Radio America Online News Bureau

Archives for April 2017

Shutdown Showdown

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Democrats are banding together in refusing to support any short-term spending measure that includes funding for a border wall, a move that could lead to a government shutdown in the near term and the implosion of the legislative filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

In December, the lame duck Congress and President Obama agreed on a spending bill to keep the federal government funded through April.  That means lawmakers must pass another continuing resolution next week to keep the government running.

And while fiscal conservatives like FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon expects Republicans to get tough on spending heading into Fiscal 2018, he says this legislation ought to be moved in order to make way for President Trump’s big ticket items.

“I don’t think any Republican is that interested in a shutdown, they’d rather kick the can and move some of these larger priorities,” said Brandon, referring specifically to health care and tax reform.

“You’re going to see the repeal of Obamacare coming back to a vote this week,” said Brandon.  “And then next week, I expect we’ll start hearing about fundamental tax reform,” he said.

But there’s a showdown already forming over this short term spending bill over whether to approve funding for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.  White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney says “elections have consequences” and the administration wants that funding in this bill.

Democrats claim Trump’s demand for that funding is a non-starter and is scuttling what they claim was excellent progress on a spending bill.  Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, R-N.Y., also feigned confusion over the request, noting that Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for the wall.

Brandon says Democrats are refusing to deal, even when Republicans are offering to boost spending on their priorities in exchange for the border security funds.

“Republicans will come to the Democrats with an offer saying, ‘We’ll do this continuing resolution.  We’ll even give you some more money for some of your welfare stuff if you give us more money to build the border wall,” said Brandon.

He says if Democrats won’t play ball with an offer like that, this relatively minor spending debate could have major repercussions.

“This little CR debate could end up being one of the most important political debates for the next few years, if not decade, if not longer,” said Brandon.  “If Democrats balk at that deal and you start heading toward a shutdown, I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be an overhaul of Senate rules and a change in the parliamentary procedures.”

Yes, Brandon believes the intransigence of Democrats could lead to the obliteration of the legislative filibuster in the Senate.  And he says we should know within the next few days whether that option needs to be explored.

“Over this weekend is the test to see whether Democrats will mildly work with the Republicans or if they decide to shut the government down because you have eight or nine Democrats who can’t vote for a short, short continuing resolution.  That sends the signal that politics has changed.  If Republicans are going to move their legislative agenda, you might see a change in Senate rules,” said Brandon.

While Democrats and some in the media might paint Trump and Republicans at fault for an impasse on the spending bill, Brandon says the GOP approach to this standoff proves which party really refuses to budge.

“I’m the one who’s been told, as a conservative Republican I’m the one who won’t deal.  What I think is going to come out here is that Democrats decide, ‘We’re not going to deal.’  That means either that you’re going to have government that is absolutely paralyzed or you’re going to have to change some things so you can start moving some legislation,” said Brandon.

Brandon appears to welcome the idea, noting that if Democrats want to obstruct on a relatively minor issue, forcing the GOP to kill the filibuster would grease the skids for aggressive action on health care and tax reform.  He says drawing the line over one of Trump’s top campaign promises makes sense and could trigger wins for conservatives on major issues.

“Republicans need to do something on immigration and the border.  They’ve been screaming about it for so long, it has to get done.  They’ve been saying we’re going to do something on fundamental tax reform.  It has to get done.  You’ve got to grow the economy.  Finally, we been promising the American people for seven years we’re going to repeal Obamacare,” said Brandon.

“If you get all of those things done, this Trump presidency has been a success in the early part,” he added

Brandon says getting those things done is also key to the GOP having midterm success next year.

“Democrats will try to make the 2018 election based on a referendum on Trump.  I’d like to make the 2018 election a referendum on three or four percent economic growth,” said Brandon.

But while Brandon says the big ticket items are more important than fights over short-term spending provisions, he expects a robust Republican effort to rein in spending when it comes time to fund the government for Fiscal Year 2018.

“We’re $20 trillion debt.  It;s time to get that under control.  The way to do that is to hold the line.  You don’t add new spending and at the same time you grow the economy.  If you have two or three years of three and four percent growth, almost every one of our problems gets better,” said Brandon.

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Trump vs. Regulations, Moving in with Mom and Dad, Obama’s Return

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David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud President Trump for aggressively rolling back burdensome federal regulations.  They also wince at new Census Bureau data showing more Americans aged 18-34 live with their parents than with a spouse, a major shift from 40 years ago.  And they brace themselves for Barack Obama’s first public appearance since Inauguration Day and discuss how active Obama is likely to be in policy debates.

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Virginia Battle Continues Over Transgender School Policy

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The Virginia Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the new transgender accommodation policy at one of America’s largest school districts, but the lead attorney for the plaintiffs vows the case will come back and his side will win when the decision focuses on the facts and the law.

Last week, the Virginia Supreme Court dismissed the case against Fairfax County Public Schools – the largest school district in Virginia and one of the ten largest in the United States – because it concluded the plaintiffs lacked standing before the court.

“They ruled on what’s called standing, whether there was an actual injury here.  What we have here is the school board passed the policies but they haven’t actually enforced them yet against any student to the point of disciplining them,” said Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver, who represented the unnnamed student, the student’s parents and another parent with kids in the Firfax Public Schools.

“Fear of discipline should be enough.  That’s what we argued,” said Staver.  “But the Virginia Supreme Court ultimately ruled that it’s not ready for a decision yet until someone actually has standing.  They have to have a real injury, rather than just fear that they’re going to have an injury, even though the fear is very real and very legitimate,” said Staver.

He says once the case comes back with standing, the court will be compelled to side with his clients.

“Whenever we get them to rule on the actual merits, that is whether the school board can add additional non-discrimination categories that are not included in the state law, then we win.  It’s an easy decision at that point in time,” said Staver.

Staver strongly disagrees that a student must be disciplined to have standing to challenge the policy, noting that a formal punishment, even if later reversed, could tarnish a student’s efforts to be accepted at a military academy or work in sensitive areas like national security and intelligence.

He also says students shouldn’t have to negotiate a policy that doesn’t meet state law.

“The school can’t do something that’s clearly illegal, which it’s done, hang it over the heads of the students and threaten that they will be disciplined and then simply void legal repercussions by not disciplining them, but threatening discipline.  The fact that they threaten discipline is enough to deter someone’s actions.  For the good students, they’re not going to want to walk into a buzzsaw  of discipline,” said Staver.

Staver is confident of winning on the merits because of the Dillon Rule, which states no local non-discrimination policy can add protected classes beyond what has been added under state law.  Virginia has not added transgender or sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy.

He says the looming fear of punishment based on an illegal policy is already condemned in legal precedent.

“If you have a violation of free speech, you can file for that action.  But if you’re threatened in your free speech, you don’t have to go through discipline or threat or arrest, if the law or the rule or the policy or the ordinance actually creates a chilling effect so that you refrain from speaking, because you are fearful that you will be disciplined or charged or arrested, that’s enough,” said Staver.

Nonetheless, Staver says he is already gathering evidence that will argue his clients has suffered injury because of the policy.  In fact, Staver says evidence came in during the lead-up to oral arguments before the court that would have greatly strengthened his case, but he points out evidence discovered after filing the case is inadmissible.

Staver is unsure whether other left-leaning school board in Virginia will take the court’s dismissal as a green light to enact their own policies.  He strongly urges districts not to follow the lead of Fairfax County or else they will end up paying massive court fees when they lose on the merits.

On the other hand, Staver says the more school districts pursue the transgender accommodation policy, the easier it will be to gather evidence to being the case back to the Virginia Supreme Court.

Another advantage for Staver, is the Trump administration’s repeal of the Obama Justice Department’s directive that all public schools adopt transgender accommodation policies.

“It definitely strengthens our case on the merits because Fairfax County or any other county could say, ‘We’re just doing it because we’re compelled to do so by this federal directive.  They can’t do that anymore.  That particular argument , that crutch has been taken away from them,” said Staver.

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Dem Money Dilemma, Berkeley Buckles Again, Left’s Red Scare

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss the pressure mounting on the Democratic National Committee to spend big on every special House election, despite long odds in most of them.  They also unload on University of California-Berkeley administrators for cancelling a speech by Ann Coulter over security concerns instead of cracking down on students and faculty threatening to disrupt the event.  And they address the latest twist in leftist conspiracy theories, as liberals contend Rep. Jason Chaffetz decided not to seek re-election because he’s being blackmailed by Russia.

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Brat Bullish on Health Reform

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House Republicans are reeling from their failure to pass health care reform legislation, but a key House Freedom Caucus member says the GOP is getting close to a consensus that will make conservatives happy and make it to President Trump’s desk.

Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., a former economics professor, says the embarrassing spectacle of having to pull the American Health Care Act, or AHCA, from the floor never had to happen.  He says the arbitrary voting deadline imposed by House leadership doomed the bill just as critical common ground was found between conservatives and the White House.

“At the end of that process, we were already making good headway.  We met with President Trump himself.  He OK’d a lot of the regulatory pieces we wanted.  Based on what he said, we thought we were at a yes.  Then it got mulled around and kicked around on Capitol Hill and it turned into a no somehow,” said Brat.

He says House conservatives were also very receptive to some of Vice President Mike Pence’s ideas to decentralize the health care sector.

“It’s just to go the states route and let moderate or liberal states keep the elements of Obamacare they like, let conservative states take the legs out to lower prices the way they see fit that matches their population,” said Brat.

But despite the promises, many Freedom Caucus members couldn’t vote yes for a very simple reason.

“That hasn’t ever been delivered in print yet,” said Brat, noting the official language of the AHCA never reflected the changes Trump and conservative lawmakers agreed upon.

Brat says this has been a frustrating process since the AHCA is not what he says Republicans promised to voters in the past four election cycles.

“We thought we were going to end up in pretty good shape with some competition across state lines, HSA’s and private innovation, price discovery and transparency, so people could shop for health care products and know what they’re paying for,” said Brat.

“Then we got a bill put before us that is way too much federal government which is way too federal government-oriented for my taste and three weeks to deal with it,” said Brat.

Despite his disappointment in the AHCA, Brat says he’s trying to scratch his way to supporting the bill, with the right changes.

“Some of us weren’t so happy with that product, but we also want to keep the Trump agenda going on and realize you need tax revenues to do tax reform in short order.  So we want to get to yes but we’ve got to be plausible and reasonable,” said Brat.

It’s a fine balancing act, says Brat, as conservatives faced intense pressure to back the health bill put forth by their own party.

“I’ve had very intelligent people say, ‘Just forget about it.  Just vote yes on that bill and move on because we want tax reform.’  Are you serious?  It’s one-sixth of the entire economy and just dispatch it?” said Brat.

He says Republicans have a chance to address this and other issues that may not come around again for a very long time.

“This is a once-in-a-century opportunity we have with the House and the Senate and the White House.  So this isn’t really the time to do marginal, small little adjustments.  This is the time to get your first principles right and set up an economy and a health care system that our kids will flourish under,” said Brat.

And for the record, Brat says moderates are much more responsible for the AHCA mess than the House Freedom Caucus.

“There was a certain number of House Freedom Caucus folks that were a no vote, but it wasn’t unanimous.  There were way more moderates who were going to do a jail break once the [number of GOP no votes] got to 20.  It wasn’t reported at all.  It’s not a blame game.  Let’s just tell the truth out there in public so we can get to a solution.  You’ve got to know the truth before you can find good policy options,” said Brat.

Brat says the media, including the Wall Street Journal, are not telling the truth on policy either.  He says stories of heartless Republican policy proposals are simply not matched by the facts.

“Not only are we OK with pre-existing conditions, we’re OK with a $120 billion pot for high-risk pools for pre-existing conditions.  Then we’re OK with the main amendment language of (Ariz. Rep David) Schweikert, (Alabama Rep. Gary) Palmer and (Maryland Rep.) Andy Harris, which also helps pre-existing conditions.  It’s kind of been applauded by everyone for reducing prices for health care and providing more coverage,” said Brat.

“The high-risk pool is the solution there, because five percent of the folks with pre-existing conditions of a serious nature are 50 percent of the health care costs of the country.  They can’t get insurance.  Obamacare’s failure was that it just focused on insurance coverage.  It never focused on price.  That’s why you had death spirals, because people’s premiums are going up 30 percent and insurance companies can’t stay in business,” said Brat.

Brat is confident House members can reach a consensus in the week or two after lawmakers return from recess.  And he warns Senate Republicans not to tinker much with any legislation the House sends their way.

“The bill better come back very close to how we sent it over.  So if there’s a major rewrite on the Senate side, then it’s business as usual, and we’ve got to do better,” said Brat.

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Ossoff Gets Runoff, PC Police & Terrorism, O’Reilly Over?

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss Republicans forcing a runoff in Georgia’s sixth congressional district and recall the many highly-touted red state Democrats that never panned out.  They’re also stunned that Fresno police do not consider a person who murdered people because of their race and shouted “Allahu Akbar” to be suspected of terrorism.  And they react to reports that Bill O’Reilly is likely on his way out at Fox News.

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‘An Opportunity That May Not Come for Another Several Decades’

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As Americans sprinted to the mailbox or their computer to file their income taxes Tuesday, the leader of the nation’s largest grassroots taxpayers organization says major tax reform is necessary, is still doable and there’s no better time than now.

National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp says Republicans may well have the best political opportunity to tackle tax reform in this lifetime.

“We have an opportunity here that may not come in another several decades to do something more comprehensive with the tax system.  And we can’t afford to pass it up, not because of the politics but because of many other situations, a perfect storm if you will, that has both opportunity and peril,” said Sepp.

He says American must realize that if major reforms don’t happen, Americans will be much more burdened by the system in the years to come.

“Standing still on tax reform means falling behind.  It does not mean more of the status quo.  It means something worse, and lawmakers need to remember that,” said Sepp.

How will it get worse?

“Otherwise, we’re going to get into a situation where we have a small cut in tax rates, the overall tax burden shifts only slightly, and the horrible burdens of having to comply with the system remain and actually worsen,” said Sepp.

In addition to wanting to see individual and business tax rates drop, Sepp says aggressively simplifying the system needs to be a huge priority, after Americans suffered through seven billion hours of compliance headaches this year, plus an addition billion hours on paperwork to comply with the tax code.

“For most families, that would mean increasing the standard deduction and personal exemption so that most households don’t really find it attractive or worthwhile to itemize all of those deductions.  That cuts down the time and effort spent on the filing process.  For businesses, it means simplifying the reporting of expenses,” said Sepp.

“Right now, all of the depreciation schedules and the clawbacks and the exceptions to the rule require tremendous amounts of calculation and record-keeping,” said Sepp.

Many experts believe the approach and scope of the tax reform effort was kneecapped by the failure of Congress to address health care reform in March.  Sepp says there’s an argument to be made that repealing and replacing Obamacare would have made tax reform easier, and that the effort now is complicated by weak political momentum and the many Obamacare taxes that are still standing.

Nonetheless, Sepp believes a bill can still get done, with congressional committees crafting bills in the fall and sending a final version to President Trump early next year.

While Republicans do have the votes to pass reform without help from the Democrats, the legislation would be more effective if the Senate could find 60 votes to pass the eventual plan.  With 60 votes or more, the tax reforms are made permanent unless Congress acts again in the future.  Without 60 votes, the provisions would sunset after 10 years and return to the rates and policies in existence now.

Sepp thinks it may be possible to win over some Democrats.

“If Republicans try hard enough to involve Democrats in the process, especially on the Senate side, they might very well be surprised by the cooperation they’ll get.  Ron Wyden, for example, the ranking minority on the Senate Finance Committee, has long supported revisions and simplifications to the tax system,” said Sepp.

“It won’t be easy.  There’ll be a lot of arguments along the way, but engaging both parties in this effort will produce a stronger bill and a longer-lasting one,” said Sepp.

But how badly do lawmakers want to simplify the system?  Politicians created the current maze and various interests benefit from it, so is there really enough will power to get this done?  Sepp says it’s up to the people.

“What we need to do it harness the power of the grassroots to say to politicians, ‘Look, all these favors you have attempted to extend to us in the name of providing us constituents with relief is not worth the distortions to the economy, the long run costs to us as families and business owners.  It’s got to stop,” said Sepp.

Given the current political climate, Sepp believes ideas like a flat tax or a national consumption, or Fair Tax will struggle to find their way into a final bill, but he reiterates this is the best chance to get this right in a long time.

“It’s going to be difficult to convince Congress to go whole hog on this effort, but that’s why groups like National Taxpayers Union exist, to make sure that we push the art of the possible to its maximum, so that we can get the best, strongest bill that will help the economy, that will makes taxes simpler and will stand the test of time,” said Sepp.

He says the simple rule of thumb ought to be for reform to benefit the greatest number of people possible.

“This isn’t just about cutting rates for large businesses that have operations overseas.  It’s about reducing rates and complexity for small businesses and allowing the filing process to be more transparent and less burdensome for families as well,” said Sepp.

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Trump Voters Loyal, Special Election Spin, Minimum Wage Mirage

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America react to a new survey showing the vast majority of Trump voters are satisfied or pleasantly surprised by his performance thus far, despite news reports to the contrary. They also roll their eyes at suggestions that today’s special House election in Georgia is somehow a national referendum on Trump or the GOP. And they’re not at all surprised to learn that higher minimum wages in San Francisco are leading to more restaurant closures.

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‘The Brainwashing Is Very Effective’

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Liberal groupthink is nothing new on college campuses but resorting to violence and intimidation to stifle views contrary to the progressive orthodoxy is a dangerous escalation, according to a prominent scholar who was recently targeted by an angry mob of students and warns free speech is under fierce assault in the United States.

Earlier this month, the Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald experienced the hostility first-hand, while visiting the west coast, first at UCLA and then at Claremont-McKenna College.  Her visit to Claremont-McKenna was the most harrowing, with protesters blocking access to the auditorium where Mac Donald was to give her presentation.  Organizers then tried to have her speak via video access before the event was finally cancelled over security concerns.

“The day before Claremont-McKenna, I had an effort to storm the stage.  That was at UCLA.  At Claremont-McKenna was a blockade around the building where I was supposed to speak to prevent anyone from entering to be able to listen to me in person and interact with me.  That’s certainly the most extreme that I’ve experienced,” said Mac Donald.

Protesters targeted Mac Donald in response to her book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” accusing her of being a racist and a fascist.

This is the latest in a series of campus unrest as a result of a speaker who does not subscribe to standard liberal views.  Riots broke out at the University of California at Berkeley when Milo Yiannapoulos was scheduled to speak.  A professor at Middlebury College in Vermont suffered a concussion while trying to protect American Enterprise Institute scholar Dr. Charles Murray.

Mac Donald says the intolerance of the left is reaching new heights.

“I had a direct experience of how a student body reacts to a non-conforming opinion.  It basically reacts like an immune system does, surrounding the alien virus with corpuscles to try to expel it from the body politic,” said Mac Donald.

“There is no an increasing insistence that everybody hew to the same line and that line is something very, very dangerous for the future of America.  It hold that this country is rife with oppression, that minorities in particular are the victim of non-stop bigotry and anybody who dares propose facts to the contrary is simply not to be tolerated,” said Mac Donald.

Colleges are often billed as the place to explore and compare different ideas, yet administrators seem to do little or nothing to punish students who stoke violence or prevent the exercise of free speech.

Mac Donald is not surprised.

“College administrators are reluctant to discipline students for clear violations of their rules for fear of alienating the parents, alienating the student darlings.  That’s a purely economic self-interest explanation for the passivity of administrators in the face of this,” said Mac Donald.

But she sees another factor at work as well.

“The campus bureaucracies are being colonized now by people of the left who believe in identity politics and have a stake in students thinking of themselves as victims because that necessitates, allegedly, an ever-growing student service and diversity bureaucracy,” said Mac Donald.

One of the great ironies of this campus groupthink for Mac Donald is the insistence the students are fighting fascism by forbidding alternative viewpoints to be expressed.

“I’m amazed anybody has the sheer gall to label themselves anti-fascist, who then says [they] are shutting down me, or Charles Murray or Ann Coulter and nobody else gets to hear that person without anybody taking a vote.  I mean it is the very definition of at least soft totalitarianism,” said Mac Donald.

Mac Donald says liberal academics are succeeding in their mission to groom the next generation to consider only the ideas of the far-left.

“The brainwashing is very effective.  Students are told that the police are racist and that mass incarceration is a reality aimed at re-enslaving blacks.  If you’re hit with that enough, you do start to believe it,” said Mac Donald.

As intimidation and violence becomes more common on campus, where does this kind of development ultimately lead our society?

“It ends badly,” said Mac Donald.  “These students graduate.  They take levers of power in government, in corporate HR departments.  They are absolutely committed to the view that America is profoundly racist, sexist, mysogynist, you name it.  They will put in policies to support that view,” said Mac Donald.

But in addition to the impact on the culture and the workplace, Mac Donald fears for the future of free speech.

“Traditionally, America has had the greatest degree of freedom of speech of any western, industrialized country.  There’s much stronger speech codes in Europe.  I think we could be moving in that direction and that means less and less possibility for correcting the errors that guide so many members of the cultural and political elite,” said Mac Donald.

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Actual Immigration Enforcement, Ground Troops to Iraq & Syria? HuffPost Hysteria

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America cheer Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly for stating that he will enforce immigration laws, that criminals such as drunk drivers will be deported, and that we do need to secure the southern border.  They also sigh at reports that National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster reportedly wants tens of thousands of ground troops to finish the job in Iraq and Syria.  And they discuss the Huffington Post column urging the disenfranchisement of white men for a time in order to advance the progressive agenda, only to have HuffPost pull the piece because they weren’t sure who wrote it.

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