Massie: Trump ‘Can’t Run on Inflation’ Because He Urged Trillions in Spending, ‘DeSantis Doesn’t Have That Problem’

Breitbart ^ | 05/25/2023 | IAN HANCHETT

[ChicagoConservative27]

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in his 2024 presidential bid, stated that DeSantis’ 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, “can’t run on inflation” because he urged Congress to spend trillions of dollars on legislation like the CARES Act and that spending helped cause inflation.

Massie also argued that this hurt Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections because “we couldn’t run against inflation, because most of my colleagues were urged by Trump” to spend trillions of dollars, but DeSantis won’t have that problem.

[ChicagoConservative27]

Ouch...

[Alberta's Child]

Massie jumped the shark on this one.

The Federal spending bills for COVID relief were aimed at providing financial support to business owners and employees who were put out of work due to government-imposed lockdowns -- including those imposed by Ron DeSantis himself as governor of Florida (despite all the "DeSantis stood for freedom during COVID" bullsh!t propaganda to the contrary).

[JoSixChip]

Like covid never happened. Trump did what he had to to keep the country, including Florida afloat. Desanctomonious closed the beaches and businesses, if Trump hadn’t acted, Florida would not have faired as well.

[wny]

Maybe Trump should run on building a wall. Oh Wait......................

[bray]

Sure, and the House and Senate had nothing to do with that spending. Wish he would have vetoed those bills but they would have been overruled.

[Robert DeLong]

Point to the inflation during his administration, or even immediately after his administration Thomas.

Furthermore he was taking the advice of "science" that was telling him that he needed to lock down or risk 10s of millions of deaths. Massie is apparently another GOPe shill, who as the American Indian would say, speaks with forked tongue.

[lone star annie]

Libertarians hate Trump this quirky Congressman included.

[Bratch]

Entirely Apropos – Team DeSantis Promote 2024 Endorsement from Thomas Massie that Massie Himself Doesn’t Promote – Because He’s Positioning to Replace the AWOL Mitch McConnell

April 5, 2023 | Sundance | 232 Comments

Sometimes the apropos of the thing is just too much fun to notice.  Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is missing in action ever since his slip and fall/concussion a few weeks ago (insert shades of prior HRC issues here).  The conspicuous absence of media questioning his continued absence is a little odd for a DC that loves to notice such things.

Meanwhile, sniffing the possibility of enhanced career aspirations amid the political winds of incapable McConnell, Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, sees Ron DeSantis as a vector to electoral elevation.

[...]

Am I being a little hard on the “conservative leader” Thomas Massie, probably. But the reason is really breaking the cycle of insufferable battered conservative abuse.

Massie was an attendee at the Four Seasons DeSantis three-day donor retreat last month in Palm Beach.  [See tweet from event] Apparently the allure of the Sea Island billionaire funding mechanism can permeate fiscal senses. I digress…

Additionally, Massie likes to rail against government spending, even recently using his opposition to the 2020 Paycheck Protection Program, as an example of his conservative bona-fides.

Now, it is true the urgently rushed PPP program was abused by some 10% of the employers who used it as a tool to defraud the U.S. government amid the urgent spending during the COVID-19 lockdowns and crisis.

However, 90% of the PPP program went directly to honest and earnest small businesses who were shut down and needed a lifeline to help their employees.

When President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin realized that employees of small businesses were going to get crushed by the lockdowns, most of which were determined in scale, scope and duration by the states, they knew something rapid and urgent was needed to support those employees. Big corporations could take the hit, but small businesses were extremely exposed. The Paycheck Protection Program was the way to help ‘Main Street’.

The PPP program was targeted directly to banks, small banks, local banks and credit unions that support the small businesses. In a brilliant bit of administrative red-tape cutting, Trump and Mnuchin used the FDIC program to backstop the banks and give the banks the ability to lend to the small businesses without risk.

Small businesses were able to go to their local bank and get an immediate infusion of cash to keep their payrolls afloat, while the FDIC program was used as a mechanism to send the funds to the banks. Tens of millions of American employees of small businesses benefited from the continuation of their paychecks during the lockdowns. Without that PPP program, millions of lower to middle-income workers would have no paycheck.

Yes, there was fraud and abuse by lying, scheming and conniving business owners who took advantage of the PPP program for their own financial gains. However, that doesn’t mean the PPP program didn’t protect and support tens of millions of people.

High-horse Thomas Massie would have allowed those people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and are employed by small businesses to be crushed without income. Thankfully, Trump and Mnuchin, together with support from congress – avoided that catastrophic outcome. The quick thinking about how to cut through the bureaucracy was a net benefit.

So yeah, Massie and his principles that would have allowed people to go hungry, can go spit.

[dforest]

Ron was all for the same when he he needed Trump to pull his arse out of the fire when running for Governor.

Ron is going to have a hard time looking honest when he ran for Governor and quite obviously was using it only as a springboard to run for President. He should not have run for a second term. Totally self serving of him.

I don’t hate the guy, but he has shown poor character and is the usual backstabbing politician. A designed product of the DC swamp.

[1Old Pro]

Then he goes on to say Trump should have immediately fired Fauci, like that would fly. We’ve been investigating Fauci for years and still nobody has laid a glove on him, amazing.
That’s in the hands of the House right now.

[Liberty Ship]

Yawn. An argument engineered to sway Bubba who has never been taught the economics of Capitalism (thank a teacher).

It’s OK to spend if you are in a position to pay it back.

In addition to spending, Trump had a plan to “earn” more and outpace the spend.

Here’s an analogy. You have $5 in your pocket but your gas tank is empty. You use your credit card to buy $20 in gas so you can get to a job that will pay you $100. Nothing wrong with that spend. That analogy applies to Trumponomics. Using credit or capital surplus to increase production is CAPITALISM!

On the other hand, if you have $5 in your pocket, your gas tank is empty, and you charge $20 in porno and wander off to the men’s room complaining you can’t work because you afford gas, THAT would be a stupid, Democrat/Commie move.

[rx]

Doesn't the House have control of the purse strings? Did Massie in the House effectively put the brakes on the Biden's Ukraine money laundering and agency coverups, left-and-right?

Did Massie in the House work to reduce the money given to the lying, weaponized DHS, DOJ, CDC, FDA, NAIAD, etc. to be used against the citizenry?

How about all the taxpayer money that went to target PDJT, subjecting him and the country to witch-hunts up-and-down? Where's the RINO-establishment record on all that?

That DeSantis wasn't in control of anything does not reasonably inure to his credit.

[Alberta's Child]

I am convinced that Ron DeSantis never wanted to run in 2024, and had aligned his career path to run in 2028 as the GOP front-runner after his term as Florida governor ended in 2026.

The problem is that he is flat broke (in relative terms) and is 100% beholden to the political and financial backers who pay his way in the world. So when they told him to run in 2024, he had no choice to obey.

This is NOT the kind of owned, managed hack we need in Washington.

[existentially_kuffer]

Thanks for your detailed DD!

[napscoordinator]

Trump was generous by giving 1800 dollars per American. Biden only gave 1200 total. DeSantis gave zero while other states give up to a thousand. Inflation problems are the result of free money.

[Redmen4ever]

“third rate Grandstander”

27 Mar 2020

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/politics/thomas-massie-donald-trump-stimulus-deal-coronavirus/index.html

pretty mild epithet from Trump.

Two years later ...

“Congressman Thomas Massie is a Conservative Warrior for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District! An MIT graduate and a first-rate Defender of the Constitution, Thomas fights hard to Protect your Liberties, especially the First and Second Amendments, which are under siege by the Radical Left. Strong on the Border and our Military and Vets, Thomas Massie has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

16 May 2022

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-change-mind-kentuckys-thomas-massie-rcna28989

[napscoordinator]

For a weekend. Big deal. Obviously people were not upset with DeSantis as he won by 20 points. Trump won by how much in 2020?

[Erik Latranyi]

Trump helped make the lockdowns and mandates easy.

That same bill also funded healthcare centers to report more Wuhan Flu death because it earned them more money.

[Erik Latranyi]

Massie knows a real conservative when he sees one....and Trump is not a conservative.

[Fury]

Re: 15 - it was pretty dispiriting to read the comments about people “demanding” their money. Lots of fiscal conservatives got squishy when there were Benjamins heading their way.

And no, I didn’t get any of that.