Trump and the Economy: the Flat Tire defense

Trump has lost the 'better economy' argument.  Record highs in unemployment, record business closings, and record failure in the economy generally are his legacy.  But, still he continues to believe that the economy is his best argument.

He rests his case on a little island of argument: but for this pandemic, we would have (and will have) a beautiful, wonderful economy.  Putting aside the fact that the beautiful economy was an Obama/Biden creation, going back to the recovery from the last time Republicans (Bush) were in office, there is a peculiar disingenuousness about this ‘but for’ argument.

I call this Trump 'but for' economic argument the FLAT TIRE defense.  In other words, Trump is saying that the car was running smoothly—in fact, beautifully—but for, it got this flat tire on the way.  Now, the car is still broken down.  You can’t go anywhere.  You’ve got the same effect as a pending Great Depression; the economy is broken down.  But Trump feels, somehow, that because it’s only a tire, it can be overlooked.

What Trump fails to realize is that in order to have a smoothly running vehicle, you must take care of the tires too.  And therein is the completion of the metaphor.  Trump began this odyssey in January, by completely denying the virus:



By now, in late 2020, it is obvious that the recovery won’t happen.  The flat tire has turned out to a complete failure of the vehicle-of-state…and Trump is asleep at the wheel.

Every country has a flat tire.

We haven't set any records either.


"The outlook for the 19 countries that use the euro was also downgraded. A contraction of 8.7% is now expected in 2020, a full percentage point more than the previous forecast. "



https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/economy/eu-commission-summer-2020-forecast/index.html

As the leader in the scientific world, we have a stewardship over medical science. After all, whatever saves American lives will save all human life. It’s universal.

We had all the science, all of the steps/procedures, and all the stockpiles of necessary materials in place for just such an eventuality as Covid-19. Trump went in and, like a child breaking his toys, indiscriminately tossed away those systems and supplies, simply because the Pandemic Response Group was an Obama/Biden creation.

So, Trump’s childish ego is responsible for 1.11-million lives killed by the Covid-19 pandemic. We might have controlled that pandemic as we did the Ebola pandemic of 2014-16. Some call it policy; yet anyone else, authorities would call it intentional murder.

Original Quill wrote:As the leader in the scientific world, we have a stewardship over medical science.  After all, whatever saves American lives will save all human life.  It’s universal.

We had all the science, all of the steps/procedures, and all the stockpiles of necessary materials in place for just such an eventuality as Covid-19.  Trump went in and, like a child breaking his toys, indiscriminately tossed away those systems and supplies, simply because the Pandemic Response Group was an Obama/Biden creation.

So, Trump’s childish ego is responsible for 1.11-million lives killed by the Covid-19 pandemic.  We might have controlled that pandemic as we did the Ebola pandemic of 2014-16.  Some call it policy; yet anyone else, authorities would call it intentional murder.

So Europeans are dying because of Trump.

Gotcha.

Yep. Pretty much.

Had Trump been less egotistical, he might have left in place the Pandemic Response Team, and protocols as well as stores needed to combat pandemics.

Original Quill wrote:Yep.  Pretty much.

Had Trump been less egotistical, he might have left in place the Pandemic Response Team, and protocols as well as stores needed to combat pandemics.

You sound like an arrogant American. The world can function without us ya know.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Yep.  Pretty much.

Had Trump been less egotistical, he might have left in place the Pandemic Response Team, and protocols as well as stores needed to combat pandemics.

You sound like an arrogant American. The world can function without us ya know.  

thank God they saved us again.lol

inmyopinion wrote:

Maddog wrote:

You sound like an arrogant American. The world can function without us ya know.

thank God they saved us again.lol

Like it or not, those are the facts. While your arguments about international meddling apply appropriately to military confrontations—and I agree with you—the reality is that the human body is pretty much the same the world over. So, what's good for an Asian body, is good for an African body, is good for a Caucasian body, etc.

In the past the US invested a lot in pandemic research and preparation procedures. The proof is in the pudding, as the US staved off an Ebola crisis in 2014-2015. Whoever undid all that research, stockpiling and organizing, delivered to the world the disservice. How many lives have been lost? 1.11-million worldwide, and still climbing?

inmyopinion wrote:

Maddog wrote:

You sound like an arrogant American. The world can function without us ya know.  

thank God they saved us again.lol

Precisely. Quills problem is that he's so fucking arrogant himself, that he's incapable of detecting it.

Maddog wrote:

inmyopinion wrote:

thank God they saved us again.lol

Precisely. Quills problem is that he's so fucking arrogant himself, that he's incapable of detecting it.  

So, you're running from the topic.  I would too if I had voted for Trump.

What I find amusing is that Trump sets up images to avoid his past lies, and he ends up creating analogies that prove the points against him.

The coronavirus crash is one such image.  He claims that the coronavirus is just an outside, temporary pause in his great economy, and he fails to own that ‘pause’.  This is all the more poignant when the ‘pause’ overwhelms the whole.

Trump’s once “soaring like a rocket ship” economy, has blown up like the solid rocket motor of the Challenger space shuttle.  It’s as if NASA disowned the solid rocket motor: But for that naughty Thiokol rocket, our space shuttle would still be soaring.

Umm…wasn’t this something that you created? I mean, a great leader of a successful economy is supposed to anticipate eventualities.