{"id":1074,"date":"2020-08-10T13:26:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T13:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2020-08-10T13:26:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T13:26:29","slug":"august-10-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1074","title":{"rendered":"August 10, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Don\u2019t forget, one of the charges against the Trump Foundation that was forced to shut down for improperly using charitable funds was that money was spent on a large portrait of Trump.\u00a0 Perhaps, if Trump is reelected, we can look forward to large portraits of Trump scattered around the country or decorating Times Square kind of like Kim Jong Un scatters his portrait all over North Korea.\u00a0 This is just another example of how Trump is only concerned with Trump and doesn\u2019t give one hoot about the United States, it\u2019s history, or the constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of the constitution, Trump signed executive actions over the weekend to theoretically provide some relief to people when Congress failed to reach a deal on the overall relief package.\u00a0\u00a0 Once again, this is typical Trump \u2013 doing something that will provide a good photo op and good campaign talking points without really solving the underlying problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One would think that with the nation in crisis, a man who bills himself as a \u2018great negotiator\u2019 and who wrote his infamous book, The Art of the Deal, would feel compelled to sit down at the table and hammer out a deal that would help resolve this mess.\u00a0 However, again in typical Trump fashion, rather than role up his sleeves and try to solve the problem, he prefers to sit on the sidelines and point fingers and place blame \u2013 always at political rivals, never at himself or his minions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you start to peel the onion about his executive actions, it becomes apparent they are likely to have little positive impact on anything and could very well have huge adverse impacts on several things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first problem is the whole issue of constitutionality.\u00a0 The \u2018power of the purse\u2019 rests with the House of Representatives \u2013 not with the President.\u00a0 This is certainly not the first time that the President has viewed the Constitution as merely a \u2018suggestion\u2019 and one that does not apply to him.\u00a0 The President and his advisors may very well know that these executive actions are not legal or, at a minimum, will be challenged in court, but that will create yet another campaign talking point that they will use. \u00a0\u00a0I can just hear Trump now, \u201cI tried to solve the problem but the Democrats didn\u2019t want to help the American people, so I did\u201d \u2018(I\u2019m your hero\u2019 would be the subtext).\u00a0 He will fail to mention that the House of Representatives passed a second coronavirus relief bill back in May and Mitch McConnell refused to take it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the whole question of constitutionality, there is the potential adverse impact on Social Security and Medicare benefits with the implementation of the payroll tax cut.\u00a0 Social Security and Medicare are already on questionable long-term financial footing and this executive order, if implemented, could make the situation worse.\u00a0 But, then again, slashing benefits is high on the Republican agenda and this certainly is consistent with that philosophy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, even if this payroll tax cut is implemented, the businesses that withhold those taxes are not likely to immediately give that money to employees.\u00a0 There is no guarantee that the executive order will withstand any legal challenges and there is no guarantee that Trump will be reelected and in a position to make the cuts permanent as he as said he wants to do, so employers are going to be unwilling to gamble by giving the money to employees when, when all the dust settles, they may still have to give it to the US government.\u00a0 It is highly unlikely this will do anything to immediately put money into employees\u2019 pockets.\u00a0 It is just another campaign talking point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Bolton made the statement in his book to the effect that he had never seen Trump make any decision that was unrelated to how it would benefit his reelection prospects.\u00a0 This is a prime example of that.\u00a0 If anyone thinks differently or if they are relying on the sounds bites and spin provided by the White House and Trump\u2019s minions, they need to really look at the details of these executive actions.\u00a0 They are not what they seem.\u00a0 It is just Trump shooting from the hip once again.\u00a0 It is also another example of how desperate Trump and some of his Republican minions are getting and why the entire electorate needs to be on guard running up to this election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even here in little old Montana, the Republicans are pulling out all of the stops.\u00a0 A judge recently booted the Green Party off of the upcoming ballot when it came to light that the entire effort to gather the signatures required to get them on the ballot was funded by a Republican PAC.\u00a0 Once that came to light, many people who signed those petitions asked that their names be removed which resulted in there being an insufficient number of signatures.\u00a0 And why would the Republicans pay to have the Green Party installed on the ballot?\u00a0 It should be patently obvious.\u00a0 They wanted to draw votes away from the Democratic candidates to increase the chances the Republican candidates would win.\u00a0\u00a0 There are similar Republican actions going on around the country to get Kanye West installed on ballots for the upcoming election in the hope that he will draw black voters away from Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at the recent actions regarding the post office, the ongoing actions by Republicans to make voting more difficult for many, the unconscionable gerrymandering that has occurred, the ongoing effort by Trump to sow distrust in the results of this election and the ongoing and increasing threats of foreign interference, it is a truly scary time. \u00a0\u00a0One can only hope that American democracy survives this assault.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"