George Epstein: The Wheat and the Chaff

Our cold, windy, snowy winter has been nicely tempered by the blasts of hot air emanating from our nation’s capital. Our previous president devoted untold hours patting himself on the back for reducing drug prices and encouraging electric vehicles. In fact, after years of self-praise, 99+ percent of drugs were untouched by his negotiations and his $7.5 billion for charging stations has resulted in 46 being built. President Donald Trump gave corporations and the wealthy a massive tax cut and pretty much nothing else in his four years. Will this term actually be any different — and what will be the ratio of good and evil in the mix?

There are the cutesy little things that presidents should do more of. Eliminating production of the penny has been an obvious step for decades. Releasing the files on the Kennedy and MLK assassinations will provide some entertainment for his conspiracy theorist buddies, but we won’t really know if all the info is out. If he really wanted to show a commitment to transparency, he would release the 9/11 reports and the info that was in the secret room that enticed Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and most of the rest of Congress to authorize war on behalf of a snipe hunt for WMD’s. Perhaps the $2 billion the Saudi’s gave Jared and Ivanka buys them privacy for that country’s role in both.