OPINION:
Congressmen love recess almost as much as the kids do, and no one knows for sure what either Congress or the kids will do when the bell finally rings and they return to their seats. With the opening of the 115th Congress, there’s high anticipation that Congress will settle down to conduct the nation’s business like adults. With Republicans controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the partisan stalemate of the recent past will dissolve. It’s an opportunity that must not be squandered.
Job One must be helping Donald Trump make good on his oft-repeated vow to repeal and effectively replace Obamacare. The key is recognizing that health care is not an entitlement but a choice, and in a society with free markets, health insurance should mean effectively managing financial risk. When the insurance marketplace is allowed to operate free from government interference, consumers will choose insurance that suits their medical needs, lifestyle, age and importantly, pocketbook.
The Obamacare mandate that forces the individual consumer to buy policies adorned with extra benefits that he can’t or won’t use — such as charging men for maternity coverage — subverts the essential element of affordability. Soaring prices is a sign that the relationship between producer and consumer is broken. Thanks to government mandates, Obamacare’s costs during its four-year reign have escalated rapidly and if the law survives, is scheduled to rise another 25 percent in 2017.
Congressional Democrats are likely to lend a new health care law the same support the Republicans gave Obamacare, which was none. Democratic congressmen will meet Wednesday with President Obama to consider how to save his signature law. The wrong Republican replacement would dash public hopes, as well as any chance that Republican congressmen could improve their dismal approval rating, which Real Clear Politics pegs at a dismal 14 percent.
Congress must help Mr. Trump redeem his promise to build the wall. Arrests along the southern border in October and November numbered 93,405, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an increase of 42 percent. However, a Pew Research Center study finds the deportation of illegal immigrants dropped by 20 percent to 333,341 in fiscal 2015. Rising numbers of arrests and falling numbers of deportations indicate that the president has rolled out the red carpet for illegals. The thousands arriving at the border are no longer having to sneak in, but merely seek out U.S. agents as if hailing a taxi. Once they’re processed and released, a bus ticket to points north awaits them.
When Mr. Trump said “a nation without borders is not a nation at all,” his message resonated with Americans, and they responded by electing him to restore order on the country’s borders. Whether “an impenetrable physical wall” that Mexico pays for, or an electronic fence paid for by Americans, a border barrier is not simply about immigration control, but about national security. President Obama has yet to understand that his indifference risks inviting the danger from infiltrating terrorists that now plagues Europe. Congressional Republicans must fast-track legislation enabling construction.
Further, tax reform that lowers rates for individuals and businesses, and deregulation that dismantles Mr. Obama’s war on affordable energy, require early legislative attention. Congress stands at the crossroads, capable of changing things or settling for more gridlock. Recess is over, and hard work begins.
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