Trump cheats at golf - the ONE and ONLY politics thread

But that's not a high bar and not the picture painted this week. On economy
the bleeding was stopped and we have been threading water but ready to sink
fast as soon as the fed raises rates. Foreign Affairs have been awful. Just look at how our relationship with Israel is deteriorated as a start.

 

Why is a deteriorating relationship with Israel a bad thing? Honestly, why do we give $3 billion a year to a prosperous state perfectly able to take care of itself to say the least. I know the answer is votes and money for American pols, but that doesn't seem like a compelling state interest to me. As for the economy, it is slowly improving. Making it improve more quickly for more people would require changes in fiscal policy I am not sure you would support.

 

We're also unlikely to see it again in our lifetime.

 

Wrong. Our economic recovery has been strong and steady. There wasn't an economist to be found in 2009 that wasn't predicting an "L' shaped recovery and that's just what we've had. The Obama administration's interventions, the auto industry bailout in particular, though obstructed by the GOP at every turn, were largely successful in preventing a far worse disaster. FYI, we're in the second-longest bull market in history and the incremental rate increases you'll see will be barely noticed.

Our relationship is with Israel, not with Bibi, who is an asshole on the level of Trump. The Iran deal was absolutely the right thing to do. If you don't think so, you'll need to outline a plausible alternative because the multilateral sanctions were not going to continue no matter what the U.S. decided.

 

You mean Congress might have policy preferences at odds with the President? Of all the nerve! What the hell is this country coming to?

 

Austerity in the face of a recession is dumb on the level of trickle down economics. We should have had the biggest infrastructure program in history when we needed it the most and borrowing was cheap. It's still not too late for that and it should still be a priority, but it really made sense in 2009 and would have put millions of people to work.

 

You don't cast aside your loyal friends. But who knows maybe Obama and Netanyahu decided to play 3 dimensional chess and have tried to make it look like we don't get along to aid negotiations with Iran. Triangulation politics

The economy is being propped up by artificial interest rates

 

Could not agree more but too much money needed for Obamacare to do an infrastructure program. I certainly can't recall the White House making a push for it. Solar Energy seemed to be their thing.

 

There is no such thing as "artificial interest rates." If the market wasn't willing to purchase government debt at such low rates, rates would go up. Surely you believe in free market finance.

 

Hmmmmm ... If that were true, isn't it a shame that when you and your pals had control of Congress you didn't focus more on infrastructure and less on all those "shovel-ready" projects we kept hearing about?

 

Ahem ...