Opinion: Trump's Economic Policies Undermine Democracy and National Security

BY TIM LIBRETTI at Politicus USA

Opinion: Trump’s Economic Policies Undermine Democracy and National Security

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/12/21/opinion-trumps-economic-policies-undermine-democracy-and-national-security.html

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In the last Democratic debate, candidates challenged the narrative that record-setting stock market performance and historically low unemployment rates signal the success of Trump’s economy.  They countered describing how this economy is failing most Americans. Despite low unemployment, wage stagnation means people work multiple jobs. The high cost of housing and healthcare are leaving people with insufficient access to either.  Trump’s tax cuts disproportionately enriched corporations and the wealthy. In short, the “booming economy” is just another massive transference of wealth from the middle and working classes to the top wealth hoarders.

This story, while accurate, is also incomplete.  There is another damaging dimension to Trump’s economic policies that pundits have not substantially pursued, and that is the way these policies operate both domestically and internationally to undermine the U.S.’s national security and thus, whether or not by Trump’s own intention and design, serve the interests of our foreign adversaries not only by damaging the lives of the majority of Americans but weakening the U.S.’s influence on the global stage.

Despite his protestations of “no puppet,” Trump’s effective allegiance to Vladimir Putin has been well-documented.  We recently learned, for example, that Trump might actually believe the story he’s been peddling that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election to undermine his chances.  Why does he believe it? Because “Putin told him.”  Our national intelligence sources mean less to him than the pronouncements of a foreign dictator who has no interest in strengthening, but only weakening, a healthy, prosperous, and secure democracy and economy in the U.S.

And let’s not forget that long before that the Republicans were complicit with Trump in altering the Republican platform at the 2016 GOP convention to weaken support for Ukraine, thus making the Ukraine more vulnerable to Russian aggression. Putin could not have penned the platform any more favorably for Russia.

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