The Trump Economy

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by txdot-guy

• Started a massive worker deportation program.

OK, maybe this should be called the Txdot "Post #25 in Blackman's Trump Economy" club. I agree with most of Txdot's points, although I believe two or three are more benign than he does.

Txdot's first problem with the Trump economy are the deportations. Well, duh, yeah. Illegal immigrants account for about 5% of the U.S. workforce. You get rid of them overnight in a tight job market and there will be consequences.

Furthermore, if, in the words of Howard Lutnick, we bring all those jobs back to America, screwing screws in Iphones, who's going to do them? I'm sure as hell not going to abandon my job and join Lutnick's army. Who's going to toil in the fields, clean the office buildings, do low-skilled construction work? Americans don't want to do this stuff. They'd rather get paid more for easier, higher-skilled work.

Why not convert otherwise law abiding illegal immigrants into guest workers? Places like Singapore and the UAE have lots of guest workers, and they have a higher standard of living than we do. They can all have their own maids! If that comes to America, mine will be big breasted and Cuban or Venezuelan.

And then there are the legal immigrants. We should switch over to a points based system for people who enter the USA on a citizenship path. Admit the scientists, doctors and nurses, mechanics, engineers, etc. And be more generous with the visas. I'm listening to an 8 part podcast on Modi, the Indian prime minister, and one of the people interviewed is a tech titan who created companies in India worth billions. He originally came to the USA on a student visa, studied at Wharton, then got a job with Microsoft. His intention was to work there a few years, then go to Silicon Valley and create a startup. But he couldn't get a visa to continue with Microsoft. So instead of starting billion dollar companies and providing lots of good jobs in the USA, he's doing it in India.

There are an average of 1.6 children born to each female in the USA. If there's no immigration, the population of the country will shrink from 340 million to about 225 million by century's end. That will have adverse affects on the economy. Given the shell game we've got going to fund entitlements, who's going to pay for social security and Medicare with a declining population? And this would affect national security too. The only way the USA is going to stay ahead of China as the world's #1 economic and military power is if its population grows (or declines less) than China's.

Trump says he wants more immigration of highly skilled people, but then he just lets Slimy Stephen Miller do whatever he wants to do. Which is keep out more of the highly skilled.

[txdot-guy]

Originally Posted by txdot-guy

• Started a massive worker deportation program.

It’s not just the deportation of migrant workers that’s the issue. It’s also the disturbance of our labor market due to the change in our enforcement system.

The OBBBA allocated an extra 170.7 billion dollars to homeland security for enforcement through 2029. That is a huge increase in manpower that will now go to immigration enforcement rather than to the private sector.

Reference: https://www.americanimmigrationcounc...rder-security/


As well as the use of the National Guard which also removes labor from the private sector.

According to the Washington Post the number of Americans missing work for National Guard deployments or other military or civic duty is at a 19-year high. The highest deployment level since 2006, when President George W. Bush deployed the National Guard to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Southwest U.S. border in large numbers.

Reference: https://archive.ph/j7BPw


The effort in money, time and labor required will just exacerbate the upcoming labor shortage.

Wouldn’t it have been better hiring some of those law school graduates and putting them on the bench to deal with the backlog of immigration cases rather than spending the money on shooting our economy in the foot?

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by txdot-guy

Wouldn’t it have been better hiring some of those law school graduates and putting them on the bench to deal with the backlog of immigration cases rather than spending the money on shooting our economy in the foot?

Good idea. There's a big surplus of lawyers in the USA, and a lot of them just sit around all day thinking of ways to sue people. Why not implement a draft for lawyers? We could send Blackman to Presidio with a set of law books, an AR-15, and one of those "Lady Justice" statues where the woman's blindfolded and carries a scale of justice.

It wouldn't have to be expensive. Maybe we pay him $40,000 a year, which will be plenty to get a boink a week across the border in Ojinaga and still pay his bills. He could be the law west of the Pecos! I, perhaps alone on the board, honestly can't think of a more noble calling than what Blackman does now, defending Exxon in court. But as you rightly imply TxDot, it's insane not to get immigration cases done and over with in days or weeks instead of having them drag on for years. And someone has to do it.

[1blackman1]

Hegseth, beat ya to the idea. JAG lawyers will start doing this soon.

[Why_Yes_I_Do]

Originally Posted by txdot-guy

...It’s also the disturbance of our labor market due to the change in our enforcement system...

So what changed, exactly?!? The law or the adherence to the law? Frankly, one could ask the same question on border adherence.

Seems all it took to close down the open boarder was adherence to the existing law. Why should it be any different with enforcing immigration laws?!?

[txdot-guy]

Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do

So what changed, exactly?!? The law or the adherence to the law? Frankly, one could ask the same question on border adherence.

Seems all it took to close down the open boarder was adherence to the existing law. Why should it be any different with enforcing immigration laws?!?

Do your own research on the money and labor allocated by the OBBBA and come to your own conclusions.

[Lucas McCain]

Any farmers care to weigh in about this latest news and the beauty of tariffs in your sector?

Looks like some people at the US Department of Agriculture are about to lose their jobs for providing this false data!

It may be wise to bring back some of those evil illegals for some much needed Ag help.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-fa...194004993.html

Agricultural exports lagged imports by $4.97 billion in July, a gap 9% wider than a year earlier and the largest on record for the month. That pushed the sector’s deficit to an unprecedented $33.6 billion for the first seven months of the year, according to data released Monday by the US Department of Agriculture.

The widening farm trade gap this year has been mostly driven by a jump in imports, just as Trump slapped tariffs on other countries in a push to shrink the overall deficit. That further cements a shift that has been building since the president’s first term, with a sector that has long run major trade surpluses becoming a consistent net importer.

[Precious_b]

Gawd! I love looking at all the deflection and refusal to accept blame for the way things are going.

Maggies will always try to stretch things back to joey, obama, and way back to Clinton, who they still choke and knash their teeth not being able to say Billy gave the last balanced budget.

[Why_Yes_I_Do]

Originally Posted by txdot-guy

Do your own research on the money and labor allocated by the OBBBA and come to your own conclusions.

Lemme see if'n I'm following the bouncing ball: So I had asked 3 questions and you responded by asking a question. So I'll answer yours.

Besides avoiding raising taxes of over $1.4 TRILLION on American citizens, because a previous Congress made the cuts temporary, it included funding to enforce our existing immigration laws that previous Congresses had passed without funding the enforcement thereof, not to mention a previous administration who left the doors wide the hell open.

[Why_Yes_I_Do]

Originally Posted by Precious_b

Gawd! I love looking at all the deflection and refusal to accept blame for the way things are going...

Where did you say "joey" fit in on the chart below?

[Why_Yes_I_Do]

Friendly reminder: It's almost check day in NY

...From the pulpit on Sunday, Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed the predominantly Black congregation at True Bethel Baptist Church about the state’s upcoming inflation rebate checks.

“Checks are coming out soon. Watch the mail. Okay. Okay. Don’t spend it all in one day. Get something you really need. Okay. Don’t stop by the liquor store. Okay. Buy something for the kids. Buy them some food. Sometimes I have to stop by the liquor store, too. I understand. It’s alright, it’s alright,” Hochul remarked...

For context: About those rebate checks...

...New York State is issuing its first-ever inflation refund checks as part of the 2025–2026 state budget, providing one-time payments to eligible residents to offer relief from increased sales taxes due to inflation...Eligibility is based on filing a New York State Resident Income Tax Return (Form IT-201) for the 2023 tax year...

Wasn't that inflation under the "joey" administration, or whomever the heck was running it?

[texassapper]

Yeah... I voted for this.

[offshoredrilling]

Originally Posted by Why_Yes_I_Do

Friendly reminder: It's almost check day in NY For context: About those rebate checks...Wasn't that inflation under the "joey" administration, or whomever the heck was running it?

in NYS it's known as the "buy your vote check"

[RX792P]

We'll just send all those able bodied Medicare recipients to farms etc. to fulfill their work requirements.

[sand247]

Originally Posted by Tiny

Why not convert otherwise law abiding illegal immigrants into guest workers? Places like Singapore and the UAE have lots of guest workers, and they have a higher standard of living than we do. They can all have their own maids! If that comes to America, mine will be big breasted and Cuban or Venezuelan.

That's a good plan, there will be other consequences of that though. Most of the illegals get paid waaaay below minimum wage, with no FICA/FUTA/SUTA costs to the employer. So the costs would go up 300% overnight. I'm not sure how that would play out in the market, but I would back that plan all day. If they're here, working, housed, etc, get them a "Guest Visa" to sort things out. If they're here, not working, on assistance, off you go back to your home country.