The U.S.

economy under Trump

Now Trump is in power. Exactly how does he propose to keep his promise to reverse
the U.S.�s stunning industrial decline? One solution Trump is definitely not
considering is replacing capitalism with socialism�the only real solution.
Essentially, the Trump program to restore U.S. industry has four planks.

1) Trump is counting on the combination of his huge trillion-dollar tax cuts for
the rich, combined with tens of billions in additional military spending, to pump
trillions of dollars in extra demand into the U.S. economy over the next few years.

If his upcoming summit meeting with Korean leader Kim Jong-un goes well, and Trump
improves U.S-Russian relations in the face of the warmongering �Russiagate�
campaign being whipped up by the Democrats, the Republicans will be well positioned
to pose as the party of peace as well as the party of strength. This combined with
the current cyclical boom�if it continues through election day�makes a Democratic
House, still less a Democratic Senate, far from a sure thing come January 2019.

2) Trump is also removing regulations on industry. For example, pollution controls

and regulations to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
fueling global warming are being cut back or eliminated. Trump�s withdrawal from
the Paris Climate Accord, the toothless promise to reduce emissions without
specifying how this is to be done�now signed by every country in the world except
the U.S.�symbolizes this.

The centerpiece of Trump�s plan for industrial revival is simply the traditional
GOP program of doing everything possible to increase the competition of workers for
jobs in order to drive down wages and further weaken what is left of the unions.
Success on this front will raise the rate of surplus value and the rate of profit
of U.S.-based industrial production. Trump counts on a rising rate of profit, both
in absolute terms and relative to the rate of profit globally, leading to a return
of at least a certain amount of industrial production to the U.S. (2)

As part of these policies, President Trump initiated the repeal of an Obamacare

requirement that forced Americans to purchase private health insurance or face
substantial fines. The repeal of the �individual mandate,� as it was called, was
included at the last minute in the tax cut for the rich legislation. The individual
mandate�adopted by Obama and the Democrats as a �market-oriented� alternative to
single-payer health care�was the single most unpopular feature of Obamacare. As the
Republicans retreated in the face of massive popular opposition from a full-scale
�repeal and replacement� of Obamacare, they attempted to repeal just the individual
mandate, but this too failed last summer, only to pass as part of the tax cut in
December.

The idea of the �skinny repeal,� as it was called, is that young and healthy people
are now again free to go without health insurance, leaving less funds available to
subsidize private insurance plans to make them more affordable. The resulting
increase in health insurance premiums will hit especially hard millions of older
workers between 50 and 64 who are not yet eligible for Medicare. Many will now be
forced to go without health insurance altogether or buy �junk plans� that provide
completely inadequate coverage�not all that the Republicans were hoping to
accomplish but a big step in that direction.

Trump is not satisfied with the skinny repeal of Obamacare. He also proposes to
sneak in the full �repeal and replace� through his budget proposals. These
proposals would reduce subsidies that help four out of five people afford private
health insurance. He proposes to transform Medicaid from an entitlement program to
one with capped federal payments encouraging states to slash Medicaid payments and
forcing people to work for low wages in order to receive the benefit.
If these proposals become law, Ryan�s hated American Health Care Act, as the House
version of �repeal and replace� was called, will be in place for all essential
purposes.

Trump has also targeted workers� right to eat. He has proposed a cut in the Food
Stamp program amounting to $213 billion over the next 10 years.

The threat of hunger is the capitalists� most dreaded weapon, playing the same role
as the lash under chattel slavery. Centuries of class struggle have forced the
capitalists in the imperialist countries to retreat from using the threat of hunger
in the literal sense�though less in the U.S. than in other imperialist countries
where workers have historically been organized in parties, not just in trade
unions.

Now Trump is trying to expand once again the �whip of hunger� in the most literal
sense. The idea is that if unemployed workers or members of their families are
hungry themselves, they will have to accept jobs at extremely low wages and under
horrible working conditions. Up will go the rate of surplus value and therefore the
rate of profit and stock market prices.

All this, Trump hopes, will make carrying out industrial production an
attractive�that is profitable�proposition in the U.S. as opposed to countries of
the �global south.�

What Trumpism adds to the traditional Republican program is an extra dose of

national chauvinism and racism beyond the �dog whistle�-type racism practiced by
�ordinary� Republicans since the Barry Goldwater campaign of 1964. In all other
essentials, at least as far as domestic policies are concerned, the Trump program
is simply the Goldwater-Reagan program�economic neo-liberalism on steroids. It
turns out the shady billionaire businessman from New York does not have a populist
bone in his body.

3) The third plank in Trump�s program is to use the threat of imposing tariffs to
grab more of the U.S. home market�the most important component of the world
market�for U.S. industrial capitalists at the expense of industrial capitalists
carrying out production in other countries, many of whom are actually U.S.
capitalists (including Trump, by the way).

4) Finally, Trump and the soon-to-be retired Paul Ryan hope to �restore family
values��by which they mean that women should act as baby-making machines, having as
many children as biologically possible, and not that men should practice monogamy
and be faithful to their wives. For this reason, Trump, Ryan and Mike Pence
(Trump�s vice-president and successor if Trump should be ousted) want to end once
and for all the right to abortion. From the point of view of Trump, Ryan and Pence,
a woman�s body does not belong to her but to the capitalist class.

The hope of Trump, Ryan, Pence et al. that with U.S. women raising larger families
the number of workers will over time grow at an accelerating rate, further shifting
the balance of forces toward the capitalist buyers of labor power at the expense of
the worker sellers of labor power on the U.S. labor market.

The hope�particularly important for Republican electoral strategists�is that these

future workers will be to a considerable extent white, therefore staving off the
dreaded day when the U.S. ceases to be a white majority nation. A further advantage
of this approach for U.S. capitalists is that if this can actually be carried out
they will be less dependent in the future on immigrants for their future workers.
Historically, immigrants have brought with them dangerous�that is, socialist�ideas.
For example, the revival of May Day beginning in 2006 as International Workers�
Day.

One part of Trump�s program that sounded good to many voters, even some
progressives, was his promise to carry out a huge $2 trillion public works program
to rebuild U.S. infrastructure. However, this has proven to be a total fraud.
During the campaign, Trump had talked about such a program to renew and expand the
U.S.�s aging and deteriorating infrastructure. But the program he actually proposed
as president foresees a �least amount� $1.5 trillion,� down from $2 trillion. But
the real kicker is that only $200 billion will come from the federal government.
The rest supposedly will come from state and local governments, Native American
tribes, and private capital.

What Trump�s so-called infrastructure program amounts to is the privatization of

much of the U.S. infrastructure, including roads and bridges. If Trump has his way,
many U.S. roads will be converted into privately owned toll roads like many were in
the early 19th century. Supposedly, their new private capitalist owners, guided by
the profit motive, would then rebuild them. Those hoping that Trump would prove to
be enough of a populist to fight for a New Deal-like, WPA-type program have been
sorely disappointed.