OT - Don't mean to clog up the board, but this is bugging me: Today the market had a little bit of an upset stomach, based in part on, between voters rejecting Trump at the polls, which will embolden Democrats to be more forceful with their objections to the tax-reform giveaways on one end, and conservative Republicans being unable to add to deficit spending on the other, why won't the time be near when it hits the market that there is no significant legislation that Trump can pass, and finally swoon at the prospect? Healthcare wouldn't fly. Travel ban wouldn't fly. Border wall won't fly. What's left besides tax reform?

Yes, we expected this to hit much sooner (just as we did with inflation). But at a certain point, doesn't one have to give up wishes that don't match with probable realities? What has Trump to offer?

And the idea that you're going to eliminate medical expense deductions over 10% of income, when care for a spouse with Alzheimer's costs about $90k per year, and let rich people write off charitable deductions, which we all know are based on managing tax expenses and not on the kind-heartedness of the wealthy, just seems criminal to me. It really is a tissue-thin rationale why eliminate the former and not the latter: If the argument for keeping the latter is that without the deduction, charities that help the poor would suffer huge losses in funding from the rich - well, if that's true, that pretty much proves the rich were doing it for tax advantages rather than the milk of human kindness, does it not?

Part of the question, I think, is whether the Democrats can make a clear, coherent message that people understand about that. I fear the maxim that you ought to stick to what you're best at. And what the Democrats are best at is losing elections.