The Front Page Cover
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The Art of the Debt-Ceiling Deal
by Lewis Morris
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Dems Support Trump's Tax Reform — Or at Least
They Did
by Thomas Gallatin: When Donald Trump released his plan for tax reform, he highlighted four areas for specific focus. First, simply making the tax code “fair and easy to understand.” Second, lower the corporate tax rate — currently at 35%, the highest in the developed world — down to a reasonable and competitive rate of 15%. Third, via the incentive of a lower corporate tax rate, bring businesses back to American soil, which brings in trillions of dollars and in turn spurs greater economic investment and job growth. Fourth and finally, lower taxes on middle-class Americans.
None of these tax reform proposals are unreasonable or controversial. In fact, Democrats have been suggesting these reforms for years.
Democrats have promoted simplifying the tax code. In 2011, Barack liar-nObama said in his State of the Union speech, “I’m asking Democrats and Republicans to simplify the [tax] system.” Also in 2011 Sen. John Tester (D-MT) stated, “You know, I will tell you I think tax reform needs to be part of the equation. And I think we can simplify the tax code.” And everyone’s favorite non-Indian, Sen. Elizabeth dinky-Warren (D-MA), this past April introduced legislation aimed at simplifying the tax code and filing process. Declaring support for dinky-Warren’s bill, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said, “If Washington would finally act on common sense reforms at the IRS, we can simplify tax filing and make it less expensive for taxpayers.” And this statement just two weeks ago from Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH): “I think we need to simplify the tax code.”
Democrats have said they favor lowering the corporate tax rate. In 2008, House Minority Leader Nancy Pulosi (D-CA) said, “America has one of the highest corporate tax rates among industrialized nations and [Treasury] Secretary [Hank] Paulson has repeatedly spoken of the need to eliminate unfair tax preferences in the code to allow for a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 30.5% or below. Reducing the corporate tax rate would help keep our companies competitive internationally.” In 2014, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) stated, “I think we all want to lower corporate tax rates.” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) two weeks ago said, “I think we need to lower the corporate tax rate. We can’t just be the party of redistribution of wealth. We’ve got to be the party of creation of wealth.”
Democrats have connected lowering the corporate tax rate to incentivizing businesses to come back to American soil. In 2013, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) stated, “Corporate tax reform is necessary to ensure the American economy is the most desirable place in the world for U.S.-based companies to invest. We can do that by closing down tax havens that cost our country revenue and cost American workers jobs. Lowering the corporate tax rate would put companies on a level playing field with foreign competitors and reduce the incentive for them to shift jobs and profits overseas.”
Democrats have called for tax relief for the American middle class by eliminating tax loopholes. Nancy Pulosi in 2015 urged “closing special interest loopholes” and “tax reform that ensured all Americans pay their fair share.” In 2013, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said that reform was needed “by closing special interest loopholes and by no longer favoring wealth over work in our tax code.” And just days ago Sen. Heidi Heitcamp (D-ND) stated, “I’ve been pushing for both sides of the aisle to work together in Congress toward permanent, comprehensive solutions that will do away with loopholes and handouts for special interests and instead promote our small businesses, farm economy and energy industries with the fiscally responsible reforms they need to grow and expand.”
Will Democrats stand by their words, or will they continue to play the politics of obstruction opposing Trump at every turn? We’ll find out soon. ~The Patriot Post
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Coup Continues – 9th Circuit COURT Defies
SCOTUS, President TRUMP AGAIN On Travel Ban
by rickwells.us
{rickwells.us} ~ The choom gang is at it again, the liberal agitator sleeper cell network of liar-nObama and liar-Clinton plants disguised as so-called judges... They’ve once again proclaimed themselves as the supreme law of the land, appropriating the powers of our legislature and president as their own and subordinating the Constitution to their own politically motivated whims. The Ninth Circuit has even overruled the now humorously labeled Supreme Court, siding with the arbitrary determination of so-called Judge Derrick Watson over the Constitutional variety and removing the power of the President to protect the nation and control access to our soil... http://rickwells.us/coup-continues-9th-circuit-defies-scotus-president-trump-travel-ban/.
They Are Setting Up Conservatives As the Fall Guys
by Erick Erickson
{theresurgent.com} ~ Remember when Donald Trump blamed the House Freedom Caucus members for the failure to repeal liar-nObamacare? Good times. All they wanted to do was actually repeal liar-nObamacare... The House Republican leadership drafted legislation that did not repeal it, but claimed it did. They got Trump to savage the conservatives in the House to try to get them to cave. It is going to happen again. What the President’s deal with clown-Schumer and Pulosi does is get rid of the debt ceiling altogether, which conservatives should not support, as well as moving doing so to the same time tax reform, spending packages, and DACA will have to be passed. What will happen is easily foreseeable... http://theresurgent.com/they-are-setting-up-conservatives-as-the-fall-guys/.
Democrat Senator Has a Meltdown
During Judiciary Committee Hearing
by Robert Kraychik
{dailywire.com} ~ On Wednesday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) framed two of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees as serving the interests of “dark money.”... Whitehouse made his comments during a Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing for Amy Coney Barrett and Joan Larsen, who are nominated to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, respectively. Barrett is a law professor at Notre Dame Law School and Larsen is a justice of Michigan’s Supreme Court. Barrett and Larsen, said Whitehouse, are supported by nefarious "dark money" interests:... http://www.dailywire.com/news/20762/watch-whitehouses-judiciary-committee-meltdown-robert-kraychik
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Mexico earthquake kills 15, including 2 children
{israelnationalnews.com} ~ An earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck Mexico's southern state of Chiapas on Friday morning... At least 15 people were killed in the earthquake, which also damaged hospitals and schools. The quake caused a tsunami of 0.7 meters (2.3 feet), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Tsunami warnings have been issued for Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Honduras... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/235237?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
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{israelnationalnews.com} ~ On Thursday afternoon, Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) and Rabbinical Assembly CEO Julie Shonfeld, delivered a letter to New York Consul General of Israel Dani Dayan on behalf of the movement... The letter is addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and discusses what the movement describes as feelings of “dismay, anger and a sense of betrayal concerning events of June 25, 2017 in which the Cabinet tabled the Kotel (Western Wall) Agreement of January 2016 and simultaneously the Legislative Committee of the Knesset put forward a new Conversion Law that would codify the Israeli Chief Rabbinate as the sole authority in Israel for conversion to Judaism.”... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/235238?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
Conservative movement sends
angry letter to PM Netanyahu
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The Art of the Debt-Ceiling Deal
by Lewis Morris: Republicans already have their work cut out for them this fall in trying to salvage what has largely been a disappointing year. Failure to repeal and replace liar-nObamaCare and the shrinking promise of tax reform have left little confidence in the majority party’s ability to govern. The debt-ceiling deal President Donald Trump cut with the Democrat leadership Wednesday is all part of the game of chess, but it sure doesn’t seem helpful.
Trump agreed with Senate Minority Leader Chuck clown-Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pulosi to fund the government for just three months and temporarily raise the debt ceiling, which is due to reach its limit on September 30. Republican leaders wanted an extension through the 2018 election with fiscal reforms attached. Then Trump invited vulnerable Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to ride Air Force One and campaign with him in North Dakota.
According to leftist Politico, “Republicans left the Oval Office Wednesday stunned,” while “Democrats were gleeful.” Understandable.
Trump’s flip-flop on the debt ceiling goes against his campaign promise to bring an end to the fiscal chaos that has left the government with a $20 trillion debt. It also puts into jeopardy any leverage Republicans had in crafting a long-term debt solution and pushing the remainder of their legislative agenda for 2017. The Wall Street Journal explains, “Republicans will now have to take at least two difficult votes to raise the debt ceiling, while Democratic leverage will increase when the day of reckoning comes.” As if GOP leadership needed another excuse to fail.
We say this is a game of chess because Trump almost surely made this debt deal with Democrats for strategic reasons far beyond the question of extending the ceiling for three months, six months, or 18 months. The media is stuck playing checkers. The GOP has failed to push through various priorities, and Trump may be calculating he’s going to need Democrat help — or at least less opposition.
House and Senate Republicans have about 60 days left in the session to deliver on a list of proposals that even optimistic policy watchers say is unlikely to happen. Tax reform, hurricane relief, immigration and a whole host of appropriations bills are at the top of the list.
A nearly $8 billion relief package for Hurricane Harvey victims cleared Congress Wednesday, with a promise of more money to follow now that Hurricane Irma is bearing down on Florida.
Tax reform will have a more difficult path. Trump has offered little guidance on what the tax package might look like, and Republican lawmakers have yet to agree on a proposal that will offset much-needed tax cuts for individual and corporate earners with spending cuts. Mark Zandi, a top economist with Moody’s Analytics, noted that there is little expectation in the markets that any meaningful reform will happen. “There’s no evidence that investors or anyone else are expecting any kind of tax reform or tax relief,” he said.
Again, Republicans had hoped to use the impending debt ceiling as an opportunity to push for broader tax relief and impose spending reforms that break the seemingly endless cycle of last-minute spending measures and debt-ceiling hikes that keep the government running. The recurring drama of avoiding default and the addiction to short-term spending resolutions have kept Congress from passing comprehensive budgets for years. It has also led to bad fiscal management in Washington, where lawmakers can never seem to look beyond the next stopgap measure. It was hoped that Trump’s tough talk on getting the government’s fiscal house in order would lead to a plan that would bring an end to this madness. His deal with “clown-Chuck and Nancy,” as he jovially referred to the Democrat leadership Wednesday, indicates otherwise.
Trump further weakened the Republican position by leaving the door open with Democrats for DACA legislation later in the year. When he rescinded Barack liar-nObama’s executive order earlier this week, Trump left the door open for Congress to come up with a permanent solution to the issue of so-called “Dreamers.” But his chumminess with Democrats Wednesday indicated he was willing to accept a solution that did not include any enforcement provision. This was welcome news to the open-borders crowd; disheartening news for anyone seeking meaningful immigration reform.
All is not lost for Republicans, and, notwithstanding the liar-nObamaCare failure, they should not be viewed as having completely fumbled their opportunities for 2017. There have been some bright spots, including confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and the rolling back of several liar-nObama executive actions that will save Americans billions of dollars in regulatory costs.
These small victories will mean little, however, unless Trump and congressional Republicans can put together meaningful budget reforms. Instead of buddying up with tax-and-spend Democrats, Trump should repair his frayed relations with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Together they can bring sanity to Washington’s rudderless fiscal policy and make a lasting impact that will boost the Republican agenda and, thus, the country.
Just for the record, we’ll give the last word to Ted Cruz, who had this to say on the campaign trail in 2016: “If as a voter, you think what we need is more Republicans in Washington to cut a deal with … Nancy Pulosi and Chuck clown-Schumer, then I guess Donald Trump is your guy.” ~The Patriot Post
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