Original art by Mark Valentine
Washington pundits have spent a lot of time talking about Donald Trump…
They all seem to agree that his support is based on anger towards the government. They all seem to agree that he’s not a “normal” politician. They all have their theories about Trump’s rise in the polls while saying politically incorrect things. And they tend to agree that he’s a master at manipulating the media.
Yet they’ve all missed the big signal Trump’s candidacy sends to the nation.
We have passed a tipping point and there is now more money in government than in the private sector. And Donald Trump has been in the hunt for money his whole life. He’s not changed, America has changed.
Now government jobs are attractive even to successful capitalists.
Look at the numbers.
The year 2015 signaled for the first time in history that the majority of Congressmen are millionaires. President Obama’s net worth has risen 450% since he ran for office. Bill Clinton is now in the top 10 richest presidents in history with a net worth of nearly $60 million. It’s especially on point to note these last two presidents because they never worked in the private sector.
The Left wants to get money out of politics, however clearly, that is not happening by voting Democrat. Maybe this would be a good time to mention that Al Gore is worth over $200 million.
The Right wants to have a smaller Federal Government. Clearly, that is not happening by voting Republican. The growth of Washington has never slowed under their control. This might be a good time to mention the 2015 tax revenue taken from the private sector will be close to $4 trillion.
The median sale price of a house in Washington DC is over $500k. The same house would sell for $145k in Kansas City. The median salary for a Federal worker in Washington is $102,000. The median household (not individual) income in Kansas City is $45,000.
Keep talking about your theories of why Donald trump is topping the polls.
Tactics are amusing pieces of conversation. Pundits can display their big brains and take their bows. But it may be more important to look at why he wants to be president.
Has anyone noticed that the canary quit singing in that coal mine?
the effect of money in government has surpassed anything anyone ever
could imagine. McCain said it about citizens united…we will have the
biggest bribery scandal ever seen in history!!!!!
The 4th estate is woefully short of the number of fu*ks it should give about this issue. The pukes on both sides of the aisle have made themselves wealthy with insider knowledge and back room deals which would embarrass the Borgias.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/12/democrats_the_real_party_of_the_rich.html
Nancy Pelosi has skirted the edges of impropriety and illegal activities in acquiring wealth for decades. It was so bad, that even 60 Minutes had to take her to task.
The Republicans are, from a ethical and moral standpoint, even worse. Mouthing platitudes and concerns about immigration and the gutting of the middle class, they, none the less, achieve election and sinecure by way of betrayal of the electorate they represent.
I doubt Obama even worked a Lemonade Stand in his entire life. Kleptocrats and the Traitor Class Elites run this country soup to nuts, hence, the Trump phenomenon.
You didn’t mention The Clinton Foundation. Taking in 550 million dollars and delivering 75 million to actual charitable causes. This used to be indictable behavior and no doubt, the same malfeasance is apparent on the other side of the aisle. Maybe that is why there is no prosecution in the works (Like that was ever gonna happen.).
Nice article in my opinion.
“The Republicans are, from a ethical and moral standpoint, even worse. Mouthing platitudes and concerns about immigration and the gutting of the middle class, they, none the less, achieve election and sinecure by way of betrayal of the electorate they represent. ”
I didn’t make clear, that Republicans are in the tank for multi-national corporations who need cheap labor and donate extravagantly to them.
Sorry.
boy…the old man chuckles the clown can’t stop with the hate. Read tkc
and then see this man is 24/7 raging mad about everything in his life.
Needs some help.
The guy wakes up hating everything!!!!!!!! Sad.
Chuck, I understand your willingness to believe what fits your bias, but the facts don’t support you.
Most of Apple and Microsoft money goes to Dems
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/01/capital-rivals-apple-versus-microso/
Dreamworks is huge with 99% going to Dems
Comcast is huge with 65% to Dems
I am not saying who wins this battle. I am saying the real facts make it hard to say my right butt cheek is so much better than my left butt cheek.
More importantly, I am saying there is more money in government for our rulers than there used to be. Choosing which bat you want to hit you seems like a bad solution.
Mark, I don’t disagree.
“The division in America is not “Democrat” versus “Republican,” but rather a division that places in one camp all the politicians who derive their power and their wealth from the federal government. Let us call the first political party the “Party of Washington,” a gaggle not only of politicians, but federal judges and entrenched bureaucrats, as well as the media, which is assigned to cover Washington.
Every time the federal government does anything, these folks get a piece of the action. Legislation is passed, executive orders are decreed, rules are adopted, and judicial orders are pronounced, with all the members of the Party of Washington gaining something, even as so many of them protest that they oppose a particular action.
The Clintons are perfect examples of the Party of Washington. They have grown fabulously rich without really doing anything at all except broker power and rake in hundreds of millions of dollars. Hillary never goes anywhere unless she is surrounded by her Praetorian Guard of Secret Service agents, and she indifferently combines correspondence that is government property with correspondence that is purely private. The federal government is, to these folks, something to use for personal gain.
Because the gravy is so thick and rich, everyone in the Party of Washington gains when the federal government undertakes some task. The counties surrounding Washington are the richest in America – perhaps the richest in the world. ”
I believe that the Progressive, American suicide the left so ardently espouses is far more virulent and incipient than the sometimes equally pernicious initiatives on the right, but, they should all be acknowledged in my opinion.
You left out that sanctimonious, self absorbed puke from Facebook.
By the way, bias should be an ever shifting needle that moves with the acquisition of new information in my opinion.
neat artwork valentine…you are very talented…..like trumps big head and big
mouth …lol
The Ogala and other Nations of the Great Plains cared not for the white man’s way. They wanted to be left to their lands and their lifestyle. But the government found a few who would “speak for all their people”. They became known as hang-around-the-fort Indians. Happy with the scraps the Great White Father brushed off his table and uncaring for the poverty and theft of the majority.
That’s what we have today, government policy dictated by those who will benefit the most from it while leaving the rest to fend for themselves.
Trump’s foray is just another example of practical politics main purpose is to control the contracts.
Congressional districts have been gerrymandered by both parties so they are safe havens for the party. With victory assured there is no need for any loyalty but to the party.
The Republicans have the dumbest programs but the Democrats are always willing to say, Hey, I can F it up even more.
The typical American today is a third-class citizen, The two parties are The Beast With Two Heads, trying their best to be THE party of special interest monies.
Nothing incites to money-crimes like great poverty or great wealth. Mark Twain
Great topic Mark. I don’t really disagree with your point about money and politics and there are slimeballs aplenty from both sides of the aisle but once again you play fast and loose with your facts and make other statements that really have no bearing on the point you are trying to make. In no particular order they are;
” The median sale price of a house in Washington DC is over $500,000″ Great. The median sale price of a house in San Francisco, is over $1,000,000. What does that matter ( although Kerouac will tell you that’s because SF is the defending World Series Champion).
” It’s especially on point to note these last two presidents because they never worked in the private sector” Never??? You checked that out, right. Interesting because they both worked for private law law firms prior to their entry into politics.
“We have passed a tipping point and there is now more money in government than there is in the private sector” Not sure what you are really saying there. If what you are saying is that by being in government/politics, you can eventually make more money in the private sector, then that has credibility. “Now government jobs are attractive even to successful capitalists”. Huh ??? Obama’s wealth is overwhelmingly the result of two book deals. First of which was written prior to his Illinois State Senate run and the second prior to his run for the presidency. Last time I checked, book deals are private sector business transactions. Speaking fees are private sector transactions as well. Gore’s wealth is almost completely the result of his investments and private sector business deals. Money to be made is to be made in the private sector. Congressmen leave office to make the big bucks as lobbyists. It’s private sector money that works to influence government. One doesn’t get into government to make money. Once they are in government, they leave government to make more money. I don’t disagree with you on your points about money in politics but I think you are not giving the private sector credit for making individuals on both sides of the aisle, extremely wealthy, far beyond what they could ever make in the public sector.
Anyway, thanks for this piece. You are starting to get better on your political offerings but your research in providing accurate facts to support your points needs a bit of work, still.
CNN, not exactly a conservative think tank, seems to think, that Al Gore’s insider, sell out of his failing news network for a cool 70 million is insider malfeasance as usual. Gore is such a piece of sh*t.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/07/opinion/kurtz-gore-al-jazeera/index.html
His pretense that Al Jazeera is anything other than a megaphone for folks who make this country’s Progressives look like Barry Goldwater is preposterous.
I and the American people are “Gravely Disappointed”.
al Jazeera is a mainstream tv channel. And it has some
incredible documentaries….not the old al Jazeera.
I sure hope that smaller government isn’t a hopeless gesture, although with all the new gimicks that were just signed into law, it does look nasty. As far as the nuts and bolts go, filing and suspending social security is a thing of the past, and the stretch IRA is gone too. They caught the same train, but in the battle, the Congressional rich gave themselves some new weapons. As to that 4 trillion that the government is expecting, well the stimulus rebuilt our infrastructure, unemployment did not go over 8%, and didn’t we have to come to a budget agreement earlier tha expected because actual tax collections were running behind projections. Perhaps, in Kansas, it is another, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” moment.
Now, as to Trump and Clinton, the silly season is coming to you first, by way of name recognition, and second, by virtue that the candidates, Republican and Democrat, are our trained monkees. Who cares what they say, as long as they bash the opponents, or in Trump’s case anyone in sight. This is actually a three dimensional race with the FBI potetially poised to scoop one of the players off the field, based on pass interference three plays ago. Add in Benghazi, Paris, e-mails, Syrian refugees, and the start of the employer mandate, and that 4 trillon projection seems to flit a little further out of our grasp, as we remember second grade math that any tax rate times no income or profit is no tax revenue. The econommmy is only 18 trillion per year, and with an 18 trillion debt, why don’t we just work for free for a year? The key will be how government can charge you more in taxes without you recognizing it. Truth in taxing.
“the median salary for a Federal worker in Washington is $102,000”
What’s the source of that? OPM shows that only GS-13 & above can earn >$100k in the DC area, and those are pretty senior roles: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2015/DCB.pdf
In any case, comparing that to the median KC salary is a different population: the typical GS-13 has at least one advanced (post-bachelors) degree, while the median KC household has two earners with high school diplomas.
The Six-Figure Club: Average Federal Employee Salary in the District of Columbia Still Over $100,000
The average federal employee in Washington, DC now makes $101,263. But, while the average federal employee salary for those working in Washington, DC is still in the six-figure pay club, this figure has gone down. In September 2010, the average salary for this group of federal workers was $101,757 so the average has dropped about $500 from September 2010 – September 2012. The average figure is for salary alone and does not include the cost of the federal benefits package.
http://www.fedsmith.com/2013/01/09/average-federal-salary-rises-despite-pay-freeze/
The point is that our money is being concentrated in Washington.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203752604576641683529031952
Should I start doing footnotes?
good read.