Charles’ Note: Here’s the problem with cutting government waste…
You and I might – might – be happy to slash discretionary government spending by half. Or for that matter, eliminate it completely!
But every dollar we identify as waste is being spent somewhere… and whoever is on the receiving end doesn’t consider it waste. For them, it’s an “investment in the future” or “in America’s vital self interest.”
These people vote… and more importantly donate to the congressmen responsible for crafting the spending bills.
In the end, spending never really gets cut. It just gets shifted around to the welfare recipients preferred by the party in charge.
As my Freeport friend and legendary newsletter publisher and writer Bill Bonner of Bonner Private Research explains, the problem with the incoming Trump administration isn’t that it’s radically different from the old regime but rather that it’s depressingly the same.
We came back from snowy Ireland to snow covered Maryland.
In the morning, we sat in front of the fire, and took a break from our customary rigorous analysis and air-tight logic to make some guesses.
As reported last week, the Musk/Ramaswamy DOGE group has already admitted that it can’t really eliminate the deficit. Not even half of it.
But it only took just a little math to see that coming, not a lot of guesswork. They would have to cut into the muscle of the Pentagon and into the guts of the transfer payments (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) to really make much of a difference.
They aren’t going to do that because the politicians are in control, not the “efficiency” guys.
Politicians get power for themselves by spending money, not saving it.
So, it was inevitable that Musk would fall out with the MAGA crowd.
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New York Post:
Days after fawning over what tech magnate Elon Musk’s deep pockets could do for the MAGA movement, Steve Bannon went berserk on the world’s richest man and vowed to limit his White House influence. Bannon, 71, who hosts the “War Room” podcast and has a penchant for plotting all-out brass-knuckled political warfare, suggested Musk “should go back to South Africa” and decried his stance on H1-B visas.
A bit more guessy is our hypothesis that the Trump phenomenon doesn’t mark a real break with the past… but merely an acceleration in the rate of degeneration.
More spending.
More debt.
More blatant corruption.
More foreign adventures.
More inflation… and so forth.
The press confuses the issue. It says Trump represents the “extreme right” as opposed to the mainstream “enlightened liberals.” In the minds of many, the Trump win represents a whole new thing… a new era in U.S. politics.
And in some ways it does. But not the important ones.
Perhaps less in practice than in theory, traditional party politics pitted the “progressives” against the “conservatives.”
The improvers — a role played by the democrats — wanted to use the strong arm of the feds to build a better world. Spend, spend, spend… for better schools, welfare for the poor, make the world safe for democracy, save the planet — you name it.
The role played by conservative republicans was avuncular… dragging their feet to slow them down… and using the Constitution to impose restraints.
But over time, the wily old Republican uncles realized that they could use the government’s “free” money to buy votes and gain power too.
And now, is there a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties?
Both spend trillions they don’t have, knowing that it will lead to higher prices for their own voters…
Both approved the invasion of Iraq… and the attack on Libya… and the bombs and cash that get sent to Ukraine and Israel (much of which comes back to the U.S. firepower industry… where a portion of it is then spent to guarantee more spending).
Where they disagree is not on the direction of the ship, but the color of carpet and the wine served at the captain’s table.
Like married couples, they argue over the details… and often duck real differences. But it didn’t matter what song they played in the bar… when the icy water rushed through the corridors, the Titanic was doomed.
Bush, Obama, Trump I, Biden — none departed from the Big Empire course. Now Trump II is promising even more glorious expansion — to Greenland, Mexico, Canada… and perhaps teaming up with Mr. Musk… to the stars!
We’re all passengers on this ship, whether we like it or not.
