"Making America Great Again": What Does That Mean?

By Rich Kozlovich

There's one thing we can all agree on.  Slogans really work, and the good ones last, whether it's in commerce or public life.

Wendy's: Where's The Beef? L'Oréal: Because I'm Worth It, which was timed perfectly with women's rights, and since that was a left wing thing, they had to adjust it to be more politically correct to encompass the masses with - Because You're Worth It! - and it worked even better.  Then there was AT&T: Reach Out And Touch Someone.  The Kodak slogan was a song sung by Paul Alka Times of Your Life.

Well, slogans didn't just begin with TV.  They've been used for who knows how long politically.  Who can think of Texas without "Remember the Alamo".  Most young people - who are no longer taught history won't remember - "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", or  "Damn the Torpedoes:  Full Speed Ahead".  That's the one I really get a kick out of.  How can any naval commander be that stupid and that lucky?

Then we had Obama's "Hope and Change".  Well, that didn't go too well because it turned out that slogan meant borrowing obscene amounts of money and spending it on failures, such as all these green energy programs.  It turned out Hope and Change meant bankrupting the nation, destroying the Constitution and giving up our national sovereignty to third world nations and the U.N.  Crushing our culture to curry favor with illegal aliens and immigrants who want to destroy us because they hate us for who we are and ever were. 

How dangerous is that debt? Mike Shedlock in his article, "When Will Interest on US National Debt Exceed $1 Trillion? When Will the Fed Hike Rates?", outlines just how serious this is.

He goes on to say:

"At the "current blended rate of interest on the national debt is a mere 2.4% according to the CBO.  The "optimistic" projection of $668 billion assumes the rate will stay below 3.1% through 2020.  With that in mind, please consider the Fed's 'hidden agenda' behind money-printing.  One of the most important reasons the Fed is determined to keep interest rates low is one that is rarely talked about, and which comprises a dark economic foreboding that should frighten us all.

Let me start with a question: How would you feel if you knew that almost all of the money you pay in personal income tax went to pay just one bill, the interest on the debt? Chances are, you and millions of Americans would find that completely unacceptable and indeed they should.

But that is where we may be heading. 

But isn't it fair to ask what the interest cost of our debt would be if interest rates returned to a more normal level? What's a normal level? How about the average interest rate the Treasury paid on U.S. debt over the last 20 years?  That rate is 5.7percent, not extravagantly high at all by historic standards.

 

Do the math: If we were to pay an average interest rate on our debt of 5.7 percent, rather than the 2.4 percent we pay today, in 2020 our debt service cost will be about $930 billion.  Now compare that to the amount the Internal Revenue Service collects from us in personal income taxes.  In 2012, that amount was $1.1 trillion, meaning that if interest rates went back to a more normal level of, say, 5.7 percent, 85 percent of all personal income taxes collected would go to servicing the debt. No wonder the Fed is worried."

And leftists don't understand why everyone's so angry.

Now Trump is assuring us he can "Make America Great Again".  Really?  Can you define that for me Donald? Just exactly what does that mean and what exactly do you intend to do to make that happen? Remember Donnie, answer the question without asides and logical fallacies. Just the facts to support your positions. And your positions are exactly what again? Positions you've stood firmly on for most of your life based on a strong moral foundation. Oh.....there aren't any? Well, that's interesting and thank you for being so honest with us. 

Right....hold your breath waiting for that to happen! His past is so shady it's hard to have confidence in anything he says, and I will think his vision - assuming he even has one - would not please most of us over the long haul.

His economic policy seems to be based on getting Congress to agree to a 35% tariff to increase American employment.  Really? The United States Tariff Act of 1930, also called Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, of 1930  raised import duties to protect American businesses and farmers, adding considerable strain to the international economic climate of the Great Depression."  It also triggered an international trade war, it didn't increase jobs here, and it caused the increase of unemployment from 8% to 15%.  Trump keeps telling us what a brilliant businessman he is and how he's a great deal maker. Well, his history on that should give us all pause.  His failures are extensive.  How did he handle that?  He just walks away - sticking others with the bill - like he's playing the board game Monopoly.  Is that the "deal making" he's offering America?

Somehow he's gong to build a wall on our Southern border and make Mexico pay for it.  Really?  And just how does he think he's going to do that?  Trump gives the impression he thinks everything is done easily.  If he tried to build a wall, with or without Mexico's money, the money would have to be allotted for that purpose by Congress, and the leftists in Congress would shut down the government before they let that happen, and the press would applaud them.  Remember, to the press only the Republicans - conservative Republicans that is - are irresponsible traitors if government shuts down for trying to stop the insane spending and borrowing.  Then there would be the lawsuits. 

Of course Trump could simply ignore all of that because like Obama because he would also have a phone and a pen, And like Obama, he could simply ignore the Constitution.  There's one big difference.  Obama's black and the Republicans don't have to guts to go after him for fear of being called racists.  If Obama had been white he would have been impeached in his first term, but can there be any question Obama counted on that.  Trump has no such shield and the Democrats are masters at promoting whatever agenda they like, and with support of their allies in the press, Democrats would even have the Republicans supporting impeachment, which in Trump's case wouldn't be too hard.  So then, if Trump is elected who would be his VP?  Another reason Obama wasn't impeached can be explained in two words.  Joe Biden!

It's time to stop listening to snappy sayings that can mean everything or nothing, because they're largely indefinable.  It's time to start paying attention to people who actually have the intellectual capacity to explain what's going on, understand what needs to be done about it and has the courage and fortitude to be the rock in the current.   That's not Trump!