Commentary: The real state of the union

After Donald Trump’s campaign speech that was supposed to be a State of the Union speech, Republican politicians all over the country fell all over themselves kissing up to the wannabe dictator.

Trump made numerous false and misleading claims. The falsehoods spanned a variety of topics, including the economy, climate, immigration and more. Trump also made a number of false claims about his predecessor, Joe Biden.

These politicians are proudly saying Trump cut billions in reckless spending on “far left initiatives.” They never identified where the waste was, they made the cuts indiscriminately. The reality is he fired thousands of federal workers, then rehired them, them fired them again. All this because Trump doesn’t know how to run a government. His real goal is to break down our system of government so he can stay in power like his hero Vladimir Putin.

There is a practical way to get rid of wasteful government spending without so much chaos. One way is to prioritize what is beneficial for all Americans like affordable health care, access to a good education without going into lifetime debt, addressing our homeless crises, an equitable tax system that doesn’t favor the wealthy, ensuring every American citizen has easy access to voting rights, addressing the U.S. demand for harmful drugs that have a ripple effect that touches many other aspects of our society, and many other problems that need to be addressed.

But of course, all these problems are too “woke” for Republicans to care about. Instead, Trump is focusing on extending tax cuts for the wealthy and for giant corporations the Republicans passed during his first term.

After prioritizing waste and needs, they should identify where there is waste and stop replacing people who leave that agency and offer incentives to retire or transfer to another agency where help is needed. That would take longer and actual management skills that are apparently lacking with the Cabinet leaders trump has appointed.

Republicans would rather spend billions of our tax dollars on contracts and subsidies for the richest man on the planet to send rockets up in space. How wasteful is that?

These same Republicans who have been criticizing electric cars for decades are in full support of giving President Elon Musk billion-dollar contracts to build electric cars. How hypocritical can these Republicans get?

Going back to the state of the union, the man who promised to stop inflation on day one is now saying we’re going to suffer for a while on inflation. Millionaire Trump has never shopped for groceries or for anything else. Everything he wants or needs is just brought to him anytime. He’s not going to suffer any, and he can’t imagine what suffering is for working Americans.

“Promises kept” is just another lie Republican politicians are pushing. It is always all about lies with Republicans.

On Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Trump lied that there are millions being paid to people over 115 years old on Social Security.

Republicans have started plans behind closed doors to dismantle Social Security. They started by firing 7,000 workers and more firings are in the future. President Elon Musk has said Social Security is a Ponzi scheme; that should tell you something.

Trump’s and Republican politicians’ long-term plan is to destroy Social Security and privatize it and make it a for-profit company; guess who is going to run it? My guess is Elon, Trump and Trump’s billionaire friends.

Republicans also are planning to cut what they call “waste” in Medicare and Medicaid while at the same time the liar-in-chief is saying they will not touch those life-saving programs.

Some 72 million Americans get Social Security pay and for many it is their only income. Don’t believe Republican politicians who are spreading the lie that they will not touch Social Security. They’ve already started.

Just like Trump was pushing the big lie in his 2024 campaign speeches about dead people voting for Democrats, now his is pushing the big lie about dead people getting Social Security checks. All to fool his gullible MAGA cult.

Elon is bragging he will save us money, but the Republican budget will add $4 trillion to the national debt. Bottom line, Republicans are pretending to save, but the plan is to get more tax cuts for the wealthy. Nothing conservative about that.

Beto Conde lives in Rancho Viejo.

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