Category Archives: Politics
Big Government
In his 1996 State of the Union speech Bill Clinton signed the death certificate for the era of big government. He went on to challenge Congress to send him a welfare reform bill. Congress did just that and he signed it.
But Big Gov was Rasputin-like. According to the Cato Institute federal spending grew 60% during the George W. Bush years. Then in 2012 Barack Obama killed Clinton’s signature Welfare reform and Rasputin was back.
Hillary Clinton, pushed to the left by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, campaigned to expand the Big Government command and control economy even further. But she lost.
Big Government RIP?
So Rasputin is dead again.
Now what’s this Donald Trump trillion dollar stimulus plan all about?
1980s Are Calling
1980s are calling
In a 2012 presidential debate Romney claimed Russia was the biggest threat to the United States. Obama mocked him saying, “The 1980s are calling and they want their foreign policy back.”
Trump Tweets
Republicans in Congress were frustrating President Obama’s agenda . So, in 2014, he decided to go it alone. He said, “I have a phone and a pen.”
Outlining the strategy, Obama said he plans to use his pen to sign executive actions and his phone to convene outside groups in support of his agenda if Congress proves unable or unwilling to act on his priorities.
Trump Tweets
Speaking of phones, President-elect Trump has been taking phone calls without China’s approval. And if you don’t like it you’ll get Trump tweets about it.
Harry Reid’s Nuclear Winter
During Harry Reid’s tenure as Senate Majority Leader he didn’t get President Obama’s nominees approved at a pace to his liking. Democrats had a simple majority but not the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. So Harry invoked the “nuclear option”. Which is to say he changed the rules. Now, under the new Senate rules, only a simple majority of 51 votes is required to approve most presidential nominees. Supreme Court appointments not included.
Nuclear Option
Until the November 8 shocker, the Majority Leader had expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. In October he bragged that he had set the table for easy approval of future Supreme Court nominees too. And so he had.
But what he didn’t count on was a Republican president and 52 Republican senators.
Now, as Harry Reid retires to his own personal nuclear winter, he leaves his colleagues glowing in the dark.
Trumped up One China Policy
Donald Trump’s phone conversation with the president of Taiwan was a diplomatic blunder. According to diplomats. They say it upsets the One China Policy. That’s the policy where everybody pretends Mainland China exits and Taiwan doesn’t.
The U.S. sold the nonexistent regime $1.83 billion in weapons last year. And China is Taiwan’s biggest trading partner.
One China Policy
Henry Kissinger helped invent the One China policy in 1971. This week he took a ride up the golden elevator to meet Trump. He was impressed. He says Trump is a unique president-elect because he has “no baggage.”
I don’t think The Donald cares who calls him on the phone. William Murchison of the Dallas Morning News definitely doesn’t care. You can read his column here.
