Trump: The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same

    On June 12, 2012 I wrote an article entitled The Promise of Employment -- Republican Style. I did not realize at the time just how accurately my words would foreshadow the policies of the Republican Party and how relevant it appears to be to the upcoming four years of President Trump.  The following is the original article I wrote four years ago: The conclusion reached at the end of the article about Mitt Romney is dangerously true about Donald Trump.

                                      The Promise of Employment -- Republican Style

     Employment is badly over-rated: Prior to 1862, 100 percent of African-Americans were employed in the United States – as slaves! In many areas of the world, today, the percentage of employed workers is high, but most of them labor for wages that only allow them, on some days, to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Their wages do not permit them to live a comfortable life.; their wages simply enable them to survive.

     In the years following reconstruction, the United States, with its share of slavery, exploitation of immigrants, robbery of American Indians’ land, and similar gross injustices, elevated itself above all other nations by bringing its employment practices in line with its democratic principles: More and more with each passing year, its citizens and its leaders insisted on better working conditions, better salaries for workers, promotion based on workplace achievement, and workplace adherence to fairness, respect, equality, justice, and ethical/moral practices. The United States talked the talk and walked the walk. And the upward mobility and quality of life it produced for American workers stood as evidence that its talking wasn’t an unsupported boast, but in fact, its talking were the articulation of goals and objectives, which produced lifestyle changes that enabled Americans to own homes, buy cars, pay for their children’s education, enjoy family leisure time, and made American workers “the most envied employees in the World!”

     Interestingly, the workers weren’t the only ones that benefited from this positive evolution in employment practices. American corporations became the richest companies in the world. American products became the best in the world, and the United States led the world in all areas of innovations.

     The employer-employee relationship truly became a partnership that produced a win for each side: Corporations became wealthier; workers became richer. And our God-fearing, Christian democracy seemed assured of the path it was taking towards greater prosperity and better quality of life for all its citizens. Then in the early 70’s, the United States economy began to change. 

     First, the Vietnam Conflict, which started in 1964, had drained our nation’s resources by the early 70’s. Second, OPEC raised its oil prices in 1973 and 1979; this caused rapid inflation and a deep recession. And finally, the shortage of oil caused a gas shortage, which interrupted the flow of goods and services, produced long lines at the gas pumps, and sent the entire nation into a state of panic – desperately in need of social and economic change.

     The Republican Party seized the moment. They ignored the fact that the inflation and recession started during the Nixon years (1969 – 1974) and greatly deepened during the Ford years (1974 -1977). Instead, they decided to blame President Carter (1977 – 1981) for the dismal state of the nation.

     Specifically, the republicans began an all-out assault on organized labor. They targeted labor unions, and successfully defeated all attempts by the unions to reform labor laws. They prevented, for example, the passing of the Humphrey-Hawkins bill, which seek to form a consumer protection agency and gain a federal guarantee of full employment for all American workers. Additionally, the republicans targeted social welfare programs by dividing the citizens into two classes: Americans who believed in rugged individualism, and Americans who believed that the government was the solution to their problems.          

      President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) took these Republican Party’s ideas one step further: He turned them into the national mandate for change by convincing most Americans – especially the more affluent citizens, that it was the correct course to follow.

     Reagan told the American people “Government isn’t the solution; government is the problem!” He argued that government collected too much of the taxpayers’ money, squandered virtually all the revenues it collected, imposed too many regulations on businesses, and continued to grow in these three areas (collecting, spending, and regulating).

     Reagan solution was an economic policy with four goals: 1. Reduce capital gains tax and income tax. 2. Reduce and control government expenditure – particularly as it relates to “government hand-outs/wasteful spending.”  3. Reduce government regulations on businesses. And 4. Reduce the overall growth of government spending.

     Regan implemented his plan and it worked: Income tax on the richest American dropped from 70% to 28%. Unemployment dropped from 10% to 5%. Inflation rate slowed from 10% to 4%, and government experienced one of its biggest periods of deregulation in the years 1960 to the present.

     Today, the four pillars of Reagan’s economic policy remain the foundation of the current Republican Party’s economic plan: Cut taxes (especially for the richest one percent), deregulate the restrictions on corporations, cut government handouts/wasteful spending, and reduce the overall size and overall growth of the government. This is the plan we see, with slight variations, in the 29 states led by republican governors – especially the states in the South and the Midwest.

     Most of these states have successfully cut taxes, reduce government spending, cut entitlements, and reduce handouts/wasteful spending. These are the positive accomplishments. However, we are overlooking the fact that they, like the original Regan’s policy, are producing some major negative results: 1. Real wages decline. 2. The number of Americans living below the poverty line increases. 3. Hunger and homelessness become more visible. 4. State budgets, without the revenues generated from decent wages and higher taxes, usually go into debt. 5. In most of these states their economy is greatly supplemented by increasing the size of government in the form of defense spending, which has always been “the Republican Party’s hidden stimulus package.”

     There several trends we are going to see in the United States: 1. The gap between the richest Americans and middle class Americans will continue to get larger. 2. We will continue to see a decrease in the size of the middle class. 3. Unemployment will go down; a large number of Americans will be hired/re-hired, but their real wages will be far less that it was in the past. 4. Workers will pay for 90+ percent of their benefits. 5. The effect of deregulation will be less clean air, water, and soil; less safety conditions in the work place, in goods and services, in food (produce and handling), and many other areas of our lives. 6. Increase Tort reform laws, which will intentionally make it harder for victims to file a lawsuit, obtain a jury trial, or obtain a reasonable amount of money in lawsuit payment for injuries caused by corporations. 7. The number of Americans living below the poverty line will continue to expand. And 8. This is just the tip of the iceberg – especially if Mitt Romney is elected the President of the United States in November. 

God help us!

By

James A. Porter