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Trump and Musk Aren't Reforming Our Government -- They're Sabotaging It By Jim Hightower
As Trump & Co. hurl horror after horror at us from the murky darkness of their extremely wasteful "war on government waste," I think of Lily Tomlin, who said years ago: "No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up."
But no need to swat frantically at their every assault. Their Blitzkrieg against everything at once is an intentional ploy to divide us into small, separate scrambles to save this and that, rather than rallying a unified, furious opposition to them. The evil is not in the budget cuts, but in the cutters.
Second, let's be clear that their war-on-waste is NOT about eliminating useless taxpayer expenditures. Note that Elon Musk, President Donald Trump's silly "efficiency czar," ignores such walloping waste as Pentagon boondoggles and tax scams for uberrich hucksters ... like him.
But — by gollies! — those budget-whacking plutocrats are fearless when it comes to killing essential benefits for regular people. A longstanding energy program, for example, helps low-income families across America pay to heat their homes in bitter winters, and to cool homes in areas of brutal heat. It saves lives — efficiently! — being administered by a staff of only 25. But this month, Trump's government reform thugs stormed in, fired all 25 and shut down the program. As Sen. Ed Markey said, "This isn't reform. It's sabotage."
But no need to swat frantically at their every assault. Their Blitzkrieg against everything at once is an intentional ploy to divide us into small, separate scrambles to save this and that, rather than rallying a unified, furious opposition to them. The evil is not in the budget cuts, but in the cutters.
Second, let's be clear that their war-on-waste is NOT about eliminating useless taxpayer expenditures. Note that Elon Musk, President Donald Trump's silly "efficiency czar," ignores such walloping waste as Pentagon boondoggles and tax scams for uberrich hucksters ... like him.
But — by gollies! — those budget-whacking plutocrats are fearless when it comes to killing essential benefits for regular people. A longstanding energy program, for example, helps low-income families across America pay to heat their homes in bitter winters, and to cool homes in areas of brutal heat. It saves lives — efficiently! — being administered by a staff of only 25. But this month, Trump's government reform thugs stormed in, fired all 25 and shut down the program. As Sen. Ed Markey said, "This isn't reform. It's sabotage."
https://www.creators.com/read/jim-hightower
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