Economy

This is the real looting, right in front of us.   The American people deserve to know how their money is being spent.  We need full transparency.  Elected officials and the citizens resisted firmly on this and late last week, we won.... for now.

The U.S. has spent more than half of $3 trillion in economic rescue funds passed by Congress -- with little of the oversight intended to ensure the money goes to the right places.

The Trump and Republican takeover of agencies that they hate and seek to destroy continues....

Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman who has given millions of dollars to the Republican Party, including the Trump campaign, has been named the nation's new postmaster general.  DeJoy has contributed more than $1.2 million to the Trump Victory Fund, and millions more to Republican Party organizations and candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records. He was also in charge of fundraising for the Republican National Convention.

We've written about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a dozen times on Smart Dissent.  In years past we would have rehashed the basics and shared those links but we are so, so far past that at this point.  The CFPB was created to protect us.  That's why "protection" is in the name.  The Trump administration is seeking to undermine and destroy it.  Simple enough?

Millions of families need federal help right now for the food, shelter, income, and health care they need.  The absolute last thing Congress should be doing is shoveling money to boost the profits of defense contractors.  No. Just no.  But.... 

The Pentagon will ask for billions of dollars in the next version of a stimulus package to help defense contractors hit by closures or other effects of the coronavirus pandemic...

At Smart Dissent, we focus on specific actions taken by government and their actual or potential impacts, often topics not receiving any mainstream attention.  Please permit us to stray from that this once.

A network of right-leaning individuals and groups....has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country.... being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.

Another inexcusable proposal by the Trump administration.  Maybe our title saying "shockingly" is wrong because what's shocking about Republicans seeking to harm people?

New White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is working with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to see how to reduce wage rates for foreign guest workers on American farms, in order to help U.S. farmers struggling during the coronavirus...

U.S farmers who say they are struggling... the industry was already hurting because of Trump's tariff war with China.

On April 1, 2020, if not for a court’s injunction, the Trump Administration’s cruel rule to take food assistance away from hundreds of thousands of Americans would have gone into effect.  SNAP, known for decades as "food stamps," is for families to put food on the table. Food so children don’t have to go to bed hungry.   SNAP gives on average just $1.40 per meal. It lifts 8 million out of poverty. And Republicans are eviscerating it.  

As the old refrain goes, “Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” However, for the corporations and the wealthy, there is no certainty about paying taxes at all. In fact, in the United States, evading taxes has become as simple as creating a shell company in Bermuda.

In 2018, health experts warned Trump: putting tariffs on medical products would hurt US preparedness for pandemics. He did it anyway.  

Now, Trump's tariffs are contributing to shortages at the time of a national health crisis.

An alarming unintended consequence of Trump’s misguided trade war with China has suddenly threatened to cripple the US fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration’s tariffs on Chinese medical products may contribute to shortages and higher costs of vital equipment at a time of nationwide health crisis.

The Budget Cuts Series for the fiscal year 2021 continues this week.  These cuts reflect what Trump and his Republican administration want to do to our country.  Most of it will not be implemented because Democrats will block it.  These cuts are so completely absurd that it’s no wonder Senate Budget Committee Republicans don’t want to hold a hearing on his budget.