Thread by @Stonekettle

This is the most amazing concentration of utter horseshit.

I mean, this is such a spectacular load of manure it should come with a full page 4th of July advertisement touting how it'll make roses grow a foot per day and produce blooms the size of a small child.

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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1142806204898582528

Nothing Trump just said is true. Not one word of it.

Tariffs most certainly NEVER paid for the highways, nor for the US military except perhaps as a tiny fraction of the General Fun.

Trump's statement is utter nonsense.

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Following WWII, the US signed an agreement with 20+ other countries, granting concessions or completely removing tariffs on more than 45,000 products. That treaty was called GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and was signed in Geneva on October 30, 1947.

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In 1949, the US signed an amendment increasing that number to 50,000 products. GATT took effect on January 1st, 1948 and was expanded in 1950 to include 34 countries and cut tariffs ANOTHER 25% below the 1948 agreement.

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GATT was again revised in 1956, to decrease tariffs even further.

That same year, the US Federal Highway Act, which created the national highway system, was signed into law on June 29 -- eight full years after the US had dropped tariffs for most imported products

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The Interstate Highway system was NOT paid for in "CASH" from tariffs as Trump claims, but rather through the National Gasoline Tax, which was (and still is) paid into the Federal Highway Trust Fund. THAT's what pays for the highways.

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The military has never been paid for "with CASH." Ships, aircraft, weapon programs, military infrastructure, all are budgeted over years, sometimes decades, and paid from the US Treasury General Fund and state funds (for the National Guard). It's complicated, and ...

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... the allocation very often includes money we don't actually have, but hope to have in the future. Sometimes we don't get that money, and the programs are cancelled or significantly down-scaled as a result. OR, we borrow the money from ourselves or from foreign nations.

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As to wealth, treasure, and jobs, I barely know where to start.

It's such an idiotic statement that only a complete fool utterly ignorant of how modern business and basic economics work would buy into it.

But, then, that's the world we live in, one run by fools.

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If Ford makes car parts in Mexico at a plant Ford owns and they pay Mexican Ford employees for that labor and Fords get parts in turn to make Ford cars at some other Ford plant, maybe in Ohio, then they haven't lost ANY money at all and in fact MADE A PROFIT.

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Products are made in other countries because American companies, like Ford, do not want to pay American workers a living wage, because American companies do not want to have to expend the capital to build factories that don't pollute or don't kill their workers...

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... because the American business model is profit over all.

As a result of offshoring, the shareholders and CEOs of those companies make ENORMOUS amounts of money -- VASTLY more wealth than they did back in the decade following WWII.

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Trump's statement about Mexico stealing wealth makes absolutely no sense and is utterly and completely wrong -- WEALTH was the whole point of sending those jobs to Mexico in the first place.

We're not losing wealth. WEALTH IS THE WHOLE DAMMED POINT.

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I have no idea what he means by "treasure." Have we been trading National Monuments to China or something?

And as to the debt, that's the most ridiculous part of his statement.

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The ONLY time the national debt has been manageable and near zero is when government income matched government spending. And the ONLY time that has been the case in the US is when US companies and the rich paid taxes at marginal rates proportional to their wealth AND...

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... the defense budget was a MUCH smaller proportion of government spending.

And I am all about returning to that time. Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Tax the rich. Stop buying war. Yes, indeed, let's do THAT.

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Trump's comment is either a deliberate lie, or a staggering level of ignorance writ large.

Or, it could be both, I suppose.

This is ridiculous. This is insane. Our country is insane. We HAVE to stop tolerating this ongoing effort by conservatives to whitewash history.

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Addendum: Something significant I want to make sure you see

Trump says other countries "steal our wealth, treasure, and jobs." Wealth. Treasure. Jobs.

Wealth, he says American wealth is stolen away to other countries.

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Why then does Trump not advocate for strict penalties on AMERICAN businesses that stash their money in overseas accounts to avoid paying US taxes?

During the 2016 campaign, Trump claimed American business had hidden as much as $5 TRILLION overseas. He suggested giving...

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...those companies a tax break so they would bring that money back to the US. A repatriation tax. Trump dismissed the critics who argued that such tax break would simply be another windfall to corporations and their shareholders.

And that's exactly what happened.

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The GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the rate on accumulated overseas corporate earnings. Those riches, trillions of dollars, then flowed back to the US -- where the money was used for stock buybacks and shareholder payouts with NO measurable impact on employment investment.

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In other words, the rich got richer and the rest of us got screwed.

But here's the thing I think most everyone, especially Trump supporters, miss: No only did that wealth NOT MOVE JOBS BACK TO THE US, but when Trump talks about bringing those jobs back to the US...

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... he NEVER talks about a living wage, about those jobs including comprehensive healthcare, about holding American business to high standards of safety, modernity, environmental protection, energy efficiency, training, sustainability, investment into the future, etc.

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Trump says "Wealth, treasure, and jobs" in that order.

That context is significant.

When he says "jobs" he's not talking about jobs from a worker's viewpoint, but rather as another form of wealth and treasure, a property of BUSINESS like cash or other asset of value.

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It's obvious, from the context of his personal history, from his words, from his actions, from those he associates himself with.

When Trump says "bring back wealth, treasure, and jobs to America" he doesn't mean those things for you or me.

BUT FOR THE SHAREHOLDER.

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