Dear Friends,                                                                                           Open Letter          

to Trusk: Listen to Steve! I know, I know, he can be very annoying, so bombastic, and then all those shirts. But he’s on to something here, a game-changer. I know you are both deep students of history, so I don’t have to explain to you how Benjamin Disraeli, hated by them all, saved the Tories by passing the Second Reform Bill (1867). Well, Steve has something just as good: stop all this namby-pamby-molly-coddling of corporations and billionaires cutting their taxes all the time: increase their taxes! and by a lot!! a whole lot!!!

Yes, they’ll moan and groan and whine … how can you be so cruel to us when we’ve done so much for you? But you have the answer: Tough Love!

In the meantime, increasing corporate taxes, etc., will increase aggregate effective demand (though you may want to stay quiet about that), it will also enormously decrease deficit and debt: and you know what that means? You won’t have to put an ax (or a chainsaw – great visual, Elon) to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. You do know, don’t you that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are quite popular among the little people?

What Steve says is that in the last couple of decades, corporations have used tax decreases not to increase investment, but to make stock buy-backs that improve their market position. Here he is agreeing with my friend the economist Bill Lazonick. So: Steve, meet Bill Lazonick; Bill, meet Steve Bannon.

Anyway, Trusk, Mump, whatever, go for it! Do Disraeli proud! I know that’s one of your deepest wishes!

With all due* respect,

… a decent respect …

*ahem 

Love and solidarity,                                                                                                                                     Bobby