re: Trump was brutally honest with the American people today about his tariff policies.

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Most Americans are economically illiterate and truly believe we can just keep spending without any consequences indefinitely

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This current POTUS doesn't seem to be serious about curbing the deficit either. The real spending is entitlements and he won't touch those. All this DOGE stuff is peeling the outside of the apple.

Couple that with further tax cuts, and we aren't making any progress.

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This current POTUS doesn't seem to be serious about curbing the deficit either. The real spending is entitlements and he won't touch those. All this DOGE stuff is peeling the outside of the apple.

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He can't cut entitlements because of the optics of giving tax breaks to higher income earners while cutting benefits to the poorest would absolutely destroy his credibility.

You can't cut out entitlement system without hurting the working class and you can't balance the budget without touching entitlements or raising more revenue

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think more people are beginning to understand the devastating repercussions of US trade policies over the past 30-40 ye


It’s becoming very obvious, via the Great Society of LBJ and the devastating trade policies which wiped our domestic manufacturing off that map, that our leadership has a vested interest in keeping us poor, miserable and utterly dependent on government.

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If the US can't produce it's own critical industrial/manufacturing products it's not truly a sovereign nation.

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You do realize that our manufacturing output today is the highest it has been since before 1980....by quite a bit

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That is a bit deceiving. Now look at per capita.

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You can't cut out entitlement system without hurting the working class

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The "dependent" class.

We're keeping their industries open with life support. I'm sick of bailing out autoworkers.

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You do realize that our manufacturing output today is the highest it has been since before 1980....by quite a bit

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Yeah, just like a lot of government statistics today the stats are adjusted and massaged to tell a story that's palatable to the masses. A lot of shite that's consider industrial output today would not be considered industrial/manufacturing output 30-40 years ago and it is not heavy industry or critical products, products that would keep the US from being held hostage by our enemies.....like the CCP.

I would have to go look at US industrial output from 1980 to see what comprised industrial/manufacturing output in 1980 vs today. Then compare the percentage of industrial/manufacturing output as a total GDP in 1980 to the percentage of industrial/manufacturing output as a total of GDP in 2024

My guess is a lot of shite that is being considered industrial/manufacturing output today would not be considered industrial/manufacturing output 30-40 years ago.

Here's one chart,



Another table,


U.S. Manufacturing Output - Historical Data
Year Billions of US $ % of GDP
2021 $2,497.13B 10.58%
2020 $2,238.53B 10.50%
2019 $2,364.32B 10.99%
2018 $2,330.11B 11.28%
2017 $2,192.93B 11.18%
2016 $2,098.27B 11.16%
2015 $2,123.24B 11.61%
2014 $2,045.62B 11.62%
2013 $1,987.18B 11.77%
2012 $1,927.32B 11.86%
2011 $1,863.74B 11.95%
2010 $1,791.74B 11.91%
2009 $1,693.76B 11.70%
2008 $1,804.39B 12.22%
2007 $1,848.32B 12.77%
2006 $1,794.74B 12.99%
2005 $1,692.92B 12.98%
2004 $1,609.52B 13.17%
2003 $1,525.60B 13.32%
2002 $1,470.28B 13.45%
2001 $1,472.93B 13.92%
2000 $1,549.44B 15.12%
1999 $1,488.89B 15.46%
1998 $1,429.60B 15.77%
1997 $1,379.89B 16.09%

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…sick of bailing out the autoworkers

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I absolutely agree that we should not bail out large corporations that are inefficient. The unions that were a part of causing them to be inefficient should not be bailed out either. It infuriated me when companies like Chrysler were given tax dollars to stay open…

However, we should not be subsidizing the Chinese government and rich US stock speculators as they screw over both the Chinese people and the the American middle class by moving manufacturing from the US to China and paying slaves wages to the Chinese people.

We've had a democrat presidents stumping for union autoworker contracts.

Solely blaming the automakers, that are forced by labor laws to negotiate with the Marxist unions, is disingenuous.

*The UAW came into being during FDR's presidency. The "New Deal" guaranteed workers the right to unionize.

The unions should have been thrown out of the automakers back in 2009 but there is no way Obama was going to do that.

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We just spent billions….

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Do you want me to agree harder with you on this point? We should not be propping up an industry inside the US.

However, fair trade with another country should have an analysis of what tariffs, penalties, etc…. that those countries levy against us; and we should reciprocate. That appears to be what Trump is attempting, we will see what happens next…..