Trump and the Fire Swamp

Donald Trump went to Washington promising to drain the swamp. The swamp is winning. That’s because it is a lot more complicated than simply pulling the plug and watching the whole mess go down the drain.

No, the swamp in Washington is more like the fictional fire swamp in the movie “The Princess Bride.” Washington, like the swamp in this movie classic, has three elements: the fire (obvious), lighting sand (dryer and quicker than quicksand) and the dreaded R.O.U.S. (rodents of unusual size). Continue reading “Trump and the Fire Swamp” →

Why’d Hillary Lose? Blame Joseph Farah

Hillary Clinton made a lot of mistakes in her quest to become the first woman president of the United States, but her biggest mistake occurred well before she ever ran for public office. It was back in 1995, when, as the chief strategist during her husband’s tenure in the White House, she grew frustrated that their many scandals where making their way into the press.

As first lady of Arkansas she managed to keep a lid on their misdeeds. She was well versed in Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and successfully demonized and silenced anyone who dared question their actions.

However, in 1995, things were getting out of hand. Those of you old enough to have lived through the Clinton years may remember an unguarded moment when she lashed out at the “vast right-wing conspiracy” in a TV interview. But she was far from done. I can only imagine the hours she must have put into a 331-page report in which she vented her frustrations in a publication called the “Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce.” It was released during the 1996 presidential campaign by the White House council’s office and the Democratic National Committee. Continue reading “Why’d Hillary Lose? Blame Joseph Farah” →

Big Bird: You’re Fired!

On Monday, Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at cutting out waste in the federal government. The ink wasn’t dry when the Washington Post trotted out Big Bird, the affable “Sesame Street” figure who has been used to blunt past efforts to cut unnecessary government programs. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-end-of-big-bird-hes-survived-the-budget-ax-many-times-before/2017/03/13/f5c1c94a-082a-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.c6a28dc55b29

“Sesame Street” has millions of fans and I am one of them, but this bird is a fat cat! It’s time we recognize that his life and our lives will not change if we cut the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR and all the rest. Continue reading “Big Bird: You’re Fired!” →

Obamacare Replacement: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After seven years of promising to repeal and replace Obamacare, Republicans finally have a plan. If only we had held our breaths during all that time, they could have skipped it. We’d all be dead.

Will it lower individual cost and provide better coverage? Hopefully. However, it falls well short of providing free-market coverage. The only way to do that is to repeal Obamacare and get out of the way. Something that Democrats are adamantly against and timid Republicans are reluctant to do.

Americans are generous people and would never abandon the poor to charity or, horrors, leave that responsibility to their families. In our “me-first” society, it’s just too much to expect people to take care of their own. Nevertheless, what we desperately need is a two-tier system: One for the poor where there are special government-run, low cost, bare-bones centers that provide basic emergency care, and one for all the rest who must pay their own way.

Yes, health care cost something. If our government would simply take care of those who truly cannot take care of themselves and get out of the way, we would have a free-market that would offer more choices than we could imagine and all levels of coverage. The average person could easily find one that fits his or her need and pocketbook. Continue reading “Obamacare Replacement: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” →

Report Card on President Trump’s First 12 Days

Hate him or love him, you must admit that President Trump has been working overtime to do the things he believes will make this country great again. In his first 11 days, he has signed more executive actions that any other president in modern history. In addition, he rounded out his cabinet, held meetings with business and union leaders, spent hours in person or on the phone with world leaders and gave us a Supreme Court nominee.

President’s can’t make law. Therefore, Trump will have to depend on Congress to see that his major policy proposals become reality. However, presidents have wide discretion how our laws are implemented and many of his moves have already changed the status quo.

Some initial actions are perfunctory and done by every president. Therefore, for this report card I am focusing only on those that have a direct bearing on policy.

Cabinet Picks — Tells us a lot about how serious a president is about keeping his campaign promises. Trump’s picks, unlike Obama’s policy wonks, have real world experience. They have achieved tremendous success and are willing to give the agencies they run the benefit of that experience. Others such as Jeff Sessions and Betsy DeVos have spent years working to advance the policies on which Trump campaigned.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13765 — Minimizes the economic effects of Obamacare by directing federal agencies to give states, insurance companies and consumers the maximum amount of flexibility in complying with the law. Trump is laying down a marker that he intends to see Obamacare repealed and replaced.

Grade A

Presidential Memorandum: Withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership — Trump is making good on his promise to negotiate trade deals to make sure they are both fair and profitable.

Grade A

Presidential Memorandum: Mexico City Policy — Trump not only reimplemented the policy put in place by President Reagan that prevents our tax money from going to overseas family planning agencies that perform abortions, he expanded it.

Grade A+

Presidential Memorandums on the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — Ordered agencies involved to expedite these projects. Also ordered the Department of Commerce to review ways to mandate the use of American-made steel in all pipeline projects in the U.S.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13766 — Expedited Environmental Reviews for Infrastructure Projects. Remember all those “shovel-ready” jobs that Obama promised? By the time they saw the light of day they were loaded down with millions of dollars of bureaucratic waste.

Grade A

Presidential Memorandum: Streamlining Permitting and Reducing Regulatory Burdens for Domestic Manufacturing — The first step to bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13767: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements —

Build the wall and hire more border security officers.

Grade A+

Executive Order 13768: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior — Cuts off federal funds to Sanctuary Cities and gives immigrations officers the authority to deport any noncitizen judged to be a threat to pubic safety.

Grade A+

Executive Order: Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States — Immediate travel ban for the seven countries judged to be most dangerous for 90 days until we can reform the vetting process. Despite what you may have heard, the threat from refugees is real. Since September 11, 2001, at least 40 people admitted to the U.S. as refugees have been implicated in terrorism. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/10/jeff-sessions-highlights-20-vetted-terrorist-refugees-obama-ramps-admissions-terror-hot-spots/ Trump was criticized for not giving our security agencies time to thoroughly brief all those involved with implementing this order. However, this would have leaked and given those intent on doing us harm an opportunity to sneak in before the ban. There was no perfect way to do this without inconveniencing the people affected by the ban.

Grade B

National Security Presidential Memorandum 1: Rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces —Pentagon and Office of Management and Budget are to come up with a plan to bolster the military, examine our nuclear arsenal and missile-defense capabilities.

Grade A

National Security Presidential Memorandum 3 — Plan to Defeat ISIS to be delivered in 30 days

Grade A

Executive Order: Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs — Requires agencies to rescind two regulations for every new one. Total cost of all new regulations for 2017, including those repealed, to be 0.

Grade A+

The Nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court — Another campaign promise delivered. He picked this nominee from the list he presented to the voters which he compiled with the help of the Federalist Society. Indications are that Judge Gorsuch is a strict constructionist in the mold of Antonin Scalia but only time will tell.

Grade Incomplete

Why Obamacare must Go

The first order of business for the new Congress is the repeal of Obamacare. The American people demand it. The only people who seem to be happy with Obama’s signature achievement are those who are rich or getting it for free, or nearly free.

Dig a little deeper you will find that the bleeding-heart liberal rich with their on-call concierge physicians or so-called Cadillac plans are the only ones truly happy because they are unaffected. Those who get Obamacare free through the expansion of Medicaid, or nearly free, have found it is a trap because fewer and fewer doctors are willing to take these patients. The doctors who do require long waits. It’s call rationing which is a hallmark of socialized medicine or Obamacare-Lite, as the case may be.

For the average guy or gal, Obamacare has been a disaster. My cousin Lori is a case in point. As an adjunct college professor she was informed that she would no longer be eligible for company health benefits for 2017. The college then offered her the ability to self-pay through Obamacare. Continue reading “Why Obamacare must Go” →

The Democrats Terrible, Tumultuous Temper Tantrums

The hallmark of democratic governments is the smooth transition of power from one duly elected leader and duly elected legislature to the next. Never before in our history have we seen an outgoing president and the leaders of his losing political party so hellbent on tripping up those who will succeed them.

Obama set the stage by inviting the president-elect to the White House for a friendly chat and then snatching the welcome matt right from under his feet as he was leaving the White House.

After jetting off to Hawaii for another luxury vacation, costing taxpayer millions of $$$ ( http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/22/obamas-hawaii-christmas-vacations-cost-taxpayers-3/), it became obvious that Obama left land mines for his successor, hoping they will blow up during some portion of Trump’s initial stay in the White House. Between rounds of golf, he gave orders to throw Israel under the bus at the United Nations. He expelled 35 Russian diplomats. He used an arcane statue to block oil drilling in much of the Arctic and portions of the Atlantic Ocean in an obvious attempt to keep Trump from making good on his promise to use all available fuel reserves and take actions to allow more off-shore drilling. He used another arcane statue to grab 1.6 million acres of valuable land in Utah and Nevada, two states that helped put Trump over the top.

Obama is going to extreme lengths to make it difficult for Trump to roll back job killing federal regulations that have been crippling economic growth by releasing hundreds more in the waning days of his administration. Word Continue reading “The Democrats Terrible, Tumultuous Temper Tantrums” →

Trump as the Nation’s CEO

For the first time in well over a decade there is optimism in the air. The stock market has reached new highs. The dollar has regained its strength. Even the timid Federal Reserve finally appears ready to raise interest rates.

While the latter most certainly will have a short-term negative effect on the stock market, most Americans are beginning to feel that there is a high probability they will be better off than they have been in quite some time. And this optimism extends well beyond the economy.

The majority now feel that law and order will be restored at our borders, in our cities and throughout our broken judiciary. We also feel that our nation will regain its self-respect. We expect the U.S. military to be rebuilt and that, once again, we will have peace through strength. Continue reading “Trump as the Nation’s CEO” →

A Victory for the Great Unwashed (Now GOP Leaders must Put Up or Shut Up)

I was born in what was then a deep blue state, into a Democratic family. Among my kin you were either a Democrat or un-American. As a youngster I asked my parents, “Why are we Democrats?” They answered, “Because Democrats are for the working people.”

My parents both worked very hard and so I just accepted that. When I turned 18, I registered to vote and proudly voted in every election. I didn’t know anything about the issues, but I voted. When I became a parent, I began to study the issues and realized that Democrats were not what they seemed. They supported principles that undermined the working class, small business owners and immigrants who wanted their shot at the American dream. As the years rolled by, these Democrats took positions that were, well, un-American.

Much to my chagrin, I discovered, that Republicans weren’t much better. Although, they talked a good ballgame about law and order, the free enterprise system and protecting the rights of the minority by defending the Constitution, they were afraid to make the case for these beliefs. They were gradually taken over by political correctness and were unwilling to fight for anything for fear of losing their precious seats in Congress and their small grip on what power they had left. Continue reading “A Victory for the Great Unwashed (Now GOP Leaders must Put Up or Shut Up)” →

The Best News out of Iowa

The best news out of Iowa is not that Ted Cruz won or that Donald Trump’s political gamble of skipping the last debate, like a sulking child, likely cost him a win there.

It’s not that the long predicted surge of Marco Rubio finally happened.

No, the best news out of Iowa is that a candidate who had the courage to boldly proclaim his opposition to federal mandates and subsidies for ethanol — which comes from corn — the top crop in the state, actually won there.

Be it Ted Cruz or Joe Blow, it turned the conventional political wisdom on its head. It proves that you don’t have to pander to get elected. If you are willing to make the case that these government handouts keep you under the thumb of Washington and wind up hurting everyone, eventually enough reasonable people will listen. Continue reading “The Best News out of Iowa” →