If the bill is passed, which it almost certainly will because they have the majority, the true costs will not be known for many months, even years, due to so many of its delayed-action Trojan horse and time-bomb provisions. When the deficits start accumulating, and the trickle down fails to show up, either they will blame it on the Democratic administration then in power, or they will have the excuse they need to implement further draconian cuts in welfare programs, particularly “entitlements”. I can hear them now; “Deficits are devastating the economy, inflation is taking over, we have to cut back on social programs and stimulate business with another tax cut.”

Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will be targeted. You watch, even though every single Democrat will vote against this obscenity, it is the Democrats who will be blamed for the gutting of the New Deal social programs, the runaway inflation and the ballooning deficits. And it will be up to the Democrats to save the economy from total collapse by propping it up with massive government spending. It happened in 1929, and again in 2007. Except THIS time, there won’t be a Roosevelt or an Obama to bail us out.

The Republicans are guilty of the same sin the business community they represent is guilty of: an obsession with the quarterly profit report, and the failure to plan for long-term viability and sustainability. They are eating the seed corn and fishing with dynamite. This short-term attitude is not just in economic matters, its in political ones too. They can only see as far as the next election. I don’t agree that they will all then turn on Trump, unless the crash comes on their watch and they need a scapegoat. As long as the economic boom continues, they’ve got the tiger by the tail and they don’t dare let go.

No one is in charge.

If they DON’T get it passed, what can we then expect, other than many pairs of soiled $1000 pants?

Regardless of our President’s flaws, he has become a tool of certain cultural and economic forces in the society who have used him to mobilize a constituency that can get their program advanced. On the contrary, as long as Trump remains in power, the contradictions and inconsistencies in his behavior and character keep his unsuitability, and the essential toxicity of his program, open to public scrutiny. When Trump finally goes away, we don’t want his followers looking back at his administration with fond nostalgia, we want them to feel humiliated in how they easily and completely they let themselves be conned. You have to feed this fever, not starve it. It has to fully run its course before his allies can apply a mid-course correction and make it permanent.

The last thing we need is some simpatico, slick, charismatic and articulate spokesman for his views to take over his followers and his program. Our President may be a bully, a thug, and a buffoon, but that is NOT what has made him such a threat to our prosperity, our security and our freedom. Besides, his incompetence, dangerous as it is, does provide us with some measure of protection. Look at the record of his legislative accomplishments. The last thing we need now is some super-competent Right-wing LBJ leading a rubber-stamp Congress and institutionalizing the GOP agenda for all time.

The real power behind Trump is a ruthless economic oligarchy and a vicious self-serving ideology that has succeeded in focusing the anger, fear, hatred and ignorance of a substantial minority of the American people. Don’t you think the puppet masters don’t already KNOW Trump is an asshole? Racism, religious fanaticism, nativism, xenophobia, misogyny, jingoism, militarism, gun fetishism and homophobia are cleverly exploited simply to reduce corporate taxes and regulation and to keep the working class disorganized and insecure–that is, docile and compliant. That is all they really want. Every thing else is just a means to an end.

Its happening in other Western democracies too, particularly in Europe. Its even happening in Russia! And its happened before in history as well. Hard times, times of wrenching unpredictable change, make fascism possible, perhaps even inevitable. This isn’t just a Trump problem, its been around forever, and its been getting worse for a generation now.

Don’t be deluded by the stupidity of this one man. There is plenty of evil genius behind him.

Trump however is a far greater existential threat to the world than any republicans ever in power historically.

Trump may very well be a thug and a bully, but you can count on his Republican successor being charismatic and competent—but just as malignant.

The real enemy is not a particular personality, its the philosophical idea that property rights are more important than human rights.

They treated anyone opposing the Iraq war as traitors, then voted for a guy that said the Iraq war was a terrible mistake…

They were all about fiscal responsibility, but now support a tax bill that will increase the deficit by trillions in order to give more money to billionaires… while increasing the taxes and pain on the poor and middle class…

They wanted America to be respected, so they voted for a con-man that has our closest allies railing against us (especially today)…

They proved us right about them in the most damaging way possible- they never really stood for anything.