Well, let’s face it: Government-paid or subsidized childcare is Communist. Or Socialist. Or something.
I really wish Trumpists would give us their definition of “Marxist,” “Socialist,” and “Communist.” That way, we’d know what they’re talking about. As it is, all we’ve got is “Marxist/Socialist/Communist” is “Stuff I don’t understand and stuff I don’t like anyway.”
Does this mixture of “isms” confuse Trump? Undoubtedly. I’ll leave it to @Smapti to craft an appropriate response.
Just add “it’s something bad that we can accuse Democrats of being” and you’ve got it. Never mind that Trump’s recent suggestion that the government will pay for IVF is actually socialist.
“Look, when it comes to Marxism and Socialism and Communism, so many names, so many beautiful names, we’re looking very strongly at all of them, just like we’re looking very strongly at many things, and the many things that go into our economy, we have such a strong economy, maybe the best that there’s ever been, not so much since Crooked Joe took over, and you’re going to have a Depression if he gets reelected, folks, he’s the worst president we’ve ever had, many people are saying that Carmella is even worse, which is why we have to do the”
Migosh, @Smapti , I am in awe! You’re kind of scary, actually.
Indeed, he still thinks that tariffs are paid by the exporting country. It’s his famous, I learned enough in 5 minutes to know everything about the topic rearing its head again.
He thinks he’s unlocked a tax system cheat code, using tariffs you can fund the government with money from other countries. He thinks he’s a super genius because no other countries have figured this out.
I’m willing to bet that Economics for Dummies would be too long and complex for Trump.
I also like how MAGAs accuse their opponents of being both Communist and Fascist at the same time. Although they both are authoritarian systems of state control that repress civil freedoms and opposition, I doubt the average MAGA gets the difference between them. It’s just a scary label to rile the base.
I remember an elementary schoolyard taunt: “Your [sic] ignorant!”
“What’s that mean?”
“I don’t know but that’s what you are!”
I miss the old days when they said Obama was a Christian-Muslim-atheist.
I know it’s a fool’s errand to try to understand him, but I find it very hard to believe a high profile businessman and a once and possible future President of the United States really believes what he claims about tariffs. Someone must have taken him aside at some point, and gingerly gave him the 9th grade version of how tariffs work.
I wonder if it’s just another cynical lie that he tells, knowing it’s BS, because he thinks enough low-info voters will believe it, or if maybe he thinks that foreign businesses will subsidize the cost of the tariffs in order to hold onto market share…? Or maybe I’m just in denial because I’m horrified that someone with such a basic misunderstanding of how the economy works can have enough support behind him to very possibly be President again.
Just to make sure I understood the basics well enough (I did), I found this article that took me less than 5 minutes to read. A few key excerpts:
It is important to recognize that the taxes owed on imports are paid by domestic consumers and not imposed directly on the foreign country’s exports.
Overall, consumers tend to lose out with tariffs, where the taxes are collected domestically.
Unfortunately for consumers—both individual consumers and businesses—higher import prices mean higher prices for goods. If the price of steel is inflated due to tariffs, individual consumers pay more for products using steel, and businesses pay more for steel that they use to make goods. In short, tariffs and trade barriers tend to be pro-producer and anti-consumer.
They had no problem believing that tax cuts for the rich would benefit the poors through the magic of being pissed on trickle down.
They couldn’t do the slightest bit of research to discover that if they lived several lifetimes they would never amass an estate, let alone one that would be impacted by the estate tax death tax.
As George Carlin said “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
This is a person who, after being briefed about disinfectants and UV light killing a virus, stood in front of a million reporters to tell the entire country how he thought of this great idea… to investigate whether disinfectants and UV light can cure people infected with a virus.
He said this after having been briefed about the virus at least daily for two straight months.
This is not a smart man.
I know. Like I said, maybe I’m just in denial that a Repub nominee for President, with a good chance of winning, can actually be that wrong about basic economics. It’s not that I have a hard time believing he can be that stupid, but that he can be that stupid and still have the support that he does.
So I can’t help but try to ascribe some, any other explanation to that utterly baseless claim.
It’s because his stupid answers are easier for the other stupid people to understand.
“So, who actually pays for the tariffs on international trade?”
Leading economists: “Well, it’s a complicated system wherein additional tax burdens that cut into profits are incorporated into pricing at various stages of the process, leading to wah-whah whomp wha >fades off into Charlie Brown’s teacher’s noises<”
Trump: “China does!”
Idiot mases: “Look how smart Trump is! He can even make idiots like us understand the complexities of international trade law!”
To some degree taxes of all natures end up being paid by whichever entity has the least pricing power. Those who have the pricing power to pass the tax burden on to their customers do so. Those who don’t, can’t pass it, and therefore eat the tax as reduction in their margin. If a tax gets passed all the way to the consumer, they they eat it in terms of higher prices and less consumption given constant income.
Any bullying entity which trades in spaces where they’re the powerful one in the transaction can and does pass those taxes straight through.
Somehow I doubt that the problem with childcare costs is a lack of people qualified to take these jobs. Based on the number of people doing childcare out of their homes, the qualifications that some people don’t have aren’t really the kinds of things education can provide (a safe environment for their charges, a clear police record, etc.)
The problem with getting people to become childcare workers is that it pays so poorly. People with more education will want higher wages. This doesn’t seem to be the way to reduce childcare costs.
Just my words. (NSFW and all that, of course) Depressing, isn’t it? And no progress in sight.
And when there were decent Republicans, such as John McCain, who would dispute applying that label to Obama.
Hey, he was able to get Mexico to pay for the border wall, so now he’s just expanding on that success!
Trump’s next solution: Make the toddlers pay for it!
In the most craven way.
Or repeal child labor laws, and put toddlers to work doing the jobs that the undocumented workers used to do, after trump ships them all out of the country. Then the children will be supervised by their work foremen, and we’ll continue to have produce in our grocery stores.
Win-win!