Trump 'is destroying the government': Former Reagan aide says

[UCmeNdc]

Trump ‘is destroying the government’: Former Reagan aide says Republicans are hypocrites on the stimulus



In 2009, when Barack Obama proposed a relatively modest economic stimulus — one that Paul Krugman, among others, warned was roughly half the size that was needed — Republican politicians and economists screamed bloody murder. Now, with COVID-19 panic gripping the world, and a Republican in the White House, it’s a totally different story. Surprise, surprise. As David Dayen noted Wednesday, the stimulus package the U.S. Senate may have passed by the time you read this is “not a $2 trillion bill, [but] closer to $6 trillion, since bailout money helps capitalize $4.25 trillion in leveraged lending by the Federal Reserve.


The reason why things are different now is mainly because of rank partisan hypocrisy. Libertarians, Austrians and other far-right groups love Trump because he is destroying government before their eyes. They even give him a pass on easy money, although he has nominated a crank Austrian gold-standard nut, Judy Shelton, to the Federal Reserve Board. The second a Democrat is elected they will go back to the scorched-earth policy they followed under Obama, hope he fails, and they can go back to grifting and being assholes.



https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/trump-is-destroying-the-government-former-reagan-aide-says-republicans-are-hypocrites-on-the-stimulus/

[dchill]

1. Well ... DUH.

[beachbumbob]

3. captain obvious, so kind waste of time to continue to point this out

[klook]

2. Link to original story from Salon:

https://www.salon.com/2020/03/26/former-reagan-aide-bruce-bartlett-why-republicans-are-such-massive-hypocrites-on-stimulus/

This stood out to me:
"Becoming habituated to GOP hypocrisy is a crucial part of how and why they continue to get away with it. Normalizing bad-faith politics, to put it another way, is a central goal of bad-faith politics."

[JHB]

4. Republicans have been following this pattern since Bill Clinton took office...

Longer, if you count the pass they gave on the Reagan-Bush soaring deficits because it cut high-end taxes. Decapitated them, better to say.

The swings and hypocrisy have gotten more blatant over time, but this has been going on for a very long time. Don't erase Newt, don't erase Dubya & Cheney, don't erase Mitch and his comrades hobbling recovery just so Obama wouldn't benefit.

It's not just Trump. There is no "Trumpism", just Republican standard operating procedure.

[klook]

6. Since the 1930s, as Bartlett points out in this interview.

They opposed the FDR-era attempts to use Keynesian stimulus, and they hated that WWII proved them wrong. The "drown government in the bathtub" philosophy of Republicans since Reagan continues this harsh worldview, with unfettered big business as their lord and master.

[duforsure]

5. Is Putin behind his no response to the corona virus?

Has Putin got trump so compromised and in debt he has to do this or be exposed by him ? Is this Putin getting revenge?

[Midnight Writer]

7. Shrinking government so "it is small enough to drown in the bathtub" is a long time GOP dream.

[LisaL]

9. I think it's drowned.

[LisaL]

8. Seems like that was his plan all alone, no?

[Wounded Bear]

10. Deconstruction of the administrative state...

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/02/23/stephen_bannon_pillar_of_trumps_platform_is_deconstruction_of_the_administrative_state.html

Senior adviser to the president Stephen K. Bannon discussed the three most important goals the White House is working towards at CPAC 2017: homeland security, economic nationalism, and "deconstruction of the administrative state."

"Every business leader we've had in is saying not just taxes, but also the regulation," Bannon said.

"I think the consistent, if you look at these Cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason and that is the deconstruction-- the way the progressive left runs, is if they can't get it passed, they're just gonna put in some sort of regulation in -- in an agency. That's all gonna be deconstructed and I think that that's why this regulatory thing is so important," he said.