A few minutes ago Trump tweeted that he was ordering his administration to create a plan to bailout the crashing oil and gas industry in the US:
We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!
We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020
Talk about crucial infrastructure. If any industry needed propping up by the government amid this low-demand pandemic, it’s this one.
I know Trump is highly optimistic about the recovery of the economy, but I do worry just how difficult that rebound is going to be with all of this propping up of the economy, small and large businesses, and now the oil and gas industry. We’ve already spent 2.2 trillion in one fell swoop this during this pandemic and were about to add another half trillion to that number in the next few days.
It’s not simply that were spending our way deeper into debt, but the economy isn’t generating the tax revenue that it normally would as it’s been virtually stopped during this pandemic. Of course there are some things that are still going, but so much of the tax generating economy is out of commission and some of it is breaking under the weight of all of this. So that even when we get back going again, the tax revenues we generate may be quite a bit less. Unless the government severely cut its spending levels, and that doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to happen, the economy may be in for a very rough ride over the next four years.