The Emperor has no clothes

To The Eagle:

Have you noticed how much harder the more ardent Trumpsters and GOP Congress need to work these days to keep supporting their pro-Trump position? Whether Trump is thumbing his nose at our law enforcement and judicial system, or generally denigrating anyone that’s not a rich white man, or undermining our decades old relationships with key international allies, he’s increasingly harder to accept as trustworthy, and as an agent of positive change. I think his base and our “bobble head” GOP congress understand this. It’s probably easier for them to maintain their existing, supportive theme than admit we have a big problem on our hands. Trump is still right when he said “I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave in New York and not lose voters.”

About the only valid area his base points to for validation is the economy’s strength (even though we’re still piling up debt). The truth is, after several years of essentially giving businesses free money to use, of course the economy’s doing well! Wouldn’t your monthly financial state be better off too if you had virtually no car loan or mortgage payment costs for eight years? Accordingly, the US has had 88 straight months of economic and employment gains. This current recovery goes way back, before Trump was even a candidate.

Long time political and economic followers do and/or should know our economy is like turning a big ship around in the ocean. It takes time and miles to accomplish. We could have elected a fire hydrant to sit in the Oval Office, and our economy would still be doing well. It does appear that this is starting to change though.

In the last six months as the administration’s actions and the GOP tax plan have rolled out, base line interest rates are up over 30 percent. This translates into a significant cost to America. Market’s are now correctly reading concerns of increased debt and bubbling inflation, largely due to Washington’s actions and policies. If you were lucky enough to receive the one time (pretax) $1,000 bonus, I’m pretty sure it’ll be long forgotten when the increased car and mortgage payments keep continually piling up.

Unless Mueller’s investigation removes Trump, or a Congress that finally wakes up and has had enough, or otherwise, we’ll just have to put up with the current administration for another three years. He hasn’t proven to be Hitler yet, but he’s definitely not King Donald.

Bill Wainwright

Cathlamet