Unless President Trump reverses course, the “Lower Prices Bigger Paychecks” banner that hung behind him at his “affordability” speech this month will be remembered as being to economic policy what President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner was to foreign policy.
According to a Politico poll, many Americans are having difficulty paying for food, housing, transportation, and health care. Thirty-seven percent of Americans cannot afford to take their family to a professional sports event while 46 percent of Americans cannot afford airfare for a vacation.
For an increasing number of Americans, the affordability crisis is compounded by the firing crisis. Last month, approximately 120,000 small business workers lost their jobs — the highest one month decline in small business employment since the covid lockdowns. Large businesses including Amazon, Verizon, Target, and Apple are also laying off workers.
The affordability crisis began in 1971 when President Nixon severed the last link between the US dollar and gold. This removed any restraint on the Federal Reserve’s ability to pump money into the economy, leading to a continuous dollar devaluation. The decline in the dollar’s purchasing power is the real cause of the rise in prices and decline in living standards.
Fiat currency may be bad for the average American, but it is great for the welfare-warfare state and the special interests that benefit from it. This is because the fiat money system enables the Federal Reserve to monetize high levels of government debt via purchases of Treasury securities, thus making possible the explosion in government spending and power we have experienced the past fifty years. The fiat money system is also responsible for the bubble-boom-bust economy that has plagued America.
President Trump promised to reduce federal spending and end “Bidenflation.” Instead of keeping his promise, President Trump, with the help of the Republican Congress, increased spending. As a result, the federal debt is now over 38 trillion dollars and will soon exceed 39 trillion dollars.
Much of President Trump’s spending increases are on so-called “defense.” Most of this spending goes to “defending” other countries and meddling in conflicts in which the US should not be involved. Spending on militarism will no doubt increase further as President Trump prepares to launch an unconstitutional war against Venezuela. These bad policies are a betrayal of President Trump’s promise to avoid starting new wars, put an end to ongoing wars, and pursue a foreign policy that puts the American people’s needs ahead of the demands of the military-industrial complex, the deep state, and their lapdogs in Congress, the media, and the “policy community.”
President Trump still has time to regain the support of disgruntled MAGA voters who are wondering what happened to the man for whom they voted. A good first step would be for President Trump to oppose the massive National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) currently before Congress unless it cuts spending by taking pro-peace actions such as closing some of the about 750 military bases the US maintains around the world. Savings from closing these bases can be used to start paying down government debt and take care of those dependent on government programs as Congress winds down the welfare state. Additionally, President Trump should support legislation forbidding the Federal Reserve from purchasing federal debt instruments. He should also support auditing and ending the Fed. Limited government, free markets, sound money, and peace are the way to make America great again.
