioning board of directors is needed as is knowledge of and commitment to all relevant laws and regulations. A contract with hiring, compensation and firing specifics should be in place. Within the company its managers are promoted and hired based on previous success, knowledge and skills, and management ability. Donald Trump's ability to do the things required of a President was unknown. His performance, so far, should be giving us some idea about his ability to manage continuing and future critical issues. I am retired but the world is basically the same. In the world I worked in he would be on probation with a very short leash. The institutions and entities that rely on our country are showing much unease and our competitors are seemingly heartened by what they see. Risk is increasing. Running a government like a business depends on your business. In all successful business and political work previous to President Trump's inauguration, actions like his actions thus far would not be tolerated for long. The strengths of organizations and businesses would already be eroding. Our collective wisdom is surely needed and being tested. It does not look good.
14
t-rump stumping again to "convince" fools that he has their best interest in his "heart". Heart of stone. They eat it up like free candy because they are deluded into thinking how wonderful the past "was". These folks and t-rump need to have a look in the mirror and discover who is fooling whom. Most of us know but unfortunately, we didn't get out and vote. Shame on us for this fiasco.
9
American corporations seem to be concerned about only one thing, the maximizing of profit. If that means low wages and cuts, so be it. Until the notion sets in that steady long-term profit is more beneficial than quarterly increases in the bottom line, there will be no miracle for American workers. All they'll get is the repeated mantra that they should be happy they have a job.
10
I really had hopes that Trump would be a brake on the Republicans. Obviously he is in over his head and my hopes have been dashed as he once again takes the easy way out. He has no clue how to govern so those that know how will pull the strings and he will be the carnival barker salesman of the regressive policies of the Republican party. He is a sad, pitiful man. There is no salvation, impeachment brings a holy-roller rubber stamp for what is going on in Kansas right now, proof of the failure of "pro-growth" trickle down economic policies. How completely depressing.
24
There seems to be only one way to finesse the situation. Keep Trump in just long enough to create a huge mess and not give Pence enough time in office as his replacement to do anything before the next election. Hopefully by then sanity will have returned to at least an electoral majority. That of course means some two years of Trump when he has hardly got past two months.
1
I so disagree with the only comment at the time I am writing this, from Richard. According to Richard, everything is Obama's fault and just give trump more than 2 months and the world will be so rosy for Americans. Richard needs to take off his rose colored Republican glasses and see this Presidency for what it is. Obama saved us from largest depression since the 1920s. My husband and I were laid off during the last year of Bush 2's presidency. Both of us added skills and degrees with the tax credits from Obama and found other employment.
What has Trump done and will do for us? Well already he has made us a laughing stock to other nations, he has probably sold our future to the Russians, he has removed regulations that keep our air and water clean, etc... Very soon he will have gutted health care.
Sorry, I don't see a big job picture unless we all go to the border and stack bricks. Trump is the worst president of all time. He make me wish we had a parliamentary government where he could receive a recall/vote of no confidence. I hope we still have a democracy when he leaves office.
What has Trump done and will do for us? Well already he has made us a laughing stock to other nations, he has probably sold our future to the Russians, he has removed regulations that keep our air and water clean, etc... Very soon he will have gutted health care.
Sorry, I don't see a big job picture unless we all go to the border and stack bricks. Trump is the worst president of all time. He make me wish we had a parliamentary government where he could receive a recall/vote of no confidence. I hope we still have a democracy when he leaves office.
132
If 'productivity, innovation and globalization' were enough to produce to success, America would still be a haven for industry, jobs and smart moves. But apparently the average worker has seen where high wages lead: to off-shoring and out-sourcing. DJT knows this. He knows the gears have been on a slow-grinding wind-down, perhaps inevitable, but to innovate world-class technology, then give the job to low-paid workers abroad, is counter-productive. We cannot 'out-compete' low-wage, no environmental regulation countries. Selling this dream of American manufacturing resurgence without allied tactics will only produce more down-sized, off-shored phantom corporations. . . . should know . . . .watched the long, slow dissolve of Eastman Kodak Company. ~~ a Rochesterian
5
There's actually a very good reason president trump hasn't yet moved full-bore into job creation. Until very recently he had been putting all his effort and creative thinking into defeating ISIS. That, by the way, explains a great deal of the lack of response to press questions by so many of his close associates. The fact is that ISIS has been soundly defeated. But the rest of the world doesn't know it because, even now, it's a deep secret. The press should take one of the numerous hints from people wiser than they and stop asking embarassing questions. After all, you wouldn't want to reveal our brilliant victory . . . because the secret so far has been kept from ISIS as well.
12
Job retraining...
Yeah - right...
When was the last time you folks retrained a...
> Press worker for a computer technology job
> Younger/diverse journalist, to replace an older white male editor or columnist...
................................
As far as...
"...Mr. Ross revived slivers of the South’s textile industry and steel making in the Midwest by restructuring factories and focusing on higher-value production and leaner operations. Is he sharing that experience with the president...
Two answers come to mind:
1. Yes
2. Just ask your contacts in the GCHQ
Yeah - right...
When was the last time you folks retrained a...
> Press worker for a computer technology job
> Younger/diverse journalist, to replace an older white male editor or columnist...
................................
As far as...
"...Mr. Ross revived slivers of the South’s textile industry and steel making in the Midwest by restructuring factories and focusing on higher-value production and leaner operations. Is he sharing that experience with the president...
Two answers come to mind:
1. Yes
2. Just ask your contacts in the GCHQ
2
"...Mr. Ross revived slivers of the South’s textile industry and steel making in the Midwest by restructuring factories and focusing on higher-value production and leaner operations. Is he sharing that experience with the president?"
A) I'd like to see some numbers as far as the jobs gained (and lost) in those revived "slivers" of industry. As well, some numbers as to how these corporate reorganizations gilded Mr. Ross's net worth.
B) In the post-Trump era, if Mr. Ross is forthcoming, we'll undoubtedly find out that "sharing that experience with the president" was an event of dubious intellectual provenance, if it occurred at all.
A) I'd like to see some numbers as far as the jobs gained (and lost) in those revived "slivers" of industry. As well, some numbers as to how these corporate reorganizations gilded Mr. Ross's net worth.
B) In the post-Trump era, if Mr. Ross is forthcoming, we'll undoubtedly find out that "sharing that experience with the president" was an event of dubious intellectual provenance, if it occurred at all.
1
It would behoove the car industry to continue to focus on new technology and fuel efficient cars. We want fuel efficient cars and if American manufacturers drop the ball we will buy from their competitors. We did it before and we will do it again.
28
Wouldn't it be nice if America companies were patriotic and chose to build their labor force here in the United States rather than moving those jobs offshore. But alas we are a capitalist nation and who cares as long as our businesses make money.
Regulations and trade reform would go a long way towards addressing the issue. Millions of jobs have been lost since the recession, not to automation but to offshoring. Manufacturering, call centers, technology and human resources are the most impacted fields. Just because it's good business doesn't make it right.
Both parties are too blame. President Obama and the Democrats focused on healthcare at a time when jobs were being lost. Now the Republicans are making the same mistakes.
Trump's budget wasn't surprising. He sees running the country the same way as running a business. Let's face it, businesses focus more on what they can cut not what they can spend. Yes his budget is heartless but it's also on par with the direction we seem to be going.
We need both parties to come together on a jobs plan. How do they plan to keep our jobs here rather than allowing them to go offshore. We're a consumer driven economy but we need jobs to do so.
Regulations and trade reform would go a long way towards addressing the issue. Millions of jobs have been lost since the recession, not to automation but to offshoring. Manufacturering, call centers, technology and human resources are the most impacted fields. Just because it's good business doesn't make it right.
Both parties are too blame. President Obama and the Democrats focused on healthcare at a time when jobs were being lost. Now the Republicans are making the same mistakes.
Trump's budget wasn't surprising. He sees running the country the same way as running a business. Let's face it, businesses focus more on what they can cut not what they can spend. Yes his budget is heartless but it's also on par with the direction we seem to be going.
We need both parties to come together on a jobs plan. How do they plan to keep our jobs here rather than allowing them to go offshore. We're a consumer driven economy but we need jobs to do so.
8
Your patriotic companies would make products then the average American can't afford. And for me as a European, why would I buy American if i can buy a cheaper non-American product?
1
There was a time when a man like Henry Ford could create a vast business employing thousands of people and with unionization pay these folks a Middle class wage with benefits. Today's Henry Ford sits behind a computer on Wall Street and makes millions a day on fast stock trades . He employs no one. In less than a hundred years we've moved from a manufacturing economy to a financial one. When we need things like silverware or steel we get them from China or Japan, those folks do the heavy lifting. During world war 2 we needed massive armies with massive armaments . No longer , missiles, drones, and Navy Seals miniaturized the battle field. And if you can maintain a first strike nuclear capability you can rule the world. Strikingly , we don't need the 300 million population we have- no Henry Fords', no massive armies invading Normandy. This is the new lean America. Want a job? Make your own, keep a light footprint, employ no one and good luck.
11
Jobs and health are acceptable collateral damage to a Trump who has been maneuvered to diminish America abroad, and permanently cripple the government at home.
25
If you really want to know what President Trump will do in the future, look at what he has done in the past. It appears that he will continue to do what he has done.
49
Trump never had a plan to create jobs — nor does he give a damn about the American worker. He and his managers and backers (Bannon, Conway, Mercer and Co.) saw an opening — the disaffected workers — and exploited it to get themselves elected, then promptly forgot the blue collar types.
The whole Trump "movement" was a scam and a farce from the beginning.
The whole Trump "movement" was a scam and a farce from the beginning.
152
Yes exactly, and it's amazing to me how many pundits and editorial column writers still take the idea that he wants to help the working class seriously. Just call him an exploitive liar and leave it at that - then we won't have to have all these irrelevant discussions.
2
Spot on. We are all Trump University now.
2
"an American industry already enjoying record profits and adding jobs"
There you go again.
American industry overall is struggling, just as the American economy overall has never really recovered from the Great Recession of Dubya.
There are places doing well. There are specific industries doing well.
We have never reached the standard of "a rising tide lifts all boats." Only some boats are being lifted, and much of the country, many of our people are left out.
Trump isn't doing enough, isn't really doing much of anything? Fine. Things are great and we don't need these promises? No. That is the thinking that cost the election.
There you go again.
American industry overall is struggling, just as the American economy overall has never really recovered from the Great Recession of Dubya.
There are places doing well. There are specific industries doing well.
We have never reached the standard of "a rising tide lifts all boats." Only some boats are being lifted, and much of the country, many of our people are left out.
Trump isn't doing enough, isn't really doing much of anything? Fine. Things are great and we don't need these promises? No. That is the thinking that cost the election.
13
Here's a list of some of the industries doing extremely well, based on the record profits and CEO compensation: defense suppliers, big Pharma, energy, oil, health insurers, utilities, medical device makers, etc. It should be noted that over an 8 year period, 258 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid an average effective federal income tax rate of 21.2%, much less than most of us. So effect we're paying corporate welfare--and companies are thanking us by offshoring profits and jobs, using tax holidays to buy their own stock and privatize their own companies, and bringing in foreign workers for lower pay. http://www.itep.org/corporatestudy/
Here's more about Trump's own shell game moving money:
the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/russian-organized-crim...
Here's more about Trump's own shell game moving money:
the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-...
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/russian-organized-crim...
15
As bad as the Great Recession was, anyone watching the economy for the last 30 years or so knows that our problems started long before W arrived. We've basically been running on the fumes of our post-WWII boom for the last three decades. Stagnant wages and growing inequality are symptoms of America's refusal to face the big questions posed by a changing and increasingly competitive world--to invest in its future, its infrastructure, its workers.
Although Trump seemed to get one part of the equation, the necessity of rebuilding our infrastructure and 'priming the pump' his budget blueprint suggests he is falling back on the same-old, same-old of conservative administrations: cutting taxes and trickle-down economics, in an effort to squeeze just a bit more blood from the stone. It may produce some modest results in the near-term, but long run we will only be further behind because we still haven't made the necessary investments for true sustained growth.
Although Trump seemed to get one part of the equation, the necessity of rebuilding our infrastructure and 'priming the pump' his budget blueprint suggests he is falling back on the same-old, same-old of conservative administrations: cutting taxes and trickle-down economics, in an effort to squeeze just a bit more blood from the stone. It may produce some modest results in the near-term, but long run we will only be further behind because we still haven't made the necessary investments for true sustained growth.
2
Reagan instilled the idea that the most certain way to generate jobs is to accelerate economic growth by cutting taxes, despite his experience that cutting taxes raised deficits without generating enough growth to create revenues adequate to pay for the tax cuts. G.W. Bush watched his tax cuts generate deficits without generating economic growth. Trump is going to generate economic growth by cutting taxes, at least that is his plan. In addition, he's going to initiate infrastructure improvements to the tune of over a trillion dollars, and have it paid for by 4% steady economic growth.
Instead of letting Trump distract us all from considering his proposals we are devoting 95% of the public discussion to his absurd lies. We know that Trump has destroyed his credibility with everyone with who he must deal to accomplish anything, so if he's dropping red herrings to avoid more substantial discussions about his proposals, it' still not healthy and intelligent behavior. But let's face it, Trump is not just inept and silly, he's the President and he is making policies with which we all must live, so we need to let his distractions be and to get on with the nation's business. Trump's jobs effort is not going to create jobs and he's not going to see a steady 4% growth rate. He might award a huge amount of defense contracts paid with borrowing and show some great temporary economic growth but it will not set the stage for an economy that will continue to grow at 4%.
Instead of letting Trump distract us all from considering his proposals we are devoting 95% of the public discussion to his absurd lies. We know that Trump has destroyed his credibility with everyone with who he must deal to accomplish anything, so if he's dropping red herrings to avoid more substantial discussions about his proposals, it' still not healthy and intelligent behavior. But let's face it, Trump is not just inept and silly, he's the President and he is making policies with which we all must live, so we need to let his distractions be and to get on with the nation's business. Trump's jobs effort is not going to create jobs and he's not going to see a steady 4% growth rate. He might award a huge amount of defense contracts paid with borrowing and show some great temporary economic growth but it will not set the stage for an economy that will continue to grow at 4%.
58
Wisconsin, Kansas, Alabama and Indiana all cut taxes to stimulate growth, and now the republicans want us to share in their misery, because there's not a glimmer of growth in those states. Instead of dealing with reality they helped vote in a false prophet who promised that only HE can save us, and, unfortunately, we'll all suffer because of it.
6
Donald Trump likes to accuse others (including Congressman Lewis) of being "all talk, no action" - but Trump himself is all talk, no action. How easy he finds it to say that 'China is raping us,' or that 'American carnage' stops with him. But those are just empty words, without a follow through. For results, he would have to (gasp!) examine what worked and what did not in various trade agreeents, rather than say it was the worst deal, ever; create actual infrastructure projects, with all due respect to his supposed wall with Mexico; find smart investments of government funds, as President Obama did when he saved our auto industry; and so on.
Don't hold your breath. Trump barely has the attention span to do a cheap stunt about a fraction of jobs at Carrier, let alone construct a coherent strategy.
Don't hold your breath. Trump barely has the attention span to do a cheap stunt about a fraction of jobs at Carrier, let alone construct a coherent strategy.
125
I sat through a lunch recently where colleagues assured me that less regulation would make coal competitive again and so bring back the coal job. Is that true? Will it stimulate the demand for coal with lower prices, or will it simply increase profits within the current market?
The free market has been corrupted by the domination of shareholder value in that higher returns today are preferred to higher reinvestment for the future. If Trump really wants to grow jobs, he should cap profits to a formula based on non-executive salary expenditure.
The free market has been corrupted by the domination of shareholder value in that higher returns today are preferred to higher reinvestment for the future. If Trump really wants to grow jobs, he should cap profits to a formula based on non-executive salary expenditure.
37
@Gerard
Coal can not compete with natural gas. The power companies are using gas as it is cleaner, they do not have to dispose of waste products, and the furnaces do not have to be rebuilt every few years. Just the scrubbers to remove the CO2, the lead, the sulfur from the emissions raises the cost of building a plant by 25%.
Only a certain grade of coal is used in blast furnaces to make steel. Wind and solar are not producing 15% of electricity, and the use of low power devices such as LED lamps, better home insulation, more efficient motors has reduced the demand for electricity. Coal has to be transported by rail and truck, gas by pipeline, although the Four Corners plant is supplied by a slurry belt over several miles.
China uses lots of coal for steel production, but they get it from Australia, a lot closer than the U.S.
As for the shareholder value, look at the activist shareholders, mostly funds and hedge funds, that get on a board, and buy back the shares, increasing their value, then selling for big gains. Or the private equity that loads a company with debt, pays themselves big bonuses, they puts the company into bankruptcy, selling it to suckers with an IPO, or to a Chinese investor, like Bain Capital did with Delco.
You colleagues do not seem to know much about investing. Do not invest on their advice.
Coal can not compete with natural gas. The power companies are using gas as it is cleaner, they do not have to dispose of waste products, and the furnaces do not have to be rebuilt every few years. Just the scrubbers to remove the CO2, the lead, the sulfur from the emissions raises the cost of building a plant by 25%.
Only a certain grade of coal is used in blast furnaces to make steel. Wind and solar are not producing 15% of electricity, and the use of low power devices such as LED lamps, better home insulation, more efficient motors has reduced the demand for electricity. Coal has to be transported by rail and truck, gas by pipeline, although the Four Corners plant is supplied by a slurry belt over several miles.
China uses lots of coal for steel production, but they get it from Australia, a lot closer than the U.S.
As for the shareholder value, look at the activist shareholders, mostly funds and hedge funds, that get on a board, and buy back the shares, increasing their value, then selling for big gains. Or the private equity that loads a company with debt, pays themselves big bonuses, they puts the company into bankruptcy, selling it to suckers with an IPO, or to a Chinese investor, like Bain Capital did with Delco.
You colleagues do not seem to know much about investing. Do not invest on their advice.
72
Coal is done. The big industries in Pennsylvania burning gas and oil will not be going back to coal. They have said so themselves.
4
Unless we want to be like China where the pollution is so bad in some cities-like Beijing-that you risk your health just walking outside, coal will never again be a viable industry in this country. Gas is cheaper to get and use and the waste is negligible. However, with these clowns in control all bets are off!
5
So, to meet his employment promise/goal, President Trump’s administration will have to enact policies that will create, on average, more than 260,000 jobs per month for 8 years. Wow. Good luck with that, unless that 50+ billion for the military will be used to “hire” millions of service members.
The President’s immigration policies are pushing away foreign-born college students who wish to study in the United States and may want to stay here where demographics don’t point to a growing workforce. His budget for the Departments of Labor and Education will slash millions from job training and education programs that can help the unemployed, underemployed, and young underprivileged jobseekers learn new skills and earn higher wages. That blueprint will rely on states, which are rolling in the dough, to make up the slack in job training. Perhaps this misadministration thinks its work requirements under the AHCA Medicaid proposal will bring millions of new workers into the economy.
More contradictions and false hopes.
The President’s immigration policies are pushing away foreign-born college students who wish to study in the United States and may want to stay here where demographics don’t point to a growing workforce. His budget for the Departments of Labor and Education will slash millions from job training and education programs that can help the unemployed, underemployed, and young underprivileged jobseekers learn new skills and earn higher wages. That blueprint will rely on states, which are rolling in the dough, to make up the slack in job training. Perhaps this misadministration thinks its work requirements under the AHCA Medicaid proposal will bring millions of new workers into the economy.
More contradictions and false hopes.
73
The only jobs he's interested in are those in Trumpland. His FAMILY business. This is all a huuuge money- making operation, for now and for decades to come for all the trumplings. PEROID.
136
Now the rust belt is complete, we are going to have the sand belt, as the wheat states deseritfy.
62
This President has to be continually called out by the Press for brash talk and little action. He is ignorant, doesn't know enough to educate himself or learn from others. He should not be allowed to take credit for the job creation rooted in the past, while he decimates jobs thru his administration's actions. It is time to start a tally of jobs lost. The myth he is a great negotiator needs to be buried with the truth. He can't talk in complete sentences. How could he possibly have a serious policy discussion? He will let others do the work and take all the credit. How much could he really be doing if he has time to head to Florida, playing golf nearly every weekend and holds most meetings over meals at the White House. How much can you get done when your mouth is always full? The emperor not only has no clothes, the brain and heart are missing too!
184
Trump's priorities have nothing to do with jobs for Americans. His budget does the following:
1) Slashes infrastructure spending by cutting the Dept, of Transportation's budget 13%.
2) Slashes energy programs when renewable energy jobs were growing 12 times faster than the rest of the economy.
3) Slashes jobs in medical professions with Trumpcare with health care across the past year growing about 30,000 jobs per month.
4) Slashes jobs in government with draconian cuts. Even though civil employees are already down to a level last seen in 1966, Trump's hiring freeze and cuts will hit this sector hard. 60% of the civil service jobs are in the DOD, Homeland Security and VA, and many employ veterans.
5) Slashes environmental jobs - not just in government but in various pollution clean ups around the country from Chesapeake Bay to Puget Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. Keystone Pipeline would only create about 35 permanent jobs.
5) Slashes various economic development projects in areas most in need as well as minority business development. This includes training of workers including nurses and those who are transitioning from archaic industries to modern technological ones.
Somehow I imagine that Trump will employ illegal immigrants (as he did on Trump Tower, for example) on his wall, or use convict labor or not pay minimum wage or some other sleazy tactic. Trump is on his 7th golfing weekend in 2 months at taxpayer expense. He certainly doesn't know how to do his own job.
1) Slashes infrastructure spending by cutting the Dept, of Transportation's budget 13%.
2) Slashes energy programs when renewable energy jobs were growing 12 times faster than the rest of the economy.
3) Slashes jobs in medical professions with Trumpcare with health care across the past year growing about 30,000 jobs per month.
4) Slashes jobs in government with draconian cuts. Even though civil employees are already down to a level last seen in 1966, Trump's hiring freeze and cuts will hit this sector hard. 60% of the civil service jobs are in the DOD, Homeland Security and VA, and many employ veterans.
5) Slashes environmental jobs - not just in government but in various pollution clean ups around the country from Chesapeake Bay to Puget Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. Keystone Pipeline would only create about 35 permanent jobs.
5) Slashes various economic development projects in areas most in need as well as minority business development. This includes training of workers including nurses and those who are transitioning from archaic industries to modern technological ones.
Somehow I imagine that Trump will employ illegal immigrants (as he did on Trump Tower, for example) on his wall, or use convict labor or not pay minimum wage or some other sleazy tactic. Trump is on his 7th golfing weekend in 2 months at taxpayer expense. He certainly doesn't know how to do his own job.
281
At this point, I see the don as a Republican diversionary tactic. His histrionics cover what will actually be done to move the neoliberal train wreck forward. We really should stop focusing on the bull in the china shop and focus on what is actually happening or not happening. At the end of the day it will not be pretty and we may not have noticed until far too late. Regarding the don's supporters, in the words of Bob Dylan they are: "Only a pawn in their game."
2
Trump's budget also slashes funding for the Small Business Administration, which in turn funds startups and other ventures. I have no idea how many other Americans were able to get their shops going with SBA loans, but I got one in 1996 and we're still very much in business. Either Trump is trying to strangle our nation's small businesses, or he hasn't bothered to read "his" budget proposal.
1
Has someone pointed out to him that all those golfing weekends, not to mention the security his wife and son are getting living away from the White House, can pay for Meals on Wheels?
3
The nice thing for me about Trump's lack of effort in creating jobs, and ignorant missteps that are costing America jobs, is that he's failing. He's failing miserably at fulfilling any of his campaign promises.
He's done nothing about creating jobs, as shown here. He's done nothing about building his fabulous wall except order it done; so far there's been no other action and it's clear Mexico would never pay for it, as he promised. He's ignored the infrastructure investment promise, which is one thing most of America (except GOP politicians) would approve of. His Muslim ban keeps getting shot down in court. Hillary Clinton still walks free, and there's never been another word on any investigation of her. His reworking of the ACA is not a better plan, and would cost millions of his supporters their health care.
Most obviously, he has done nothing to make America great again. Not only zero improvements thus far, but he's tarnished our global reputation more every day, and major allies are considering ditching us. The world doesn't view America as a beacon of democracy now, rather, after only two months, it views us with alarm and horror. We're viewed as something like a bull in a china shop, only drunk, high on meth, and covered in ignited napalm.
This is all fine by me, because I want him to fail. I want all his supporters to realize voting for him was the worst vote they ever cast. And I want them to suffer for it.
He's done nothing about creating jobs, as shown here. He's done nothing about building his fabulous wall except order it done; so far there's been no other action and it's clear Mexico would never pay for it, as he promised. He's ignored the infrastructure investment promise, which is one thing most of America (except GOP politicians) would approve of. His Muslim ban keeps getting shot down in court. Hillary Clinton still walks free, and there's never been another word on any investigation of her. His reworking of the ACA is not a better plan, and would cost millions of his supporters their health care.
Most obviously, he has done nothing to make America great again. Not only zero improvements thus far, but he's tarnished our global reputation more every day, and major allies are considering ditching us. The world doesn't view America as a beacon of democracy now, rather, after only two months, it views us with alarm and horror. We're viewed as something like a bull in a china shop, only drunk, high on meth, and covered in ignited napalm.
This is all fine by me, because I want him to fail. I want all his supporters to realize voting for him was the worst vote they ever cast. And I want them to suffer for it.
360
March 18, 2017
Here's a president in need of on job training - and in reality is not the best qualified for the Chief Executive - and what's shocking is an American template for creating and maintaining jobs out of his third class operations - of legal complaints, bankruptcies. and just hot air denials - hey it everyone for their own survival - even with being hacked or targets for hostile takeovers.....
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
Here's a president in need of on job training - and in reality is not the best qualified for the Chief Executive - and what's shocking is an American template for creating and maintaining jobs out of his third class operations - of legal complaints, bankruptcies. and just hot air denials - hey it everyone for their own survival - even with being hacked or targets for hostile takeovers.....
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
28
Cheers for the unsparing honesty.
18
We don't need a rebirth of American manufacturing. Domestic manufacturing output is near record highs. We are second in output only to China.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-manufacturing-dead-output-has-double...
Employment in manufacturing has declined precipitously but output has surged. This is because of rising productivity driven by technology.
All this has not been hampered by regulations, but has thrived with them. If that were not true, then why has output risen so high?
Trump claims that reducing regulations will increase output. No, that will only increase profits. But corporate profits are also at all time highs. They are at nearly 9% while the post WWII average hovers around 5.8%. The Dow is also breaking new all time highs.
Nothing that Trump wants to do will re-employ small town factory workers. Those low skilled jobs are gone forever. The world is facing a paradigm shift in employment. Only creative, entrepreneurial and high tech jobs will abound. Strong backs need not apply. These jobs require specialized and targeted training, critical thinking skills and a take charge independent attitude from the worker. Repetitive labor jobs are going fast and will soon all disappear.
Massive investments in social infrastructure are needed. That would be vo-tech training programs, computer science, code writing, internet geeky type work. Where are those in the the Trump budget and how many will be able to graduate?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-manufacturing-dead-output-has-double...
Employment in manufacturing has declined precipitously but output has surged. This is because of rising productivity driven by technology.
All this has not been hampered by regulations, but has thrived with them. If that were not true, then why has output risen so high?
Trump claims that reducing regulations will increase output. No, that will only increase profits. But corporate profits are also at all time highs. They are at nearly 9% while the post WWII average hovers around 5.8%. The Dow is also breaking new all time highs.
Nothing that Trump wants to do will re-employ small town factory workers. Those low skilled jobs are gone forever. The world is facing a paradigm shift in employment. Only creative, entrepreneurial and high tech jobs will abound. Strong backs need not apply. These jobs require specialized and targeted training, critical thinking skills and a take charge independent attitude from the worker. Repetitive labor jobs are going fast and will soon all disappear.
Massive investments in social infrastructure are needed. That would be vo-tech training programs, computer science, code writing, internet geeky type work. Where are those in the the Trump budget and how many will be able to graduate?
239
I think low skilled workers are hurting and they don't deserve to hurt; however, the reality today in the US there is a seismic shift in the type of industries that are evolving with the change in times. The sad thing is that Republicans, partially responsible for the destruction of the lower middle class, by the way, a class that, at one time, was able to buy homes, cars and live the American Dream, refuse to help with re-education for their victims.
Our new ruling class - the Republicans - are heartless, and their mouthpiece, Tweetle-Dumb is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. One day the iceberg is going to hit us and most of Americans will find themselves in steerage.
Our country has become grotesque.
Our new ruling class - the Republicans - are heartless, and their mouthpiece, Tweetle-Dumb is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. One day the iceberg is going to hit us and most of Americans will find themselves in steerage.
Our country has become grotesque.
6
There's certainly a need for actual *physical* infrastructure investment. More of which would be already taking place and generating jobs if not for Republican obstruction.
2
Reducing regulation only increases public costs of cleaning up after trashers like bullyboy Trump.
4
A job creator Donald ain't
All pony show with a Trump taint.
The results comprise
More Munchausen style lies
If jobs do result I would faint.
All pony show with a Trump taint.
The results comprise
More Munchausen style lies
If jobs do result I would faint.
133
Conman country-club brat Trump doesn't care about you. He only cares about himself.
He lies as he breathes.
Jobs? What jobs? He wants to give more tax cuts to the superrich, deregulate your air, earth, and water, criminalize poverty, and laugh all the way to the bank.
What part of his life shows he cares about anything but screwing everyone else as long as he can claim his golden grown and dictate to everyone?
He's got some real trouble on his plate, but he's escaped it by getting elected president.
Who wants a criminal traitor in Putin's blackmailing oligarchic pocket for president? Hands up if you are enough of a fool to buy his lies.
He lies as he breathes.
Jobs? What jobs? He wants to give more tax cuts to the superrich, deregulate your air, earth, and water, criminalize poverty, and laugh all the way to the bank.
What part of his life shows he cares about anything but screwing everyone else as long as he can claim his golden grown and dictate to everyone?
He's got some real trouble on his plate, but he's escaped it by getting elected president.
Who wants a criminal traitor in Putin's blackmailing oligarchic pocket for president? Hands up if you are enough of a fool to buy his lies.
260
crown, that was, golden crown ... he's in it for himself ...
29
Please cease trying to give Trump advice to improve things. It might get him some votes. He is taking credit for events initiated by Mr. Obama being the swindler and fraud that he is.
The GOP legislators as we have just seen, do not want to spend money on things they say do not produce results. Typical is the Meals on Wheels, what kind of profit can that show, after all it costs money to keep these people alive and a bit independent. Well Republicans can not have that, it cuts into Trumps cost of flying to his golf course every weekend.
Surly those people confined to their homes can find gainful employment, I am sure the Republicans can find some task for them.
The GOP legislators as we have just seen, do not want to spend money on things they say do not produce results. Typical is the Meals on Wheels, what kind of profit can that show, after all it costs money to keep these people alive and a bit independent. Well Republicans can not have that, it cuts into Trumps cost of flying to his golf course every weekend.
Surly those people confined to their homes can find gainful employment, I am sure the Republicans can find some task for them.
192
David
One way to think about Meals on Wheels is as an ounce of prevention that avoids a pound of cure.
One day's stay in the hospital for someone who does not have health insurance will pay for a year's worth of Meals on Wheels for that person. If we can keep one person healthy, that eliminates a huge medical cost. That is a pretty good ROI (return on investment) given that seniors usually spend a lot more than just one day in the hospital if they fall ill.
As the old ad says "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." The trade off in that one was the cost of an oil change for your car, versus the cost of a replacement engine when the one you have seizes up if it runs with too little oil.
One way to think about Meals on Wheels is as an ounce of prevention that avoids a pound of cure.
One day's stay in the hospital for someone who does not have health insurance will pay for a year's worth of Meals on Wheels for that person. If we can keep one person healthy, that eliminates a huge medical cost. That is a pretty good ROI (return on investment) given that seniors usually spend a lot more than just one day in the hospital if they fall ill.
As the old ad says "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." The trade off in that one was the cost of an oil change for your car, versus the cost of a replacement engine when the one you have seizes up if it runs with too little oil.
5
If ever there was something which cost gazillions and could not, by any stretch of the imagination called "investment", it is the completely useless "WALL" between us (US) and Mexico. Power dams, wind farms, solar panels are investments in the future, and so is training and re-training for higher skills. Building a wall is like moving sand from one pile to another. People break their backs, but nothing is gained. NOTHING.
3
As a real estate developer, Trump is clueless about what it actually takes to design and manufacture a modern, high tech product. It was ever so, and unless he drops his inflated ego long enough to listen to people who really know, it will ever be.
159
I think the cuts to the job retraining programs are the most heinous part of the Trump budget. Aren't these the programs designed to prepare coal miners (no, those jobs aren't coming back, because no one in their right mind is going to re-open a shuttered mine when gas is so much cheaper to produce) for the energy jobs of the future?
Like most things Trump, the items cited in this editorial reflect more the disorder in Trump's mind than any cohesive strategy. I mean, it sounds like a series of opposing actions, that taken together, produce a net zero change in the status quo. How can you promise jobs when tariffs, trade wars, and gigantic walls will exert a tax on the movement of goods, services, and component parts?
The president's proposals on jobs to date remind me of his actions on healthcare: take a system that greatly expanded access but didn't go far enough in mandating participation or regulating the insurance market and replace it plan that coverers fewer people for more money. A lot more, particularly for the old.
In other words, if it's not broke, just fix it anyway by breaking it. Trump is taking an economy that was finally investing in new technologies and virtually guaranteeing that all that progress would be thrown out the window, replaced by a return to dirty water, polluted air, unsafe products, and corrupt (and unaccountable) capitalism.
Call it the Trump doctrine: Nothing is so good that we can't make it far worse.
Like most things Trump, the items cited in this editorial reflect more the disorder in Trump's mind than any cohesive strategy. I mean, it sounds like a series of opposing actions, that taken together, produce a net zero change in the status quo. How can you promise jobs when tariffs, trade wars, and gigantic walls will exert a tax on the movement of goods, services, and component parts?
The president's proposals on jobs to date remind me of his actions on healthcare: take a system that greatly expanded access but didn't go far enough in mandating participation or regulating the insurance market and replace it plan that coverers fewer people for more money. A lot more, particularly for the old.
In other words, if it's not broke, just fix it anyway by breaking it. Trump is taking an economy that was finally investing in new technologies and virtually guaranteeing that all that progress would be thrown out the window, replaced by a return to dirty water, polluted air, unsafe products, and corrupt (and unaccountable) capitalism.
Call it the Trump doctrine: Nothing is so good that we can't make it far worse.
460
I have always thought that "make America great again" meant that Trump was going to have to break America first. I still think that's true, but I don't think I fully appreciated how "great" equates to "break" in Trump's mind. Breaking America seems to be all he intends to do.
14
Man’s been in office for two months. He can hardly reverse eight years of Obama, and particularly the first three when he COMPLETELY ignored jobs until he figured he’d better pay them some lip-service if he wanted to be re-elected. For those first three years, ALL that was done that had any real effect on America was healthcare, as well as financial and environmental regulation. But unlike Obama, Trump’s HIGHEST priority is middle-class jobs.
It’s not surprising that the editors, not seeing policy to create employment perforce by massive pubic infusions and legislation, would conclude that nothing is happening. But even the Times, in a recent piece, admitted that small business was highly energized by Republican plans to dramatically lower taxes and roll back excessive regulation; and that those actions likely would translate into an enhanced willingness to hire. And on the regulation front, they’ve already started despite being so consumed by healthcare reform.
Obama tried a partnership between labor unions and environmental groups to expand “green economy” jobs, and what did he deliver for America? Precarious employment, millions of “burger-flipping” jobs and an economy not projected to grow appreciably for the foreseeable future. Properly, Trump is going in a different direction.
You guys lost the election – at EVERY level of our governance. You don’t get to lose an election that monumentally and STILL get to expect that Republicans will turn into Democrats.
It’s not surprising that the editors, not seeing policy to create employment perforce by massive pubic infusions and legislation, would conclude that nothing is happening. But even the Times, in a recent piece, admitted that small business was highly energized by Republican plans to dramatically lower taxes and roll back excessive regulation; and that those actions likely would translate into an enhanced willingness to hire. And on the regulation front, they’ve already started despite being so consumed by healthcare reform.
Obama tried a partnership between labor unions and environmental groups to expand “green economy” jobs, and what did he deliver for America? Precarious employment, millions of “burger-flipping” jobs and an economy not projected to grow appreciably for the foreseeable future. Properly, Trump is going in a different direction.
You guys lost the election – at EVERY level of our governance. You don’t get to lose an election that monumentally and STILL get to expect that Republicans will turn into Democrats.
14
What idiotic nonsense Leuttgen.
Mr. Obama came into office with the economy in the worst recession since 1929, it would have been 1929 again if he had not bee able to stop the bankruptcy of GM. Even as he tried to get legislation passed that would have boosted the economy, he was blocked by the GOP. You seem to avoid mentioning the GOP pledge to make him a one term president, and the constant blocking of any legislation by him. Their excuse, it did not meet their terms. Terms that would have made things wore.
At the end of those eight years we were beginning to see the results of his efforts, but the GOP managed to convince their subnormal followers that it was not working. Then this carnival barker comes along ant tells them how their jobs are being stolen, how he can fix all this now, and they believe him, just as they have believe other GOP charlatans over the years, only to find out too late they have been taken.
Now they have a documented swindler, a promoter if fraudulent schemes, who is persona non grata at American banks he tried to swindle, who loan from Dusche Bank was brought up to date by Rosneft, and you make snide remarks about Obama.
While most of us have tried to be polite to you, you are coming to be recognized as a supporter of the most despicable politician in U.S. history. And your conservative ideas exceed even those of Donald Rumsfeld. Youmake AynRand look like a liberal.
Mr. Obama came into office with the economy in the worst recession since 1929, it would have been 1929 again if he had not bee able to stop the bankruptcy of GM. Even as he tried to get legislation passed that would have boosted the economy, he was blocked by the GOP. You seem to avoid mentioning the GOP pledge to make him a one term president, and the constant blocking of any legislation by him. Their excuse, it did not meet their terms. Terms that would have made things wore.
At the end of those eight years we were beginning to see the results of his efforts, but the GOP managed to convince their subnormal followers that it was not working. Then this carnival barker comes along ant tells them how their jobs are being stolen, how he can fix all this now, and they believe him, just as they have believe other GOP charlatans over the years, only to find out too late they have been taken.
Now they have a documented swindler, a promoter if fraudulent schemes, who is persona non grata at American banks he tried to swindle, who loan from Dusche Bank was brought up to date by Rosneft, and you make snide remarks about Obama.
While most of us have tried to be polite to you, you are coming to be recognized as a supporter of the most despicable politician in U.S. history. And your conservative ideas exceed even those of Donald Rumsfeld. Youmake AynRand look like a liberal.
671
Oh, David, I've become a supporter of one of the most not "despicable" but merely despised politicians by YOU. Post your own opinions and try to get over yourself.
You continue to make excuses for Obama's failure to deliver, and I suppose you will for all time. But I'll make you a promise: if after a full year Trump hasn't made serious progress towards fixing what had been utterly dysfunctional and frozen politics and moving us forward again, I'll acknowledge it and Trump as a failed bet as honestly as I did with Obama, starting with the ramming of the ACA -- and I gave Obama MORE than a year.
Of course, if Trump SUCCEEDS at making serous progress at delivering his agenda after that year, including rolling back excessive regulation, lowering taxes, jump-starting a growth economy and repatriating middle-class jobs, improving our national security and defending us from this absurd "open borders" notion ... then I'll certainly crow.
THAT, of course, is what REALLY concerns you, not so much his manner -- that he might SUCCEED. For ALL Americans, let's hope he does. But succeed or fail, I for one will hold him accountable for delivering what he promised to deliver and won't make your Obama-excuses for failure.
You continue to make excuses for Obama's failure to deliver, and I suppose you will for all time. But I'll make you a promise: if after a full year Trump hasn't made serious progress towards fixing what had been utterly dysfunctional and frozen politics and moving us forward again, I'll acknowledge it and Trump as a failed bet as honestly as I did with Obama, starting with the ramming of the ACA -- and I gave Obama MORE than a year.
Of course, if Trump SUCCEEDS at making serous progress at delivering his agenda after that year, including rolling back excessive regulation, lowering taxes, jump-starting a growth economy and repatriating middle-class jobs, improving our national security and defending us from this absurd "open borders" notion ... then I'll certainly crow.
THAT, of course, is what REALLY concerns you, not so much his manner -- that he might SUCCEED. For ALL Americans, let's hope he does. But succeed or fail, I for one will hold him accountable for delivering what he promised to deliver and won't make your Obama-excuses for failure.
3
Well RL: I don't know how much you have in the market, I have a substantial amount of investment, I read various publications every day.
Consider his rolling back auto emission standards. California set them many years ago, the auto companies found they had to install controls to sell in California. They tried leaving them off for other states, but the controls had to be installed if you wanted to bring the car here, so they put them on all cars.
You think rolling back EPA standards will bring back coal? You really think the power companies will go back when gas is more efficient, cleaner burning, the furnaces don't have to be rebuilt, the ash does not have to be disposed of?
Are the cotton mills coming back, will new ones be built?
Is Walmart looking to find $5 a day workers to make their cheap clothing. Just read about what happened to Rubbermaid with them. Look at Kraft after Berkshire Hathaway bought them. And Delco after Bain Capital bought it.
Oh maybe he is going to loosen the regulations on the FDA so we can all have tainted meat, and another Thalidomide indecent. And financial advisors will be able to direct your money to their friends, instead of what is best for you.
He has a record of swindling small contractors, can not refi a mortgage with an American bank, he owes Deutch Bank almost $1billion, the interest was paid by Rosneft. Your opininon of Mr. Obama has not basis in fact. Yes I am worried about Trump. Iam wiorried about a market crash.
Consider his rolling back auto emission standards. California set them many years ago, the auto companies found they had to install controls to sell in California. They tried leaving them off for other states, but the controls had to be installed if you wanted to bring the car here, so they put them on all cars.
You think rolling back EPA standards will bring back coal? You really think the power companies will go back when gas is more efficient, cleaner burning, the furnaces don't have to be rebuilt, the ash does not have to be disposed of?
Are the cotton mills coming back, will new ones be built?
Is Walmart looking to find $5 a day workers to make their cheap clothing. Just read about what happened to Rubbermaid with them. Look at Kraft after Berkshire Hathaway bought them. And Delco after Bain Capital bought it.
Oh maybe he is going to loosen the regulations on the FDA so we can all have tainted meat, and another Thalidomide indecent. And financial advisors will be able to direct your money to their friends, instead of what is best for you.
He has a record of swindling small contractors, can not refi a mortgage with an American bank, he owes Deutch Bank almost $1billion, the interest was paid by Rosneft. Your opininon of Mr. Obama has not basis in fact. Yes I am worried about Trump. Iam wiorried about a market crash.
194
One of the things that made America great was the collaboration between business, families, workers, education and government.
There is no reason why someone with even a 10th grade education, let alone a high school diploma should be out of the middle or upper-middle class. You can train them, they can gain experience and skills and make 100k+ in productive work.
Same for professionals. Look at the UK, tech grads have the highest unemployment of any major, because they are bringing in cheaper and less capable engineers from India. We are moving toward that model with poor results. Lower wages, poorer IT development, and talented Americans sitting on their hands. The H1B program was meant to hire top talent that we do not have, not to bring in cheap labor.
Time for liberals to stop protesting and start bringing their ideas for getting America back for everyone to the Trump admin