Posted on 05/07/2024 11:18:35 PM PDT by RandFan
@JohnStossel
President Trump said he would “drain the swamp.”
Economist @edstringham says by the end of Trump’s term, the swamp was “a lot bigger and a lot murkier.”
Here why Trump failed ...
(Excerpt) Read more at twitter.com ...
Because the swamp is being funded by the federal government. Until you take the money away you can’t drain the Swamp, mere replacing people with other people will not drain the swamp, you merely create new members of the Swamp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWCzwRfHzRk
Above is a link to a recent policy seminar put out by the Richard Nixon Foundation. It is an hour long but I found it interesting to listen to while I was doing some busy work.
They talked about how foreign policy is directly linked to national issues and problems. And that it has to be explained in those terms. Biden took 6 months after the Russian attack on Ukraine to even talk about it! And NOW he is sending billions of dollars to them.
And how America needs to have a strong economy - which is our best weapon.
I learned some interesting facts. Last year Iran’s GDP grew at a faster rate than the USA! Partly due to the USA getting rid of the sanctions on Iran (and Russian) oil, while imposing more restrictions on USA production!
The USA restrictions are in the name of climate control. But to keep the gas prices down we then allowed Iran and Russia to sell their oil. It is just crazy!
Kennedy’s Flanking Strategy.
“It’s not “anti-Trump” to accurately discuss his record in office”
Whether accurate or not, and whether “anti-Trump” or not, it is important to understand that this is, in essence, a pro Kennedy attack and, significantly, the attack is from the Right.
Kennedy is recently boasting that he is in possession of a poll of about 26,000 individuals that shows with a minimal margin of error that he would best both Biden and Trump if he can get into a one on one matchup. In other words, if one drops out the other is doomed.
None of us will accuse the Democrat party of patriotism or in recent days of sanity (2+2= 5) but none of us will deny that Democrats are the apex predator when it comes to getting and holding power. Therefore, it remains within the realm of possibility that the Democrats will jettison Biden for some other candidate. Perhaps this will come not from the party elite but it might come from grassroots at the convention if Biden continues to falter and Kennedy shows some game.
So what would Kennedy’s approach be? He claims with his 26,000 individuals polled that he would win in a walk if he faces Biden alone. Against Trump, however, Kennedy claims the narrowest of margins in the all-important electoral college.
Given this asymmetrical battlescape, Kennedy must run today against Trump rather than Biden but he must appear to be running against Biden rather than Trump. In other words, Kennedy must attack Trump from the right and be confident that he will hold at least as much or more of the leftist base as Biden enjoys. He must bet that Democrat propaganda has done its job so well that there is nothing that can induce the Democrat base to vote for Trump, although some may be inclined to stay home. On the other hand, many more who would have stayed home out of ennui with Biden might become energized under Kennedy.
So Stossel’s argument presented here, that Trump blew up spending and fertilized rather than drained the swamp, is calculated to woo never Trumpers, Republican fiscal hawks (those opposed to tax cuts etc.) good government patriots and independents.
Recall that in the run-up to the election of 2016, Trump evaded issues of budget cutting preferring instead to run on tax cutting. To be fair, Trump’s position was that by cutting taxes, cutting regulations, reigniting manufacture and, presumably, firing up energy production, he would generate economic growth that would more than compensate for spending.
Many would argue that he was well along to achieving this when all was shattered by Covid. We probably will never know whether he was right or whether Stossel’s claims made here are the true story.
Note that Kennedy wants to balance the budget by cutting defense In Half! This is a modified approach to the right of Trump who certainly wanted to build up the military and to do so by increased spending. But note that Kennedy couples this proposal to cut the military in half with harder-edged Trump-like arguments against foreign wars, an approach which will be saluted by the right and by Trump supporters. In effect, Kennedy hopes to divide Trump strong military supporters from Trump non interventionist supporters.
Kennedy tries to get to the right of Trump on the issue of voter identification by declaring that he will provide all citizens with voter ID and confine voting to those with his ID. One of the few issues where Kennedy is consistent with confirmed Democrat platform is the issue of abortion which, of course, he cannot afford to waffle on. But note his conciliatory language and his appeal to the right with social services for children who survived the knife. Thus he hopes to tiptoe around to the right as he soothes with words agreeable to conservative ears.
This analysis of Kennedy’s approach can be run on many issues. It will be interesting to see how he positions himself against what he perceives as his real opponent, Donald Trump.
Nathan
He made some mistakes no doubt. In initially tried to work with the RINO Establishment and he thought he could work with the Bureaucrats in Washington. He also did not fire every single last Obama holdover he could in every single last agency. He did - let’s face it - hire some lousy people. Part of that was that he had no choice but to work with the existing Republican operatives who had served under the Bush administration.....but part was he just made some lousy appointments.
This time, he knows he can’t trust the RINO Establishment. He will have a lot more MAGA people to appoint rather than Bush flunkies. He will know better than to allow any Democrat holdovers (look for example how much trouble an obscure appointment like the national archivist caused him). He will have every incentive to clean out the CIA and FIB with a flamethrower....in fact I’d like it if he abolished the FIB entirely. He also has every incentive to fire just as many bureaucrats as possible. If you can’t fire them fine.....just don’t budget any money for them.
“Oh, you still have a job....its just that there is no money to pay you a salary. So if you stay, you get nothing.”
I agree, especially since being persecuted by the deep state for years, he now has even more reason to “drain the swamp”.
Who?... And who cares?
Stossel was over long ago.
“SES..senior executives....placed in their positions by bammy and Clintoon...and bush too...”
It seems that the un-elected are the ones running the country in almost every instance. Yesterday someone said that the young, woke, un-elected staffers are the ones running their respective Congress Critters. (I think it must’ve been on War Room, since that’s the only thing I watch.)
“we are lazy, and the envisioned constitutional balance cannot outlast the effects of entropy”
Sad, but true. I’m glad the FFs aren’t here to see the caliber of weak-ass, timid, bought-off freaks who have taken the places of the Adams men, Washington, Franklin, etc.
“there is no money to pay you a salary. So if you stay, you get nothing.”
In many cases, I don’t think they care. Their focus and purpose is to annihilate America on principle. And if they don’t receive a paycheck from Uncle Sam, they’ll be supported financially by others, e.g., Soros.
Trump never stopped being President of our nation.
This “Biden” character is only president of the corporation, but Trump bankrupted the corporation and its power is quickly evaporating.
I wonder why Stossel doesn’t know about the Act of 1871.
...the swamp was “a lot bigger and a lot murkier.”
That’s what I was going to say except I’d call it Deep State.
He didn’t fail, but he didn’t drain it, yet. He exposed it for all to see. Never has it been so obvious what they are.
Trump kept spending higher than he should have, but IMO he did so because it helped the economic transformation that he WAS being successful in implementing. I disagree that we will never know. That's like saying we'll never know if Reagan's economy was good. All indicators were clear, the economy under Trump was gangbusters, and that because of his policies.
Lowering regulation and taxes. Energy independence and dominance. Peace through strength and negotiation. You may not like his brashness and mean tweets, but those were things he pushed that caused the economic boom.
Trump needs to ask tough written questions of potential nominees.
These questions should be prepared by conservatives.
Trump loves people and in an executive position that opens Trump up to personnel errors.
I like my Democratic neighbors, but I would not want them running the USA.
“Kennedy wants to balance the budget by cutting defense In Half!”
The Founding Fathers were opposed to standing armies.
Our country is being undermined by insiders, some of whom would import Gazans - hate-filled people lacking skills our economy would benefit from.
I visited the Connecticut State House yesterday.
The speaking skills of the members was impressive.
One of the most common questions was how spending items got into bills.
Much of the candy sold in the USA is made in Mexico.
Most simple things the USA uses should be made in the USA by highly automated equipment.
It’s more hydra than swamp. You can’t drain it, you have to destroy it.
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