Trump and the Desire to Spend on Defense and Infrastructure

Trump, like Putin and many other leaders, knows how to prey on people's greed, fear and other needs in order to get what they want. When he pushed for tax reform with a huge increase in the debt (unless the growth rate increases a good bit) he was giving the business community and some greedy politicians what they wanted.

What was lost in that is that, like a multi-part business organization, the government does many things and must allocate resources carefully. When earlier administrations pushed the debt very high with war or tax cuts or recessions, it left a requirement for our current government/administration to tighten the belt, perhaps raise taxes, limit military excursions, and the like. Well, with greater debt than we have had since World War II (as a percentage of our annual GDP) it is important to not satisfy every interest group's interests at the cost of the national need to stay solvent or of other pressing interests the government funds.

During the 2016 campaign it was obvious we going to have to spend on the military after years of activity. After decades of little spending on infrastructure it was obvious this too needed attention. What does the tax reform with gigantic giveaways to businesses do to those necessities? It puts a giant question mark after the question "can we afford them". Can we afford to spend $1 Trillion on Infrastructure and Defense? How much does that push up the 'interest on the debt' part of our budgeting? When will that debt ever be repaid? It's easy to write a check and let someone else pay it back. What isn't so easy is explaining we don't have a national defense in time of crisis because you wrote the check to your political and business friends.

With N. Korea acting bad and Trump arguing to rescind the treaty with Iran it isn't clear we won't have to fight another war before long. Does he care if we have to borrow a lot of money to pay for that? No, he does not. It doesn't come out of his pocket. His history with money is to borrow to the hilt and then to refuse to pay it back. He has a long recorded history of refusing to pay his bills. But, he's happy to give YOUR money to a corporation, especially if the corporation gives money to his political campaign or those of other Republican candidates. This is an untenable situation and it endangers the nation, both militarily and financially.

Sometimes past is indeed prologue.