'When presidencies go wrong': Economist says Trump may fall into trap that will 'doom' him https://www.rawstory.com/trump-economist-will-doom-him/
Elon Musk is going to love this. The only question being if it will hurt Tesla competitors more than it hurts Tesla. Exclusive-Trump's transition team aims to kill Biden EV tax credit https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-trumps-transition-team-aims-172748188.html (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling U.S. EV transition. And yet representatives of Tesla - by far the nation's largest EV seller - have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Elon Musk, one of Trump's biggest backers and the world's richest person, said earlier this year that killing the subsidy might slightly hurt Tesla sales but would devastate its U.S. EV competitors, which include legacy automakers such as General Motors. Shares of Tesla fell 5.5% to $311.77 in afternoon trading on Thursday. Repealing the subsidy, which has been a signature measure of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), is being discussed in meetings by an energy-policy transition team led by billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the two sources said. The group has had several meetings since Trump's Nov. 5 election victory, including some at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, where Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has also spent considerable time since the election. Representatives of Tesla, GM, Ford, Stellantis and the Trump transition did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing nearly all major automakers besides Tesla, also did not immediately respond. The alliance last month in an Oct. 15 letter urged Congress to retain the EV tax credits, calling them "critical to cementing the U.S. as a global leader in the future of automotive technology and manufacturing." Elon Musk, one of Trump's biggest backers and the world's richest person, said earlier this year that killing the subsidy might slightly hurt Tesla sales but would devastate its U.S. EV competitors, which include legacy automakers such as General Motors. Shares of Tesla fell 5.5% to $311.77 in afternoon trading on Thursday. Repealing the subsidy, which has been a signature measure of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), is being discussed in meetings by an energy-policy transition team led by billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the two sources said. The group has had several meetings since Trump's Nov. 5 election victory, including some at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, where Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has also spent considerable time since the election. Representatives of Tesla, GM, Ford, Stellantis and the Trump transition did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing nearly all major automakers besides Tesla, also did not immediately respond. The alliance last month in an Oct. 15 letter urged Congress to retain the EV tax credits, calling them "critical to cementing the U.S. as a global leader in the future of automotive technology and manufacturing." Killing EV tax credits is strongly supported by Hamm, a long-time Trump supporter, along with most of the broader oil-and-gas industry. The president-elect promised before the election to boost U.S. oil production even as it has hit record highs and to roll back President Biden’s costly clean energy initiatives, which in addition to the EV credit include subsidies for wind and solar power and the mass production of hydrogen. WHY TESLA COULD BENEFIT Tesla has over the years been the biggest beneficiary of EV tax credits like the one in Biden’s IRA legislation, along with similar credits that preceded it. And yet it now may stand to gain from killing the subsidy because that could hurt rising EV competitors more than Tesla. Musk himself pointed out as much in a July earnings call when asked about the possibility of losing the subsidy, along with battery-production tax credits, under a Trump administration. Tesla had a market share of just under half of all electric vehicles sold in the third quarter of this year, according to data from Cox Automotive. Other automakers with notable U.S. EV sales such as GM, Ford and Hyundai, individually trail far behind. But Tesla’s U.S. EV rivals collectively have in recent years steadily eroded its market share, which exceeded 80% in the first quarter of 2020.
Food prices worried most voters, but Trump’s plans likely won’t lower their grocery bills https://apnews.com/article/trump-grocery-prices-inflation-economy-b69a367ebb7dafe416b8f99b94256cf5
It's all about the grift. 'Conditions are ripe' for Trump's friends 'to loot the place from top to bottom': analysis https://www.rawstory.com/trump-corruption-ripe-2024/ The New Republic's Greg Sargent has written a lengthy article about what he believes will likely be unprecedented corruption within the second Trump administration. In particular, Sargent notes that this time Trump didn't even make a pretense of obeying any kinds of ethics rules, which he believes he will interpret as a green light to blatantly enrich himself at the public's expense. "There are several reasons to fear this could amount to a level of oligarchic corruption that outdoes anything Trump did in his first term," Sargent explains. "In short, conditions are ripe for right-wing elites to try to loot the place from top to bottom." Sargent says that Democrats' loss of control of the United States Senate means that they now no longer have investigative tools to dredge up embarrassing dirt on the administration, and in particular will close up probes into the promises that Trump made to oil executives and into Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's firm receiving a massive influx of foreign investment from countries such as Saudi Arabia. “The next four years are going to be a smash and grab under Trump,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) told Sargent. “Special interests who put Trump back in office expect a return on their investment." Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, pointed to the way that Trump is letting X CEO Elon Musk push a policy agenda as evidence that there will be no guardrails on corruption and looting. "Trump is showing that he will reward people who help him by giving them tremendous influence over his administration,” he said. “This will encourage more people to direct their largesse Trump’s way. We expect government to look out for the public interest. Trump is open about the fact that government is meant to serve his supporters, business partners, and friends.”
MAGA allies eye drastic Medicaid and food stamp cuts to fund tax breaks for rich: report https://www.rawstory.com/trump-health-food-cuts/ Donald Trump and his allies are floating the idea of major cuts to Medicaid and the food stamp program in order to offset some of the budget deficits created by their desired new round of tax cuts for the rich, reported The Washington Post on Monday. The new tax cuts are a huge priority for Trump and his allies — in particular extending the provisions of a 2017 tax cut bill that are set to expire. The corporate tax cuts in that bill were made permanent, aside from some subsequent tweaks to corporate taxes made under the Biden administration, but the individual income tax cuts are set to run out at the end of next year. Republicans and their strategists, according to the report, are discussing "new work requirements and spending caps for the programs, according to seven people familiar with the talks, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Those conversations have included some economic officials on Trump’s transition team, the people said." However, these sources said the ideas are "preliminary" and Trump's allies are concerned about "the political downsides of such cuts, which would affect programs that provide support for at least 70 million low-income Americans." The previous Trump administration allowed states to add work requirements to Medicaid coverage in a series of pilot programs. Experts widely consider these experimental programs to be a failure, as they threw tens of thousands of low-income people off of health coverage without making any noticeable change to employment figures. The Biden administration later rescinded authorization for these programs. Despite the track record, House Republicans again tried to force a nationwide inclusion of work requirements on these programs during a budget standoff in 2023, as a condition for authorizing a debt ceiling increase and preventing a default on U.S. credit. Ultimately, Republicans backed down from this and settled for more modest reforms.
the poorest of the poor (dumbest of the dumb) will gladly give their last cent to make musk and bezos a little bit richer.
I mean c'mon. Everyone needs to pay their fair share so that the government can throw money down the toilet like this. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...kes-japanese-quail-more-sexually-promiscuous/ DOGE Shares Obscene Examples of Government Waste: Nearly $1 Million to See if Cocaine Makes Japanese Quail More Sexually Promiscuous