Can Republicans Govern?
By
Leonard Zwelling
This is a reasonable question after a year of 24/7 GOP dominance in Washington. The tax bill gives the Republicans something to crow about. Whether it is good for the country or not remains to be seen.
The stock market is way up! But half of all Americans own no stock and many who do own very little.
But the middle class will get a tax cut and look at how some employers are handing out bonuses. Very true. Let’s see if those same employers raise minimum wages or actually permanently raise the pay of their workers. This will be especially true if the elimination of the individual mandate to buy health insurance leads to rising prices for everyone’s health insurance premiums, including those paid by employers that are still the most common way Americans get health insurance.
But is the employer mandate next to go? That would throw more people into the ObamaCare exchanges and likely serve to raise premiums as well.
We know that corporations will pay less tax and the rich surely will. Is this good for America? Do you believe in trickle down economics? Me, neither.
The tax bill is just about the only thing the GOP got done during President Trump’s first year. Now what? On to DACA? As long as the Wall is included along with chain migration and the visa lottery according to the president. What about infrastructure? Where does that money come from now that taxes have been cut? More borrowing from Beijing?
And why are the Republicans so obsequious when it comes to this president? I guess Paul Ryan is still bent on welfare reform. That basically means less money for the poor. That should be popular.
It is my hypothesis that the GOP is four parties: the mainstream, the Freedom Caucus, the Trumps and the Breitbarts. Bannon’s dismissal from Breitbart could conceivably create a fifth GOP sub-party if he goes into politics full-time as he has threatened to do.
The best chance for real legislative progress is for the Democrats to retake the House and the Senate to break 50 to 50 or maybe Dems 51, Republicans 49. Then the Democrats and Republicans would simply have to make deals. You know, like the old days of LBJ.
The current make-up of the Congress with strict party alignment in a dysfunctional House, a sliver of a Republican majority in the Senate, and a president who really doesn’t quite get his job is leading to chaos.
I do not think that the GOP can govern. You want proof?
What’s the Republican health plan? See, I told you they can’t govern. The GOP is out of ideas and the Democrats have bad ones. Oprah is looking better by the minute. Then everyone gets free BREAD!
