Donald Trump floated two actual policies over the weekend. It’s very tempting to be intrigued at this news, because at least he came up with something one could loosely call an idea—about policy, no less. Unfortunately, they were both so stupid and unserious that they only serve to remind us: The less he attempts to think, the better off we all are.
The first had to do with homeownership. The economic elites are in a tizzy about homeownership rates, which have fallen a little over the last 20 years. The statistic that has everyone reaching for the vapors is that the average age at which Americans are buying their first home is 38, an all-time high. Homeownership among young people was actually lower in the mid-2010s than it is now, but even so, housing affordability is obviously a serious issue. Democrats across the country mounted winning campaigns around affordability, and the election night spanking the GOP took evidently has Trump shook enough to belatedly glance toward the issue himself.
So, word came over the weekend from Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency—best known for using his office to scour the mortgage records of people Trump wants to persecute—that Trump is pondering the introduction of the 50-year mortgage. The idea, apparently, is to spread the payments out over many more years (the standard home loan is for 30 years, which dates back to the New Deal), and thus make monthly payments lower. Maybe far lower. Great, right?
Uh, no. The idea is ridiculous, for two reasons. First, the 30-year mortgage allows typical homeowners to pay it off by the time they’re in their mid- to late-60s, after which they own their homes free and clear. Those homes have probably increased in value over those years by two-and-a-half or three times (the average annual home appreciation is around 4.5 percent; in desirable neighborhoods it is of course far higher). This is people’s nest egg. They can sell the house, downsize, and then spend the money traveling, or, if they need to, use it to buy into assisted living. The Trump-Pulte idea would end this. Could you imagine having to make mortgage payments until age 85—an age most Americans don’t even hit?
Second, a 50-year mortgage would mean tens of thousands of dollars more in interest payments for most people. Borrowers already pay more in interest than principle. This would make it worse. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who we must admit has somehow been making some sense lately, nailed it: “I don’t like 50-year mortgages as the solution to the housing affordability crisis. It will ultimately reward the banks, mortgage lenders, and homebuilders while people pay far more in interest over time and die before they ever pay off their home.”
That’s terrible idea number one. Number two is aimed at ending the shutdown. Trump dangled a compromise over the weekend by writing on social media: “I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over.”
He threw in a pseudo-populist shot at insurance companies to make it sound good. But it’s totally unserious. First of all, he provided no details, so it’s hard to know whether he just means health savings accounts, or HSAs, or something else. HSAs have been around for 20 years, and they can work for healthier people without a lot of health-related expenses. But research shows—surprise, surprise—that they tend to benefit wealthier people because they’re tax-free.
And Trump may not even mean that. He may just mean giving people money—again, fine for healthy people, but not so much for someone facing surgery or a terminal illness. As Senator Chris Murphy told The Washington Post: “Is he suggesting eliminating health insurance and giving people a few thousand dollars instead? And then when they get a cancer diagnosis they just go bankrupt?”
It’s important to remember that Trump’s real aim is to poke whatever holes he can in Obamacare. You will have noticed that, despite lots of very big talk going back to 2015, Trump has never offered a healthcare proposal of his own, and we all know why: Because his party believes that people who want healthcare coverage have to go out and earn it, and that people who don’t have it are lazy, and $30,000 surgical bills are their problem.
Both of Trump’s new ideas share this important and extremely Trumpian attribute: They sound great to people who know nothing. Unfortunately, that’s a lot of people. It seems from Trump’s awful poll numbers that some of them are waking up and figuring out what a know-nothing conman the guy is. So maybe those famous swing voters are finally getting wise to the guy.
Meanwhile, the cruelty continues, in classic Bourbon-throne fashion. You read about the Jay Gatsby party at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, the first weekend when SNAP benefits were halted. You might have thought the bad press that resulted from that would mean no more parties for the time being.
You’d have been wrong. It’s a trait of authoritarian regimes that they flout all such conventions and rules—they need for the public to know that there exists a favored elite class to whom the rules do not apply. It adds to both their power and mystique, in the eyes of the kinds of people who are fooled by things like 50-year mortgages.
So last Friday, Trump hosted another lavish party, this one a black-tie event that featured opera performances. This came at the end of a week when the administration was arguing—successfully, alas—before the Supreme Court that it should not be forced to distribute SNAP benefits.
In Chicago, ICE continues its rampage. Latinos are staying home, skipping church out of fear of raids. Children in a suburban school district were kept inside with recess canceled amid reports of ICE agents in the area. A Customs and Border Patrol agent shot a woman five times and bragged in later text messages about his excellent marksmanship.
The cruelty is worse, for sure. And with ICE hiring the way it is, on its way to becoming the largest law-enforcement agency in the country by far, it’s going to get worse still. But the stupidity matters too, because it, too, is a marker of authoritarian depravity: total contempt for the needs of the people. But I’m sure something splendid is planned for this weekend at Mar-a-Lago, too.
