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Trump is still trying to sell tax cuts for the wealthy to Middle America

by Brad Bannon, opinion contributor - 01/31/18 4:32 PM ET

Last night in his maiden State of the Union speech, President Trump did the voodoo he does so well.

Voodoo means two things to Trump. Voodoo is the spell he weaves when his tries to convince the public that his fantasies are real and not fake news.

Voodoo economics is the term of art for his economic program. George H. W. Bush famously dubbed Ronald Reagan’s economic recovery program as “voodoo economics”.

Reaganomics and Trump policy is based on the fantasy that tax cuts for big business and for corporate America would trickle down to Middle America. Under Reagan and the George W. Bush, the 1 percent and GOP campaign contributors got a vacation from paying taxes while all the 99 percent got was a lousy t-shirt emblazoned with the word “sucker”. Trump’s tax cuts are more of the same.

{mosads}Last night the president focused on the benefits of his tax plan which is not surprising since it is the only major Trump initiative that has been approved by a Congress controlled by his own party. Part of the Trump fantasy is his claim last night that his tax cuts were the biggest in American history.

The president tried to convince the public that tax cuts for corporate America and wealthy Americans are good for working Americans who supported him in 2016. Middle-class Americans voted for Donald Trump in the mistaken belief he would make sure they would share in the prosperity wealthy Americans have enjoyed in the last few years. He called his tax cuts “a new American moment” which sadly may be true. His tax cuts may be the straw that broke the back of working families in the U.S.

Well, the recession never ended in Middle America. The president touted the record-breaking surging Dow Jones index. But success on Wall Street does not translate to economic recovery on Main Street in the industrial Midwest. Unemployment is low but most of the jobs created in post-recession America are gig jobs which are temporary and come without health insurance.

The “recovery” such as it has not registered with the public. A new National Research Center survey indicated the economy is near the top of the list of public concerns.

During his speech, the president did not even mention one of the biggest economic problem facing the nation, income inequality. The growing level of income inequality is a cancer that threatens the nation. In the Democratic response, Rep. Joseph Kennedy III of Massachusetts criticized the president for favoring wealthy Americans at the expense of the poor and middle-class Americans.

The Pew Center poll shows that six in every 10 Americans (61 percent) think the federal government does “too little” for the middle class. About the same number (64 percent) feel the feds do “too much” for wealthy people.

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Most political scientists think that democracy is a product of a strong middle class. But the middle class is on life support and the democratic process is in the next bed in the same Intensive Care Unit.

The president failed to discuss the other problems that threaten the United States. He made no mention of the dangers of climate change or the need to create racial harmony in a society that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates will be majority nonwhite within 30 years.

Donald Trump’s lack of concern for these looming challenges will eventually come back to bite him, and the nation. in the butt. But the president’s attitude is: don’t worry be happy.

Before the speech, the debate in D.C. saloons and watering holes was concerned how long Trump would survive as President of the United States. After the speech, the debate should be about how long the United States can survive with Trump as President.

Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster and CEO of Bannon Communications Research. (There is no relation to Trump adviser Stephen Bannon). He is also a senior adviser to, and editor of, the blog at MyTiller.com, a social media network for politics. Contact him at brad@bannoncr.com.