'Atlanticist' Merkel rams home frustration with Trump after summits

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9 hours ago, Trouble said:

N. Korea, M.East, Pakistan region, S. China Sea are all flash points. It's the last 8 years of appeasement by the US and other world leaders which have only added the the problem.  I can't point to anything done by the USA in the last eight years to stem the buildup of China in the South China Sea or of the North Koreans with their programs nor was much effort made to lead the world in the effort.  None of the things you mentioned had anything to do with Trump, and the current Administration has found itself with numerous flash points they must now deal with due to past lack of resolve.  As for Merkel, well she has been a leader in totally <deleted>*ng up Germany and most of the EU with her lead on allowing massive numbers of immigrants into her country.  We will see how that plays out in the future.

 

I sure hope Trump is the real deal because the policies of the past are likely to bankrupt the US. Just how long can the US fund a larger share of NATO and the UN, give billions in foreign aid and run trade deficits with almost every country with which it trades, and fund every social program the left says is needed,  and not go broke in the process?  Sure Trump is a bull in a china shop but he is a pragmatist as well.  He knows, as should every American, that living on the credit card has consequences. But unfortunately the critics only see him as someone who wants to do away with social programs, ruin the environment, and put the breaks on some of the programs the left seems to value so much, regardless of the need. Global warming with ever greater portions of the population without good jobs and an economy that can't pay it way well it's a no-brainer to me. I am not advocating not taking the environment into consideration but with India and China going full steam ahead, the US needs to make up the difference?   The US taxpayer is now funding medical care for 1/3 of the population. There is about 130 million Americans on medicare and medicaid costing about 1.2 trillion per year.  Add to that food stamps, aid for dependent children, school lunches, unemployment payments, and on and on and on.The US is turning into a welfare state where only a fraction of the population is productive. 61% of the population is 19-64 or working age. I can't begin to tear the 61% apart because there are unemployed, those on disability, mothers not working. college age kids and others living at home. One has to wonder what percentage is actually working to support the economy. Now let's give free college education to the mix, college loan debt forgiveness, etc. and all I can see is more debt.   Somethings got to give somewhere.  So if Trump is not the sensitive ideologue that Obama seemed to be, so be it. We do need a reality check.  Because if something does not change we are on the way to bankruptcy and anyone who has kids should be worried about that.

So much wrong here but here's the big one: Do you realize that Trump has proposed massive tax cuts? Cuts that even conservative analysists say would result in a huge increase in the deficit? And his justification for that? That the tax cuts will pay for themselves through increased business activity and increased revenue. This has never worked but Republicans keep on invoking it.