Michael Lewis has written a book about the Trump administration that hardly mentions Trump. Lewis, as you may know, wrote Moneyball and The Big Short. Both would seem to be about rather boring subjects (the inner workings of the Oakland A’s front office and the causes of the last recession), and both were made into exciting movies.
In The Fifth Risk Lewis discusses how the Trump administration is dismantling the federal government while Trump himself continues to dominate the conversation by being outrageous. He goes out of his way to insult people, and the press focuses on that behavior, missing major developments in the actual administration of the government.
One example: Trump still has not nominated anyone for the position of undersecretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services in the Department of Agriculture. This is a position that runs the food stamp program depended upon by millions of Americans. This undersecretary supervises nutrition assistance programs, including school meals and the SNAP program.
On the other hand, the USDA has seen patronage appointments of “a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a gas company meter-reader, a country-club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern, and the owner of a scented-candle company.”
This is an Administration of neglect, of appointing the worst people to the top positions, many of whom opposed the policies of the very departments to which they were appointed.
In the meantime, we focus on Stormy Daniels and Trump’s latest tweet on the Saudis.
I think we owe Michael Lewis our gratitude for calling attention to this. I also think MSNBC and CNN could send a few reporters out to cover this on-going attempt to wreck programs that benefit Americans.
No comments:
Post a Comment