Donald Trump is not a conservative

If your political philosophy aligns with free-market capitalism, limited government as the Founders spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, fiscal restraint, low taxation and free trade, sorry, Trump’s philosophy does not.

Give him gold stars for aligning with limited government and low taxation. Trump’s cutting of regulations led to the nation becoming energy independent. And he led the campaign for the most sweeping tax reform in 30 years with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That act reduced individual income tax rates 1.3 percentage points and cut the corporate tax to 21% from 35%.

The perception is that these policies ignited what Trump often has referred to as “the Greatest Economy ever in the History of Any Country.” Of course, we know that’s classic Trump bombast. And it is.

The Trump era was not the greatest economy ever.

David Stockman, Reagan’s director of Management and Budget and now an author of books and economic newsletters, has done extensive analysis of Trump’s economic results.

He compared the inflationadjusted average growth rate of the nation’s gross domestic product (the monetary value of all goods and services produced in a year) during the terms of presidents going back to Jimmy Carter. Trump’s average growth rate ranks last.

Clinton: 3.75%

Reagan: 3.44%

Carter: 3.37%

Bush I: 2.22%

Bush II: 2.00%

Obama: 1.74%

Trump: 1.52%

Of course, Trump’s GDP sank in 2020, the year of COVID: -3.4%. If

How The Presidents Spent Your Money

ANNUAL INCREASES

The table shows the annual increases in federal spending in constant 2021 dollars.

Donald Trump +$366 billion

George W. Bush +$136 billion

George H.W. Bush +$97 billion

Barack Obama +$86 billion

Ronald Reagan +$64 billion

Jimmy Carter +$62 billion

Bill Clinton +$34 billion

SPENDING GROWTH RATES

These percentages are the annual real growth rates of federal spending during the presidents’ terms:

Donald Trump 6.92% you eliminate that year, his threeyear average GDP growth increases to 2.5%, placing him fourth, but still far from “The Greatest Economy in the History of any Country.”

What’s more, Trump proved to be a profligate spender (see box).

In one of his recent commentaries, Stockman writes:

“When it comes to the core matter of fiscal discipline, the Donald was no disrupter at all.

He was actually the worst of the lot among Washington spenders, and by a long shot, too. … All of the hideous excesses of the COVID bailouts were launched on his watch, signed into law with his pen and/or legitimized with the imprimatur of an ostensible Republican president …

“When you compare the constant dollar growth rate of total Federal spending during his four years in the Oval Office with that of his recent predecessors it is evident

If not Trump, then who for Republicans?

From the looks of the polls (to which we don’t give much credence at this stage), Donald Trump has the GOP nomination clinched. The polls show him ahead of his closest rival, our governor, Ron DeSantis, by margins ranging from 24 to 43 percentage points. The despised national media, of

He Lies Like The Devil

“I have never spoken to my son about his foreign business dealings.” Everyone knew from the moment he said that he was lying.

Joe Biden has lied all his adult life. We don’t have enough space to list all of Biden’s lies during his political career.

But if you’re interested in knowing just how much of an evil liar he is, check out these two articles:

■ WashingtonTimes.com/ News/2023/Jul/9/PresidentBiden-Is-Liar/ ■ GOP.com/Research/JoeBiden-Liar-In-Chief-RSR/

If Biden were an honorable man of integrity, he would stand before the American people and tell the truth — about his involvement with son, Hunter; how his family became multimillionaires on a senator’s salary; and who ordered and orchestrated the special treatment his son has received from the Department of Justice and FBI.

But given Biden’s long history of lying and plagiarism, there is no reason to expect him to admit he has lied nor to tell the American people the truth.

“If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the guiding principle is this — a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy.”

Friedrich Hayek “Road to Serfdom,” 1944

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George W. Bush 3.95%

George H.W. Bush I 3.90%;

Jimmy Carter 3.72%

Ronald Reagan 3.15%;

Barack Obama 1.96%

Bill Clinton 1.19% INCREASES IN U.S. DEBT

Annual increases to the public debt in constant 2021 dollars.

Donald Trump $2.043 trillion

Barack Obama $1.061 trillion

George W. Bush $0.694 trillion

George H. W. Bush $0.609

Ronald Reagan $0.384 trillion

Bill Clinton $0.168 trillion

Jimmy Carter -$0.096 trillion

Source: David Stockman’s Contra Corner that the Donald was in a big spenders league all of his own … the Donald’s record stands first among no equals on the wall of shame.” Stockman calls Trump the King of Debt. “Ultimately, excessive, relentless public borrowing is the poison that will kill capitalist prosperity and displace limited constitutional government with unchained statist encroachment on the liberties of the people. So for that reason alone, the Donald needs to be locked-out of the nomination and the Oval Office.”

Mind you, if you follow Stockman regularly, he has a visceral animus for Trump. But despite that, if you look at the statistical facts, four more years of Trump spending, on top of the Biden era spending, will not bring economic prosperity for Americans. As government spending and the national debt grow, that flood of money will entrench inflation. It will erode

Daily Capital.

Washington Times columnist Everett Piper concluded in a July 9 editorial the following about Biden’s lying:

“How can any one man tell so many lies? Perhaps Jesus answers it best: ‘You are of your father the devil … for he is a liar and the father of lies.’

“Mr. Biden‘s behavior is not that of a goodly grandfather with a fading memory or that of a favorite uncle who spins a good yarn. No.

“Such shameless deceit is not the behavior of a decent man but rather that of a devil, and God help us that this man is our president.”

Completely undeserving of a second term. — MW

Americans’ standard of living and wealth and increasingly weaken our national defense. The higher our interest on the national debt, the less money there will be for other priorities.

We’re not overlooking the good Trump did. One of his greatest contributions was exposing just how awful and deep the Deep State is. He also raised the United States’ stature in the world. He defeated ISIS and kept the U.S. out of new wars. He accomplished much more.

But as the presidential campaign unfolds, Trump supporters should keep in mind: Knowing that people seldom change, would a second Donald Trump presidency turn the United States in a new direction and save the republic, or continue the civil war that has raged for the past eight years?

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Don’t be hasty.

Personal story: It was a Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1975. I was an intern in the news department of the Topeka, Kan.,

Martin, the assignment editor, strolled to my desk.

“There is some guy from Georgia coming to town today. His name is Jimmy — Jimmy Carter, and he says he’s running for president.

“He’s speaking today at a Democrat Party event. Why don’t you wander over there this afternoon and hear what he has to say, and then come back and write a few graphs.” No one — in Kansas, anyway — had ever heard of Jimmy Carter. But the unknown Georgian who rated only a summer intern reporter that day surprised the world.

Trump may be trumping his opponents now. But be assured: There will be a similar surprise for 2024.

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