A trade deficit happens whenever you use money to buy something. This is not a loss. When you buy a good or service, you get something of value in exchange for money. Before money evolved, people bartered, and there were no trade deficits. They are a feature of a currency system.
While we celebrate the inauguration of Trump, remember he's no Ron Paul or Javier Milei. Trump is not a libertarian, or even a conservative; he's a populist. None of the actual solutions to our nation's structural economic problems are popular. Therefore, they will not be solved.
Yeah...let's not. It's all fun to joke about, until the jokes stop and the talk continues.
Expansionist imperialism is directly counter to any notion of limited government. America will never be "great" for its people if it continues down the path of empire.
Things rarely change much in politics because the public can’t verify most political claims. People at home don’t have time to keep track of things. We’re busy with our own lives.
I used to think social media would fix this, but it’s generally made things worse. There’s more truth out now, for sure, but it’s buried beneath way more lies.
When I first entered politics, I pioneered the use of social media to expose government corruption, stupidity, and waste. But within a few years the establishment figured out how to use social media to sow confusion and manipulate the grassroots.
Now there’s a whole grifter-establishment complex on the right dedicated to ensuring you don’t know who or what is conservative.
It’s a symbiotic relationship between the same establishment elites who have long operated the machinery of the Republican Party and certain online influencers who are in it to make a quick buck or become quasi-celebrities.
Over the last several years, this complex has ensured that nearly every fake-conservative, establishment Republican has gotten a ringing endorsement for election or reelection, while the few actual heroes, like Thomas Massie and Chip Roy, are derided as losers, grandstanders, and RINOs.
The consequence is that today’s Republican Party is largely an extension—when it comes to actual governing policies—of the Uniparty coalition that has dominated government for decades. On the most important issues, it’s simply a continuation of old politics.
The excessive spending continues.
The money manipulation continues.
The forever war continues.
The unlawful surveillance continues.
The general lawlessness continues.
But this New GOP is much better than the Old GOP at keeping the base in check by keeping Republican politicians in check.
As long as a Republican politician stands with the “team”—no matter how unprincipled or hypocritical the endeavor—the person will be heralded as a champion of freedom and the people by the grifter-establishment complex.
Just follow the script and few will care how absurd the last vote was; the grifter-establishment complex will assure Republican voters that the person did the right thing and that those who oppose the effort are the real bad guys.
Unfortunately, things won’t get better until Republican voters stop buying what these hacks are selling.
I know it’s hard to uncover the truth. I don’t blame most people for getting confused from all the noise or tuning it all out because it’s just too much.
But the fact is that this scam continues because people keep falling for it. The only hope we have for our constitutional republic is if enough of us stop letting them take us for a ride.
Remember that only one person in Congress actually stood to make America great again when it actually counted.
Because no one else stood with him, trillions of dollars in debt will be run up in your name, your children’s and grandchildren's names, and handed out to foreign countries and big government agencies that spy on you and make your life harder.
Remember every single "MAGA" politician and pundit who stood against him.
They are all wrong, and will be proven wrong in very short order.
Thomas Massie is this generation's Ron Paul.
What many people don't understand is how pervasive this culture of corruption is in Ohio; I was offered a bribe even before I took office back in 1992. That was the norm under then Speaker Vern Riffe as later evidenced by the "Pancaking scandal". https://t.co/9ACYsFDGjW
I hate to rain on this parade, but the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not a real department. It exists outside of government and has no authority to do anything. Like any one of a number of independent think tanks that already exist, it's free to make any recommendations it wants, and the government is free to ignore them all. Even if the Trump administration actually proposes some of the DOGE recommendations, they mean nothing unless Congress votes to pass them, which it won’t.
Since no Democrats will vote in favor of eliminating any government department or agency—except perhaps the Space Force—the House will need over 98% of Republican votes. This is nearly impossible to achieve with so many RINOs still in the House and so many representing swing districts. In the Senate, even if all Republicans vote in favor of the cuts, they still don’t have 60 votes.
Also, regarding firing government workers, the civil service unions make that nearly impossible. The best Trump can do is allow the workforce to shrink naturally through attrition. That will help, but the savings over the course of his term will be minimal.
Of course, the nearly impossible task will become completely impossible after the Republicans lose the House in the midterms. That is normal for the party in power. In two years, Trump and the Republicans will own the economy. With stagflation firmly entrenched by then, disappointed voters will again vote for change. But as usual, there will be no real change until an actual dollar and sovereign debt crisis finally forces our leaders to act. @elonmusk@VivekGRamaswamy@realDonaldTrump
The gravest economic challenges we are facing can be summed up in two points:
1) The decreasing purchasing power of the dollar, which hurts the poor and the middle class the most.
2) The desperate need for an audit of the Federal Reserve followed by strict limits on the Fed’s ability to monetize debt in secrecy. Government debt should be un-affordable.
We also must guard against those who would use class warfare to divide us to the benefit of the elites.
This is @RonPaul in 1988 warning the American people about the Welfare and Warfare state along with the endless taxation and federal reserve system.
We have enslaved ourselves, and it's time to cut off the chains.
@beinlibertarian Ya'll are fucking insane. This shit is the same as Build the wall and Mexico will pay for it. It's just his sell. Ron Paul will be nowhere near the administration. Have fun with your tariffs, idiots.
@JonHusted How can you find authoritarian boot lickers in Ohio? Ask who is voting no on 1. I don't believe that "it was all Householder" trash for a second. Husted is a thug in suit.