Mega-Wealthy Americans Are Having the Best Time; Most Americans Aren’t

Mega-Wealthy Americans Are Having the Best Time; Most Americans Aren’t

“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things… They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.” 

Donald Trump, April 1st at a private Easter week luncheon at the White House

The Big Beautiful Bill provided huge tax cuts to the rich, requiring offsetting reductions in Medicaid, SNAP, Medicare and some belt tightening in Social Security. Still, this fully unjustified windfall to the wealthiest in the land added trillions to the national deficit, which bears a rolling interest rate that all taxpayers absorb. For those with investments in the right places, war is good for business. Already, investors have enjoyed share boosts from chip shortages and the AI frenzy, but Trump’s demand for more “defense” spending (a half trillion dollar additional “wartime” increase), sent clear message to military vendors and their shareholders. We’ve used up massive munitions of every sort in Trump’s unilaterally-initiated WAR against Iran – which seems to have allowed a low-tech foe (Iran after the bombing campaign) to bring the US to its knees in a stalemate. Good for the rich, bad for the nation as whole.

Red and Blue State governors were privately wincing at the mere thought of having to shift the massive cost of federal social programs to dwindling state coffers or add trillions to an already-bloated federal deficit. Given China’s push to replace the US dollar (maybe with a euro blend) as the primary global reserve currency, we’re not too far off from being unable to place our deficit debt into the international financial system. That would be an economic catastrophe that would wreak havoc on an already beleaguered American public.

As I have blogged many times before, the stock market has not been a good indicator of our national financial well-being for a long time. Volatility is a disease that has infected the market based on a President who changes policies, introduces major new cost variables on a daily basis, with no coherent or consistent explanation other than an ever-changing litany of factually suspicious claims. Whim vs demonstrated need. Even our GDP metric is more an indicator of how well the rich are doing rather than what the economy’s reality remains for most of us. And please don’t expect interest rates and the price at the pump to drop back to February numbers anytime soon. Optimists pray for that to occur by 2027, but don’t hold your breath. The WAR would have to end with a beneficial reality of a fully open Strait of Hormuz.

Data giant ATTOM posted an increase of 26% in mortgage foreclosures in the first quarter, and that’s just one piece of bad news. An interesting piece by Dina Sartore-Bodo, writing for the April 20th Realtor.com, presents one of the best summaries of the plight of the majority of Americans under Trump’s second administration: “First-time homeowners are constantly reminded that having an emergency fund is essential. [Even renters face surprise costs, from car repairs, medical costs, rising insurance costs, higher interest on credit cards, etc.]

“But the reality is that these days, it’s easier said than done to put money aside. In fact, routine house problems like a broken dishwasher or a leaking pipe are pushing some people into debt… By the end of 2025, 2 in 3 consumers were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent PYMNTS Intelligence report.

“Additionally, the percentage of consumers living paycheck to paycheck out of financial necessity rose significantly, from 29% in December 2024 to 40% in December 2025, according to the findings. This indicates that a growing number of households are dedicating their entire income to essential expenses, leaving little for discretionary spending and saving.

“But perhaps most unsettling of all was the finding that just under half (48.5%) of all consumers expressed being very or extremely confident that they could manage an unexpected $1,000 expense without incurring debt or falling behind on other bills… And as most homeowners will tell you, $1,000 doesn’t cover much these days when it comes to repairs and surprise maintenance… Historically, experts have recommended that emergency savings represent three to six months of living expenses, which include rent and/or mortgage payments, utilities, and food… But clearly, and at the very least, homeowners [and renters] should strive to save enough money to deal with a major, unexpected cost of at least $1,000.”

If average Americans are struggling with the cost of living, almost half living paycheck-to-paycheck, billionaire Trump should have the discipline to rein in his addiction to military expenditures, having made a severely miscalculated “go to WAR” decision without input from Congress or our major allies.

His illegal tariffs were bad enough (as the federal government begins to figure out how to implement refunds following the Supreme Court’s rejection of most of Trump’s executive ordered tariffs), but his WAR against Iran – one where his Department of Defense/WAR has only been able to deliver statements of victory where in reality Iran has more leverage now than it has ever had against Trump’s demands, simply by closing the Strait of Hormuz – is an unmitigated economic disaster for most Americans.

Further, Trump’s immigration policies, under the radical extremes embraced by his senior advisor, Stephen Miller, have cost the treasury tax dollars, and slammed small businesses reliant on low-cost, hard-working undocumented labor (particularly in agriculture, construction, hospitality, restaurants and child/elder care). While arguments that ICE is just removing criminals and securing our border continue to be made, instead billions have been allocated for cruel detention centers, US citizens have been killed, our legal system has stepped far away from constitutional requirements and virtually all of this immigration activity has taken place hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from the border. Of course we need a secure border, but we are wasting billions resulting in our economic detriment. DOGE was also a disaster, saving virtually nothing. The Epstein debacle is anything but gone. So why is Trump so arrogant?

I’m Peter Dekom, and in the end, to save the Republican Party, which has enabled Trump’s litany of failure, from going down in flames in the looming midterms, Trump is trying every trick in the book to rig the elections, keep as many Democrats from voting or having the ballots count, the greatest admission that Trump knows his presidential legacy is toast.