Donald Trump Funds The Swamp

Guest Post by Bill Bonner

POITOU, FRANCE – Left dangling yesterday, like a withered limb, was the question:

How come the generals are against Trump?

As we showed, the man from Queens has turned out to be the best friend the military-industrial complex ever had. He substantially increased the Pentagon budget… and he’s shown no coherent resolve to shut down its mindless, endless, and winless wars.

Why turn on him? But turn on him they have. Encouraged by “experts” imbedded in the White House’s own National Security Council and the diplomatic corps, the House voted yesterday to move ahead with its impeachment proceedings.

In a minute, we will return to the fourth installment in our miniseries on the Persecution and (political) Assassination of Donald John Trump, as acted out by the various scammers, half-wits, and chiselers of The Swamp.

First, we pay brief attention to the financial news…

Bloody Instructions

Of course, the Federal Reserve was in the news yesterday. It cut rates as expected and said nothing meaningful.

More interesting was this from CNBC:

“A ‘growing club’ of ‘very powerful countries’ is steering away from using the dollar,” begins the headline. The article reads:

The U.S. dollar has been the world’s major reserve currency for decades, but that status could come under threat as “very powerful countries” seek to undermine its importance, warned Anne Korin, from the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

Korin says China, Russia and the European Union are some “major movers” behind this push.

One of those reasons driving their shift away from the dollar is the prospect of being subject to U.S. jurisdiction if they transact in dollars.

What dooms a nation, typically, is overspending, overreaching, and overstepping the bounds of civilized behavior.

That is why it was so important for Mr. Trump to end the foreign wars. They enrich the insiders and the elite… but they waste resources and ultimately ruin the nation.

As Shakespeare put it in our opening quotation on Tuesday:

…we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th’ inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice
To our own lips.

The winless wars, and all the other costs of garrisoning the globe, cost about $1 trillion per year. That is a cost – about equal to the entire deficit – that plagues its inventor, while wiser competitors avoid it.

But not only does the U.S. boss others around the world with its expensive troops, it also uses its dollar to bludgeon them.

“Sanctions” allow the feds to conduct economic warfare against target countries and individuals. No vote of the people, no act of Congress, no proof of wrongdoing is required.

Not surprisingly, this leaves potential “enemies” looking for alternatives. And when they find them – and escape the hegemony of the dollar system – it will mark another big slide for the U.S.

Once there is another viable option, the foreigners will laugh at U.S. sanctions… and all those dollars, now held overseas as “reserves,” may come back like carpetbaggers… taking our land, resources, and industries.

Revenge of The Swamp

Keep that in mind. Now let’s go back to our question. Why has the Deep State turned on The Donald? Is this just a case of the “Revenge of The Swamp”?

Perhaps. But when we look at what has actually happened in The Swamp, our puzzlement deepens. For not only did the president go along readily with giving more power and money to the armed wing of the Deep State…

He also did more than any other chief executive since Lyndon Johnson to flush more money into the rest of The Swamp.

Recall that the only possible way to drain The Swamp is to cut off its supply of money. “Starve the beast,” as our old friend Grover Norquist used to say.

The beast lives on federal subsidies, grants, direct outlays, and all the indirect ways the feds force people to spend money (tax lawyers, lobbyists, regulatory administration… etc.).

Every dollar spent or mandated by the feds passes through The Swamp. Its agents, its contractors, its experts, and its elite parasites take their cut. The money then makes them richer… more powerful… and more able to influence policy decisions.

But instead of making cuts, Mr. Trump did the opposite: He increased Swamp funding. The Washington Post reports:

The U.S. government’s budget deficit ballooned to nearly $1 trillion in 2019, the Treasury Department announced Friday, as the United States’ fiscal imbalance widened for a fourth consecutive year despite a sustained run of economic growth. The deficit grew $205 billion, or 26 percent, in the past year.

The country’s worsening fiscal picture runs in sharp contrast to President Trump’s campaign promise to eliminate the federal debt within eight years. The deficit is up nearly 50 percent in the Trump era. Since taking office, Trump has endorsed big spending increases and steered most Republicans to abandon the deficit obsession they held during the Obama administration.

Eight years ago, the GOP-controlled House proposed a constitutional amendment that would require balanced budgets. And the Obama administration feigned concern too, creating a “deficit commission” to find ways to slow the growth of government debt.

But now, neither party is interested in cutting spending. Neither worries about deficits. And neither does President Trump.

More for the military. More for the rest of The Swamp. More spending. More power and resources to the insiders and the elite. Bigger deficits. More debt. More wars. More opportunities for the Biden and Trump families to skim some profits.

The Deep State has gotten everything it wanted. So why are the ingrates at The Donald’s throat?

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