Ronnie vs. Donnie - 3: Domestic Policy


Posted On: Friday - December 7th 2018 10:44AM MST
In Topics: 
  Immigration Stupidity  Trump  Americans  US Feral Government  Dead/Ex- Presidents

(continued from Part 2)



In this post, I will include discussion of the existential Immigration issue, though it could easily be considered foreign policy too (the subject of Part 2).

The times are/were indeed very different, those of the Reagan vs. Trump presidencies. Just the financial situation is a world different, both the sorry state of the US economy today vs. in Reagan's time, and the part directly due to government, the spending and the national budget and debt. President Reagan had a chance to stop the out-of-control growth in spending by the Congress, to some degree. He did have the House (the branch that spends the money) in Democrat hands the whole 8 years, by 20% to almost 40%, but NOT so the Senate, which was 12% to 20% in the GOP's favor (see When did the Feral Government get OUT OF CONTROL?). Mr. Trump had the slight House and Senate majorities for the 1st 2 years.

I don't think either of these men did a good job in reining in spending. The debt has been going up steadily (perhaps steadily on a log-scale) since before Reagan's time. Mr. Reagan could not take care of this himself with the Democrat-held House, but then he supposedly had this general deal with them. The defense budget would have to be increased to build back up the military and hold our own in the Cold War (we did a lot better, it turns out!) The D's were supposed to cut the welfare state portion of the budget in return. Keep in mind, they were different D's than that of today. Some of them were much more conservative than the R's of today. Anyway, Mr. Reagan, like that mild-mannered guy in Fargo reckoned "but it's my deal here, see ..." No, the deal was not honored, or, in hindsight, there was no deal after all, apparently.




President Trump wouldn't fall for any deals, as he doesn't have that misplaced trust (except for his ill-picked advisors) that Reagan did. Trump has to fight everyone, and any deals he does seem to make are bad deals (more on this re: immigration). Mr. Trump is no Libertarian to begin with, so I wouldn't have expected him to purposefully make any headway in cutting back THE STATE. (I figured if he'd kept his foreign policy promises, and scaled back the US military, the budget may get a break, unintentionally.) In addition, the Republican-"led" Congress of '16-'18 did not consist of many of the Reagan-era types who were actually Conservatives. He had to deal with the Paul Ryans and other scum who will not be of any help in any conservative policy. That is a big disadvantage that Reagan didn't have, even WITH a large-majority Democrat House of Representin'.

Neither president stopped the Feral Gravy-Train juggernaut, nor did any of the guys in between.

Mr. Reagan was a real conservative, almost a Goldwater Libertarian in his principles. No, he didn't lead in that way, as his one of his first campaign promises reneged on was the one in which the brand-new Department of Education would be nixed. It had just been put into place during Jimmy Carter's presidency to FULFILL a campaign promise as payback for votes from the teacher's unions. (Yes, it IS much more easy to fulfill a big-government campaign promise - why do you ask?). Working against the Democrat-led spending body those whole 8 years did not help him, of course, in this respect. Mr. Trump has had the legislative branch on his side for 2 years, but, again, they are not the conservatives of yesteryear (or any year), and Mr. Trump never said he was a fiscal conservative or libertarian. So, in other words, WE CAN'T WIN like this, hence the doom coming, per Peak Stupidity's many posts on Global Financial Stupidity.

On the subject of the immigration invasion, this is where President Reagan's naivety and trust cost Americans dearly, as Peak Stupidity explained here regarding the 1986 illegal alien amnesty, and as regretted by Mr. Reagan later per his own words. In the case of President Trump, because the situation is so much farther along, meaning WORSE, now, immigration was his most important issue. Put it this way: he wouldn't have been in office today, if he hadn't have railed about this problem from the day he stepped out of his hotel in 2015. What's he done? I don't think anything of major note could be said in regards to the current president's accomplishments here. It's just been a shitshow, I'm very sorry to say. I refer the reader simple to the Immigration Stupidity Topic Key for much more discussion.

In summary, accomplishments in domestic policy to make things better for regular Americans did not happen much during either of these presidencies. That's not to say it's been any better with the 4 jokers in between either, BTW. As a comparison between the 2 men, though, Mr. Reagan failed due to misplaced trust along with the impossibility of getting his way in beating against the wall of the large Democrat majority. Mr. Trump is failing due to misplaced trust in his advisors, lack of understanding of what his powers are, and large distractions from the Lyin' Press. I'll get into the relationship between these two Presidents and the media in the next round of Ronnie vs. Donnie.

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