Tag: Republican Malfeasance

Grifter-In-Chief Trump Ran a Grand Scam

Buck Banks

$175 million

“Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party leveraged false claims of voter fraud and promises to overturn the election to raise more than a quarter-billion dollars in November and December as hundreds of thousands of trusting supporters listened and opened their wallets,” the New York Times reports. “But the Trump campaign spent only a tiny fraction of its haul on lawyers and other legal bills related to those claims. Instead, Mr. Trump and the G.O.P. stored away much of the money — $175 million or so — even as they continued to issue breathless, aggressive and often misleading appeals for cash that promised it would help with recounts, the rooting out of election fraud and even the Republican candidates’ chances in the two Senate runoff races in Georgia.”

Pruitt Aides Made $45k Trip to Australia on Government’s Dime

Buck Banks

$45,000

“Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, under fire from lawmakers for travel and security expenses, spent about $45,000 in government money to fly five people to Australia to prepare for a planned trip that was later canceled,” Reuters reports. “Two of his aides and three security agents flew to Australia last August on business-class tickets costing roughly $9,000 each to set up meetings for the EPA administrator.”

Republican Austerity Ploys Depressed Growth by 1.2 Percent in First Quarter

Jon Ponder

You want evidence that the cuts-only austerity programs pushed by Republicans are actually designed to cause the economy to fail?

Here you go:

All things being equal, lower spending translates into slower economic growth, since it means cuts in payments to contractors, layoffs of government employees, and smaller entitlement checks. Already in 2011, softer government spending has sapped growth.

Cuts by federal, state, and local governments lowered gross domestic product — a broad measure of the total output of the economy — by 1.2 percentage points in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Commerce Department. Goldman Sachs economists estimate that the first quarter showed the biggest negative effect of government spending on GDP growth since the mid-1980s. The Commerce Department will release its estimate of second-quarter GDP today.

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