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Trump Tackles "Affordability Crisis" |
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Dear Reader, |
"If we don't win the midterms… I'll be impeached." |
So the president informed members of his party last week. |
I hazard he is correct — Democrats will likely impeach the fellow should they seize this year's midterm congressional elections. |
Upon which grounds will Democrats impeach him? |
It makes no nevermind. Charges of one form or other will come issuing — depend on it. |
And so the president has his eyes trained on November. |
Trump's Poll Numbers Aren't Promising |
His approval rating presently hovers at 39%... according to the latest Economist/YouGov polling data. |
His disapproval rating comes in at 56%. |
Meantime, the most recent PBS News/NPR/Marist poll reveals that 57% of Americans are dissatisfied with the president's economic helmsmanship. |
You may disagree with the political slant of the pollsters. Thus you may distrust their figures. |
Yet recent polling by Fox News revealed that 72% of those surveyed rated economic conditions negatively. |
As reports Fox: |
An overwhelming majority expresses concern about high prices. Four times as many say they're losing financial ground as feel they're getting ahead, and most think the economy is in bad shape. That's according to the latest Fox News national survey… |
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Trump Takes on the "Affordability Crisis" |
What can the president do to enhance his party's odds this November? |
The answer is to confront the "affordability crisis," so-called. |
In recent days President Trump has announced a $200-billion purchase of mortgage bonds to reduce mortgage rates. |
He has also trained his cannons on the credit card industry. |
If they do not reduce interest rates to 10% by January 20th, the president warns, "then they are in violation of the law, very severe things. They really abuse the public, I am not going to let it happen. We will no longer let the American Public be 'ripped off' by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30 per cent," he added. |
Does the president wield the lawful authority to command credit card interest rates? I am far from convinced that he does. |
Yet I let it pass for now. |
I simply note that restricting credit card rates to 10% would create vast… imbalances… within the credit card industry. |
It would likely injure those whom it is intended to aid. |
Why It Could Harm More Than Help |
I carry no buckets of water for the credit card industry. Yet I believe there is something in this CBS News report: |
Opponents of a cap, including banks and other credit card issuers, warn that limits on interest rates may force lenders to stop issuing credit cards to many riskier borrowers. |
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A coalition of groups that represent banks — including the American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute — argued in a statement to CBS News on Friday that a 10% interest rate cap "would reduce credit availability and be devastating for millions of American families and small business owners who rely on and value their credit cards, the very consumers this proposal intends to help." |
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All the while, the president pledges $2,000 tariff checks to American citizens. |
Thus he is out to scotch the affordability crisis ahead of the decisive midterm elections. |
He believes he can "buy us off." Can he? |
The answer is yes — he can buy us off — if he can arrange and facilitate the particular transactions. |
And I certainly do not blame him. He has identified a political vulnerability… or at least his advisors have identified a political vulnerability… and he is merely attempting to tackle it. |
He is simply playing by the rules of the democratic game before him. |
A Broker in Pillage |
"Government is a broker in pillage," argued the late Henry Louis Mencken, "and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods." |
For a finer telling of democratic elections… I search in vain. |
Recall that government lacks all resources. Each cent it ladles out it must first take in through coercive means — through taxation ultimately. |
That is, before government can giveth… it must first taketh away. |
What is government then but a broker in pillage? And what election — at least under democracy — is not an advanced auction on stolen goods? |
As I have argued before: |
The hard-luck farmer wants his back scratched. The hard-pressed businessman wants his belly rubbed. The hard-worked teacher wants her apple. |
Millions more are hard at the business. |
It is the triumph of "special interests" when the other fellow's parsnips are buttered. |
Yet it is "democracy in action" when our own parsnips are buttered. |
Here I do not judge. |
I myself am in possession of parsnips. I am all for their buttering — and a good buttering. |
A, B and C |
Yet let us return to Mr. Mencken: |
Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel. |
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It scarcely rates mentioning that democratic politics — successful democratic politics, that is — requires all three characters… A, B and X. |
The central combat of democracy is always an uneven contest pitting A and X against B. |
X simply outvotes B. Thus A throws in with X at B's expense. |
Is it right? Is it wrong? |
The answer scarcely matters — the mathematics is the mathematics. |
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch," argued Franklin long ago. |
A and X are the wolves. |
B is the lamb. |
Brian Maher |
for Freedom Financial News |
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Former advisor to the CIA, the Pentagon and the White House |
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