Trump Budget Dude: THANKS OBAMA
But he did not really mean 'thanks'!
Yesterday's great big dipshit presser was the actual press briefing in more than 40 days, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders got most of the attention for saying you'll have to ask Democrats whether Donald Trump thinks Dems hate Jews . (Answer from a Democrat, me: He definitely thinks so if it gets applause.) But the presser started off with a pitch by Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, proclaiming that Donald Trump had met all his campaign promises by submitting a budget that, if enacted by Congress, will make the federal budget disappear eventually by slashing everything but the military. So please, nobody mention the debt-'sploding Big Fat Tax Cuts for Rich Fuckwads, OK -- they would pay for themselves, but Barack Obama and Congress -- controlled up to two months ago by Republicans -- eated all the money.
Here's the whole gory mess. We like Vought's big grin at "Happy Budget Day," since it may someday be the illustrative photo for "Death's-Head Rictus."
Live: White House Press Briefing - 3/11 www.youtube.com
But wait, Mr. Vought, what about Donald Trump's promise to eliminate the debt in eight years, not that anyone but idiots believed him?
.@jonkarl: Trump promised he would eliminate the debt in 8 years. It's actually growing. What happened to that prom… https://t.co/A9DlbbqGO4
— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1552328631.0
As Salon notes, there's a bit of an economics problem with the accusation that Obama "doubled the national debt." Deficit spending was necessary to get us out of the Great Recession and keep the economy from going into a full-blown depression. Oh yes, and Vought is doing a little sleight of the Invisible Hand when he says Trump's first budget would have "balanced the budget" within 10 years (through massive cuts to everything except the military and giveaways to the rich). That would mean an end to the annual budget deficit, not the debt. And just a reminder: Republicans only pretend to give a shit about debt when they want to cut social programs. When the debt balloons because of tax cuts or military spending, it's wonderful!
Hell, Vought even defends deficit spending himself in the clip, except of course it's good and necessary when Trump does it, but it was terrible when Obama did. When the reporter notes the tax cuts and increased military spending added $2 trillion-with-a-t to the debt, Vought patiently explains that, for a few seconds at least, he's a Keynesian:
[Trump] also came into office and had an economic recovery that was needed, to put people back to work and get the economy going, and to rebuild the military, and had historic levels of military...
Why, yes, that is all a lie. Dude is literally claiming there was a recession when Trump took office -- that's the only thing that a "recovery" follows. We also like all that Congress-blaming, because damn that spendy Republican Congress, huh?
Then another reporter asked Vought how he could say "promises made, promises kept" when Trump's budget slashes Medicare by 10 percent (not that Congress will do that anyway). Surprise, just as we predicted, there are NO "CUTS" to Medicare in this budget, merely reductions in "waste, fraud, and abuse," and also magically lower prescription drug costs. OK, and cuts to the rates paid to hospitals, which aren't cuts, they're efficiencies, you know.
REPORTER: The administration says the economy is roaring right now. So how do you square that with growing deficits… https://t.co/cTO3ypnfPn
— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1552329041.0
And going back to that bit about the need to stimulate the economy: Hey, if the economy is roaring along under Trump, why did he need to kick-start it with tax cuts that didn't decrease the deficit, and also didn't result in a bejillion new jobs? WHAR MASSIVE GROWTH? Well duh, of course the trickle-down magic only works if Congress slashes spending on anything that's not loved by Republicans, and next year we'll go through this whole stupid supply-side kindergarten pageant again.
[ Salon / CBSN on Youtube / Aaron Rupar on Twitter]
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If you have massive deficits at the peak of the economic cycle, what will happen in the inevitable downturn or - God forbid - in a recession? The country is dancing on a volcano and everybody is cheering.
I looked up "little bananas" and I think these were either "Lady Fingers" or "Sugar Bananas", which may or may not be the same thing. They were very sweet and only about 3-4" long. About the length of your pointer finger.