The myth that the Republican establishment has led a “do-nothing” Congress was in part what energized the Trump phenomena. Donald is poised to be the outsider who will shake up the establishment. Thus a myth has helped to produce a candidate who is in no way, shape or form is a conservative. It is past time to put this myth to rest. Let’s review how we got here, what this maligned Congress has actually done, stopped from getting done and the chances of electing a person who will govern as a conservative. Unless we can objectively and unemotionally review how we got here, we will likely repeat past mistakes as George Santayana warned us.
With a great deal of luck and maybe divine intervention Trump will stop putting his foot in his mouth long enough to slip into the White House. Hopefully once there he will be humble enough (Did I use the word ‘humble’ and Trump in the same sentence?) to follow Paul Ryan’s, “A Better Way” formula (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C221531pF4c) leading down a path to a middle class revival and a conservatively guided surge out of pathetically sad poverty levels.
Maybe a miracle will occur and he will listen to his economic advisor, Stephen Moore, in the area of trade policy. If Trump were to do what he says he will do by starting a trade war, we would see an economic downturn and possible recession as the follow-up to eight years of stagnation. We can’t afford that having already lost so much economic momentum. Low interest rates will eventually rise and with them the cost of money. Paying interest on 19 trillion in debt will swallow the economy whole. It will consume so much revenue as to render economic progress problematic at best. Unless of course we get a handle on entitlement reform. Maybe Lawrence Kudlow and Stephen Moore will convince Trump that entitlements do need to be fixed and not left untouched as the candidate has repeatedly promised.
I guess its possible Donald will follow General Mike Flynn’s formula for defeating radical Islam. You see that would involve a plan that entails more then the faux macho verbal bravado that seems to be Trump’s stock in trade.
No arms to the Ukraine. Leave NATO allies on their own. Ban people based on faith. Can we call this foot-in-the-mouth policy syndrome?
If on the other hand Trump’s enormous ego sinks his ship and thus allows Hillary (an incredibly weak and dangerous candidate) to win, we will find out what it looks like after losing both the White House and the Senate.Then we are in for even deeper leftist poop.
So I vote hoping for divine intervention on behalf of a kooky candidate knowing it’s my only choice. I vote for dumb in order to stop dumber. Not exactly feel good stuff.
As I have said many times, sitting on the sidelines clamoring in verbal policy perfection is a world removed from the leadership necessary to unite 218/61 votes to get something done in the House and Senate. Leadership involves more then running one’s mouth with no responsibility or the desire to actually garner enough votes to get something done. Political posturing is not leadership. Building a consensus to get things done in a less then perfect fashion is leadership. We have seen way too much posturing.
Senator Cruz’s implosion is the best example of the posturing. His final act of an extended non-endorsement speech at the Convention was proof positive that his primary interest was his own self-promotion and hurt feelings. Ironically he,Trump, Hilary and Obama share the inconvenient political defect of very thin skin. All the high-minded lecturing about following his conscience crumbled as he revealed with crystal clarity that he has always put himself above the greater good. Another character flaw he shares with Trump. Hillary and Obama; each in his/her own way demonstrates the motto, self-above all else.
Somehow Rubio,Carson and Walker were able to put aside the slights thrown their way in order to give the greater good a chance. And I note keep the public pledge they made to fellow candidates. They gutted it out, swallowed their pride allowing them to endorse our only shot at stopping Hillary. Screwed up as it is Trump in this crazy low standard election is the greater good.
I might add another reason to vote for Trump that I recently heard from a Dennis Prager caller. There will be many Republicans ready to stop Trump if he goes over the edge once in office. If Hillary wins the Democrats will follow her lock, stock and barrel over the falls and down into the abyss.
When we demonize the people getting stuff done imperfectly and worship those who posture their way into the limelight we end up with demagogues. It is in this context that I reprint a Wall Street Journal editorial that lists what the “do-nothing” Congress got done over and around Obama and his unconstitutional nonsense over and over again; and I might add while fighting off a raucous name-calling caucus of critics. What Congress has prevented the President from doing is as important as what they were actually been able to get done
Wall Street Journal July 19, 2016
A famous Monty Python movie scene features a cast of Jewish rebels from the time of Jesus riffing about “what have the Romans ever done for us?” They grouse in unison for a minute until one guy pipes up and asks “the aqueduct?” Well, Ok, fine, says the biggest griper, but what else? Then somebody says “sanitation,” then roads, education, irrigation, of course “wine” and public order. But apart from that, they all cry again, what have the Romans ever done for us?
That might as well be the dialogue for a typical conversation these days among conservatives about the Republican Congress. The talk radio crowd has so fed the narrative of GOP “betrayal” in Washington that even many Republicans believe Congress has accomplished nothing since they took the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. The truth is that while the GOP Congress can’t match the Romans, it has achieved far more than the critics claim.
Start with everything the GOP Congress has prevented. Universal pre-K, gun regulation, a $15 national minimum wage, an ObamaCare bailout for insurers, equal pay regulation, more disclosure of campaign donations, “free” community college, a new “infrastructure bank,” closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, among many others. President Obama proposed each of those, often more than once, but they vanished faster than Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign thanks to the GOP Congress.
But wait, didn’t Republicans promise and fail to repeal ObamaCare? That was never going to happen with Mr. Obama in the White House, but this year Congress did put a repeal on his desk. The GOP Senate used procedures related to the budget to avoid a Democratic filibuster and force a presidential veto. Perhaps you didn’t know about that because conservatives were too busy wailing about renewal of the Export-Import Bank (which we also opposed).
Congress hasn’t been able to block Mr. Obama’s regulatory binge, though not for lack of trying. Republicans have used the Congressional Review Act to repeal his rules on carbon power plants, the waters of the U.S., and the National Labor Relations Board’s ambush elections. They forced Mr. Obama to veto, setting up what should be an election-year debate. Republicans also took a risk that a lawsuit could stop Mr. Obama’s legalization of four million illegal immigrants, and the courts have stopped it at least until there is a ninth Supreme Court Justice.
The GOP has also made incremental policy gains despite Mr. Obama’s hostility. The recent bill to save Puerto Rico from a chaotic default sets up an oversight board that will have the power to break up the island’s union-Democratic machine. Mr. Obama had to go along because the House held its 218-vote majority together.
Congress has also imposed a far lower spending path than anyone expected after the stimulus blowout of 2009-2010. Spending as a share of GDP peaked at 24.4% in 2009, stayed at an historically high 23.4% in 2010 and 2011, but then fell each year through fiscal 2014 to 20.4%. It has begun to creep back up, in part because Mr. Obama has insisted on more domestic spending as the price for more defense money. But imagine where the fisc would be with Nancy Pelosi in charge?
The GOP majority made several tax provisions permanent so they won’t be subject to Congress’s annual lobbying frenzy. These include enhanced expensing for small business, the research and development tax credit, and a ban on internet access taxes. Making these permanent will assist tax reform by giving a bigger revenue cushion to cut tax rates.
Congress also passed an education reform that devolved more power to states and localities. It passed a bill to improve cybersecurity without the mandates on business that Senate Democrats wanted. It fixed the Medicare “sustainable growth rate” ruse that hid future spending increases. On foreign policy, it increased sanctions against North Korea and imposed a pause on refugees from Syria.
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None of this is world-changing, and we’d always hope for more, but then that rarely happens under divided government. Democrats settled for incremental gains in George W. Bush’s last two years, paving the way for more when Mr. Obama won. Republicans are set up for similar progress in 2017, and Speaker Paul Ryan has persuaded the House GOP to support an ambitious agenda to reform the tax code, health care, the financial system and much more.
The best argument for Donald Trump, apart from the Supreme Court, is that Mr. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would steer him in the right policy direction. Mr. Trump would have little choice but to follow their lead if he wants to keep his promises of “winning.” All of this will be a tragic lost opportunity if Mr. Trump loses, but what conservatives should really worry about is what happens if he loses so badly that he takes the GOP House and Senate along with him.