February 21, 2025
Comment by Pickens County Democrats

     The attempts by Donald Trump and his followers to rapidly destroy our Federal government, piece by piece, is being done in astounding ignorance of the significance of what's being destroyed, but it isn't without purpose.
     (1) It's eliminating the salaries of massive numbers of people, to make more money available for renewal of Trump's 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. (The 2017 tax cuts were not paid for, which resulted in an almost $2 trillion increase in the national debt--which Republicans, in control of Congress, did not object to.)
     (2) It's setting up privatization--creation of businesses to take over functions performed by public employees in government agencies. Of course, Trump's friends and family members who start these businesses will demand generous profits to take on these tasks, so the public will pay far more than when they were done by government agencies.
     (3) Security clearances will be handed out like candy to Trump's friends, family, and "business associates." His lack of concern for national security was made clear by his attempts to hide classified materials at Mar-A-Lago--for which he has escaped all consequences. Given his drooling adoration of murderous tyrants such as Vladimir Putin (Russia) and Kim Jong-Un (North Korea, which sent troops to help Putin against Ukraine), Trump's concerns for national security will be nonexistent. His disdain for NATO makes all of our alliances (including in the Pacific) further subject to his whims. Will anything survive--and will anyone trust us--after four years of Trump's "retribution"?
     (4) Republicans control Congress. But Republicans in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are silent, whether in cowardly fear of Trump's "retribution" on their failure to show absolute loyalty to him personally (rather than to the Constitution to which they falsely(?) pledged themselves) or in agreement with his destruction of democratic government is uncertain.

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The article by Paul Krugman is here:

"Our Government Is Experiencing a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly." By Paul Krugman, Substack, February 21, 2025

https://www.rsn.org/001/our-government-is-experiencing-a-rapid-unscheduled-disassembly.html