In my book, Democrats are often driven more by emotion and identity politics than by facts, while Republicans are driven by personality and vengeance. Example: Donald J. Trump.
So the very first thing they do after achieving the slimmest majority in the House is to announce an investigation into Hunter Biden.
I believe Hunter Biden should be investigated, along with his father, Joe, the president, who stated he never discussed Hunter’s business operations with him. That is as unbelievable as Joe’s earlier claims that he had a double major and was at the top of his law school class.
But when 80% of Americans feel the USA is on the wrong track, it is not because of the president’s miscreant son.
It is because of inflation, an economy that despite low joblessness seems uncoupled from reality, the perception of rising crime, high gasoline prices, and serious problems such as increasing drug deaths, and a tsunami of illegal immigration instigated by Biden’s policies.
Instead of announcing plans to deal with all that, Republicans squandered an opportunity and gave their enemies ammunition to say the GOP cares about nothing but settling scores.
In a previous column, I mourned the descent of the GOP from the Party of We Like Ike to the party of We Fear Donald.
If Republicans want to increase their numbers, they have to understand most Americans care more about their lives than they do about Biden or Benghazi.
If I were their Svengali, here are three proposals I would put on the table. (While these will help the GOP, they are designed to benefit America.)
1- As Sarah Palin once said, “Drill, baby, drill,”
Yes, I know she is unpopular, but so are the gas prices. Here is something Republicans understand — supply and demand. When supply goes up, prices go down. I would push for drilling on federal land and letting more leases. Fracking, yes. (Even Senator-elect John Fetterman is for fracking, right? Right?)
Under Trump, America exported energy. Under Biden we are asking the frenemy Saudis and commie Venezuela to pump more oil.
Little known fact: When the Saudis or Venezuelans pump more crude it comes from the very same earth as America’s resources. So Biden isn’t being eco-friendly, because oil pollutes whether it comes from the Mideast, South America or Oklahoma.
Gas prices will decline.
2- Save Social Security by removing the wage cap. The “wage cap” is the amount of your income that is subject to the 6.2% tax paid by individuals and their employers. This year, it is $147,000. Next year it will be $160,200. I never made $147,000 in my life and chances are, you didn’t either.
91% of us won’t reach $147,000 this year, which means we pay 6.2% every week. People like Elan Musk and Jeff Bezos reach that cap on week 1 and pay nothing the other 51 weeks.
Removing the wage cap will fund Social Security for decades, and — get this — because Republicans love cutting taxes, they could reduce the tax to 6%, still save Social Security, and deny the Democrats a talking point.
What’s not to like?
3- Close the damn border. The current wave of migrants crashing our border have discovered a clever dodge — they don’t sneak in. They walk in and request asylum.
This is a scam, as I have previously reported, because the vast majority do not qualify for asylum, which is granted to people with a well-founded fear of persecution on at least one of five protected grounds: Race, Religion, Nationality, Political opinion, a particular social group. (Such as gays, for example.)
Notice what is not included: Hunger, joblessness, climate change, drought, flood, threats from criminal gangs, lack of housing. All of these are sad characteristics, but they do not provide a basis for asylum under U.S. law.
So why do they claim asylum knowing they will be rejected?
They know they are entitled to a hearing before a federal judge, and that there are 1.6 million cases backlogged. The Biden administration turns them loose in America to wait their hearing.
It could be years before they get that hearing and they know they will be supported by Open Borders nonprofits who will argue “they have put down roots” and it would be “cruel” to deport them.
It is a scam, but there is a way to stop it: The law must be changed so that asylum seekers wait in their own country, or some other country, for their hearing.
If they can’t wait in America, the flow will stop.
Not all Americans will approve my three-point plan, but the majority will, and that’s what the GOP should have in mind — appeal to the majority.
And if you want a Point 4 — fix the Taylor Swift ticketing mess.
Viva La Swift! Bravo Senior Bykofsky. I still love your thinking, I may not always agree but your thinking is sound.
Agreement is nice, but never required.
I like the plan, but oil is simply not the future and everyone knows it. Stepping up production of (and reducing prices of) electric vehicles is simply essential to our future, and it will reduce dependence upon foreign oil. However, it should also be duly noted that a) oil companies made OBSCENE profits (you can look it up) while we suffered with artificially high gas prices and b) gas prices magically went UP prior to the election for no reason and then immediately declined AFTER the election also for no reason. Anyone care to explain that one? The other two points I have zero issue with.
Oil is not the “future,” nor is coal, but it is the NOW for the next 2-3 decades. There is NO WAY wind, solar, water power can power all of America and all America’s cars — even if they are electric.
How do you generate electricity for the cars?
Maybe nukes.
But the GOPinheads are only interested in one thing: Turning the nation into a Christian caliphate. So while there may be merit to your suggestions, they are irrelevant to the Christo-fascists who have no interest in actually making America better.
Oy
Obviously, you’ve met a Christian who annoyed you, ergo ALL Christians are terrible. Your comment shows how poisonous hatred is: one bad Black means all Blacks are bad. One bad Jew means all Jews are bad. Amazing what hatred can do to a person — or a nation,
The GOP needs to drop support for the Nicknamer-in-Chief. His newest label is Ron Sanctimonious DeSantis. His bullshit never ends. Stu you are correct oil production directly effects inflation. Drill baby drill cut inflation raise our standard of living. Close the border and protect our citizens. Use legal avenues to citizenship. Protect social security, get rid of windfall elimination and government offset rules of social security. Sounds like a winning political platform for the future.
I agree with you about the GOP pinheads who seemed to learn nothing from the midterms. The party of do-nothing convinced their followers that they would do something about inflation and crime and then immediately reverted to type. You’d think that voters would learn that they have no interest in actually governing.
You’ll get no argument from me on the SS issue. Total agreement on that.
As far as immigration, I am against anything illegal and that includes immigration. But I have been thinking that the inability to come to terms with immigration is rooted in more than just bipartisan apathy over the decades. Who benefits by immigration remaining uncontrolled? I think this needs a top to bottom study, because I think there is far more to this fiasco than we know. Follow the money?
Finally, with the whole oil thing. Oil markets don’t operate solely on simple supply and demand. The price of oil is largely set in the oil futures market. And OPEC.
Also oil demand is one economic determinant but not a sole determinant. For example, during the pandemic years struck in early 2020 and people curtailed their travel the demand for oil dropped but gas prices did not drop appreciably and they rebounded rapidly after people started traveling again.
Oil drilling and production is also very expensive and the producers will not drill and produce if they cannot (in their view) make a profit. Hence, the last time the feds instituted a windfall tax, production fell and producers shut down their more marginal wells.
Finally, drilling is not enough. The oil has to be refined and the US has built only a handful of refineries since the 70s, and those operate at 90% capacity, with the remaining 10% held back for future demand.
I’m sure there are other factors, but my main point is that “drill, baby, drill” fails to recognize that this is a very complicated industry and the answer is not that simple. Of course, that the price of oil has a great effect on inflation, is indisputable. But it’s only one driver of it.
Good point about refineries. If private capital won’t build one, I’d use tax money and let Americans reap the peofits.
HAPPY MONDAY !!!
pallie,
Ye of sound logic would be, could be followed if the swamp cared about the American people. It must be by design, that Washington D.C. finds ways and more ways to throw money away. First we had the dims with all of their investigations. Probably billions spent on …..what, NOTHING ! Now that the republicans have control, they will match the dims in money wasted and probably pass it by another billion ! ( All of this while Rome burns and Nero fiddles )
You only touch lightly on the issues. They are only complicated because it is easier to hide the truth in large cesspools. President Trump was right in following the immigration acts. Don’t let anybody into the country on a whim. PERIOD. Pleading for asylum can be – SHOULD be asked for on the OTHER side of the border. Once here, you can not throw them out. We have legal procedures and obviously, these waves of immigrants are ‘schooled’ in them.
There is no reason why our technical people can not be looking for more and better ways to fuel America and the world. The delay is, in one word, MONEY ( PROFITS )
We are all caught in a time period where the politicians take care of themselves. When was the last time a bill went though congress ‘for the people’?
The politicians bicker amongst themselves and accomplish nothing for us. We bicker amongst ourselves and again, do nothing for ourselves. Isn’t it time that we all take a step back, clear our heads and actually LISTEN to the other side ?
Tony
Trump’s biggest enemy was (and remains) himself. Had he not Twittered himself out of the presidency, he would have done great things for the economy. How sad it was to see Joe Biden cancel many of the executive orders Trump put through that were working so well. I am convinced the Democrats HATE capitalism and will do whatever they feel is necessary to bring the economy to its knees so as to install their vision of a socialist paradise. And the voters are too stupid to see the forest for the trees.
We had a stay in Mexico policy and we were building a wall. We were energy independent. Now everyone wants it back. Why did the stupid American people vote trump out of office. He was doing everything that you want . Now it’s going to take years to dig ourselves out of this hole
Mainly because Trump made an ass of himself and drove away moderates.
Trump had his faults but his policies led this country to the best economy of my life time. And the most peaceful. And now everyone wants to go back to trumps policies. But it’s to late. The dopey people of this country voted in the dumbest politician in American history. And now everyone in the world has to suffer because of our stupidity.
Daniel, I guess you do not realize you have contridicted yourself.
First, you said, “𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙤 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙥𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙨.”
You followed that by saying, “𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙮 𝙫𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮.”
If everyone wanted to go back to that orange-skinned SOB, why did they not vote that way?
Tell everyone why you are happy with the Biden administration and what he’s done to improve our lives.
There was good and bad under Trump. I approved some policies — like illegal immigration – but disliked his juvenile, petty behavior and the harm he tried to do to NATO.
Having the Europeans pay their fare share harmed NATO. They screw us every chance they get. Look at the war in Ukraine. It’s in their backyard but we are paying most of the bill.I’ll take his petty behavior and good policies over the incompetent Biden who is destroying the country.
No doubt your ideas are sound. IMHO, you fail really “get” how low the Repugs have sunk. You blame Joe Biden for the surge in migrants. Would you prefer he return to Trump’s zero tolerance policy? I find it absolutely appalling that Republicans, tout Trump’s immigration policies, yet neglect to mention the cruel, inhumane policy of separating children, even infants from parents. Some have still not been reunited. It’s likely that some never will be.
Your state that Repugs are driven by personality and vengeance. You neglect to mention bigotry, hate, and white grievance. There was no red wave, but the fact that races are so close, that an unqualified, morally bankrupt man like Hershel Walker can capture so many votes, as can a Lorena BoeBoe, and still possibly win political office, speaks volumes. The “newer” Republican leadership does not want to govern. It wants power, and to gain power appeals to the lowest common element in our society.
Lastly, you don’t address crime. Repugs rage over crime, but REFUSE to address the easy availability of GUNS that has allowed the crazies and thugs to terrorize our nation.
At this time, there is no saving the GOP from itself. The majority of them have sunk past the point of decency and truth. Past the point of no-return.
Naomi, I must say you really laid it on the line. I agree with all of the points you mentioned.
I am sorry for the double post. The first time I tried to post it, it did not appear to take.
Stu, if you could please remove one of them. Thank you.
Thanks “H”…. I rarely get with my thoughts on Stu’s columns…
So now I made a typo… “I rarely get “agreement” with my thoughts on Stu’s columns…
Does that tell you anything?
Naomi, just because you seldom see anyone agreeing with you does not mean they do not agree with what you said.
Contrary to Vince’s sarcastic question, ignoring a post does not equate to a disagreement with it.
They say silence means consent, but I don’t put stock in that.
I did so. I hope it doesn’t remkve you in the future. This Word Press platform sucks, and I am low tech.
Thank you Stu. I appreciate you taking care of it.
Don’t offer me a choice between bad or worse on immigration. There was no “zero” policy for immigration. That was proposed for Muslims and was knocked down by the courts. Trump’s policy of keeping them in Mexico worked. Illegal immigration was at a low under Trump, and all-time HIGH under Biden.
I choose to only answer one point for reasons of time and patience.
The Republican answer to everything is ‘tax cuts’. As former President Obama once opined, If the Earth was about to be hit by an asteroid, Republicans solution would be ‘tax cuts’.