Category Archives: 2016 presidential campaign
Republican Leaders
Republican leaders told President Trump they had a plan to get things done in Congress. They didn’t. And the swamp remains.
So Trump made a deal with Chuck Schumer to raise the debt ceiling and free up billions for hurricane victims. Now he’s looking at Schumer for more deals.
Republican Leaders
Here’s what Rich Lowry has to say about that:
The idea that Trump, who has been too inept to help his own party in Congress, will team up with perhaps the most deviously shrewd Democrat in the country and come out on top is difficult to credit. Schumer will milk Trump for whatever he can get — every tactical advantage, every bit of new spending — so long as he doesn’t give away anything important and doesn’t materially boost Trump’s political standing.
National Review’s Jonathan Tobin thinks the Republican party means nothing to Trump. Maybe for good reason:
Trump is unbound by any loyalty to the party that nominated him or to men such as House speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Mitch McConnell. To the contrary, he regards them as foes in a cold war against a political establishment he neither likes nor trusts.
Hurricane Hillary
Hurricane Hillary is about to storm the country with her new book. It’s titled “What Happened.”
I haven’t read it and probably won’t. But some Democrats like Bernie Sanders can expect a direct hit. According to CNBC she blames him “for setting up the Trump campaign with the very attacks that sank her on Election Day.”
Bernie blames her for losing to the “most unpopular candidate in the history of our country.”
Hurricane Hillary
Hillary has been building strength and now 15 cities lie in her projected path. Storm weary Democrats are evacuating. And most wish she would just blow away.
Here’s Politico:
President Donald Trump may be the only person in politics truly excited about Hillary Clinton’s book tour.
Democratic operatives can’t stand the thought of her picking the scabs of 2016, again — the Bernie Sanders divide, the Jim Comey complaints, the casting blame on Barack Obama for not speaking out more on Russia. Alums of her Brooklyn headquarters who were miserable even when they thought she was winning tend to greet the topic with, “Oh, God,” “I can’t handle it,” and “the final torture.”
Trump Schumer Deal
The Trump Schumer deal came to pass this week. Chuck Schumer made an offer to increase the debt ceiling for three months. And Donald Trump took him up on it.
Swamp dwelling Republicans were aghast. Earlier in the day Paul Ryan had blasted the same offer as “ridiculous and disgraceful”.
Trump Schumer Deal
But then Republicans haven’t had much luck closing deals for Trump. Obamacare still stands and Trump outpolls Congress.
Mark Steyn says, “there are now three political parties in Washington.” Democrats, Republicans, and Trump. The Democrats have a base. Trump has a base. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan don’t have a base.
Tax Reform Rescue Mission
During a week of inspiring rescues, President Trump introduced his tax reform plan. The U.S. has the world’s highest corporate tax rate at 39%. As a result, over two trillion dollars is parked overseas in low tax countries like Ireland. Trump proposes a 15% corporate rate as ransom to rescue that cash and bring it home. Which in return will lead to growth.
Tax Reform
Of course Democrats don’t see it that way. To them it’s all just an elitist gift to the rich. Maybe, but Kimberly Strassel points out in the WSJ that Trump is an ideal pitchman for the plan. He’s rich but he’s also seen as a populist outsider:
Mr. Trump has defined himself as the protector of America’s forgotten man, an outsider to the swamp, an America Firster. The result is that he is uniquely qualified to sell a tax plan decried as “elitist” to average Americans.
In Missouri, Mr. Trump busted up the left’s class-warfare model. He didn’t make tax reform about blue-collar workers fighting corporate America. Instead it was a question of “our workers” and “our companies” and “our country” competing against China. He noted that America’s high tax rates force companies to move overseas. He directly and correctly tied corporate rate cuts to prosperity for workers, noting that tax reform would “keep jobs in America, create jobs in America,” and lead to higher wages.
Hate Group Members
The extremist hate group thing seems a little trumped up to me.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members. The SLPC is the media’s go-to choice for hate stats. They even publish this helpful hate map.
But their definition of hate seems broad. They label some Christian groups that don’t share their views on LGBT issues, like the Family Research Council, as hate groups. Then again, I suppose the Klan also considers itself a Christian group not big on the LGBT agenda.
Anyway, I found the FBI figure of 2,200 Klan members quoted in Newsweek archives. So I went with it.
