From The Comments, Welfare Edition

Robert Reich posted on Facebook a New York Times article about the impending stock market crash, of which he said, "A recession is on its way. But don't join Trump in blaming the Fed. The real problem is Trump himself: His tax cut for corporations and the wealthy -- almost exactly a year old -- were frittered away as corporations used their tax savings to buy back their own shares of stock, and the wealthy used theirs to gamble in the stock market. These steroids wore off as soon as the spending stopped. The rest of us are left holding the bag of a giant deficit. 
And Trump's trade war with China is causing the entire global economy to quake. No surprise there, either. When the largest and second-largest economies in the world collide, the losses are huge.

No, the Fed isn't doing this. Trump is. He took the credit for the stock market boom. But the odds he’ll accept responsibility for the bust are zero."

. From the comments: 

I have read many of the comments here, not all. Let me tell you how it works for the poor people who are not in the stock market. 15 years ago I was working making $50,000 a year. I had already worked for 20 years and I was doing well. 14 years ago I was in an accident that broke my body so bad that I was unable to work anymore. I had to apply for disability. During the time I had to wait and appeal (because they always turn you down the first time), I was forced to use my savings to live and pay bills, including doctor, hospital, and prescription bills. By the time my disability was approved, I had lost my house, all of my life savings, my wife, and had sold almost everything of value that I spent a lifetime acquiring. I kept my son who is the most valuable thing in my life so that was the only good thing that happened. So after the government made sure I was poor they started their ongoing effort to keep me poor. Just as they do with the elderly, disabled, and the rest of the poor in our country. My son and I found ourselves living on $1,000 a month. Of course, we had assistance with Medicare, Medicaid, and other social service programs. These were services that I had paid into my entire working life to ensure that I would have income in case something happened and I couldn't work. I paid my share of disability insurance premiums out of every paycheck, then had to fight my own government to get what I was promised. When Obama was in office things got a little better for us and it looked like we might be able to live with some dignity. When Trump was elected it seems like the first thing he and the Republicans tried to do was take the things away from us that we needed to survive. We rely on food stamps to eat, and I'm not ashamed of that. But people don't understand how that works. My son and I get less than $200.00 a month for food, they don't pay for any prepared food, or toiletries, household goods, or many of the other things needed to live. Even with food stamps and assistance, you are never allowed to get a dollar ahead. A good example is my $10.00 raise in my disability payment. The day after I got my 2019 statement showing my increase I received a letter saying my food stamp amount was reduced by $11.00 due to my raise. Now the Republicans want to cut my disability, they want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, reduce or end the food stamp program. They want to eliminate the prescription medications that control my pain and allow me to do things most people take for granted, like basic hygiene, and simple household duties. Since Trump was elected it appears that the Grand Old Party is engaged in an all-out war to kill me and people like me. When Obama was president I could go to sleep at night thinking that things were getting better for us. Now I go to bed and I can't sleep because my government is trying to kill me, and everyone else who isn't rich, white, and male. So how well the stock market is doing is a worthless measure for people like us. I know the economy directly affects all of us but those of us at the bottom don't celebrate when the rich get richer. I get tired of hearing that people in my situation are the problem in this country. I get tired of being called a taker for using the programs that are in place to assist people like me. I'm tired of my own government giving trillions to the rich, paying for more than a dozen wars, and conflicts around the world that we have no business being involved in, and giving money away to foreign countries while taking it away from American citizens. All in all, I'm just tired of our country being run by a bunch of old, white millionaires who are so power mad that they don't care if the country goes to hell, as long as they are in charge when it does. - Jim Schoeff