Spending Other People’s Money Makes Trump a Perfect Fit for Washington: New at Reason

Donald Trump likes to spend other people’s money. Can you imagine that in Washington?

A. Barton Hinkle writes:

Last week, in comments about getting other countries to pay for safe zones in Syria, Trump boasted of using other people’s money: “It’s called OPM. I do that all the time in business. It’s called other people’s money. There’s nothing like doing things with other people’s money.”

The comment rocketed around the news-osphere, and quickly became part of a Clinton campaign ad, in no small part because he made it the same day it was reported that he used money from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits against him. But it also got plenty of traction because it reinforces the dominant (and correct) narrative about Trump: that he’s an unscrupulous, chiseling swindler. People of good character put their own money where their mouths are.

Really? Somebody better tell Washington, then.

In the nation’s capital, spending OPM is S.O.P.—to the tune of trillions of dollars every year. It’s the chief political pursuit, in fact. Most of the arm-twisting in D.C. gets done for the purpose of taking a nickel from one person’s pocket to put in somebody else’s.

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/2d40zW7
via IFTTT

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *