A Government Funded by Donations?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Trump is flying off to the Far East today for a week of making our Pacific allies nervous, while our country continues to deal with the Republican government shutdown here at home, something Trump, in his usual leadership style, barely acknowledges and refuses to discuss.  

Our military is paid every two weeks and for their first paycheck during the shutdown (October 15th), the government "found" unused money in the Pentagon's always-bloated budget to meet that payroll.  The next payroll is this coming Friday, October 31st, and it looks as though that one will also be met, primarily with a charity assist from an anonymous donor friend of Trump's.  The secretive donation of $130 million was earmarked by the donor for military pay.

How do we feel about that, America?  Having private donors pay our military?   Many of us were raised to have an ingrained sense of loyalty to the people provide us with the means to secure housing and pay for groceries.  In a major crisis might not donors to the military have some expectations as to preferential treatment by the military?   Private money flowing into military paychecks opens many avenues for self-dealing and corruption.

And Donald Trump also says he is passing the hat among his oligarch  supporters for donations to build his new vanity ballroom addition to the People's House, a public residence where he is a temporary tenant.  The cost has now ballooned to $300 million without a single nail yet to be hammered (up from last week's estimate of $200 million), and, as with all government projects, the price tag is sure to go higher as construction gets underway.

But Trump says to not worry, because his rich friends will fund the entire thing.   "Our" house will have an add-on that America's filthy rich will no doubt feel is more "theirs" than it is "ours."

Point One:  I don't like that any more than I do donations to the military.  If it is our house, we should plan and pay for all modifications, and, of course, if we are paying, the project would need to go through Congress (where the money bills originate) for review and approval - and Don the Builder doesn't want Congress making decisions about His ballroom.

Point  Two:  Will that huge public donation also include the cost of the shameless demolition of the historic East Wing of the White House?   If We are paying for it, We should have had some say in the matter - through Congress - and Congress was woefully uninformed on the matter.

Point Three:  What happens after all the tacky gold fixtures are installed, the final ticket price stretches to the billion dollar neighborhood, and the donors begin backing off their pledges.  Will We have any say in the matter when We are stuck with the final bill?

Hell, no!

I hope that Democrats can come up with a presidential candidate who is forceful enough to turn that albatross of a building into something that will benefit the general public - the world's largest food pantry, perhaps, or a refugee resettlement center - and I hope that Trump is still around to see it happen.

How can a human being spend eighty years on this mud ball and not do a single thing to benefit those less fortunate than himself?  It boggles the mind!

Release the Epstein files!