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Swamp

Trump-McConnell Spat Foreshadows Intense 2018 Primaries

August 9, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/8-9-viguerie-blog.mp3

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump are publicly exchanging barbs about what is reasonable to expect the Congress to accomplish, and longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie says the the frustration is ure to boil over into the 2018 primary season.

The back-and-forth started on Monday, when Sen. McConnell told a Rotary Club audience that the GOP Congress is getting hammered by its base for accomplishing little because Trump has set aggressive expectations.

“Part of the reason I think that the storyline is that we haven’t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point,” said McConnell.

“Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the Democratic process,” he added.

Wednesday afternoon, Trump pushed back via Twitter.

“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had “excessive expectations,” but I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?,” tweeted Trump.

Some in the Washington media circle characterize the dispute as signs of a Republican civil war or at least dysfunction.  Viguerie slightly disagrees.

“There’s probably not a lot of love lost between President Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell.  But the reality is they have to get along,” said Viguerie.

But Viguerie is quick to point out that the sharp divisions that emerged within the GOP in 2016 are still there.  He says GOP base voters will hold Republicans responsible for not repealing Obamacare after passing bills to do so in the Obama years, and he says Americans won’t care much about the specifics of why it didn’t happen.

He further asserts that even after seven years of vowing repeal, the GOP was still caught flat-footed in 2017 when the opportunity to do it came about.

“I suspect the number one reason is they didn’t think they’d be in the White House.  I think most of the Republicans from Washington felt that Hillary would win the election and, truth be told, a high percentage of them probably preferred Hillary Clinton to President Trump,” said Viguerie.

As a result, he suggests many Republicans are actively guarding the status quo.

“Quite frankly, they’re terrified that he may really  follow through on his promise to drain the swamp and pour salt over it so that nothing will ever grow there again,” said Viguerie.

“President Trump and candidate Trump campaigned strongly against the Washington establishment.  He called for draining of the swamp.  If anybody could be considered the mayor of the swamp, it would be Sen. Mitch McConnell,” said Viguerie.

And Viguerie says the fissures exposed during the 2016 GOP primary season will emerge again soon.

“This is a battle that is going to be taken into the 2018 primaries, where lots of Republicans are going to run against Sen. McConnell and the Washington establishment.  This is probably just the first few, early shots of a big battle between the establishment and the president,” said Viguerie.

He says that friction could imperil some important pieces of legislation throughout the rest of this Congress but that it would be wrong to declare this a do-nothing Congress.  Viguerie says judicial confirmations alone, from the Supreme Court to the appellate and district benches, will make a huge impact on America’s future.

And he says Republicans and conservatives can breathe easier over one other key factor.

“There will be many bad things that won’t happen because Hillary is not president,” said Viguerie.

A funny thing just happened on the way to this 2018 showdown, however.  While pro-Trump Republicans Roy Moore and Mo Brooks are challenging appointed GOP Sen. Luther Strange in this month’s Alabama primary in the race to fill the term of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Strange just won Trump’s enthusiastic endorsement.

“Senator Luther Strange has done a great job representing the people of the Great State of Alabama. He has my complete and total endorsement!” tweeted Trump on Tuesday.

Viguerie says grassroots conservatives should not read too much into that.

“He does need to have Mitch McConnell’s support and that of the Senate Republican leaders.  To go against an incumbent senator, even though he was appointed, would probably be a bridge too far,” said Viguerie.

But he says those special circumstances should not dampen expectations for a fierce intraparty fight in 2018.  Republican are defending just eight of the 33 races on the ballot, but Viguerie says there will be spirited fights to determine the nominations in many of those states.

“This unrest at the grassroots that Trump so successfully connected with and tied into in this last presidential election is just building steam.  We have a disruption that’s going on in American politics and I think we haven’t seen anything yet,” said Viguerie.

And Viguerie says that means tensions will only rise among the GOP factions over the next year.

“Not at all.  I think whatever unrest, distrust, disconnection between the grassroots Republican voters and their leaders is going to do nothing but grow.  The failure of the Republicans to repeal Obamacare just adds gasoline to that fire,” said Viguerie.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: 2018, expectations, McConnell, news, Obamacare, primaries, Swamp, Trump

Bolling Urges Trump to Drain the Swamp

July 11, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/7-11-bolling-blog.mp3

Fox News host Eric Bolling says corruption in Washington has been around since D.C. became the nation’s capital but that it’s getting worse, is a plague on both parties, and that President Trump is in a unique position to uproot the system.

That’s the focus of Bolling’s latest book, “The Swamp: Washington’s Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It.”

Bolling, an unabashed Trump supporter, says politicians have been corrupted by all sorts of vices since our founding but says the infusion of big time lobbying money really changes the game into what we witness today.

“As more and more money got introduced, the type of scandal changed and they all became money scandals.  Literally hundreds of billions of dollars come to D.C. on an annual basis to find a home in lawmakers’ pockets for votes.  Everyone became corrupt.  Everyone became up for sale,” said Bolling.

He says many lawmakers come to Washington with the best of intentions but the system quickly swallows them up.

“Some actually think they’re actually going to go there and make a difference and be difficult from the typical swamp creature that resides in D.C.  But when they get there, they realize how lucrative it is,” said Bolling.

He offered an example of how the swamp gets deeper.

“A senator’s salary is $174,000 a year.  You say that’s a lot of money but not if he were in the private sector.  So he gets there and says, ‘After taxes, I make a hundred grand, but I can go and have a lobbyist pay for my dinner every single night of the week, maybe even fly my family to Mexico for a vacation as long as we talk about something of material importance to my district.’

“They come back from these dinners or these trips, and then the lobbyist says, ‘Thanks for the time, but the people I represent want you to vote this way on that water issue coming up next week.’  That may be something the lawmaker was going to vote against.  All of a sudden it’s, ‘I like these things and my family loves these trips, so I’ll vote for it to keep the gravy train coming,'” said Bolling.

Bolling stresses that this is a problem afflicting both parties.

“There’s so much special interest and corporate money flying around on both sides of the aisle,” said Bolling.  “I’m getting phone calls from some Republicans in the book.  Well, let’s call them ex-friends.  They don’t want to talk to me anymore.”

While lobbyists and lawmakers find themselves entangled, critics of President Trump suggest his history of back scratching in the business world makes him more likely to perpetuate the problem than to solve it.

Bolling strongly disagrees, starting with the notion that what Trump his in his real estate ventures was anything like what happens in Washington.

“Back scratching is one thing.  That’s not what they’re doing.  They’re buying and selling influence.  If you and I were to do some of the things they’re doing, we’d go to jail,” said Bolling.

Despite the entrenched swamp in Washington, Bolling believes Trump is uniquely qualified to effectively undermine business as usual.

“He’s going to treat the country like a business rather than how the politicians have treated the people over the last 24o years, where, ‘It doesn’t matter.  I’m not paying for it.  Go ahead and buy it it no matter what the price is,'” said Bolling.

He says Trump’s actions over the first six months are encouraging.

“He continues to call out and get rid of people.  It doesn’t matter if they’re on his staff or are Republicans or Democrats.  If you’re not holding your end of the bargain, if you’re not treating the country and the taxpayer and the voter the way you would treat an investor in a company, get out.  There’s no reason for you,” said Bolling.

Bolling is also bullish on the policies coming out of the White House.

“He stepped into D.C. and he started rolling back regulations,” said Bolling.  “People’s eyes glaze over when you talk about that until you realize that the rollback of the regulations is the reason the stock market is making new highs every week and the reason we have more Americans employed now than ever in history.”

Bolling says another key is Trump making good on not allowing people in his administration to jump over to a lobbying position until at least five years after leaving government service.

“If he holds by that, that’ll be a big, big, big start to draining the swamp,” said Bolling.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: Bolling, crony, lawmakers, lobbyists, news, Swamp, Trump

‘Swamp’ Aligns Against Trump on Climate Treaty

May 19, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/5-19-HORNER-blog.mp3

President Trump is running out of time to make good on his promise to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement on climate policy obligations, and the delay is largely due to many different interests imploring him to back away from his campaign pledges.

As Trump embarks on an ambitious eight-day trip to the Middle East and Europe, the pressure is only growing on him to keep the U.S. committed to the Paris deal.  However, Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Christopher C. Horner, who served on Trump’s transition landing team at the Environmental Protection Agency, says all Trump needs to do is make good on his word.

“We have to go back to the campaign and remember that a decision was made and it was to get out,” said Horner.  “He gave reasons why.  He said this would give others control over our energy use, how much we could use the things that are reliable and affordable, as well as the massive wealth transfer.  He made the decision.”

The Competitive Enterprise Institute released an advertisement last month urging Trump to stay true to those campaign promises.

What has changed?  Horner says a lot of different interests are pushing him to accept the status quo.

“The brakes were put on it because different influences came into play.  There were what I’ll call swamp considerations, which were not obviously considerations in the campaign.  In fact, he ran against the swamp.  Once he got here, those interests are considerable,” said Horner.

Horner says there is a long list of people and interests looking pressuring Trump to keep the U.S. in the agreement.

“(There are) tremendous business lobbies, tremendous resistance among (the government) holdovers.  I could tell you blow by blow about a lot of these officials as well as some Trump appointees.  But as you also know, some family members are feeling and exerting what we’ll call Manhattan social pressures to not have to defend keeping this promise,” said Horner.

Some businesses and industries are at the forefront of protesting climate-inspired restrictions, but Horner says much of big business is on board with the climate agenda for multiple reasons.  He says a lot of big companies are eager for the federal subsidies that come with compliance with the Paris accords.

“The reason is simple.  When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you’re guaranteed Paul’s enthusiastic support and sometimes it was Paul’s idea.  So you’ve got this base of industry support, the ones who would benefit,” said Horner.

He says those same businesses also see more restrictive policies as an advantage against the competition.

“They love instituting policies that are barriers to entry to new participants or that smaller competitors can’t handle as well.  Some businesses were publicly saying in news reports that, ‘We’ve planned for this so we need this to happen,'” said Horner.

Even among Trump’s top diplomats, there is deep division on the issue.

“The UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is reportedly very strong on this, even though, as I’ve said before, State will do what’s in the State Department’s interest and (withdrawing from the accords) makes Rex Tillerson’s life more difficult and not easier,” said Horner.

Horner also expects Trump’s time in Europe to be one long lobbying effort to keep the U.S. in the agreement.

“The Group of Seven, the leading economic nations who want – as a State Department cable that I found in litigation shows – they want us to share the pain, to relieve the burden of our competition of not having this agenda saddle our economy,” said Horner.

Published reports suggest multiple deadlines to make a decision on U.S. involvement in the accords have come and gone.  He says that’s largely because Trump is trying to resist the tide aligned against his instincts.

“We’ve got it on pretty good authority what the president still thinks.  He wants out and wonders aloud why he can’t just keep his promise.  He’s surrounded by influencers saying, ‘You can’t do it for the following reasons.’  But some people are saying, ‘You have to (withdraw) for these reasons, the same reasons you said you would,” said Horner.

If Trump relents, Horner says President Obama’s promise that our electricity rates will “necessarily skyrocket” will come true and the cost of everything related to energy costs will also shoot up.

“The price will go up, leaving you with less disposable income and a less resilient lifestyle, less healthy because you’re less wealthy.  There’ll be more hypothermia, more of seniors and the vulnerable dying from energy poverty.  That’s what it’s going to mean for you,” said Horner.

Horner fears that if Trump was going to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, he would have done so already.  However, he is not giving up hope given Trump’s adamant campaign promises.

If Trump doesn’t make good on that vow, Horner says it will be a strong example of how difficult it is to reverse the tides in Washington.

“It means the swamp isn’t as easily defeated as a lot of people hoped,” said Horner.  “This is really, so far, the ultimate test of his battle against the swamp.”

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: business, change, climate, news, Paris, Swamp, treaty, Trump, withdraw

‘Drain the Swamp’

April 12, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/4-12-buck-blog.mp3

A Republican congressman’s new book details why it’s so difficult to bring about meaningful conservative reforms in Washington and how even GOP are quickly conditioned to go along to get along, a practice he says is driving up the debt and deeply eroding confidence in Washington.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colorado, is beginning his second term in the House of Representatives, but his first two years in Congress provided enough fodder for his new book “Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think.”

Buck narrowly lost the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Colorado.  Four years later he easily won a seat in the House after incumbent Cory Gardner embarked on a successful U.S. Senate bid.

Already convinced Washington was broken, It didn’t take long for Buck to discover it was far worse than he realized.

“What surprised me was learning the specifics of the corruption, learning the details and how the establishment and leadership uses certain influences to try to create discipline and order to a certain extent but to also make sure that the special interest groups are taken care of,” said Buck.

One of the first big surprises was the pressure put on all members to fundraise on behalf of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is tasked with winning House races.  Buck says all members are obligated to raise money and those on lucrative committees are tasked with raising even more.

The most high-profile committees include Appropriations, Ways & Means, Energy & Commerce, Rules and Financial Services.

“We have dues and if you’re on an ‘A’ committee your dues are higher than if you’re on a ‘B’ committee.  By higher, I mean $450,000 this year for being on an ‘A’ committee,” said Buck.

For members to reach that bar requires groveling to special interests.

“They are reached by approaching special interest groups and asking for money.  The challenge is those groups expect something in return.  So there is a quid pro quo.  There is a system in place.  you are required to pay dues and you are required to raise money.  Part of that is going to be being influenced by people that you may not agree with,” said Buck.

And as the parties try to placate their special interest donors, spending keeps rising and debt keeps increasing.  Buck says leadership, in turn, tries to protect members from having to cast controversial or unpopular votes.

“The long-term effect is that members of Congress are reluctant to take tough votes and they are not reluctant to add more debt to our national balance sheet,” said Buck.

In addition to raising money, members are also expected to toe the line in backing the leadership’s agenda.  “Drain the Swamp” is filled with first and second-hand accounts of former House Speaker John Boehner forcefully demanding members vote a certain way, punishing them for voting against the his wishes by stripping committee assignments and congressional travel opportunities, and berating members in front of their colleagues.

Other GOP figures, all of whom are named in the book, are called out for refusing to allow members to see the text of what they were voting on in Appropriations Committee hearings or for excoriating colleagues for voting against the wishes of Chairman Hal Rogers.

Buck says it’s easy to be convinced to go with the flow in Washington and that’s why he says electing men and women of strong character is critical.

“Our founding fathers created a system of government that really depends on a moral people and principled elected officials.  A lot of the individuals coming to D.C. are very well meaning and principled when they get to D.C,” said Buck.

“I think there is a corrupting influence in the swamp.  Ultimately, I think most people who are members of Congress start to compromise their values and start to figure out how they can get re-elected and avoid taking tough votes.  That’s really the central issue in what’s corrupting the system,” said Buck.

Buck is very tough on Boehner in the book but says current House Speaker Paul Ryan runs a much better process.

“Paul Ryan is a policy wonk.  He is a very bright individual.  He can talk policy with anybody and does his best to convince people through good policy rather than through threats and intimidation or any kind of benefits.  The policy and the politics are much more separated with Paul Ryan than they were with John Boehner,” said Buck.

But he notes Ryan has some key tests to pass in this Congress.

“We’ll see soon with the health care initiative and other initiatives on tax reform and immigration, whether Paul is going to be able to bring a coalition together to get that job done,” said Buck.

And how can the culture of Congress be turned around?

“I think we get out of this with good principled people.  I think we get out of this with Americans reading this book, understanding what is going on in D.C. in some detail and exercising and exerting influence from the outside to make sure that we reform,” said Buck.

“We need to make sure that the pay-to-play system is ruled unethical by the Ethics Committee and that it stops.  I think there’s a lot of reforms that we can enact inside Congress.  I think we also need to work from the outside to pass important measures like a balanced budget amendment,” said Buck.

One of Buck’s greatest concern is the nation’s $20 trillion in official debt, especially with entitlements and unfunded liabilities set to explode over the next decade.  He suggests one the most irresponsible patterns in Congress is to pass government funding through emergency omnibus measures, rather than through the individual appropriations bills.

Buck says there hasn’t been regular order on appropriations since 1994.

“When we don’t go through regular order and pass 12 appropriations bills that are discussed on the floor and open for amendment, we end up with a last-minute crisis management situation, where we’re told we have to keep government open,” said Buck.

“A lot of spending programs are put into the omnibus bill that members don’t know about because we have very little time to review that bill, and it costs taxpayers more money,” said Buck.

Buck says he wrote the book to get Americans even more motivated to clean up our politics.

“I’d like to make sure people understand that D.C. is broken and that it is each American’s responsibility and to stand up and take action.  I hope it motivates people to be involved in the system,” said Buck.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: Boehner, Buck, character, congress, Drain, news, Ryan, Swamp

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