Let's put some lipstick on that pig

The remaking of Donald Trump is well underway. His surrogates and other apologists spend their time explaining that the words Trump uses don't mean what they always mean. Meanwhile, the party grandees are taking a different tack. Their strategy is to convince party loyalists and other gullible voters not to worry because Trump will be under their control. They will try to teach him, like some parret, to say words more acceptable to those they are attempting to deceive.  Both Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell deplore Trump's latest pronouncements but suggest all he has to do is say it differently. Along these lines, Ryan is busily setting forth  agendas  for the House of Representatives. These are the sort of things that a president should be laying out. Their scheme is somewhat transparent. They hope to convince voters that Trump will be a mere figurehead, and that Ryan and McConnell will act as a sort of Edgar Bergen to Trump's Mortimer Snerd.

One may think that Trump will be somewhat less tractable than these two think. The bigger question is whether voters will be as gullible as they hope. The jury is pretty clearly out on that one.

Ignore trump

Years ago I was involved in some financial litigation. In those days deposition practice was rough and ready. One of the opposing lawyers was a real jerk. Constantly made frivolous objections and threw tantrums about anything he could imagine. One of the lawyers on our side knew how to handle him. He simply let him rant, did not respond and then continued. This drove the other guy crazy.

As usual, yesterday Trump held a press conference and all the networks obligingly televised it. This for some strange reason is called earned air time. What needs to be done is that when Trump calls his press conferences they should not be televised. The networks can be there to get soundbites but do not give him free air time. Then, the networks could air whatever sound bites they find it necessary accompanied by intelligent comment. Comments such as " once again Trump had no specific plans for the economy, trade practice, foreign relations, and the like." He never does. Instead of giving him free airtime, simply expose him for the bloviating buffoon that he is.

Utah's republican hitman

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz has consistently demonstrated that in a relentless campaign of self aggrandizement he will do anything to impugn or obstruct elected democrats or members of the Obama administration. He began his career when the Democrats controlled the house of representative as sort of a designated obstructionist. He would make frivolous points of order in order to slow down or obstruct the business of the house. As chairman of the oversight committee, he relentlessly conducts"Investigations" designed to embarrass members of the administration. He now wants to impeach the head of the IRS. This all stems from IRS staff members questioning the applications for tax exempt status of various 501(c)4 organizations primarily filed by republican groups but also some democratic groups. Those organizations are not supposed to get engage in primarily political endeavors. The ones whose Applications were held up were quite obviously form ed for no other purpose. In fact the IRS should've summarily denied their applications.

Even by the low standards of Utah elected officials, Chaffetz is a total embarrassment. That probably means he will have a long career and probably become a US senator.

Does conservative mean?

The Republicans continue to argue about who is a real conservative. Good question. Those of us who are older can remember that when Pres. Kennedy try to get Congress to pass a tax cut lowering the then marginal high rate of 91% he was stymied by conservative Republicans. They were worried about balancing the budget. Starting with Reagan at least,"Conservatives "never see a tax cut they don't like. If revenues are too high they cut taxes, if growth is too low they cut taxes and I am quite sure they believe cutting taxes will cure cancer. On the deficit side, when Reagan tripled the national deficit and was asked if he was not worried about the big deficits he was running, he said "they are big enough to take care of themselves. 'Cheney said deficits don't matter. All of the current candidates, Particularly Trump Cruise and Bush propose tax cuts creating anywhere from $6-$10 trillion in deficits in a decade. But Of course they claim these tax cuts will create incredible growth, thereby erasing deficits by increased tax revenues. The most charitable thing said about such voodoo economic proposals is that they are"implausible ".

Traditionally conservatives were isolationists as far as foreign-policy is concerned. Now the neocons seem to have taken over and they never see a potential invasion of another country that doesn't appeal to them. The foreign policy statements of the current republican candidates are so muddled and contradictory that is impossible to know what a "conservative" foreign-policy would look like.

Conservatives we're traditionally for free-trade. The current republican presumptive nominee appears to be in favor of erecting trade barriers. He and Paul Ryan apparently disagree on this.

So, what does being a conservative mean? It means whatever you wanted to mean, and if you are a candidate it means whatever that particular candidate says at any particular time. Or, as Shakespeare said it is sound and fury signifying nothing.

The Donald Trump Etch-a-Sketch

Donald Trump has initiated his economic Etch-a-Sketch. Over the weekend he reduced his tax cuts by about $4 trillion. Exactly how he will do this is more than somewhat unclear. Meanwhile, the two parties, Particularly the Republicans, engage in fantasy economics. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders continues to indulge in proposals that are both impossible from a budgetary standpoint and politically. Even if some miracle produced a democratically controlled House of Representatives, it would not except Sanders proposals even were he to be president, which you will not be. Hillary Clinton is closer to the truth but she is only nibbling around the edges. She should concentrate on an infrastructure building program and the creation of an infrastructure bank. Each could use public and private partnerships.

As far as one can tell, the Republicans remain mired in deep deep fantasy. They pursue the notion that tax cuts solve all problems. Recall the budgets that Congressman Ryan proposed circa 2009 and in 2012. They proposed hey plan that would create growth in GDP approximately 5 to 7 times greater than historic information would suggest as possible. They appear to be variations on the Laffer curve theory that didn't work during the Reagan administration. He also proposed cuts in social welfare programs. The net effect of his proposals would reduce the amount of money going to people with high marginal consumption rates and provide more money to people and corporations that are already awash with cash. It won't work.

When I was young it was thought that technology would free people from repetitive drudgery. In fact that is occurring. We need less people to produce things. Also the effect of globalization has caused a structural element of unemployment. Finally there is demographics. The result of all this is that we have more work eligible people that our economy needs, at least on the private side. We also are increasingly becoming a service economy. The public and private spheres of our economy have always been complementary. They need to be so increasingly again. We need to get rid of nonsensical political ideological problems and address reality. Work needs to be spread around more. If private enterprise can't supply jobs, the government will have to Stepien. For political reasons that would be best if it were done with of like private partnerships. Government is not going to get smaller. It can't. But it can get better. One way or another, we have to put people to work. As it is apparent in our inner cities, the lack of jobs causes social breakdown and cascading personal and societal problems. It has got to be corrected.

It just gets worse

After being obliterated in Tuesday nights voting, Ted Cruz reached out like Dracula from his coffin to grab Carly Fiorina as his"Running mate." This is the same person who refused to admit her planned Parenthood abortion claims were fabricated, notwithstanding incontrovertible evidence to the contrary; who claims to have risen from secretary to CEO when she actually started her business career with a degree from Stanford and an MBA; and who claimed a successful career even though her stint at Hewlett-Packard what's so disastrous they paid her over $20 million dollars just to leave. This may be the worst presidential ticket of all time. They are well suited to each other as either will say anything in order to advance themselves.

Although this is indeed a Hail Mary pass by Cruz, it probably was tactically a good move. He needed a game changer to have any chance of winning Indiana and thus staying alive. Fiorina helps with the women's vote, particularly because of the stupid remarks Trump made about her looks. And, as noted, Fiorina is an unrepentant disassembler. With these two on the hustings, politifact will have to hire additional staff.

Today's Republican comedy hour

Today Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a cooperative plan to stop Donald Trump. Neither is quite able to be forthright about this. They talk of more effectively using their individual resources and try to claim its about each of their individual campaigns.

It requires going far beyond the willing suspension of disbelief to accept the notion that Ted Cruz gives a damn about who the Republican candidate is if it isn't Ted Cruz. One of the wonderful ironies about this campaign is that had Donald Trump not been so successful, Ted Cruz would've long ago been cast on the rubbish heap of unsuccessful republican candidates. He is living proof that one of the successful methods to employ if you are a candidate is to be conniving and unprincipled.

John Kasich has just been sucker punched. His only chance was in a brokered convention that would reject both Trump and Cruz. He needs to be promoting himself and attacking both Trump and Cruz now. With this latest maneuver, his goose is cooked.