Former President Trump Thread

OMG, is it finally happening? Is he going to admit he was just trolling everyone? Then take off his suit to reveal he was always just two 14 year old channers that took a joke way too far...
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Didn't he already do that when he told the people still chanting "lock her up!" he didn't need them anymore?
 
Trumps new travel ban already blocked by federal judge in Hawaii.

It's hilarious because he pretty much screwed it all up himself. He can write the most neutral EO possible in order to ban people from various countries with majority Muslims and say it isn't a "Muslim Ban", but when your own campaign website says this, the obvious intent is there. You can't hide that now by being careful with your words, it's all in the open, so any ban you draft is going to be challenged.
His surrogates were practically orgasmic in declaring it a ban. Especially Rudy.
 
According to Dave's article, and using the calculator built into windows, Trump's budget is -7.7 billion under last year's spending, even with the increase in defense spending.

That said, nothing binds congress to using these numbers at all. Trump's "budget" is more of a recommendation or wishlist.
 
I like the representation that cutting Meals on Wheels saves the government as much money as 1 weekend in Mar a Lago.

Said it elsewhere, MAGA means cull the sick and the poor. MAGA by rasing the average wage and health by killing of the bottom.
 
What does throwing buckets of money at weapons systems that are neither needed nor wanted at the expense of... everything else, have to do with promoting the general welfare or securing the blessings of Liberty?[DOUBLEPOST=1489678214,1489678097][/DOUBLEPOST]
I like the representation that cutting Meals on Wheels saves the government as much money as 1 weekend in Mar a Lago.

Said it elsewhere, MAGA means cull the sick and the poor. MAGA by rasing the average wage and health by killing of the bottom.
This is "you only have the right to the health care you can afford" made policy.
 
Didn't he already do that when he told the people still chanting "lock her up!" he didn't need them anymore?
Technically he just said that there was no more need to "Lock her up" coz they won...

And lets be honest, the vast majority of people chanting that where also using it just for political gain, which is why they stopped demanding anything about it.


Great, now you're going to be protected from all those outsiders, and all you have to worry about is all the pollution and uneducated, lead poisoned population...
 
I'm pretty sure that unless the food and entertainment get too expensive, Caesar has no problems for his 1st term at least.

Revolutions typically follow food getting too expensive, rarely anything else. You're in for 4 years (at least).
 
I'm confused, does all socialism=bad in the republican mindset? Shouldn't there be some sort of social responsibility, a sort of raising the floor instead of lowering the bar?
 
I'm confused, does all socialism=bad in the republican mindset? Shouldn't there be some sort of social responsibility, a sort of raising the floor instead of lowering the bar?
Republicans* believe that Socialism would mean having to start caring about people that aren't Republican, and the fewer of those, the better.

--Patrick
*as the term has come to mean, today.
 
I'm confused, does all socialism=bad in the republican mindset? Shouldn't there be some sort of social responsibility, a sort of raising the floor instead of lowering the bar?
I'm not going to speak to the republican party, as I'm not in the USA, but for many conservatives, that isn't the government's responsibility, but rather everybody's. Charity is a duty of the individual, not the state. Thus wealth transfer is something done voluntarily, not under the coercion (and distribution) of the state. See a social problem? Then either volunteer or send money (or both) to organizations addressing them directly. Food banks, shelters, etc. Giving it to the government will likely waste the majority of it, rather than going to help people.

You might identify that as more libertarian than conservative down there. I dunno. But it's an explanation. I'm also deliberately exaggerating the view, but it does make certain moves make more sense from some individuals.


To simplify even further: the government should only do what it must to serve the country, not everything that it possibly can.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I gotta say I won't be sorry to see the National Endowment for the Arts go away.

I'm under no illusions though, Trump and the republicans aren't really about reducing the size of government, just starving the parts they don't like so they can fatten the parts they do.
 
I'm pretty sure that unless the food and entertainment get too expensive, Caesar has no problems for his 1st term at least.

Revolutions typically follow food getting too expensive, rarely anything else. You're in for 4 years (at least).
Unless the Republicans throw Trump to the wolves after he is no longer useful.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I'm not going to speak to the republican party, as I'm not in the USA, but for many conservatives, that isn't the government's responsibility, but rather everybody's. Charity is a duty of the individual, not the state. Thus wealth transfer is something done voluntarily, not under the coercion (and distribution) of the state. See a social problem? Then either volunteer or send money (or both) to organizations addressing them directly. Food banks, shelters, etc. Giving it to the government will likely waste the majority of it, rather than going to help people.
Moreover, many religious groups promote the idea that the government aiding people encourages bad behavior, while their church helping people makes them better people. (see objections to health clinics as promoting abortion, claiming food stamps enable drug usage, etc.)
 

Necronic

Staff member
The problem with the "cut all the things" attitude is that there's a lot of government spending that is actually a net positive for the country. Some are obvious, things like infrastructure spending. Same with (most) education spending. Every dollar we spend in those things serves to strengthen our country, and can even pay us back.

Similar points can be made about other services. Poison Control Centers substantially reduce costs at emergency rooms. Homeless services and drug rehab facilities/programs and reduce costs with crime.

So there is a good argument for a fiscal conservative to support many types of government spending. The funny thing is lots of so-called "conservatives" (read: social conservatives and tea party hacks) don't actually think this way.

Anyways, to the issue at hand. Meals on Wheels, regardless of how noble an endeavor it is, doesn't fit this criteria imho. The elderly and infirm have pretty much zero potential to return to being economically valuable to society in any way, and these elderly, by their very nature of having to rely on a service to feed them, probably don't even have family that would gain a tangential benefit from seeing them taken care of.

In fact, if we're being ruthlessly utilitarian, which I would argue is the baseline of fiscal conservatism, I would argue that keeping these people alive only serves to bring further harm to our finances. The sooner they die the sooner we can remove them from the Medicare/Medicaid rolls.

So from a brutally fiscally conservative viewpoint I would say Meals on Wheels is absolutely a program that should be cut.

However when you consider that our presidents extravagant vacationing and maintenance of his family at Trump Tower has already wasted more money than was even being supplied to meals on Wheels in the first place then I would further articulate this entire argument as a steaming pile of horseshit from cruel idiots who have no idea how to manage money and very little concept of humanity.
 
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that isn't the government's responsibility, but rather everybody's. Charity is a duty of the individual, not the state.
Funny, i seems to remember it being "WE, the people", not "WE, the government".

Thus wealth transfer is something done voluntarily, not under the coercion (and distribution) of the state. See a social problem? Then either volunteer or send money (or both) to organizations addressing them directly. Food banks, shelters, etc.
If it actually worked that way, communism would have succeeded by now...

Giving it to the government will likely waste the majority of it, rather than going to help people.
Maybe if your government isn't being held responsible because the population doesn't really care...

And if they don't care enough to keep the government honest, no way they would car enough to keep religious or private charities honest... and the Vatican isn't chock-full of art and treasure because they where helping the poor.[DOUBLEPOST=1489707680,1489707579][/DOUBLEPOST]
"easily controlled masses".
I don't know, i hear lead poisoning isn't exactly a peaceful condition.[DOUBLEPOST=1489707813][/DOUBLEPOST]
In fact, if we're being ruthlessly utilitarian, which I would argue is the baseline of fiscal conservatism, I would argue that keeping these people alive only serves to bring further harm to our finances. The sooner they die the sooner we can remove them from the Medicare/Medicaid rolls.

So from a brutally fiscally conservative viewpoint I would say Meals on Wheels is absolutely a program that should be cut.
I don't know if showing people that, once they get too old, they'll be left in the dust, and thus have nothing to lose when that time nears, is a good idea for a society...
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I don't know if showing people that, once they get too old, they'll be left in the dust, and thus have nothing to lose when that time nears, is a good idea for a society...
It worked when they originally pitched Social Security, with the original retirement age (65) being 4 years past what was then the average life expectancy...

Now that the average life expectancy is only a few months short of 79, the money's running out, even though they've pushed the retirement age back to 67.

I can only imagine what would happen if they told people the new retirement age is 83.
 
If taking care of the poor is supposed to be my responsibility, I'd like some funding to help with that--say, the chunk of my every paycheck that gets sucked up by the government.
 

Necronic

Staff member
I just think it's hilarious that he's pulling that funding to build a wall that he was supposed to get mexico to pay for. Is he already giving up on his negotiation? Is that the real art of the deal?
 
If it actually worked that way, communism would have succeeded by now...
Uh, virtually every implementation of communism that we've seen thus far on earth has tried to take massively from the populace, and (often) re-distribute it. It was not a "thou must givest 70% of your money to charity a year" it was "give all to us, we'll give back what we say you need." Or are you about to argue the old cliche that none of them have done communism "right" yet? Hell, the only places that approach something resembling Marx's ideal societies are the usually one-generational religious communes/utopias. And they don't work once their children decide "fuck it, we don't want this." At the end of a gun is the only way "communism" in any form lasts longer than a generation with extremely few exceptions.
If taking care of the poor is supposed to be my responsibility, I'd like some funding to help with that--say, the chunk of my every paycheck that gets sucked up by the government.
I don't know if you're being flippant or not, but that's exactly the idea. Government doesn't need the money, so you're using it to help those around you.

The thing is: many are greedy. THAT was the message of "The Widow's Mite" lesson, on the poor widow giving a huge amount of what she had, though it was almost nothing, because she had almost nothing, while criticizing the rich for giving what they didn't care about, even if it was greater per person. Charity is a duty. But it's also voluntary. Say what you will about "eternal consequences" but it's not coerced under penalty of jail from your local government like taxes are.
 
I don't know if you're being flippant or not, but that's exactly the idea. Government doesn't need the money, so you're using it to help those around you.
Of course I'm being flippant. You think I enjoy my taxes going to nonsense like a navy ship too expensive to risk putting in the water? Thing is, nobody gets their groin tickled at the government taking their money, but if it's going to happen anyway, I'd like it to go to a good purpose.
 
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