Tag: Trump policies

How Trump’s Policies Made Us More Vulnerable To Recession

As the coronavirus send the United States and the entire global economy hurtling toward recession, President Donald Trump and his defenders have claimed the administration’s policies have left the United States better prepared for the downturn. But in reality, the president’s effects on the course of the economy thus far have been greatly exaggerated, and many of his policies have actually put Americans at greater risk in the event of financial catastrophe.

To understand why Trump’s policies have put us at risk, you have to appreciate the best possible policy response to a recession: automatic stabilizers.

Many automatic stabilizers are actually very familiar to most people. The category includes, for example, SNAP (commonly called food stamps) and unemployment insurance. Continue reading.

Your tax dollars at work: Trump’s new policies are way more alarming than his vengeance campaign against perceived enemies

AlterNet logoSo, while Donald Trump has been parading his vengeance campaign against perceived enemies, what’s his actual government been doing?

Inquiring skeptics want to know.

Mostly, once we set aside the pomp of awarding undeserved medals to Rush Limbaugh and continuing to irritate foreign leaders who had considered themselves allies, the answer is that the government continues to pursue the anti-immigrant, anti-science, anti-environmental policies that have marked the last three years. Continue reading.

Newest shutdown casualty: Trump’s own policies

Among other administration priorities, the government shutdown is hampering efforts by agencies such as EPA and the Interior department to unwind Obama-era energy regulations. Credit: Brennan Linsley, File, AP Photo

From energy to opioids to trade, proposals championed by the president and his supporters are snarled in the D.C. impasse.

The government shutdown is threatening important pieces of President Donald Trump’s agenda, escalating the political stakes as he and Congress vie to see who blinks first.

At EPA and the Interior Department, furloughs have frozen efforts to roll back Obama-era regulations and open new water to oil and gas drilling. The White House has sent home key staff coordinating its response to the opioid crisis. And if the partial shutdown drags on long enough, it could force Trump to cancel a late-January trip to Davos, Switzerland, and delay congressional action on the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal.

Trump shows no signs of backing off, telling reporters that the shutdown — triggered by his demands that Congress fund a border wall — has “a higher purpose than next week’s pay.” But the potential blowback to his own policy priorities shows that the closure is likely to inflict cascading harm as it continues, beyond its initial impact on parks, museums and federal workers’ paychecks.

View the complete January 8 article by Eric Wolff and Brianna Ehley on the Politico website here.

Trump voters hurt most by Trump policies, new study finds

The following article by Joe Romm was posted on the ThinkProgress website May 4, 2018:

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond warns southern states face greatest impact from rising temperatures.

Credit: GeoffS, Morguefile.com

Failure to stop business-as-usual global warming will deliver a severe economic blow to Southern states, a recent paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond finds.

Remarkably, this ground-breaking study, “Temperature and Growth” concludes that “under the business-as-usual scenario, the projected trends in rising temperatures could depress U.S. economic growth by up to a third.”

As the Wall Street Journal summed up the findings: “Climate Change May Deeply Wound Long-Term U.S. Growth.” Continue reading “Trump voters hurt most by Trump policies, new study finds”