It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as
he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week,
or from day to day, or even from minute to minute. Consider his speech last
week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). It was reported
as "fiery" and "blistering," but it was also full of contradictions.
In the speech, President Trump correctly pointed out that the last 15 years
of US military action in the Middle East has been an almost incomprehensible
waste of money - six trillion dollars, he said - and that after all that US
war and meddling the region was actually in worse shape than before we started.
It would have been better for US Presidents to have spent the last 15 years
at the beach than to have pursued its Middle East war policy, he added, stating
that the US infrastructure could have been rebuilt several times over with
the money wasted on such militarism.
All good points from the President.
But then minutes later in the same speech he seemed to forget what he just
said about wasting money on militarism. He promised he would be "upgrading
all of our military, all of our military, offensive, defensive, everything,"
in what would be "one of the greatest military buildups in American history."
This "greatest" military buildup is in addition to the trillions he plans
on spending to make sure the US nuclear arsenal is at the "top of the pack" in
the world, as he told the press last Thursday. And that is in addition to the
trillion dollar nuclear "modernization" program that is carrying over from
the Obama Administration.
Of course when it comes to nuclear weapons, the United States already is at
the "top of the pack," having nearly 7,000 nuclear warheads. How many times
do we need to be able to blow up the world?
At CPAC, President Trump is worried about needlessly spending money on military
misadventures, but then in the same speech he promised even more military misadventures
in the Middle East.
Where is the money going to come from for all this? Is the President going
to raise taxes to pay for it? Is he going to make massive cuts in domestic
spending?
In the same CPAC speech, President Trump reiterated his vow to "massively
lower taxes on the middle class, reduce taxes on American business, and make
our tax code more simple and much more fair for everyone." And that's all good.
So it's not coming from there.
Will he cut domestic spending? The President has indicated that he also wants
a massive infrastructure modernization program launched in the near future.
The plan will likely cost far in excess of the trillion dollars the President
has suggested.
That leaves only one solution: printing money out of thin air. It has been
the favorite trick of his predecessors. While he correctly condemns the $20
trillion national debt passed down from previous Administrations, his policies
promise to add to that number in a massive way. Printing money out of thin
air destroys the currency, hastening a US economic collapse and placing a very
cruel tax on the working and middle classes as well.
Following the President's constantly changing policies can make you dizzy.
That's a shame because the solution is very simple: end the US military empire
overseas, cut taxes and regulations at home, end the welfare magnet for illegal
immigration, and end the drug war. And then get out of the way.
