ABC: Always Be Closing

"A-B-C. A-always, B-be, C-closing. Always be closing! Always be closing!! A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. Attention -- do I have your attention? Interest -- are you interested? I know you are because it's fuck or walk. You close or you hit the bricks!"

Blake, played by Alex Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992

“First prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.

Millions of Americans got the Social Security letter last week.

Maybe we were shocked by it. So blatantly political. Wow. Has it come to this?

Yes. It has come to this.

Here is my copy of the letter, along with the subject line heading. This was official business from the government's website.

By now most readers will have read enough commentary to know that the letter is deeply misleading. The Big Beautiful Bill doesn't eliminate taxes on Social Security, as Trump claims and campaigned. The letter writes,

"By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned."

Coming from Social Security, this implies that there was some change to taxation of Social Security benefits. Not so. The new law does change the standard deduction amount for seniors, which in a few cases, if people are on an income margin, will drop people from paying taxes to not paying them, but the new law doesn't change Social Security taxation or provide "meaningful and immediate relief" for anything involving Social Security.

The big effects of the law are elsewhere. If the $150 billion in new money for immigration control is spent effectively, then there will be dramatic reshaping of our population through deportations. The tax cuts for top earners have become permanent. Some people will lose Medicaid access, which will be catastrophic for some of them. The deficit will rise and the debt grow.

The Trump administration broke through a new boundary on the politicization of the federal government's agencies. Traditionally politicians sell, but government agencies describe, and do so in a neutral way. Government reports are dry -- boring even -- but reliable as information without "spin." This letter is something new. Jeff Nesbit, the former deputy commissioner of the SSA under President Joe Biden, said "The agency has never issued such a blatant political statement.The fact that Trump and his minion running SSA has done this is unconscionable." Unconscionable, maybe, but not clearly illegal, and in any case no inspector general or ethics official in the Department of Justice is going to raise a fuss. Trump is getting away with this.

Trump is a transformative president. The executive departments are now part of the overt political and communication apparatus of the incumbent president. They spin. They sell. Now that Trump has done it and gotten away with it, the changes will likely persist after he leaves office. The incentives to use executive department credibility to cheerlead for incumbent presidents and their party are enormous, but only if the public tolerates it and perceives it as the new normal, and that is the case. There is no objection from any group with the power to do anything. Within the suite of Trump sales-oriented activities, from shoes, watches, real estate deals, lawsuit settlements with media companies, Melania's payment for a documentary, and meme crypto coins, the distinctions and prohibitions against of self-dealing financially or politically have eroded away.

Democrats are so disgusted by Trump's crassness, dishonesty, cruelty, and selfishness that they have underestimated the power of relentless salesmanship. President Biden was a miserable salesman, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is little better. Democrats tolerate that. Democrats in leadership positions act as if features and benefits sell themselves. Trump knows better.

Trump gets away with outrageous behavior because he is selling all the time, using every tool at his command. He commands the executive department. He just commandeered Social Security.

The Blake character in Glengarry Glen Ross was a vulgar, bullying, unappealing character, but he was a "winner." He brags to the workers that he made almost a million dollars that year, 1992, drives a hundred thousand dollar car, and has a big gold watch. He was disgusting all the way to the bank. He was always closing.