Republicans - Give Us Tax Cuts this Christmas

Despite some last-minute scrambling, it appears the Republicans in Congress might actually accomplish something this year and get a form of tax cuts passed.  While I don't like some parts of the proposed changes--particularly the insistence that the cuts be revenue-neutral, with mechanisms to trigger tax increases--cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20-22% is worth the compromise.

The cut in the corporate rate alone will supercharge the economy, as companies relocate to (or stay in) the United States and begin employing more Americans.  Even if some Americans see a modest increase in their personal tax liability over time, the increased employment and wages from domestic investment and corporate expansion should offset most of the unpleasantness.

"[Cutting] the corporate [tax] rate... will supercharge the economy."

If I had my druthers, we'd have a slashed corporate and personal rate across all brackets, as well as the simplification of the brackets contained in the Republican plan.  With those reforms should also come substantial cuts to federal expenditures.

I've always wanted to fan a stack of these around.

(Source:  http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=223419&picture=money)

I'm an extreme budgeter, and and I strenuously disapprove of deficits.  I also suspect that the national debt and mandatory entitlement spending have grown so immense that it is increasingly difficult to grow ourselves out of the problem with tax cuts.  Nevertheless, I'm all for "starving the beast," and I'm willing to see spending cuts put aside for a time if it means slashing taxes.

Regardless, the current tax reform bill, while flawed, is good enough.  Just don't delay the cuts until 2019, as one version of the Senate's proposal suggested; that's just asking for a recession.

Make the cuts immediate effective 1 January 2018.  Then get to work on cutting federal expenditures--with an ax, not a scalpel.

For a more thorough dissection and defense of the tax bill, read Michael Barone's piece at National Review:  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454240/republican-tax-bill-serious-reform

Monday Morning Update for 27 November 2017: Let Us Give Thanks

We have much to be thankful for this Christmas season--I certainly do--but it's easy to forget how much America's situation has improved since President Trump took office.  The improvement goes beyond the record-breaking stock prices, however; massive, unprecedented deregulation from the executive branch has super-charged growth and expanded liberty.  The boot heel of an oppressive federal government has given way to a pro-growth, pro-American government that believes in catalyzing, not crippling, American businesses, workers, and organizations.

President Donald J. Trump:  A Smirk Well-Deserved

(Source:  http://15130-presscdn-0-89.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/trump-smirk.jpg)

Fortunately, Deroy Murdock has detailed President Trump's substantial policy successes (most of them, unfortunately, coming from the executive branch; Congress, especially the Senate, is still asleep at the switch).  Just when I thought National Review had totally gone over to the noodle-wristed "decorum" crowd (barring the occasional dose of courage from Victor Davis Hanson or Conrad Black), it was refreshing to read this piece of unadulterated triumphalism.

Without further ado, I give you Deroy Murdock's "This Thanksgiving, Thank Donald J. Trump":  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454028/donald-trump-accomplishments-thanksgiving

Happy Monday!

--TPP

A Portly Politico Update; Site Re-Launch (Coming Soon)

Hi there, Portly Fans.

Since last summer, I've only made one post--my 2016 election guide--and I have definitely missed out on some major events.  I'd originally planned to write about the presidential election and its aftermath, covering the ups and downs of the process.  Unfortunately, teaching obligations--and, I'll admit, the unusually heated rhetoric of the campaign trail--kept me quiet during a very loud election.

I hate to confess it, but this election was the first time I didn't relish debating my progressive friends and colleagues.  The gulf in worldviews, as well as the overall rancor toward then-candidate Trump, dampened my enthusiasm for dialogue, debate, and discussion (that didn't stop me from wearing a bright red "TRUMP" hat to school the morning after the election, but that's a story for another time).  That might make me weak, but I opted to work quietly rather than talk to an ideological brick wall.  Apparently, millions of Americans did the same, and made their voices heard at the ballot box.

Regardless, here's a recap of (most) everything that's occurred since last summer:

- Donald J. Trump won a convincing Electoral College victory, proving once again the wisdom of that institution.  Hallelujah!

(I don't know which is better--Trump winning, or Secretary Clinton losing--but I'm thrilled either way.)

- Donald J. Trump was inaugurated President of the United States.  I still feel like I'm living in a dream.

- Republicans maintained control of Congress (not that it's done much good, but we got Neil Gorsuch).

- Speaking of, President Trump--mmmm, it's soooo good to type that--nominated Neil Gorsuch, a constitutional originalist, to the Supreme Court.

- Insufferable Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) have lost a LOT of ground culturally, and globalist elites are gnashing their teeth.  I don't want to relish in Schadenfreude--and, honestly, the day-after-the-election reactions were so ridiculous, they took the fun out of good-natured ribbing--but it's refreshing to win one, especially when it seemed so unlikely.

(On the note of the culture wars, many more Americans--as well as some of the youngest Americans--are red-pilling; don't pop the bubbly yet, but radical feminism and post-modernism are taking a beating.  Here's a bit of my favorite kind of evidence--anecdotal:  while I witness some gender-bending, I overhear some conversations among students that lean heavily toward a traditional worldview.  Girls want to be treated like ladies and to be feminine; boys want to be men... in general.  One of my former students transformed from a Sandersnista into a Trumpster in less than a year; that's how rapidly the battle lines are shifting.)

- National conservatism took some lumps, however, in France (and, most recently, in Britain with Prime Minister Teresa May's humiliating showing in the special election), but Brexit rolls on (woo-hoo!).

While history happened, I ate burgers in Hawaiian t-shirts.  Even this picture isn't new--but it is ALL-AMERICAN.  Make Lunch Great Again!

- SC Governor Nikki Haley became the United Nations Ambassador, putting Trump supporter Henry McMaster into the Governor's Mansion.

- The Left has continued to persecute the Trump Administration, but he keeps winning (maybe not legislatively, but he slayed incompetent FBI Director James Comey, and he's all but beaten the increasingly desperate claims that he colluded with the Russians).  It feels like we're living through the Nixon era again (but that's not a bad thing--it's Pat Buchanan's America, baby).

- Our constitutional system faces a major threat from the "deep state"--the "swamp" of Trump's campaign rhetoric, coupled with the powerful intelligence agencies that influence (control?) the government outside of constitutional and democratic accountability.  That's a terrifying topic for a future post.

- The future of conservatism is up in the air, but it is probably due for an update.  We've ignored the working class for too long.  Nixon won a landslide in 1972 reaching out to the Silent Majority.  Trump played the exact same playbook and had a 1968 outcome.  If he can weather the Left's storm--and if they continue to radicalize leftward--2020 might be a repeat of 1972 (except that the country is far more divided in its worldview now).  2016 demonstrated that Americans were fed up with eight years of a progressive administration that kept spiking the football after every political and cultural victory.

***

Naturally, I've got a lot of catching up to do.  Here's my vision for the future of The Portly Politico:

- A new platform.  I've enjoyed using Blogger, but I've hit a wall with the features I'd like to implement.  In the near future, I'll be moving to a new website, and will maintain this page as an archive for older essays.

- Short posts.  In the meantime, I'll be making short posts to the existing Blogger site.  These posts won't be as long as my output from Summer 2016, but they'll offer quick commentary on current events.

- eBooks.  I'm working on an eBook about the importance of social and cultural conservatism.  I'm also planning a series of books on great historic leaders, drawing lessons from their lives that are applicable to morality, ethics, and politics today.

- Podcast.  I'll be introducing a weekly, 20-or-30-minute podcast.  More details to come.  Maybe Audible will become a sponsor?

- Public speaking.  Especially after the eBook launches, I hope to book talks with local groups.  I've already worked up two good talks, one a reassessment of Samuel Huntington's "A Clash of Civilizations?," the other a general overview of contract theory.  Exciting stuff.

- American Patriot Radio (www.patriotic-radio.com).  I've been associated with the good folks at APR for a few years now.  I'm also a guest contributor, and I've linked to some of my pieces there throughout this post.  My hope is that I'll contribute a few shorter pieces there a few times a week, and I'll provide links from my new site when it launches.  In the meantime, you can check out submissions from various writers here.

***

That's just a sampling of what's to come.  What would you like to see from the TPP?  What's your take on the past seven months?  How's Trump doing?  Leave an angry comment below and let me know!

Preview: The Vice Presidency and Trump's Potential Running Mate

Normally, I prefer to write about "big picture" topics--what is popular sovereignty?  Why is America exceptional?  What are the core American values upon which our nation is founded?--because they tend to possess timeless qualities.  I also teach a philosophy course from time to time, and I believe that ideas--as the great Richard Weaver put it--have consequences.  Ideas shape and affect us, I would argue, far more than individuals or even large institutions.  It's a bold claim, I concede, but it makes sense when you consider individuals, institutions, and even nation-states and empires are motivated not just by rational Realpolitik, but also by ideas and values.

More practically, focusing on these broader, evergreen topics generally shields me from the pitfall of making bold predictions that turn out horribly wrong (although my post-Brexit predictions post has already been proven so:  it appears Boris Johnson will not be running for leadership of the Conservative Party, much to my chagrin).

That being said, on Monday I'm going to give a quick run-down of some of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's potential vice-presidential picks, then share my own thoughts.

But first, a word about the vice-presidency (here comes the "big picture" stuff):  the vice presidency is one of the most enigmatic offices in our constitutional system.  Constitutionally (and historically), the vice president doesn't do much.  His sole constitutional duty (other than monitoring the space-time continuum) is to cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, which he does in his capacity as the President of the that chamber.  In fact, prior to the passage of the XII Amendment in 1804, the vice president was simply the candidate who won second place in the Electoral College (imagine an Obama Administration with Mitt Romney as VP).  It almost seems like the office was an afterthought (it wasn't--someone's got to take the president's place if he dies--but the second-place-becomes-veep rule did not anticipate the emergence of the two-party system).

John Adams famously hated the vice presidency (it probably didn't help that Senators derisively called him "His Rotundity"), primarily because it was boring.  He was the first to realize the vice presidency is the "consolation prize" of politics, and for most of American history it was where political careers went to die.  Only in the second half of the twentieth century did it become the stepping stone to the presidency that it is today (that stepping stone used to be Secretary of State, and it may prove to be so again).  Indeed, Theodore Roosevelt's Old Guard Republican rivals in 1900 hoped he would become President McKinley's new VP because it would get the troublesome progressive out of real power!  No one dreamed that McKinley would die from an assassin's bullet only a few months into his second term.

John Adams:  He ain't heavy--he's my Founding Father.

(Image Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams)

(Note:  the famous Jay's Treaty scene from the HBO mini-series John Adams, in which Adams cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to ratify the controversial treaty, was completely fabricated.  Treaties require a 2/3rds vote to become the law of the land, not a simple majority.  Therefore, it would be constitutionally and numerically impossible for a vice president to ever cast a tie-breaking vote on a treaty; indeed, he would have no right to vote at all.  The writers for the show just wanted to create some high political drama, showing Adams making a tough, unpopular choice for the good of the country.  They did so to the detriment of history and constitutional literacy, and unnecessarily--there were plenty of real instances from Adams's life that demonstrated his nobility and selflessness.)

As the power of the presidency expanded throughout the twentieth century, however, vice presidents began to assume more active roles, primarily as a sort of substitute diplomat or pinch-hitting cabinet member for the president.  Richard Nixon, for example, worked as a sort of diplomatic envoy to Southeast Asia during President Dwight Eisenhower's administration.  Now vice presidents routinely travel the country and the world, giving speeches and making appearances on behalf of their respective presidents.

"John Adams famously hated the vice presidency... because it was boring."

For all that, the office is rarely of huge significance in any electoral sense, but it can matter.  Candidates often pick their running mates to shore up real or perceived deficiencies in their own campaigns.  To wit:

- Then-Senator Barack Obama (like John F. Kennedy), for example, chose seasoned Senator Joe Biden (as Kennedy chose Lyndon Johnson) to address concerns that he lacked the depth and experience to run the country.

- Ronald Reagan chose his primary opponent, George H.W. Bush, as a sign of reconciliation and to hold together the Republican coalition of 1980.

- Even Abraham Lincoln engaged in this game:  his first VP, Hannibal Hamlin, was picked because he was ferociously anti-slavery; his second VP, Andrew Johnson--a pro-slavery, pro-Union Democrat--was chosen to appease the so-called "Peace Democrats" in the North.

***

So, what about Trump's potential picks?  I would caution that we should take his so-called "short list" with a grain of salt.  I suspect that, in true Trump fashion, he's engaging in a great deal of misdirection, and will announce a surprise candidate at the Republican National Convention.  However, I have no real evidence to support this contention--that's why it's a "suspicion," not a theory--so I'll ask that we take him at his word.

For the purposes of Monday's post, then, let's consider his five potential choices (I realize there are others to whom Trump has alluded, but I'm sticking with the ones I've read about most frequently):

1.) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

2.) Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton

3.) Iowa Senator Joni Ernst

4.) Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

5.) Indiana Governor Mike Pence

Honorable Mention:  Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions

I'll go through these candidates one by one (and make additions or subtractions based on any developments over the weekend) and give my shoot-from-the-hip analysis of their strengths, weaknesses, and secret desires (well, maybe not that last one).

Tune in Monday!