MARKET DEFEATING A PUFFY PRESIDENT

        

It’s been two weeks since I’ve posted. At 79 years of age, I’m aware that I must remain publicly active or I might be considered gone to my ancestors. So I’m alive and writing to say that, while enjoying retirement at close to 80 years, I still can’t help but note that:  

The President of the U.S. is Tweeting again.

Huffily tweeting as always. This time: PUFFING UP AND GLOATING about the GLORY of TRADE WARS.

He tweets about trade wars and the stock market takes nose dive. Every American with a retirement plan or personal stock or bond investments suffers loss. Mortgage rates rise and housing prices begin to sink. That's making us great? Will Trump accept responsibility for losing his cool and our savings?

Trump claims responsibility for great-great economic growth. He appoints a Federal Reserve chief. The new Fed President testifies before a Senate committee that more interest rate increases are coming in 2018. (A sensitive American president could have suggested Powell take a softer tone.) News of the hawkish testimony flashes across monitors everywhere and the stock market turns down. Will Trump accept responsibility for the flash crash?

I feel for Trump, the man. So far as I know, he’s never defined what “. . . America great again” means.  His actions may define his thoughts. He seems confused. He seems PUFFY. The market defeats puffiness. Defies it.

Here’s a few helpful thoughts for him:

Make certain that America is reducing, not creating, global warming. That would yield greatness.

Stop the puffy ballyhoo about infrastructure spending. Where we need it (roads, bridges) spend it. But wisely. Don’t ballyhoo. Actions speak much louder than tweets.

Cure the bigger cause of government debt: the rising cost of federal health care spending for Medicare, Medicaid, and V.A. health care. The freedom and justice approach to stopping this higher and higher pyramid of profit is to stop government subsidies to medicine producers.

My M.D. ordered a groovy new medicine for me. The pharmacy made a robo-call to inform me that the medicine was ready for pickup so I walked a half-mile uphill to the store to get the med. The cute clerk behind the counter said, “Are you aware of the cost?”

“How much?”

“$603 dollars, or $301 dollars with your insurance.”

I decided to stick with my current, old, effective, low-cost med, even though the new med offered some advantages. Cost for me with insurance? $0.00.

A friend of mine in Yuma reported that he parks in the U.S., then walks across the border into Mexico and chooses one from among the many drug stores. He spends six dollars for a drug. Back on the American side the med. would cost $300 for the same quantity.

How can president help pharmacists in the U.S. gain business back from Mexico and Canada? Build walls? That’s just PUFFY. Greatness would be gained a different way.

Here’s a path to greatness. Free Medicare, our beloved national health care plan for the elderly, to negotiate prices of medicines with our own manufacturers. The result would be much lower prices for elders and all other age groups. Greatness.

Trump did seem to concede a bit of territory on gun control and that was good. But was his statement a mistake on his part?  Will he follow through? I think I remember him doing/saying something else that's not wrong, but I can't remember it exactly. That’s my age  showing, but not my point right now. My point is that I’m looking for the great from him. Every Sunday I join millions in praying for him to build a path toward justice and peace. So far I’ve seen only weirdness.

To the President I propose: “Just do the good thing. The right thing. The humble, the just, the freeing thing. That’s how you’ll make America great again.”