Disputing the assertions of Dr. Robert B. Reich

Robert B. Reich

//***AJ begins.
Dr Reich pretends to give advice to the GOP. Every time that happens I am skeptical***//

America has never before had a president as deeply unpopular at this stage of his presidency, or one who has sucked up more political oxygen. This isn't good news for the Republican Party this November or in the future, because the GOP has sold its soul to Donald Trump.

Three principles once gave the GOP its identity and mission: Shrink the deficit, defend states' rights, and be tough on Russia.
 

Now, after a year with the raving man-child who now occupies the White House, the Republican Party has taken a giant U-turn. Budget deficits are dandy, states' rights are obsolete, and Russian aggression is no big deal.

By embracing a man whose only principles are winning and getting even, the Republican Party no longer stands for anything other than Trump.

 

//*** AJ adds.This is  an old trick of Democrats; demonize a Republican President or VP and then try for votes by using the demonized person as a tar baby. Is Mr Trump less popular than he could be? Certainly. Pres Trump and Ronald Reagan are the only two Presidents with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and it drives Liberals insane. The Media is biased in that it presents anti-Trump stories 90% of the time. It is amazing  that he is this popular. No doubt Liberals preferred Pres W who could be demonized with impunity. Trump hits back. A refreshing change. Dr Reich suffers from the Anti Trump Derangement Syndrome and  so his problem should be referred to a psychiatrist. ***//

Start with fiscal responsibility.

When George W. Bush took office in 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over the next 10 years. Yet even this propitious outlook didn't stop several Republicans from arguing against the Bush tax cut out of concern that it would increase the national debt. A few years later, congressional Republicans were apoplectic about Barack Obama's spending plan, necessitated by the 2008 financial crisis. Almost every Republican in Congress opposed Mr. Obama's plan. They argued it would dangerously increase in the federal debt.

"Yesterday the Senate cast one of the most expensive votes in history," intoned Sen. Mitch McConnell. "Americans are wondering how we're going to pay for all this." Paul Ryan warned that the nation was "heading for a debt crisis."

 

//***AJ continues.Liberals regard the earnings of people as belonging to the government. The government does not have to pay for tax cuts, Dr Reich, it is not their money. If the people's representatives decide that the government takes too much then government needs to spend less. Tell us Dr Reich, what programs you would cut (other than defense.) But, the tax cut is benefitting the workingmen and women as well. Many people are getting bonuses and raises because of it. Wal Mat has increased the entry wage from $9/hr to $11/hr. Those people are not rich one percenters. And Apple is going to repatriate $250 Billion and spend another $350 Billion in the US. Some of that will end up as tax revenue. When tax rates were cut under Pres Kennedy and Reagan, tax revenues actually increased.***// 

Now, with America's debt at the highest level since shortly after World War II (77 percent of GDP), Mr. Trump and the GOP have enacted a tax law that by their own estimates will increase the debt by at least $1.5 trillion over the decade.

What happened to fiscal responsibility? Messrs. McConnell, Ryan and the rest of the GOP have gone mum about it. Politics came first: They and Mr. Trump had to enact the big tax cut in order to reward their wealthy patrons.


 

States' rights used to be the second pillar of Republican thought.

For decades, Republicans argued that the Constitution's 10th Amendment protected the states from federal meddling. They used states' rights to resist desegregation; to oppose federal legislation protecting workers, consumers and the environment; and to battle federal attempts to guarantee marriage rights for gays and lesbians.
 

In 2013, when the Supreme Court relied on states' rights to strike down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, the GOP's leading advocate of states' rights, broke out the champagne, calling it "good news."

But after a year of Mr. Trump, Republicans have come around to thinking that states have few, if any, rights.

//***
The US Constitution is clear on the rights of States: any powers not specifically delegated to the Federal Govt are retained by the States or the people. Democrats in the South believed that 'States Rights' meant that people could be owned as slaves or that some people could be segregated on the basis of race. But, the people's representatives decided that the regulation of narcotics, immigration and some other issues are  delegated to the Federal govt, so some Liberal states are wrong in decriminalizing narcotics and refusing to enforce immigration rules. Keeping open borders is dangerous even though it helps the Democrat Party by swelling an underclass. And what the Courts have struck down was an illegal manipulation on campaign contributions that was to favor Democrats.***//


 

As attorney general, Mr. Sessions has green-lighted a federal crackdown on marijuana in states that have legalized it. He and Mr. Trump are also blocking sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants. (A federal judge recently stayed Mr. Trump's executive order on the grounds that it violates the 10th Amendment, but Messrs. Trump and Sessions are appealing the decision.)
 

Mr. Trump is also seeking to gut California's tough environmental rules. His Department of the Interior is opening more of California's federal land and coastline to oil and gas drilling, and Mr. Trump's EPA is moving to repeal new restrictions on a type of heavily polluting truck that California was going to ban in order to help meet its climate and air-quality goals.

Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled House has approved the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would prevent states from enforcing their own laws against concealed handguns in instances where visitors come from states that allow concealed weapons.
 

For the new GOP, states' rights be damned. Now it's all about consolidating power in Washington under Mr. Trump.
 

The third former pillar of Republicanism was a hard line on Russian aggression.

When Mr. Obama forged the New START treaty with Moscow in 2010, Republicans in Congress charged that Vladimir Putin couldn't be trusted to carry out any arms control agreement.

They also complained a few years ago that Mr. Obama wasn't doing enough to deter Russia in Eastern Ukraine. "Every time [Obama] goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody's eyes roll, including mine," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. "We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression."
 

That was then. Now, despite explicit findings by American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election -- the most direct attack on American democracy ever attempted by a foreign power -- Republicans in Congress want to give Russia a pass.

They don't even want to take steps to prevent further Russian meddling. They've downplayed a January report by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warning that the Kremlin will likely move to influence upcoming U.S. elections, including those this year and in 2020.

The reason, of course, is the GOP doesn't want to do anything that might hurt Mr. Trump or rile his followers.

//*** You did not get the memo?
Mueller has given up the pretense that he is looking for evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia because there isn't any. Even if there were, it would not be prohibited by law. That story was based on a made up dossier paid for by the Hillary campaign and shopped to the FISA Court so the Obama regime would have an excuse to spy on the Trump campaign. Obama's appointees at the DOJ, FBI and the spy ops had conspired to stop him from getting elected and when that did not work, to try to get him out of office

Let's get this straight! The GOP was never anti Russia, it was anti Soviet and anti Communist.  As I recall, Liberals were pro Communist . Now that the Soviet Union is no more and Russia is groping its way into God's grace, you Liberals have become anti Russia.

While we are at this, Let's put in a critique of current policies toward Russia. In spite of Russian attempts to have friendlier relations with the West, Western governments are out there trying to antagonize Russia. NATO's borders have been extended to the borders of Russia (In spite of reassurances that this would not happen), Russian speakers are being discriminated against in the Baltics and the Ukraine and Russia's warm water port in the Crimea (that is their lease of the port of Sebastopol) were threatened by the Ukrainian govt.  As I write this, American trainers are training the Ukrainian Armed forces to use American weapons to wage war on Russia itself. This  will not end well.***//

 

The GOP under Mr. Trump isn't the first political party to bend its principles to suit political expediency. But it may be the first to jettison its principles entirely, and over so short a time.

If Republicans no longer care about the federal debt, states' rights or Russian aggression, what exactly do they care about? What are the core principles of today's Republican Party?
 

Winning and getting even.

//***
Mr Trump won and is fighting the Media that is a megaphone for the Democrat Party. A refreshing change.
***//
 

But as a year with Mr. Trump as president has shown, this is no formula for governing.
 

Robert Reich, a former U.S. Secretary of Labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of "Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few." His daily blog is at www.facebook.com/RBReich/.