Let’s talk Trump’s affordability economy

 

Or more specifically two proposals he made. The first being the ten percent cap on credit card interest and the second the limitations that large companies cannot own homes just to rent.

At first glance these are a populists dream: affordable credit and bringing houses back to the market so Americans can own a piece of the American dream.

What does it really mean?

First there is some legitimacy for populists in this thinking. The blowback from the supporters of credit cards and the companies is pretty strong. This is a surface reason to believe these policies might have merit. If the rich are against it, then the rest of us should be for it. Too often when the rich complain they know they might lose something or it won’t benefit them. So how plausible are these proposals?

Let’s pretend we aren’t dealing with the Donald Trump we all know and love. If a Democrat had proposed these, they would be dead on arrival. Republicans backed by all the business interests would shoot this down faster than whatever metaphor floats your boat at the moment.

I think there was some Democrats in Congress trying to garner some interest for this type of proposal before Trump offered it.

In normal times Republican Presidents aren’t offering these proposals. Currently many Republicans are trying to figure out how to not support these so they get campaign contributions from the banks, but not come out against the President. The wonderful tight rope many muster especially one Speaker named Johnson.

The reality for these Republicans would be worse, but our loveable President has squandered quite a bit of political capital of late. It is a bit easier not to have to jump on this bandwagon of policy proposals and still act like they are in support of the President by focusing on other wonderful acts by his administration.

Now let’s break it down under Trump. Trump doesn’t have much capital with people outside his supporters. His supporters love hearing him propose these two policies. This is what they voted for. It all sounds good. Unfortunately, these proposals are full of Trump bluster. How much does he truly believe in these two proposals? My guess and probably yours is not much. Is this more campaign talk? Does he get to come out later closer to the election and say I am working for you so vote for my people when in reality he knows this is smoke without fire.

Or worse the businesses find ways to appease him and the two proposals die on the vine. Or the Democrats jump on it, but Johnson finds a way to squash their proposals without interfering with Trump’s rhetoric? That is probably going to happen. Johnson can stand in front of the cameras with his little smirk and say we are working hard to bring affordability back all the while acting like the Democrats are crazy for bringing up the same proposals Trump just did.

Yes Trump is loving the word affordability right now, but what will truly come of it. He is a showman and affordability has become the center stage word. He can definitely run with it. That is his strength.

Yet my feelings are it is all talk for now until he can find something else to entertain people to distract them from his real disasters. The businesses these two proposals affect will find a way to change Trump’s direction. And we all know what that will be. And once this quiets down, he will find another proposal to feed to his supporters so he can continue his charade of saying what they want while getting what he wants behind his supporters back.

Reality though is we need some real action on credit card interest rates. I don’t know if there is a magic number that caps interest that benefits us and doesn’t frighten the banks into drastic action. The ten percent number will frighten them the more it is bantered about. And some of their complaints that ten percent is so low it will prevent people from getting ready credit are valid, mainly to them, but valid overall. The banks base credit on risk factors and how many people really aren’t a risk at ten percent. That number probably does drop significantly. There would be some people who could take on more credit and afford it at ten percent versus the thirty percent they are paying now and would benefit. Unfortunately we as people of the United States aren’t good with credit. Better education to young people would help, but at the moment the current population is struggling with debt and lower interest rates aren’t going to put too much of a dent in habits.

Credit card debt is out of control. Lowering interest could help, but people would have to cut up cards so they could pay off or down their current debt for ten percent to make a meaningful impact. And that is not what the banks would want. Nope they need people to continue to spend/borrow at an interest rate that pays off all the credit cards that go into default. We have painted ourselves into a corner, both the consumers and the banks. Cutting rates to ten percent in theory is great, but right now we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves if we had access to more money. It has become a very dangerous nature for us. There might be a number that is low enough to help a good amount of people lower their debt a bit; spend enough so the economy keeps going and allows the banks to manage some of the risk. Yet this also means they would have to accept less profits. And yep we are all laughing on the floor with that wild thought. Lower profits would be a true beginning, but Wall Street is addicted to greed so that ain’t happening.

And the same thinking applies to companies who are making an enormous fortune renting houses and all the while building up a very strong balance sheet of value. They aren’t selling to make Trump happy.

So again Trump sounds great to his supporters, yet the reality is more complicated and the real solutions take too much away, no matter how small, for people who don’t give a flying fart what the people need.

So, what is there to talk about this wonderful new year?

 We could talk about the stock market. Some people think it will go up this year, some think it won’t. There are a couple of sky is falling people out there. And this is pretty normal in any given year. No one really knows, yet people get paid to act like they do. You cannot predict the future, but you can plan based on data. That would be something wonderful to discuss, doesn’t feel like the world is ending since those are normal discussions.

Or we could talk about the NFL playoffs. It is always fun when a team makes an extraordinary comeback like the Bears. Since the Cowboys weren’t whiffing the playoffs I pretty much tuned out the NFL, yet by happenstance got to see the second half of the Bears game. That was fun to watch. Since I am a Cowboys fan, I am not a fan of San Francisco or Philadelphia. Love the cities, not a fan of the teams. Anyway they played each other so now one of those teams (Philly) are now out of the playoffs. NFL playoff talk is always a pretty normal discussion point.

Or college football playoffs. I am rooting for Indiana just because. Texas was out a long time ago, so why not support Indiana. It would be nice to see them win.

The NHL and the NBA are coming up on the halfway points of their seasons. Mavericks are struggling so fighting to stay supportive for them. The Stars always confuse me so will maintain my infamously non bandwagon, but casual support.

Weather is always a safe topic. Us old folks always love talking about the weather, even when the weather is boring. A possible snow storm for the Northeast this weekend. And here in North Texas finally touching on normal winter temperatures around here. Still a bit warm, but closer to normal than Christmas week.

Did you make any new year promises or goals? How is that going since we are just about halfway through the month? No promises to lose weight or anything here, just going to focus on three words: trust, discipline and fun. Let’s hope those three thoughts stay true.

Speaking of fun, have you thought about summer vacation yet?

What about any home improvements? Or are you thinking of a new home? A bit difficult right now, but we can always dream. We have a family member headed in that direction.

How is your health? Your kids? Anyone receive a scholastic honor in the fall semester? Or did they miss it by “that much” Any plays, sports, music success for anyone in the family?

Remember when all this was the norm? There is a plethora of topics we can enjoy. So why don’t we talk to our neighbors about all these things for awhile.

The madness isn’t going away so let’s rest our brains and attitudes for a bit and hopefully refresh our perspectives. Much to the media and our politicians’ chagrin, we actually all are on the same team.

 

Doesn’t it annoy the heck out of you when I get trite like the last few posts?

 

Laugh people laugh

Cheers

Why they divide us and why it is so easy

 

Most people that read already know most of the answer to the two questions, yet we need to start pushing the answer forward and hard to start undoing the damage. How?

They divide us because they can and it benefits them. Who are they? It is basically two groups, media interests and ingrained politicians. People hear me scream we need new parties and new leadership. And that is mainly to break up the duopoly’s hold on the American people that only serve themselves. And the duopoly is supported by the opposing media groups that reap financial benefits and solidifies its’ audiences.

There is a book called “Hate, Inc.” that takes a very deep dive into the media and the history that led us to the current state of affairs. That should be required reading for all Americans, but no one really reads the news anymore in depth or with an open mind so that book wouldn’t help most people at this point.

As long as the ingrained parties and politicians can use their media allies it will be very difficult to change the status quo. Yet breaking that up isn’t the first step. It is breaking up how they divide us so it is a much deeper challenge.

One of our problems is that the ingrained politicians and media use social issues to tug at our emotions to inflame our passions so we don’t listen to the other side. It is the social issues that cannot be solved by public policy that allow this divide to continue. Sane minds do not have to give up their beliefs on social issues, but they need to address them in a different manner than public policy and politics.

At this moment in time we need to concentrate our political efforts on the basics of governing. We need to protect our border while still respecting the dignity of human life and that really is the closest to a social issue we should get to for now. Everything else is just better public policy like improving education, improving social security, creating a more equitable tax code, balancing the budget, prioritizing what is needed for the poor so they have opportunity, protecting our country, using our secondary functions like the Fed to battle inflation or recessions, working on better campaign laws that allow for better participation by all instead of favoring money interests and quite a bit more.

Outside of our politicians demonstrating respect and dignity for each other, we need to become a better educated society to tackle our social issues. For example right now the abortion groups and the pro life groups are at each other’s throats because the two groups use our emotions to separate us, create camps and one sided arguments so much so that we forget that this is a very deep and emotional issue that shouldn’t be left to partisan politics to decide.

We need long and deep conversations. We need to listen so people aren’t screaming, yet as a society we are not ready to go there. We aren’t close. And that isn’t because both sides have intense feelings and thoughts about the matter. It is because people use those and manipulate us to benefit a small minority of our country. And that minority is the established and entrenched power structure in D.C. Trump was supposed to cure us of this according to MAGA, yet in practice he only exasperated it. He inflames his base to a whole new level of hate.

And he knew that was possible. He may not be a stable genius, but he is a capable manipulator. And that manipulation works because for the last thirty to forty years the Republicans and Democrats set it up. Both sides began the long march of splitting this country socially so they could get re-elected time and time again. If people really paid attention to what their politicians were doing we wouldn’t have 80 year olds entrenched in D. C. Instead they pay attention to the need to get rid of the other guy, the evolution of gerrymandering to benefit the entrenched. The media went along because if they picked and backed a side they got a guaranteed audience for their profits.

All this is well documented, yet no one comes along and splits up this madness. Even today you watch all these “independent” podcasts or nascent news organizations and they are on one side or the other. There is no independence. They joined a side to steal an audience not to liberate an audience.

So I try to break this up by screaming for new parties, yet even then sides will be drawn. My hope is that sides are drawn solely on the political issues to get started. Our country gets back to the push me pull me of liberal versus conservative political policy. When the economy is doing well push forward, when it is in recession, pull back and the politicians that better serve the need of the moment are elected. When things change and the pendulum swings the other way, hopefully districts are broken up more evenly so the people can elect politicians that support the next change needed. And what is scary too many people will say that is a dream when in actuality it should be the norm.

Breaking away from social issues dominating our political rhetoric will help us focus on the immediate needs like inflation, affordability, social security, healthcare and more. Politicians to get elected will have to offer solutions the majority of our country wants instead of creating a feeding frenzy of hate.

Social issues are important and eventually we need to work through them. And the possibility of certain people continued to be marginalized is a problem so the rhetoric needs respect not hate until we know enough as a society to actually decide what if any public policy is needed. If we learn to respect each other we may never need to force social change. I am a conservative, yet I truly understand you cannot legislate morality. It is something people have to understand in their heart, but what morality is correct can even be a dangerous topic to discuss. So at this point the infamous render under Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and render to God what is God might be something we need to think about before we spout off who is right and wrong.

There are many things I would like to see change. I would hope the golden rule of love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself would be first in all our hearts, but right now we just need to stop talking, start reading, start listening and start reflecting on the few things all of us need so the hate stops and the much needed switch to the norm can begin.

So yeah, we need new parties 😊 and a whole bunch more.

Happy New Year, well I guess so

 

I know I haven’t been saying much lately. Kind a hard to tell, but am frustrated with it all.

 

I know you probably hear the news so I don’t want to rehash how idiotic things have gotten.

Yet what to be done.

The Republicans are complicit, the Democrats are hapless and the world has entered one larger crapper.

People complain all day long, but none of us including me have a plan anymore.

Here is what needs to be done. Trump needs to be impeached. Vance needs to be impeached. We need a new speaker in the House of Representatives and I wonder about some of our military for going along with this most obvious oil grab and world power split up.

Putin probably now believes he has free reign to do what he wants. So don’t tell me he doesn’t have something to do with Trump running amuck.

Between Netanyahu coercing Trump into attacking Iran and the Gulf states paying Trump to well who knows, but we know attack Iran there is the possibility of that war.

Then us attacking Venezuela constitutes multiple violations of international law all for their oil. Oh sure someone will be the leader of Venezuela, but they will be handing over their oil to our oil companies hand over fist. And why? Oil only pollutes this planet. So greed wins,,, again.

High possibility of China going after Taiwan now because what is Trump going to do. He doesn’t care about what China does. He really doesn’t except for the bluster he can create.

We have a very weak and bribable president and humanity is going to get screwed for it. But hey, you know America first. And oh yeah that affordability thing; a president who knew about the greatest sexual predator in modern history, he might not have participated, but he knew; a media that is partisan, divided and weak; social media lies; AI madness so no one knows what is the truth anymore; a Supreme Court that doesn’t know how to read the Constitution; the money grabs by Trump and his administration; and who knows what else as I rehash the idiocy.

Yeah I am a bit down in the dumps about the whole thing, so let’s pray I am wrong as heck and have a Happy New Year.

Anyway my words for the year are trust and discipline. So, I think I need tons of discipline to keep the trust going. Things can be better, but we need to get moving on some plan to make it happen.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2025

 

Wishing everyone a joyous holiday. I hope you find what you are looking for this year and if not, I am wishing you a prosperous new year.

Also let’s continue to pray for world peace. Too many of our leaders don’t care about their people so it is up to us to pray for them and for leaders that put their people first.

Don’t forget why we have the season. I know we always say Christmas has become too commercialized, yet enjoying generosity is still good. Do what you can for others and be grateful for what you have. The true meaning of Christmas is the joy you spread amongst family, friends and the world. There are a million trite phrases. There is only one you to say what needs to be said.

Merry Christmas and a joyous, prosperous and happy New Year.

Michael W Green’s one hundred forty thousand dollar poverty line and a few other items

 

First of all I hope you had a great Thanksgiving filled with well food filling your tummy and wonderful interactions with family and friends. I hope you enjoyed every moment of your time. We certainly did.

Second has anyone seen Tulsi Gabbard lately? I’m sure she is out there somewhere, yet I haven’t seen her in the news for awhile now. And that is probably a good thing, yet it seems weird.

Now on to the headline. On Substack Michael W Green identified as an investor or Wall Street Strategist who helps manage a hedge fund says on Substack that $140,000 or specifically $136,500 should be considered the new poverty line.

And of course everyone including yours truly has an opinion about that statement.

I want to focus though on something that is discussed as the valley of death or where most Americans fall economically. The poverty line probably does need to be adjusted due to the inflation of the last few years, but where it is actually may need a real deep dive that I am not going to do right now.

This valley of death is a rough idea of people above the current poverty income level and that $140,000 figure. And Mr. Green uses the $140,000.00 figure for what is needed for a family of four, the somewhat standard for measuring economic levels. 

Mr. Green postulates that the poverty level should be this figure to represent the amount it takes to meet all basic needs in modern America including housing, childcare, healthcare, food etc… And this is where some people say this isn’t the poverty level because poverty should represent where people are who cannot meet any needs. I agree closer to the latter idea. Poverty should represent what it means to be truly poor, not struggling.

So this brings me back to the valley of death thought. Most Americans earn enough not to qualify for government assistance or the bottom line of the valley of death to where Mr. Green states we need to earn to meet all our needs in modern America or the upper level of the valley of death.

And why is this important? Again too many Americans fall into this valley. They cannot make enough to begin to save, invest or basically get ahead. They spend their lives robbing Peter to pay Paul then the next month robbing Paul to pay Peter and one misstep away from complete financial oblivion. Some people use the phrase living paycheck to paycheck as another example of this economic group.

And if you read this blog regularly you know I have identified some public policy ideas to address help for this group. And I identify them as the working and middle class, technically the backbone of a healthy democracy.

And if you look around you know we need to send our country to a democracy doctor right now. Our education system is in the pits and being subjugated to the wishes of billionaires who really do not want us educated. Our Congress spends more time courting election funds from these same billionaires instead of actually representing the majority of this country and the needs of the people. And it is easy to spout of a litany of other ills facing our nation.

The what gives moment keeps getting ignored by our media because they are beholden to these same politicians for news.

So I don’t think $140,000 is the poverty line, but we need to step up and really do something about the valley of death of economic group.

If you wonder why I am so adamant about saying the duopoly has failed this country this is one of the main reasons. The people are barely making it, while the uber rich are allowed to keep taking from them.  This isn’t Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders saying the billionaires need to be reigned in, this needs even stronger action. And no socialism isn’t the answer. It will create a whole set of new problems. Don’t believe me, look at the history of the twentieth century. Socialism failed.

We need a full scale overhaul of our tax system that tilts cuts towards this group, a renewal to better education for all, improving social security so the working and middle class can live in their retirement. Work place savings plans are great, yet they should not be the main answer since they rely on the economy and current economic trends can go south on occasion such as 2009 or the pandemic. So I bet you can guess how I feel about privatizing social security. The last thing we need to do is give more money to billionaires to manipulate for their benefit.

Anyway campaign finance reform, rescinding the Citizen’s United ruling because billionaires should not be allowed to have undue influence on our government. I have said before, capitalism is great, but the winners shouldn’t be allowed to make the rules for society. So that means lobbying needs to be reigned in. And also it comes to a point where companies become so large they are counter to a growing economy since they pull so much out of it to retain their vast size.

I could go on, yet for now I am glad Mr. Green talked about the poverty level at $140,000.00. That figure may not be the poverty level, yet it does highlight what it takes in this country to break even between meeting basic needs and eventually getting ahead.  A real strong economy would mean the valley of death economically would shrink to such a point only a very small portion of the population would fall into it rather than the vast majority we see now.

Are the Cowboys for real? I do not know yet, but it is exciting to find out.

I really love the players on the Mavericks and see huge potential still, yet I hope they don’t become too frustrated before they figure out how to get over this last hump. I know they are close because they are in way too many games and just losing at the last minute. Pray for them to find the last ladder step to get where they need to be.

Advent is upon us, the preparation and the wait begin. I hope you find joy in your heart as we move towards the first and second coming.

The Supreme Court may be disenfranchising independent voters and candidates in Texas

 

The Supreme Court put a hold on the Order that barred the Texas redistricting map that Republicans created. This is supposedly for the Supreme Court to take this up at a later date. This redistricting plan already is fraught with problems. And most Americans are also becoming fed up with the massive amount of gerrymandering both parties have done for decades now.

The gerrymandering is bad enough for independent or third parties as it is, and actually shouldn’t be allowed on its surface. Yet as you know the duopoly does everything in its power to protect its interests which coincides with the fact their interests aren’t the interests of the people.

Yet how does the Supreme Court’s action affect independents in Texas. Well if you are tired of the duopoly and think we need new candidates or I want to vote for someone different such as an independent or third party you are now up against a deadline to file to run.

1. As per the Texas Department of State’s website if you want to run as an independent you must:
   File a Declaration of Intent to Run as an Independent Candidate (PDF) between November 8, 2025 and 6:00 p.m. on Monday, December 8, 2025 with the county judge (county or precinct offices) or the Secretary of State (district and state offices).  [Secs. 142.002(b)(2), 142.005]  This Declaration of Intent to Run as an Independent Candidate is mandatory. If you do not file a declaration during the applicable filing period, your subsequent candidate application will be rejected.

You now have to decide blindly if you think you have a chance because if you run, presumably you want to win. Yet, how do you know your chances if you do not know what the district will look like.

There are other requirements also, but that December 8 deadline is fast approaching. Now this basically affects a US House seat, but right now that body of our government desperately needs new people.

This affects candidates and voters because if you do not want to vote for either of the duopoly, you may not have a choice since an independent candidate may not be able to run or run an effective campaign.

And what is worse there is no recourse for independents since they cannot sue the Supreme Court to take action timely.

Sure you can file your intent to run as an independent and later drop out if you do not have a good district, but exactly how a district looks is an important piece of knowledge in making any decision to run for office.

And yes I know some people will say it is a waste of votes to vote against the duopoly. I have two arguments for you. One is right now people may be more open to someone new due to all the dysfunction in Washington right now and two well if you look at all the dysfunction in Washington right now, maybe voting for the duopoly is the wasted vote.

Since I live in Texas I only looked at the Texas rules, yet this may be playing out in other states as well.

Cheers