ArcaMax

Eeeeeek, there's a mouse in the house! Oh wait -- it's just Little Mike Johnson. He's harmless.

Mike is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, which used to be a vital part of America's national government. The Constitution empowers the House to oversee the federal budget, public policies and the actions of presidents. But Johnson has meekly surrendered these core powers (and his relevance) to President Donald Trump's autocratic executive branch.

Mike even failed to be the "Squeaker" of the House, for he issued no peep of protest as the authority of elected lawmakers was seized and pocketed by a corrupt chief executive claiming that he was the law of the land. As Rep. Jamie Raskin put it, instead of standing against imperious one-man rule, Johnson applauded, reducing himself to Trump's "little buddy."

Even more pathetic is seeing Johnson and the GOP's entire congressional caucus kowtow to Elon Musk, sheepishly obeying the right-wing dictates of an over-privileged, South African finagler who's never been elected by anybody to anything. Having bought his way into Trump's golden orbit of billionaires in the last election, Musk is now prancing around as America's acting president while Johnson cheers.

But Trump, Musk, and Little Buddy have a problem that they don't seem to grasp: "We the People" simply don't support what they're doing to us. It's now obvious that they're waging a billionaires-know-best, chainsawing rampage against public programs that benefit us commoners -- especially any program that protects us from the unbounded greed of billionaires like, well, them.

This is Jim Hightower saying ... These corrupt, wannabe monarchs have been sipping their own bathwater, thinking it's champagne. But the public is both onto them and on the move against them.

TRUMP'S "WAR ON GOVERNMENT WASTE" IS A CLASS WAR

At last, Washington is going to eliminate government waste!

Trump & Company's budget-whacking crew even brandished a big old chainsaw to show us hoi polloi that they're serious. So goodbye to those ridiculous, multibillion-dollar giveaways to politically connected corporate elites, right?

Uh ... don't get silly. The chainsawers-in-chief are Elon Musk, Trump and a mess of ultra-rich GOP cabinet appointees. Their fortunes are built on fat checks from the government, so they will NOT be targeting any of their boondoggles. Instead, they're aiming at programs offering modest help to middle-class and poor families.

For example, the Agriculture Department regularly mails out billions of dollars in "farm subsidies," but most real farmers don't get a penny. About 80% of the taxpayers' money goes to the richest 10% of agribusiness owners, including city-dwelling billionaires and corporate giants.

But rather than touching their giveaways, the Agriculture Department has just made a political show of zeroing out a very successful farm-to-market program that enables small producers to sell their fresh goods to local school districts and food banks. This is government at its best -- serving as a catalyst to "free up the enterprise" of small businesses by allowing them to bypass monopolistic middlemen and provide top-quality fresh foods to their communities.

Big Food, however, hates competition. Thus, Brooke Rollins (a corporate-hugging, far-right-wing lawyer who is Trump's new Ag Secretary) summarily canceled this enterprising local food initiative, announcing on Fox News that it was "nonessential" waste.

This is Jim Hightower saying ... There you have their guiding ethic of these "waste warriors." Programs helping regular Americans are just waste to be eliminated -- but giveaways to the rich are "essential" waste to be protected.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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