OPINION:
President Donald Trump’s administration, just rounding the corner into 200 days of leadership, has fallen short of realizing a key campaign promise, the repeal of Obamacare.
Thanks go to Republicans for that failure.
Donald Trump may have won the presidency by a landslide, 306 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 232.
But to hear some in the Republican-dominated Congress tell it, Trump’s standing is not with the American people, but rather all in his head.
Why don’t we have tax reform?
Why don’t we have Obamacare repeal?
Republican leaders in the Senate and House are fond of doing math for the American people, speaking of things like 60-voice majorities and the 216 threshold and so forth. But all that most voters in America know is this: Republicans blamed Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress for legislative failures for years. So voters gave them a clean sweep of authority in the House, in the Senate and then in the White House. Still, nothing’s changed; nothing promised has passed.
The do-nothing GOP-led Congress has plenty of time to write anti-Trump books, and send warnings to the president about firing special counsel Robert Mueller, or jump on the Russia-collusion band wagon with the Democrats. But pulling together a majority to pass a promised bill that Trump’s pressed?
Beating back the Democrats and media sharks who are busily snapping up any negative tidbit that can be used to politically damage this president?
Sorry, too busy to help with that.
Trump’s right to take to Twitter to express his frustrations.
“The Fake News refuses to report the success of the first 6 months: S.C., surging economy & jobs, border & military security, ISIS & MS-13 etc.,” Trump tweeted.
Don’t forget the Supreme Court and securing the seating of Neil Gorsuch. Don’t forget reeling in the Environmental Protection Agency from it’s all-courts stomp on citizen rights in recent years, and the upturned U.S. nose at the Paris climate treaty. Don’t forget the Keystone XL pipeline. Or the religious liberty order making clear, for instance, the IRS and government is not to be used to stifle citizens’ First Amendment rights. Don’t forget the return to rational bathroom policies in local schools and the federal frowning of boys using girls’ facilities.
Don’t forget the return of an America possessed of self-esteem and strength — the booting of the Obama-era shame-faced apology tours and diplomatic groveling.
And Republicans in Congress — what have they done again? Well, here’s an example.
“House Republicans Express Concern With Trump’s Proposed Federal Retirement Program Cuts,” ran one Government Executive headline from late June, over a story about “a group of nine House Republicans recently sen[ding] a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan” over “concerns” with proposed spending cuts to federal employees’ retirement plans.
They’re there. They’re on the job. But apparently, it takes some self-interested issues to get them to act.
So far it seems Trump’s been doing the heavy carrying of Republican platforms, pressing for border control, battling suits over immigration policy, fighting off leftist outcry about climate change regulation, battening down the hatches on wild and chaotic protests in the streets, and fending off partisan calls for impeachment and equally partisan pushes for special investigations of Russia collusion that are completely devoid of fact.
The result of his solo fly?
The Democrats are taking this Republican-led Congress to task and using its legislative failures for political gain.
“[T]he American people all share a desire for our government to execute their duties with competence at the bare minimum,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a memo, The Hill reported. “And Republican voters have particularly high expectations. On this, the GOP has failed spectacularly.”
On on this, the DCCC is quite right — the Republicans in Congress have indeed failed the conservatives in America who were expecting big things with a House, Senate and White House under GOP control. And they’ve indeed fallen flat, most spectacularly. Time for Republicans to get in the legislative swing and come together with the president who was picked by the people. It’s time to stop the infighting, stop the anti-Trumpism, and get the conservative platforms passed, before the next election cycle puts a damper on the chances.
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