For as long as I can remember Republicans have promised to cut the size of government. So far none of them have. There’s no single measure of government growth but I found an excellent article from Forbes magazine. They measured the number of government employees (GE) as a percentage of US population (P), or GE/P and used this as a tool and measured each President since 1980.

The percentage has increased over every President:

• Ronald Reagan: 7.2%
• George H.W. Bush: 7.3%
• Bill Clinton: 7.3%
• George W. Bush: 7.4%
• Barach Obama: 6.9%

President Trump ran on the same GOP platform, but he appears to be serious. Last week he released his proposed budget for 2018 and it’s garnered a great deal of attention.

All budgets give us survivors, winners and losers. Medicare, Social Security, and interest on the national debt are survivors as Mr. Trump has chosen to not to meddle with them (even though many members of his party demand Medicare and Social Security reform). His list of winners is pretty small: The Department of Veterans’ Affairs will see an increase of 6%. Likewise, the Department of Homeland Security gains 7%, and the Department of Defense’s budget will increase 9%.

So how about the losers? I don’t have the bandwidth for all the losers, but let me highlight a few. The Environmental Protection Agency will be cut 31%. The Department of State will lose 29%.

There is obviously more, but here’s my point: under this budget our water and air will get dirtier with the cuts at EPA. Cutting the State Department’s budget while increasing Defense focuses our our nation away from diplomacy and toward conflict.

When I was a Catholic priest I spent a fair amount of time working with engaged couples in the last few months before their marriage. I told them that if they gave me their bank statements I could tell them what they valued. None of them took me up on the offer but I was serious. How we allocate our limited resources shows what we think important. A couple who begins their marriage in a modest home and fully funds their retirement (even though it’s 40 years in the future) values responsibility and patience. In the same way the couple that purchases fancy cars and the latest high tech electronics want what they want with little regard to the possibility that they will need this money for an unexpected future expense.

In the same way Mr. Trump makes it clear that he values fear over hope, immediate profit over long term investment. He cares a great deal about his time in office and cares nothing for the world he will leave to his grandchildren.

You have to wonder who he will leave Mar a Lago to when it’s under water.

Last week I spoke of President Trump’s silly claim that his office in Trump Tower was wiretapped by former President Obama. You can read the original tweet here.

He was pretty clear that he “just learned” that Mr. Obama has his wires tapped. It’s been a little over a week and he has refused to tell us where he “just learned” it from.

Today Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, said this: “I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election. The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”

Also today Kellyanne Conway took to the airwaves to also claim that Mr. Trump didn’t mean that Mr. Obama personally wiretapped his phones. She posited the theory that Mr. Obama used microwaves that turn into cameras. When pressed she acknowledged that she is not Inspector Gadget.

I have to confess that I have some sympathy for those who have to explain President Trump’s tweets. In the second decade of the 21st Century the greatest country on earth is led by a lunatic with a twitter account. Trying to make him sound sane and reasonable is a job I would never want. Sean and Kellyanne, you have my sympathies.

I’ve spoken about this before but the nomination of Dr. Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) stunned many of us. Nobody argues his intelligence: he’s a retired brain surgeon after all. But he brought no experience either in public service or housing. I posted the theory that President Trump nominated him out of a belief that any African American understands public housing, even though Dr. Carson has never lived in public housing.

I can only imagine the reaction of all the career HUD public servants to their new boss, but that pales in comparison to what they must be thinking after his first meeting with them. I was not able to find this on the HUD webpage, but here’s what he told them:

That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.

My grandparents came to the United States to make better lives for their children and descendants (including me), but they came voluntarily. They didn’t come in chains. When they arrived they were seen as people and not property. I sincerely doubt that Dr. Carson’s ancestors dreamed of anything as much as they lived a nightmare.

The first slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. In 1808 it became illegal to import slaves to the United States and slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.

The descendants of those who arrived here in chains may well benefit from being Americans but in no way does this make it OK that people arrived on the bottom of slave ships to spend their lives working for the benefit of others.

As much as we admire the 13th Amendment, it does not remove the stain of its need to have a Constitutional amendment to see all people as people and none of us as property.

And Dr. Carson’s remarks still offends all of us who see people as people and not property, even his ancestors.

If we needed a microcosm of the administration of President Trump we found it early Saturday morning.

Friday we learned that Mr. Trump went ballistic on learning that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation of the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia. This came after Mr. Trump professed “total confidence” in Mr. Sessions.

In the wee, small hours of Saturday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that former President Obama wiretapped him.

It’s a pattern for Mr. Trump. When faced with negative attention he attempts to divert attention to something else. I’m pretty certain that’s what he tried to do.

But this time he overplayed his hand. This latest accusation created a firestorm that nobody seems to know how to manage. Like many of his tweets it caught everyone off guard, even his own staff. By Sunday morning several staff members attempted to regain control of the story. Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared on ABC’s This Week. When asked where Mr. Trump is getting his information Ms. Sanders said this:

Look, I think there have been quite a few reports. I know that Jonathan and others earlier in the program mentioned that it was all conservative media, but that’s frankly not true. The New York Times, BBC have also talked about it and reported on the potential of this having had happened. I think the bigger thing is, let’s find out. Let’s have an investigation. If they’re going to investigation Russia ties, let’s include this as part of it. And so that’s what we’re asking.

When asked again for the basis of Mr. Trump’s charge, Ms. Sanders said this:

Look, I think the bigger thing is you guys are always telling us to take the media seriously. Well, we are today. We’re taking the reports that places like The New York Times, FOX News, BBC, multiple outlets have reported this. All we’re saying is let’s take a closer look. Let’s look into this. If this happened, if this is accurate, this is the biggest overreach and the biggest scandal.

I could go on, but you get the point. Mr. Trump tweeted that he “just found out this happened” but has not told us where he got it. When asked, his staff insists that a Congressional inquiry should look into it.

Perhaps they should ask him where he got this.

Mr. Trump, when you look back on the rubble of your Presidency, this past weekend will be instructive.

On the night of January 29, 2017 Seal Team 6 executed a raid in Yemen for the purpose of acquiring intelligence.

It didn’t go exactly as planned, and to be fair, most military operations don’t. And, like countless previous operations, not everyone survived. Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens lost his life that night.

This operation has commanded national attention for several reasons, chief being the fact that it was the first military operation ordered by President Trump.

But it’s also commanded national attention because of the reaction of the Trump administration. And with so many issues, it’s become a battle between Mr. Trump’s interpretation and the rest of us. Much of Mr. Trump’s reaction troubles many of us.

Earlier this week Mr. Trump spoke to Congress and commended CPO Owens. He also invited his wife Carryn Owens and publicly recognized her. She received a well deserved standing ovation.

And yet many of us still find ourselves troubled. Mr. Trump quickly moved the discussion into a debate between “success” and “failure.”

As I said earlier, many of us find ourselves troubled by Mr. Trump’s binary view of the world. A binary world contains only two colors: black or white. There is no in between, there is no gray. Any act is either a success or failure. There is no mixed result.

In the world of American military action there are several examples of success and failure. Virtually all of us see the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 as a success. Osama bin Laden was killed and no members of the American military died.

On the other hand, we view the attempt to rescue our hostages in Iran on March 24, 1980 as a failure as eight soldiers died and none of the hostages were rescued.

These are extreme examples. Most operations have both costs and benefits. But from the very beginning the White House has scrambled to portray this as a complete success.

Within a week we were reading that it may not have been. According to an NBC News report from March 1st, none of the laptops, hard drives, or cell phones have given us anything useful. Additionally, Arizona Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) also questioned the success of the raid.

Typically, Mr. Trump attacked Senator McCain by tweeting: “He’s been losing so long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.”

Mr. Trump’s demand that this raid be deemed a complete success distracts us. In fairness we may not know for some time how to value this raid but his actions going forward chill many of us. As Commander in Chief he orders our brave men and women in uniform into harm’s way for our defense and freedom. I pray that when he is called to do this, his primary concern is for them and not his own reputation.

President Trump’s immigration stance has struck many of us as heartless and problematic. This past weekend we found out just how heartless it can be.

In an article in the San Diego Union Tribune, we learned that Mr. Trump has now turned his sights on family members of active duty service men and women.

As Mr. Trump is finding out, immigration policy (like health care) is a complex series of issues, and that’s why his January 27th plan met with such opposition.

The Union Tribune article, excellently written by Nathan Fletcher, tells us that in 2013 the Department of Defense made a formal request to the Department of Homeland Security asking that undocumented parents, spouses, and children of active duty service members not be deported. DHS issued a policy memorandum called “Parole in Place” and did not include family members who committed crimes. In other words, if your child, spouse, or parent is an active duty service member (and you don’t commit a crime) you need not fear being deported.

And more to the point, if you are that active duty service member you can concentrate on your mission (to protect our safety) without worrying about your loved one being deported.

But the Trump administration has removed that protection. We can’t know if this was deliberate or careless, but it doesn’t matter. People who deserve protection can no longer count on it.

Mr. Trump, I call on you to make America great by allowing our brave men and women in uniform to concentrate on their mission. Because in the final word, they are making us great.

President Trump’s displeasure with the press is well known. In a tweet last week he called the press the “enemy of the people.”

That comment perked the ears of many of us history buffs. We were certain we had heard this charge before and we were right. I encourage you to read an excellent article from the Washington Post that traces this phrase through the speeches and writings of Adolph Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung.

If there are any Republicans reading this, I’m sure you’re screaming at me that President Trump didn’t mean it in that context. Fair enough, but as I wrote last December, words matter. I don’t expect President Trump to be a history buff and recognize the danger of this charge, but I do expect that he chooses his words carefully.

I live in the Catholic Diocese of San Diego and we are led by Bishop Robert McElroy. He’s been our bishop since March of 2015 and he’s been wonderful. On January 29th he responded to President Trump’s executive order on immigration. I’ve never been prouder to be a Catholic:

For the Catholic community, the Gospel mandate to ‘welcome the stranger’ is a searing responsibility, not only in our personal lives, but also in guiding our efforts to create a just society in a world filled with suffering and turmoil.

For this reason, the historic identity of the United States as a safe haven for refugees fleeing war and persecution is for American Catholics both a source of justifiable pride and an unswerving religious commitment, even as we recognize that at shameful moments in our nation history prejudice, fear and ignorance have led our country to abandon that identity.

This week is just such a shameful moment of abandonment for the United States.

The executive order signed by President Trump on Friday [Jan 27] professes to be a necessary step in securing the safety of Americans. But the design of the order – and its chaotic implementation – unmask the reality that this presidential order arose not from a careful effort to balance the needs of security with our commitment to welcome refugees amidst the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. Rather, this executive order is the introduction intolaw of campaigning sloganeering rooted in xenophobia and religious prejudice. Its devastating consequences are already apparent for those suffering most in our world, for our standing among nations, and for the imperative of rebuilding unity within our country rather than tearing us further apart.

This week, the Statue of Liberty lowered its torch in a presidential action which repudiates our national heritage and ignores the reality that Our Lord and the Holy Family were themselves Middle Eastern refugees fleeing government oppression. We cannot and will not stand silent.

Bravo Bishop McElroy.

I’m a big fan of the National Public Radio’s economics podcast Planet Money. Most of what I know about economics comes from listening to this podcast.

Planet Money explains wonky economic terms in ways laypeople like myself can understand and they also use historic examples to explain current events. In a recent podcast they spoke about the danger of tariffs and protectionism.

In 2010 Argentina elected Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner President on her promise to bring back jobs.

This is a broad topic but she demanded that all cell phones sold in Argentina be manufactured in Argentina. Some companies, like Apple pulled out of the Argentinian market, but Blackberry agreed to build a factory in Argentina.

President Fernandez then demanded that Blackberry build their factory in a place that supported her Presidential bid: Tierra del Fuego, Spanish for “Land of Fire.” It’s at the southern tip of the country, the place where explorers begin their journey to the South Pole. Blackberry soon learned that they needed to pay workers enormous wages to locate there.

Two years later, when the first Argentinian Blackberry came off the assembly line, it was two years out of date and twice as expensive as the current Blackberry sold in the United States.

This phone was a bonanza for the black market. Smugglers made horrific profits smuggling Blackberries into Argentina and Argentinians paid less money for newer, better phones.

Because of this and other protectionist policies, inflation rose to 40% per year. The factory in Tierra del Fuego couldn’t sell the Blackberrys they were turning out. After cutting production for two years, Blackberry closed down the factory because they couldn’t find a way to sell the expensive obsolete phones.

And the protectionism wasn’t just with Blackberrys. Instead of finding ways the Argentinian government could invest in valuable exports they spent their energy propping up unsustainable manufacturing. As for their exports, if you’ve tasted an Argentinian Malbec, you know what I’m talking about.

This past Saturday President Trump held a campaign rally in Florida. In the course of the rally he said this:

We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris.

The problem? Nothing happened the night before in Sweden. Of the nations who have welcomed refugees, Sweden has taken the lead. They have accepted 30,000 Syrian refugees. I assume Mr. Trump was attempting to make the point that Sweden has paid a high price for their welcome.

When asked what he was talking about, he tweeted that he got his information from a report on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News and later claimed he wasn’t speaking of a specific event, but a general rise in crime that he linked to immigration.

So is it true? I know, I know, truth generally means nothing to Mr. Trump, but it means something to me. Tucker Carlson interviewed documentary film maker Ami Horowitz who did claim that there has been an increase in gun violence and rape in Sweden that the Swedish government has covered up. He, of course, gave not evidence of this.

I’ve written about this before. Mr. Trump regularly ignores security briefings. Turns out he gets them from Faux News.

It’s going to be a long 1357 days.