Trump's Budget

Balls by Nancy OhanianYesterday, I wrote that Trump is the best-equipped candidate to go up against Trump when the GOP barrage of lies about how great the economy is doing gets puked out across every media outlet in the land.

The stock market continues to soar. My financial advisor ignores me when I wring my hands and tell her to change my asset allocation so that I have less stock. By ignoring me, she's brought me a lot more money. But I would just feel so much safer in more bonds and real estate and less sticks. Because, everyone knows this asshole is going to crash the market at some point.

Trump's a monster, no doubt about it. He's a grifter who has not an ounce of patriotism nor the will towards public service in his bloated orange body or his misshapen shriveled soul. That said, unlike Joe Biden, Trump is not driven-- the way his party is-- to destroy Social Security and Medicare.

Writing for Fox New, Tom Del Beccaro, noted what Democratic journalists seem to be glossing over: "Joe Biden has always been a better prospective candidate than an actual candidate. He will gaffe himself to the finish lines." Del Beccaro wrote that Bernie will be the Democratic nominee.

Narcissistic Psychopath by Nancy Ohanian-by Skip KaltenheuserAttending as press, alas, not as a member, I first crossed paths with the Patriotic Millionaires several years ago at one of their events in Washington.

If the budget is a statement of values, the Democrats' presumed inability to unite behind one, speaks volumes about a party whose tent is too big to be functional. Trump's DOA budget will never get a vote but his intention of a high increase for the Pentagon and paying for his vanity wall by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is all anyone needs to know about his values and his party's values.

The day after April Fool's Day, 2016, Trump was still playing us for fools. He was bellowing about how he and only he could get rid of the national debt. Instead his deficits have ballooned into the stratosphere, primarily because of tax cuts for corporations and for the super-wealthy and because of an attitude-- which he even expressed aloud-- akin to Louis XIV's Après moi, le déluge.

I was surprised on Monday when Trump's Director of the Office of Management and Budget said that the budget the Trumpanzee Regime presented to Congress is not serious. Putin put a post-literate monstrosity in the White House. Jonathan Bernstein pointed out that Trump didn't read-- let alone write-- the budget; Mulvaney and his staff did.

Thursday morning we mentioned the votes in Congress against the People Budget (the Progressive Caucus) and the Congressional Black Caucus budget Wednesday night. Hours later Congress voted down the official Democratic Party budget-- with 32 Democrats, mostly Blue Dogs and New Dems, voting with the GOP against it-- and then narrowly passing, 219-206 Paul Ryan's GOP budget.

Trump, who didn't write a single word of Art of the Deal, likes to portray himself as the world's greatest deal-maker and negotiator. Those who have been on the other end of the table from deal-making Trump, all have something in common: laughter at his preposterous claims. Trump's a loser who rants and raves, bullies and blusters but who, in the end, is notorious for making bad deals.