Category Archives: U.S. Congress

Don’t tell them what comes after trillion

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billionBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

While the nation’s attention was divided between President Trump’s back-and-forth with Democratic congresswomen and Robert Mueller’s upcoming testimony, negotiators this week crafted a deal that may “end up being the worst budget agreement in our nation’s history.”

That description came from Maya McGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The agreement was reached by President Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and it was announced by an enthusiastic Trump tweet.

The deal suspends the federal debt ceiling until July 31, 2021 – after next year’s election. Suspending the ceiling wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing under other circumstances; frankly, we probably need to ditch it permanently. It accomplishes no purpose other than creating periodic crises that rattle financial markets and make the United States look like it can’t get its act together.

The problem is the deal eliminates spending limits created in 2011 that actually did slow the national debt’s growth a little. Since those will be gone, we’ll spend an additional $320 billion over the next two years on both defense and non-defense expenditures – paid for by borrowing, as always. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the deal could add as much as $1.7 trillion to the national debt over a decade. Continue reading →

He’s ‘gonna tweet what he’s gonna tweet’

By Steve Brawner

© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

For Arkansas’ all-Republican elected leadership, President Trump sometimes makes things … complicated.

Such was the case this week, when Trump dominated the news cycle – and I mean dominated – by tweeting that several Democratic congresswomen should “go back” to their home countries. He didn’t specify them by name, but he clearly was referring to all or some of a group that includes four outspoken progressives, all minorities. In a press conference Monday, he reiterated they are “free to leave if they want.”

The “go back to where you came from” tweets sparked immediate outrage from Democrats. Republican officeholders, meanwhile, met them with initial silence, which is how they prefer to respond to these kinds of tweets. These, however, were harder to ignore.

Among Arkansas’ elected officials, Rep. Steve Womack tweeted that the remarks were “not defensible” and then criticized the “anti-American, anti-Semitic and extreme policies espoused by the socialist wing of the Democratic majority.” Ironically, in the next sentence he called for changing the tone. Rep. Bruce Westerman criticized the “new socialist Democrats” but called the president’s remarks “unnecessarily demeaning.” Rep. French Hill said he was “tired of the war of outrageous and ill-informed comments – from our president and other elected officials.” As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sen. John Boozman said that “singling out people whose opinions differ from our own is bad for discourse and public civility.” Continue reading →

No ‘I feel your pain’ answer from Cotton

By Steve Brawner

© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

May 16, 2019

We don’t do politics like we used to. Exhibit A would be President Trump and his trade policies. Exhibit B would be Arkansas’ junior senator.

Trump won the presidency as a Republican despite counteracting some long-held Republican beliefs, particularly about trade.

Republican officeholders have been internationalist free-traders, even while many of their voters weren’t. In many cases, those voters stuck with Republicans, or started voting for them, because of cultural issues like guns and abortion.

But now Trump has come along and spoken to their economic anxieties as well – by initiating a trade war with China, and by making illegal immigration his primary issue.

The trade war has alarmed many Republicans and people who support Republicans. Continue reading →

Let’s talk politics – for 2022

By Steve Brawner

© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

May 14, 2019

Next year’s politics will be dominated in Arkansas by the presidential race, despite Sen. Tom Cotton’s already contested re-election race and several interesting ballot initiatives.

It’s in 2022 that the focus will be on Arkansas races. Sen. John Boozman will be up for re-election, and the state’s most prominent statewide officials will be term-limited.

It’s early, but let’s speculate. Continue reading →

One solution: Make them legal, and make them pay for it

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The head of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce hears often from employers who can’t find workers, so here’s his solution: Let those workers come from south of the border, make them pay for a work permit, and use the money to enhance border security.

That plan produces many winners, Randy Zook told me.

First, there are 7.1 million open jobs, but not enough Americans who are available to work, want to work, and/or have the necessary skills. Immigrants can help farmers, construction firms, and employers like the Peco Foods chicken plant in Pocahontas meet their labor requirements. Business and industry would do much of the vetting to ensure immigrants are job seekers, not drug dealers.

Meanwhile, immigrants could pay for a work permit – say $2,500 for two years. That’s a lot, but it beats paying a coyote to make the dangerous journey across the border. Then they’d be legal, though not citizens, and wouldn’t have to worry about being deported. Continue reading →