Sunday, March 09, 2025

Plane crashes, economic crashes, Chump's America

Yet another plane crash under Donald Chump's watch.   ABC NEWS reports, "A Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon with five people aboard, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.  The small aircraft went down near a retirement village south of Lancaster Airport, the Manheim Borough Police Department told ABC News."  In addition, a US military helicopter crashed in Honduras.   Everything falls from the sky now that we put Chicken Little back in the White House.  Call it life in Chump Land.  Thom Hartmann notes another example:

Welcome to America’s sickest reality show — where families turn to crowdfunding for cancer treatments while billionaires hoard obscene wealth. In no other developed nation do sick children depend on charity to survive, but here, it’s just another episode of our rigged system.

[. . .]

And now the world’s richest man is systematically looting and gutting our federal government, while getting his own companies multiple new federal contracts, all made possible by Clarence Thomas‘s tie-breaking vote in Citizens United.

If we can stop this fascist juggernaut, we may one day become a country where medical bankruptcy, toxic chemicals, and poverty don’t haunt the 80% of us who are working class and poor Americans…and our country can once again experience a middle class revival.

In the meantime, though, we all must become Al Green and display the courage to stand up, speak out, and defend the truth.


Trouble's always right at your front door in Chump Land.  Alexandra Alper and Phil Stewart (REUTERS) note, "The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin mass layoffs as early as June, according to a memo reviewed by Reuters, as President Donald Trump's campaign to sharply cut the federal government works its way through a highly politically sensitive agency."  Peter Wade (ROLLING STONE) adds:

The March 6 memo instructs the VA's human resources department to review agency operations by June. Once the review is complete, "VA will initiate Department-wide RIF actions," referring to a reduction in force.

  At least 25 percent of the VA's 470,000 employees are veterans, so approximately 20,000 veterans could lose their federal employment if the agency cuts more than 80,000 jobs as planned. Last month the VA laid off 2,400 federal employees.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told veterans that change would be coming, "so get used to it" in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) and emailed to veterans.

"Right now, VA's biggest problem is that its bureaucracy and inefficiencies are getting in the way of customer convenience and service to veterans," Collins said last week. The VA has long been known for making veterans wait long periods of time before they can receive health care, although that has improved over recent years. The Biden administration hired tens of thousands of new VA employees, including 61,000 in fiscal year 2023 alone. It is unclear how laying off a quarter of the workforce would make the issue of long wait periods or other inefficiencies any better.


Neither the thought of harming veterans nor the thought of harming the economy bother Chump as he staggers across the world stage.  In an analysis at The Center for American Progress, Madeline Shepherd and Jerry Parshall explain:

The Trump administration appears to be sending the U.S. economy into a period of slower growth and higher inflation. In the past few weeks, the administration enacted steep tariffs on a wide range of imports from America’s top trading partners and threatened more; has laid off tens of thousands of federal government workers; and has frozen payments already appropriated by Congress for farms, Head Start facilities, economic development programs, and more.

The administration’s sudden moves have raised uncertainty about what will happen next. What programs will they cut—and by how much? What regulations will the administration enforce or roll back? Will critical government services that help everyday Americans cease to function? The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index—maintained by researchers at Stanford, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University—was 161.9 percent higher in February 2025 than a year earlier. Massive uncertainty makes it harder for households and businesses to plan, invest, and spend. Put differently, even President Donald Trump’s threats to further undermine Americans’ economic security can hurt both economic growth and the stock market.

Over Trump’s first two months in office, some aspects of the economic outlook for typical Americans have become clearer, even as policy uncertainty escalates. At the urging of President Trump, Congress approved plans to make deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs to fund tax giveaways for wealthy households. And, over the past few weeks—amid the chaos of federal funding freezes and layoffs—the stock market has become more volatile, directly impacting the savings of millions of American households.

While some of the Trump administration’s policies have yet to go into effect or fully take hold, below are four areas to watch carefully over the coming months.

Tariffs are pushing prices up

Consumers’ inflation expectations are trending up, as revealed by February data from the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers. Trump’s calls for higher tariffs and mass deportation of immigrants created early inflationary pressures. In anticipation of the Trump administration’s actions, firms built up inventory of imported items and consumers accelerated discretionary purchases, such as home renovations and new or used cars.

The Trump administration’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada are expected to put upward pressure on prices and sticky inflation. The 25 percent taxes on goods coming from the United States’ biggest trade partners will raise costs for American businesses and households. Production costs will rise as firms pay more for energy, agricultural products, and intermediate goods such as car parts.

American consumers pay for higher tariffs—not foreign countries, as Trump has claimed. Indeed, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee—which makes interest rate decisions—observed in January that “firms would attempt to pass on to consumers higher input costs arising from potential tariffs.” Some major retail chains have already said they are poised to hike prices, passing on all or some of these higher costs to American consumers.





The following sites updated:








 
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