Here at Randumb Thawts, we look at comments by asking questions. If the questions reflect the same conclusion, you can usually take it to the bank. Recent comments by President Trump have resulted in many question needing to be asked. I don’t suggest he is lying, I suggest you decide that for yourself… by asking questions.
1. Why is another tax cut necessary? President Trump says he and Congress are working on a new 10% tax cut for the middle income and that it will be announced in two weeks, yet Congress is adjourned until November. All 435 Representatives are busy working on their election, so who is he working with? And, doesn’t this new tax bill (if there really is one) prove that the tax cut in December was not for main street, but for Wall Street?
2. Where is the evidence that sanctuary cities are more dangerous? People in sanctuary cities in California are rioting to get out. Where? I’m sure Fox News would be showing these riots. And BTW, Irvine CA is one of those Sanctuary cities and their crime rate is at the top of the national average (55 per 100K). Meanwhile, St Louis is not a sanctuary city and has the highest crime rate in the nation (1817 per 100K). And yes, San Francisco is high at 777 per 100K, but Tulsa Oklahoma (not a sanctuary city) is worse at 903 per 100K.
3. Where is the evidence of voter fraud? President Trump warns of voter fraud, but his own committee never provided one document to support the accusation of 3 to 5 million illegal votes and in a study commissioned by President Bush, the Justice department turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections. And, in the 2016 election, out of 135 million votes, a total of four documented cases of voter fraud.
4. Why would Muslim terrorist and gang members be in the Honduran caravan? Why would they spend weeks traveling by foot? Both the Muslim terrorist and the gangs are heavily funded. They could fly into a border town and then sneak across by sea, air or tunnel. With all the publicity of this caravan, all eyes are on it. Being in this caravan is not exactly flying under the radar (which is necessary to these terrorist and criminals). BTW, our intellegence agencies (President Trump’s agencies) have found no evidence that this is true. Common sense would tell you that if they had, President Trump would certainly have presented it. I’m not saying that there aren’t these people inside the caravan, I’m just saying you can’t say there is without proof.
5. Does the President have a double standard? The President said that Honduran caravan is being financed by George Soros and there is a photo proving it, but the photo behind this allegation has been proven to have been taken in Guatemala, not Honduras and the women and children were given about $25 that was raised by local merchants. When it comes to the Russian hacking, Justice Kavanaugh or the death of Khashoggi, the President was quick to say he would wait and not rush to judgement, until the facts were clear. Well, there is no clear evidence that George Soros had anything to do with it.
6. And my favorite …. The tax cuts will create jobs, increase wages and boost the economy. If you look at the first 9 months over the last 4 years, it will show a modest job increase this year of few thousand jobs.
Where is the great job growth that was promised?
2015 1,863,000 jobs between Jan and Sept
2016 1,852,000 jobs between Jan and Sept
2017 1,526,000 jobs between Jan and Sept
2018 1,875,000 jobs between Jan and Sept
Where are these increased wages?
Wages have gone up 3.9%, but with inflation at 2.9%, wages have only increased by1%. And, a lot of that wage increase is due to increases in minimum wages in 18 states, increasing the wages of 4.5 million workers. Meanwhile, manufacturing wages have gone up 28 cents an hour (1%), since January. if you adjust it to inflation, their wages are down 1.9%.
Where did that tax money go?
If the corporations are getting a 13% discount in their tax obligation, why is the market somewhere between flat and down this year? Shouldn’t the financials reflect some improvement in revenue if you are saving 13%? Even if they gave all the money to workers (which we established didn’t happen), should normal growth in the economy be reflected in the numbers?
A Randumb Thawt?
Listening to the answers of others won’t make you smart or informed, questions will. And, looking for validation, rather than verification is the formula of inferior minds. Don’t ever accept anything and don’t get the answers to your questions from pundits, blogs, newspapers or news networks. That’s not to say you can’t use them to guide you to the right answers, but in the end, you should use non-partisan agencies and associations with no agenda. My personal answers to these questions are based on data from the CBO, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the FBI and good ol’ common sense, but don’t believe me either. The point of this article, is not to change your opinion on the issues. It’s to motivate you to doubt everything you hear and ask your own questions and draw your own conclusions from the answers to those question. Only then can you say your position is authentic.