‘GOVERNMENT SACHS,’ ALIVE AND WELL
The system has been good to these folks. Why would they change it?
I’ve seen more than a few comparisons between President-elect Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan, a president who also came to Washington intending to upend the status quo. Some Trumpsters — notably Vice President-elect Mike Pence — like to say he and the president-elect have a Gipper-like mandate to make sweeping changes.
That bit of self-inflated delusion is easy enough to debunk. Reagan crushed President Carter, winning the popular vote by 8.3 percentage points and winning an overwhelming 91% of the Electoral College (489 of 538). That, my friends, is a mandate.
Not only did Trump lose the popular vote by more than 2 points, his Electoral College percentage (56.9% or 306 votes) is only 46th best out of 58 elections.
But there is one striking similarity at this point between Reagan and Trump: the tenor of their Cabinet picks. Reagan is reported to have had seven millionaires in his Cabinet, establishing a deeppocketed trend that has continued up to the present. George H.W. Bush had six, Bill Clinton seven, and George W. Bush had as many — 13 — as the two of them combined. Barack Obama, no pauper himself, also moved into the White House with a long line of millionaires in tow. AN ELITE CLUB Yet President-elect Trump, who promised to look after the little guy, has taken it up a notch. He is stocking his government not with mere millionaires ( let’s face it, a million bucks ain’t what it used to be) but with several billionaires: incoming Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, Education secretary Betsy DeVos and Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon. This elite club also includes Ross’ would-be deputy, Todd Ricketts, and Carl Icahn, tapped as Trump’s special adviser on regulatory issues.
Then there is the presidentelect himself, who brags he is a multibillionaire, though this has not been conclusively proved.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the incoming administration will be a government of the super wealthy, by the super wealthy and — perhaps — for the super wealthy.
Are we really expected to believe that these folks are going to change the very system that has been so good to them? Billionaires don’t become billionaires by acting like Mother Teresa. They do it by ruthlessly watching their own bottom line and taking advantage of every rule that can be fudged, every corner that can be cut. And when the rules aren’t helpful, they get them changed.
They are the embodiment of what Trump attacked during the campaign: the “global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.” A SWAMP NOT DRAINED Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” talk singled out one firm in particular: Goldman Sachs. The fact that it employed Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife and gave Hillary Clinton six-figure speaking fees was proof enough, Trump insisted, that they were villains. So what’s the first thing he’s done? Load up the West Wing with Goldman alums.
I’m more bothered by Trump’s hypocrisy than by Goldmanites at the White House. These are smart people who know how things work. They’re just like Trump himself: wealthy, connected, brash deal-makers. Like Trump, they know how capital flows, companies prosper and economies move ahead (on that last, at least Goldman does, though Trump’s commerce-killing tariff talk raises doubts).
In fact, Trump’s love of Goldman Sachs reminds me of another guy who beat the odds to become president: Obama. His first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, had financial ties to the firm going back years — and the firm was “the single largest private donor” to Obama’s 2008 campaign, notes Mother Jones.
For all his past talk about the evils of Goldman, Trump can count his own Treasury secretary (Steven Mnuchin), National Economic Council director (Gary Cohn) and chief strategist (Stephen Bannon) as alums of the firm. Just Wednesday, he named Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton, who has advised and represented Goldman, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. Together, they’ll have a say in everything from government spending and taxes to banking and financial regulations.
“Government Sachs” is alive and well; the more things change, the more they stay the same.