“We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’”

                                                        Donald Trump on the campaign trail

Are you tired yet?

It’s unfortunate that we’re not living in China. They’re probably not tired of winning yet. Here are two ways that China can look forward to winning.

Renewable energy production: Under the Big Beautiful Bill, tax credits for renewable energy projects—wind and solar—will first be reduced and then eliminated. If the United States is going to dominate in the creation and use of AI (artificial intelligence), then it will need to massively increase its production of electricity. Electric plants, whether coal, natural gas or nuclear, take years to build, as Thomas Friedman pointed out in a recent column.

In 2000 China produced just over 1,300 terawatt hours of electricity while the U.S. produced nearly 3,800 (a terawatt is equal to a million megawatts). Fast forward to today, China produces over 10,000 terawatt hours while the U.S., since 2000, has added only 500 — an increase of only 13 percent in two and a half decades. Much of China’s electricity growth originally came from expanded coal-fired generation, but in recent years it has been driven by expanding hydro, solar, wind and battery sources, which are easier, cheaper and quicker to build and also help the climate.

Electric cars: The new law eliminates tax credits for new or used electric cars after September 30 of this year. American automobile manufacturers, who have been promising to transition from fossil fuel to electric vehicles sometime in the next 10 years may have to reconsider their plans with the cancellation of this purchase incentive. Meanwhile, China has been moving ahead with the manufacture of the BYD (Build Your Dreams) which has overtaken Tesla to be the world’s top selling electric vehicle car.

According to Michael Dunne, a former General Motors executive, BYD is on pace to pull even with the world’s biggest car manufacturers, Toyota and Volkswagen, by 2030. Never mind that BYD is the recipient of all kinds of incentives from the Chinese government. (Anyone in this country who finds that objectionable should remember the oil depletion allowance in the U.S. tax code which allows investors to write off oil sold from wells because, the reasoning goes, as the oil is sold the resource has been depleted. One man’s tax break is another man’s subsidy.)

Energy and Chinese electric cars are two blatant examples of how we’re not winning. Consider the abrupt cancellation of federally funded medical research and the dismissal of thousands of researchers. The researchers will doubtless find jobs in other countries if not in the United States and we will have lost their knowledge and expertise.

Leaving China aside, here’s another strange way of winning.

Immigration policy: Stephen Miller hasn’t been named immigration czar, but he is in fact, without the title. He is demanding three thousand deportations a day. Where can they find so many undocumented immigrants? Not the worst of the worst, mind you, or the worst. They’re looking for bodies, and they can find them—in restaurants, at Home Depots, picking perishable crops, mowing lawns. The United States has a labor shortage.  Question: What happens when the supply of a commodity doesn’t meet the demand? Average wages are rising, but costs are rising faster. This from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.1 percent from May to June, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This result stems from an increase of 0.2 percent in average hourly earnings combined with an increase of 0.3 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.”

Now the 47^th President is pressuring Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, to lower interest rates. The reported reason for Trump wanting lower rates reportedly is that every percentage point up or down will cost or save the federal government in interest payments $300 billion (debt service) on the $30 plus trillion federal debt.

Here’s one problem, though. The Fed may lower interest rates, but that wouldn’t necessarily lower the rate that the U.S. Treasury may have to pay to sell the bonds that finance our deficits. Borrowers, seeing the debt growing faster than our gross domestic product (GDP), may demand rates higher than what the Fed is trying to set.

But that’s not all. The Fed is apparently reluctant to lower interest rates because it’s concerned about inflation, which is problematic, not least because of the on again, off again tariffs Donald Trump keeps imposing or threatening to impose. If the Fed lowers interest rates, that action could kick off another round of inflation, raising prices for American consumers (who already will be paying more for goods and services because of the tariffs).

One of the reasons Trump was elected was because voters thought prices were too high. Trump promised to lower them. But, as Joe Biden used to say, “Guess what?” Prices have not come down. The latest Consumer Price Index showed inflation rising to 2.7 percent.

When can we start celebrating?