Pelosi's infrastructure 'sabotage': Blessing in disguise for Trump?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is no novice politician.
Shortly before she was scheduled to meet with President Trump this week to discuss infrastructure she decided to “nonchalantly” tell reporters that her party believes President Trump is engaged in a “cover-up.”
After this, Trump cut the infrastructure meeting short and demanded that Democrats end all investigations of him and his administration before he will negotiate with them on any policy deals.
There can be little doubt that Pelosi’s move was strategic and planned – most likely because the Dems do not want to give Trump any more wins before the 2020 election. His administration has already achieved the lowest unemployment in nearly fifty years, the fastest wage growth in a decade, solid GDP, along with millions of new jobs, tax cuts and more. Infrastructure would add to his already long list of fast accomplishments.
But even before the infrastructure talks broke down, the odds were quite high against such a deal -- which was targeted at $2 trillion in funding. While of course our crumbling roads and bridges need repair and upgrades, how can America afford such an ambitious package? The bottom line is: we cannot. It would most likely mean higher taxes -- which is not on the Trump administration’s agenda.
Not to mention all of this is happening against the backdrop of Social Security on the verge of deficit spending for the first time since 1982, which was a financial crisis. In fact, the government reported that we had reached deficit spending on Social Security in 2018, but has since revised their figures to state that deficit spending will not occur until next year, 2020.
Whatever the case, if we have spending problems now, they will be small ant hills in comparison to the financial needs we will have as the Baby Boomers begin to retire en masse in just three short years.
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Our government does not discuss what is coming, because they know the math does not add up -- and math is not something that can be faked. So perhaps Pelosi making the calculated comment and effectively terminating any chance of bipartisan work on a massive infrastructure package was really a blessing in disguise for President Trump.
Rebecca Walser is a licensed tax attorney and certified financial planner and author of the book Wealth Unbroken, who specializes in the strategic planning of maximizing lifetime wealth while minimizing tax through her practice, Walser Wealth Management . She earned her juris doctor degree from the University of Florida and her Master of Law degree in taxation from New York University. She is a frequent national media contributor.