Documents released by the White House under ethics rules have confirmed the staggering wealth of President Trump’s senior advisers and officials. The documents, recording the estimated assets of officials at the time they took office, show that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have a property portfolio and business empire worth as much as $740m, and earned a total of $195m last year. Other wealthy officials include Kellyanne Conway (up to $42m), Steve Bannon (up to $48m) and economic adviser Gary Cohn ($250m). Sean Spicer, the president’s much-mocked press secretary, is also a millionaire several times over, recording assets worth up to $6.6m.
We have a lady who comes to clean the house. She came originally from Guatemala (and is here totally legally). She had no healthcare for her son, and we helped her get him enrolled in Medicaid. This week we learn that the Trump regime intends to slash spending on this scheme, which is designed for poor people and those not part of part of insurance schemes organised by their employers.
The blatant cruelty of this Administration will no doubt be rewarded by them being thrown out of power at the earliest opportunity. But in the meantime our cleaning lady has to live with uncertainty, fearful that her son will become ill. This is order to reduce Federal spending so that the rich Republicans can get a tax reduction. Epicurus taught us to seek peace of mind. This regime seems to be devoted to destroying it. How else can one interpret their actions?
Perhaps worst of all, Trump won’t even get spending down by much, if at all. Just like Reagan, his domestic spending cuts will be more than offset by an increase in the already bloated defence budget. This, combined with extravagant and unaffordable tax cuts for the rich, will almost certainly increase the deficit relative to how high it would have been had Clinton been elected. So the GOP won’t even succeed on its own terms, apart from perhaps to cut taxes for the rich. Meaningful tax reform is a scant possibility. All this, in exchange for more suffering for those like your Guatemalan cleaning lady. The pointlessness of it all is what frustrates me the most.