CardinalBacker

Because Trump put the tariffs on or took them off? And what is your prediction of what will happen in 83 days? Back on or still off, and will a change make your current boast seem even more baseless?

“124.” My grandparents lived through it and had stories. Even in their old age they would save two peas and call it “leftovers.” One point that stuck with me was my grandfather said that people would stop by the house and knock on the door, hat in hand, and ask for permission to go out into your field/garden and see if they could find anything that had been left behind-also that men would offer to work in exchange for food. But if it happened today (the 1980s), people would just kill you and take what they wanted. Then think about how far we’ve declined in terms of decency and work ethic since the ‘80s. It’s scary.

We were so poor my mama cut the pockets out of my pants on Christmas Eve so I’d have something to play with on Christmas morning.

Here’s the thing… the spending cuts are minuscule compared to the overspending. He’s also cutting taxes, not raising them. And unemployment numbers are up, not down-we’re losing jobs, not creating them. What is an American automaker supposed to do? Today there’s a 25% tariff on imports, so I start a five year plan to build a factory over here instead of elsewhere. Then the tariff gets paused for 90 days. Do I build? Do I wait? How can a business owner make future plans when the man at the controls is so erratic? Pretend you own a metal building business. How can you bid a job when you don’t know what your cost of goods sold is good to be, because you don’t know what your pricing for steel will be… should you buy foreign or domestic? Gotta be careful, because the consumer will hire whoever is cheapest without a second thought of where the materials were sourced and you’ll be left with a bunch of overpriced inventory you can’t move. True story… a friend of mine bought some metal sheeting week before last and it was marked up 25% due to “the tariffs.” When he looks at the sheets they’re stamped “made in the USA.” So he asked the guy, “wait… there aren’t any tariffs on this steel” and the guy says, “well, that’s what it’s going to cost us to replenish our stock after we sell this batch.” That, my friends, is inflation brought on by haphazard tariff policy that is 100% paid by the American consumer, not “CHI-NA.”

It’s reality, my man… our debt is becoming our undoing. DOGE claims to have saved 150 billion in waste. That’s a one time savings. Our debt payment for the first six months of this fiscal year was 582 billion. And that’s gonna be due again, and again, and again. And it’s only going to grow as more older debt matures and must be refinanced at today’s higher rates. And since we’re now borrowing 1 out of every three dollars the us spends, we’re screwed.

I’d agree, but we only pay for about 18%…. Borrowing the other 7% for a couple of decades has sunk our ship, I’m afraid.

American exceptionalism is a thing of the past. We are no longer the big kid on the block. How are we supposed to stand up to China when they literally loan us the money that fuels our economy? We haven’t won an armed conflict since WWII. Which ended 80 years ago, btw. It’s time to make tough choices in America.

No, sir… the cost don’t compare. DOGE’s questionable cuts don’t even begin to do anything about the debt. I think the last number I saw was that DOGE had saved 50 billion. That means that this year, after DOGE cuts, wellness need to 1.78 trillion instead of 1.83 trillion. The cuts mean nothing. There are too many people that aren’t contributing. Either because they won’t work, or they don’t pay income taxes (Trump, Musk, and the like). Nobody wants to see the old or sick do without, but our welfare system is simply an easy alternative to having a job. Plus the mountains and mountains of wasteful spending at all levels of government. Here’s the tricky part, though. Even if we borrow those funds to pass out wastefully, it still ends up back in the economy. Those EBT dollars? They still get spent and become part of our gdp. Our entire way of life has been a farce because we as a nation didn’t have the money to do all of those things.

Here’s the problem. We’ve got the second highest deficit recorded ever for the first half of fiscal year 2025. [Hidden Content] The only time our deficit spending for a similar time period was in the first half of fiscal year 2021… the pandemic. The payments made on our debt in this year window were $582 billion, up 10% from a year ago. Our cost to borrow has exploded at the same time our borrowing is exploding, too. We have to cut spending and raise taxes, period. Anything else is not going to work. And I have no idea why Trump is trying to play tough with China on trade when they OWN most of our debt. They sent us consumables and we gave them our treasure. Our greed required us to then borrow “our old money” back from them to survive, and now rates have gone up, as they were always prone to do. People don’t realize how badly we’re hooked at this point. It’s time for Americans to realize that the way things have been (borrowing to cover everyday expenditures on a federal level) wasn’t sustainable.

Well, he sure created it overnight, didn’t he?

Well… things were moving slowly when Trump took over, then he made tax cuts which exploded the debt, but heated up the economy. Then then it all went to hell in 2020… we were in worse shape when he left than when he took office. Biden took over and inflation ramped up, then eased… but the economy was in better shape when Biden left office than when he took office. Trump inherited a steady, but not hot economy this January, then destabilized everything with his haphazard approach to tariffs. There’s not forethought or strategy, he just picks who he’s mad at each morning. Inflation is up, oil prices are crashing, unemployment is headed up, the stock market is down… America and the rest of the world can’t make a rational decision about investing in the future because trump has proven that he doesn’t mind trimming 20% off of the value of our publicly held wealth if it gets him a few “attaboys” from his minions. It’s obvious to everyone but his devoted followers that he doesn’t know what he’s doing and it’s hurting all of us.

Ok… here’s my sarcasm-free perspective. Other countries charge tariffs for goods we export. Americans have preferred that tariffs NOT be charged on good into this country because we like cheap stuff. They send consumables our way and we send treasures back theirs. At the end of the day, we aren’t “paying” their tariffs on our goods. Their citizens cover those costs at the point of purchase. But by the same token, they aren’t going to be laying “our” new tariffs, either. Those costs will be passed on the American consumer by way of higher prices. They idea that we’re somehow “sticking it to China” with a 145% tariff collected on Chinese goods that you and I will pay at the cash register is laughable. I’m all for balancing the trade deficit. But that’s impossible unless Americans are willing to pay more to buy American goods. It sounds good on paper, but there’s a reason business moved their production overseas…. They couldn’t compete because Americans don’t care whether Nikes are made here or in the Philippines… We’ve been preaching “buy American since the 1970s and it hasn’t happened. And it won’t. Personally I’m in favor of a smaller trade deficit and I believe that tariffs are a decent way to try and even things out. But it’s hard to argue with a straight face that Trump’s approach has been anything but disastrous. All he’s proven is that trillions of dollars of wealth can disappear with a few stupid tweets, and it really looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing-and that makes investors, lenders, businesses very, very bearish.

Biden rebuilt the economy. Trump destroyed it… twice.

Trump invokes tariffs. baddog: “this creates American jobs!” Trump revokes tariffs. baddog: “Art of the Deal!” Trump re-invokes tariffs. baddog: “this creates American jobs!” Trump revokes tariffs again. baddog: “Art of the Deal!” His haphazard approach to tariffs is wrecking faith in the economy. How does a business plan for anything when Trump might do something without notice that send the markets careening up or down. I’m fully expecting him to turn those B2s on Iran by Easter, just to wreak havoc. He can’t help himself.

Welp… I guess Trump learned a little bit about tariffs this week. Back to the drawing board.

It’s possible… it’s also just as likely he’ll do or say something tomorrow and give it all back.

Hey, now! You take that back!!!

I guess my thing is this… if some young lady who fancies herself a man is more comfortable in the boys room when she does her business, as opposed to using the girls room- it doesn’t bother me. Somebody bragging about sexually assaulting women? That’s a pig.

But you recognize the hypocrisy between having outrage over a tampon machine in the boys bathroom because of the message that it sends to the kids, while simultaneously supporting a man who teaches young men to grab women by the p-word, right? If morals and decency weren’t important then, why are they important now? The sad truth of the matter is this-if Donald Trump came out in a dress as the spokesperson for his new “Trumpons” for men, you’d be splayed out on the floor with a mirror trying to figure out the two-part applicator.

Aren’t you supposed to be doing your patriotic duty, aka gratefully watching your 401k balance disappear?

No… you have an egomaniac who’s all action, no plan destroying our economy.

Well, I came in here to say “you were right” but Trump ran off at his stupid mouth and we’re down again. He’s a moron.

Do you remember three weeks ago when all of the Trumpsters were excited about getting a $5000 DOGE check? 😂🤣😂

I don’t know about y’all, but my kids aren’t excited about working in a textile mill, either. We’re definitely gonna need more immigrants when they move all of those jobs back home… we’re too fat and lazy to work a swing shift assembling nikes and smart phones.

🙄