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Post by iamkristinl16 on Nov 1, 2024 12:49:10 GMT
I know that many of us are sick of political info but I thought this was important, especially with people claiming to vote for Trump because of the economy. So, in addition to the tariffs that will make prices even higher than they are and potentially lead to a recession or depression, Elon said that he is planning to make sharp cuts in government spending that would cause “hardship.” What are your thoughts on this? I don’t like the influence that Musk has now and don’t think he should have more power. I also don’t trust his judgement at all—just look at what happened at Twitter when he took over. I’m also guessing that what he considers to be “hardship” will be devastating to most Americans who aren’t millionaires. www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna177807 |
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 8,555
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Nov 1, 2024 17:12:39 GMT
It will be absolutely horrific for the U.S. and the cult doesn't care. I want TFG to lose and I want Leon's ass deported.
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Nov 1, 2024 17:14:46 GMT
Musk cannot just be deported. It will take a long process. He is a naturalized citizen.
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Post by aj2hall on Nov 1, 2024 17:44:05 GMT
HCR had a couple of posts about the devastating effect Trump, Musk & Mike Johnson could have on the economy. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-30-2024On Friday, October 25, at a town hall held on his social media platform X, Elon Musk told the audience that if Trump wins, he expects to work in a Cabinet-level position to cut the federal government.
He told people to expect “temporary hardship” but that cuts would “ensure long-term prosperity.” At the Trump rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Musk said he plans to cut $2 trillion from the government. Economists point out that current discretionary spending in the budget is $1.7 trillion, meaning his promise would eliminate virtually all discretionary spending, which includes transportation, education, housing, and environmental programs.
Economists agree that Trump’s plans to place a high tariff wall around the U.S., replacing income taxes on high earners with tariffs paid for by middle-class Americans, and to deport as many as 20 million immigrants would crash the booming economy. Now Trump’s financial backer Musk is factoring in the loss of entire sectors of the government to the economy under Trump.
Trump has promised to appoint Musk to be the government’s “chief efficiency officer.” “Everyone’s going to have to take a haircut.… We can’t be a wastrel.… We need to live honestly,” Musk said on Friday. Rob Wile and Lora Kolodny of CNBC point out that Musk’s SpaceX aerospace venture has received $19 billion from the U.S. government since 2008.
An X user wrote: “I]f Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit—there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy…. Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy. History could be made in the coming two years.”
Musk commented: “Sounds about right[.]”
This exchange echoes the prescription of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, whose theories had done much to create the Great Crash of 1929, for restoring a healthy economy. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” he told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living
will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.”
Mellon, at least, was reacting to an economic crisis thrust upon an administration. Musk is seeking to create one.
Today the Commerce Department reported that from July through September, the nation’s economy grew at a solid 2.8%. Consumer spending is up, as is investment in business. The country added 254,000 jobs in September, and inflation has fallen back almost to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
It is extraordinarily rare for a country to be able to reduce inflation without creating a recession, but the Biden administration has managed to do so, producing what economists call a “soft landing,” rather like catching an egg on a plate. As Bryan Mena of CNN wrote today: “The US economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement.” |
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Post by lisae on Nov 2, 2024 1:37:52 GMT
This is what Harris' ads should be about. She's mined all the votes she is going to get on abortion rights. I've seen some mention of Trump's national sales tax, her way of saying tariffs, in her ads but she needs to clarify and say this constantly. It's the economy. It's always the economy. And the economy is very good except that prices are high for some things and probably will continue to be no matter what anyone does. Trump's plans for tarriffs and deporting immigrants will make things vastly worse. His plans will bring inflation back 'like we've never seen before' to use his words. Why does she not hammer this point home every chance she gets?!
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Post by aj2hall on Nov 2, 2024 2:19:32 GMT
Musk is calling to slash the federal government spending by about 1/3. He and Trump both have fundamental lack of understanding and knowledge of how the government actually works. www.vox.com/politics/381637/elon-musk-donald-trump-2024-election-temporary-hardshipMusk’s plans for slashing federal spending would be similarly calamitous. He has offered few details about his vision for downsizing Uncle Sam, but recently suggested that the federal government’s $6.75 trillion budget should be cut by at least $2 trillion. Austerity on that scale would disrupt myriad government services on which Democrats and Republicans rely, while threatening to throw the US economy into severe recession. And there is little basis for believing that an economic paradise would rise from such ruins.
Rapidly removing millions of undocumented workers from the economy would devastate the agricultural and construction sectors, where such immigrants make up roughly one-third and one-quarter of the workforce, respectively. This would render both food and housing more scarce, and thus more expensive (at least in the immediate term).
The disappearance of millions of working-age people who pay Social Security and Medicare taxes would also expedite the insolvency of those programs. As the American population ages over the next five years, it will need to add 240,000 workers each month to keep pace with retirements, according to a recent study. Trump’s program would make this virtually impossible to achieve.
At Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick asked Musk, “How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted, $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?”
This was evidently a reference to the 2024 US federal budget, which is actually $6.75 trillion.
“I think we can do at least $2 trillion,” Musk replied.
This proposal is so radical it has attracted criticism from fiscal conservatives who support the broad goal of cutting federal spending. Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the right-wing Manhattan Institute, told the Washington Post this week, “The idea that one can cut $2 trillion in wasteful and unnecessary programs is absolutely absurd.”
The reason is simple. According to government watchdogs, actual waste and fraud amounts to less than $300 billion a year. Shaving $2 trillion off the federal budget would therefore require draconian cuts to many popular federal programs.
Were Trump to implement Musk’s vision while simultaneously honoring his promise to avoid cutting entitlements and the GOP’s commitment to avoiding defense spending cuts, then he would need to slash all other government programs by 80 percent. That would involve gutting all social services for low-income Americans, food inspections, air safety, health insurance subsidies, and infrastructure investments, among countless other things.
This would abruptly and massively reduce demand in the US economy, potentially triggering a recession.
There is little reason to expect such severe and haphazard spending cuts to benefit the economy in the long term. After all, government investments in education and infrastructure often increase the economy’s growth potential — slashing funding for such programs could impair America’s economic performance in the coming decades.
Musk is correct to say that Trump’s plans would impose hardship on the American people. But he’s wrong to describe such difficulties as temporary. If Trump and Musk get their way, America’s consumers will pay higher prices, its manufacturers will sell fewer exports, its agricultural industry will fall into chaos, its workforce will become less productive, its federal government will struggle to provide basic services, and its long-term economic growth potential will fall.
Trump’s supporters might reasonably argue that none of this should trouble us, since he rarely fulfills his campaign promises and will surely back away from his economically ruinous agenda once in office. But “don’t worry, our candidate is a huge liar” does not strike me as a much better message than “prepare for temporary hardship.”
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