President Trump

I think Obamacare and the rising enforced payments and the tax penalty for not paying an enforced payment was the last nail in the Clinton coffin

In a football match, it is not usual to start 3-0 down.

But, in economic terms, that is effectively where the government is as it approaches the Autumn Statement at the end of the month.

The previous Chancellor, George Osborne, set the government three rules it would adhere to, an attempt to show a sceptical public that it was bearing down on the country's deficit (the amount a country spends on public services versus the amount a country earns via tax receipts) and being tough on the accumulation of debt (the overall amount a government owes).

All three have been broken or abandoned - the cap on welfare spending, the pledge to reduce debt as a proportion of national income and the promise to balance the books (so ending the deficit) by 2020.

The last target was dumped after the result of the referendum brought forward a raft of economic downgrades for the UK economy which - if they come to pass - will lead to a reduction in government income and make eliminating the deficit even more problematic without further tax rises and public sector cuts.

That is the unhelpfully cut-up pitch on which the present Chancellor, Philip Hammond, is playing ahead of his first major economic outing, the Autumn Statement in two weeks' time.

Today's report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals the difficulties ahead.

It suggests that given the slowdown predicted in the economy the chancellor will be dealing with a public finances outlook £25bn worse than predicted in the Budget last March.

Please do not take my thread into the gutter. You too Farmerman. You both have interesting things to say without trying to snipe others.

So, is it the Hillary supporters that we need to worry about after all?

The fact that they made a lot of mistakes doesn't change the fact that her strong alliance within political circles, media, Wall Street, and heads of state around the world has created what was the most powerful political machine since Boss Tweed.

But, yeah. She sucked at politics. She basically rode her husband's coattails as far as they'd take her.

I look forward to the first female president now -- hoping she gets there on her own gas.

Edit-- I definitely see the similarity between Trump and the Andy Griffith character. I hope he can stall his meltdown for four years.

Trump was asked if he would accept the election result and he said he'd see. That it would depend on what the results were and such.