It’s ALWAYS “the economy, stupid “

That has been true even before Carville famously coined the phrase back in 1992 and it will always be true as long as there are economic disparities between people in the world. Every election is about the economy, and this means that there should be no surprises about the outcome of elections - people very seldom if ever - vote for a candidate who has pledged to change the world politically or morally - and almost always people will vote for candidates who have promised to change the economic outcomes people found themselves in since the last election. There is a reason why the US Congress midterms tend to go against the party of the White House occupant - presidents are usually given 2 years to change things around economically or else they will face a hostile Congress that voters believe will make the changes required that the president has failed to implement.

But the root of the problem is one of perception. US Voters have been sending candidates to DC for over 50 years now, expecting things to turn around for them and things are just not going the way voters are wanting them to go. If things were going the way voters wanted, the president elect would be female right now. But the age-old lesson of "it's the economy stupid" won the day and hence we got another 4 years to look forward to of uncertain times.

Setting aside the fact that the last time Mr. Trump was in the White House, he inherited and took credit for an economy on the verge of a super recovery, with trillions of dollars pumped into it by the Obama presidency and the FED and it was roaring to life finally, up until the outbreak of the covid 19 pandemic when it was grossly mismanaged to the point that it resulted in a gigantic economic collapse. Then Trump left office, and Biden took over and under Biden there was a step in the right direction to correct the disaster left by the Trump people - and now here we are again, facing the same unmitigated disaster from a new group of Trump people who don't know what they are doing, don't care about the vast majority of US voters and don't want to fix problems long term. The biggest economic recovery expected will be for people like Elon Musk, and other wealthy investors who already don't need more tax cuts - but that will be coming down the pike at the expense of the middle class.

So, although "it's the economy stupid" carried Mr. Trump back into office, if history is an indicator of anything, there will be no follow up on that sentiment, beyond meaningless platitudes, that will actually positively impact Americans unless those Americans are in the top 1% of income earners and wealth holders.

So far what we know about some of the economic changes the new administration is planning on making is to introduce a new office of Department of Government Efficiency which Mr. Trump said will be an outside, independent office headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramasvamy. Here is what Mr. Trump said about it:

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said in a statement. You want to know the ironic part? Here it comes... Elon Musk quite literally became a billionaire in large part because the US Taxpayers funded his startups, namely SpaceX and Tesla. So, a person who literally came to this country and took billions of dollars from US taxpayers to play around with his rockets, which is not a bad idea by the way, to push the scientific frontier, is now in charge of recommending which taxpayer programs to dismantle that hardworking Americans might actually need to survive.

What is even more ironic is the idea that one of the cornerstones of the new administration is the deportation of "millions of illegal aliens" - an idea that is wholly unenforceable and completely unrealistic unless the US population starts being OK with the idea of the United States of America slowly sliding into a pattern of pre-WWII German codification of hatred and persecution an mass of anyone who looks like they don't belong here. Like ... Mr. Musk, who came to this country as a student, and became an illegal alien when he violated the terms of his visa by working and overstaying it - just like over 50% of other illegal aliens do. (Musk Was Once an Undocumented Immigrant in US? | Snopes.com). The people usually associated with the term "illegal aliens" don't cross the southern border and just set up camp here to collect millions of dollars of taxpayer money, that is not what generally Hispanic immigrants do. Those folks who do in fact walk across the border, usually end up in jobs that are difficult and pay little money. Roofers, construction workers, food processors, etc.

The illegal immigrants who are the problem - who overstay their visas and then proceed to bilk the US Taxpayer for billions of dollars - are not poor. They are usually well off. At least they are better off than their villainized counterparts, who are actually productive in the US Economy and who are selected for deportation by Mr. Trump if you can believe him. If I am not mistaken, the future First Lady also came here with a visa that prohibited her from working, she apparently violated the terms of that visa by working and then ended up staying here illegally until... such time that she was granted citizenship for some reason that I don't understand and, in all fairness, has nothing to do with this site.

I for one, do not understand the issue of vegetable picking migrant workers, who toil in the hot sun all day, being the source of the economic problem, we are experiencing as Americans, when so many truly illegal immigrants, who do take billions of dollars of our money, just end up staying here and continuing to spend our taxpayer money while being given a free pass. Like Elon Musk.

But setting aside the irony of it all, starting an office of government efficiency is a rather cruel joke on the American people. The only thing this will accomplish is, if its recommendations are followed because it will not be an official government agency, and if cuts are made to the bureaucracy based on their findings, those funds will not be returned to US voters. We will not be getting monthly checks in the mail from Uncle Don as his new office slashes, cuts or whatever it is they will do or Mr. Trumps thinks they will do, even if they find some programs to eliminate that are wasteful. All the funds this new department might potentially save, will wind up being tax cuts for ultra wealthy individuals and corporate entities because that is the modus operandi for this government.

I for one, will be the most surprised person however, if anything actually comes out of this adventure besides the gigantic smokescreen that it looks to shape up to be. Congress holds the purse strings of the nation - not the White House. In order for any cuts to take place that are significant, it will be Congress that will have to vote on it not an Executive Order and certainly not an unelected, non-governmental entity that can only claim to be significant because it has as its leader a person who was an illegal immigrant to this nation and took literally billions of dollars in government contracts and treats his workers poorly while selling cars that can't even make it out of the state in case there is an evacuation emergency without running out of power and getting stuck on the road because there are no power stations (and besides it takes FOREVER to recharge them) or even just start if the temperature drops below freezing. Ask anyone in Chicago who has a Tesla, how their experience was last winter.

So here is the bottom line. Although the economic concerns of voters put Mr. Trump back into office, I think we will need to continue to rely on our own strengths to continue to survive because there will be no economic miracle forthcoming. What does that mean? Make sure you start your budgeting process, if you are not already doing so, today! Don't wait any longer, start organizing your finances today. Know what you are paying for, how much and when. Minimize all possibilities to pay penalties on anything such as late payments because those are just funds you are literally throwing away. Don't look for help from places where help will not come from. Don't count on things which will not be there.

Have a realistic plan of action that you will be able to execute on in order to get to where you want to go. Be able and willing to take control of your finances even if they seem to be out of control and scary. You have to educate yourself on how you can start being financially independent in a way that will allow you to build your goals.

Understand that things will not get better overnight - winning the lottery is not a strategy. It's a pipe dream. Start your journey of being financially better now, so you can look back on this coming your next November and see measurable progress that you have made.

"It's the economy, stupid" is an election slogan used to elect politicians - it is not a dream street you and I can embark on in order to see changes in our financial futures. We will continue to have to work very hard. We can't go on the taxpayers' dole like Mr. Trump can and use the office to enrich himself like he tried to do during his first term or live off of taxpayer funded companies like Mr. Musk has been doing for over a decade.

We are the taxpayers who will be funding their lifestyles with our hard work.