The Soapbox

JMHoo

Joined: 12/17/2002 Posts: 19126
Likes: 30970


From Victor Davis Hanson:


At the conclusion of Trump’s first year, the stock market and small-business confidence are at record highs, and consumer confidence has not been higher in 17 years. Trump’s loud campaign promises to lure back capital and industry to the heartland no longer look quixotic, given new tax and deregulatory incentives and far cheaper energy costs than in most of Europe and Japan.

Trump has now ended 66 regulations for every one he has added. Few believed a Republican president could cut the corporate-tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent while capping state- and local-tax deductions for mostly high earners to $10,000. Those are the highlights of a comprehensive tax-reform and -reduction agenda that will likely accelerate the economy to an even more rapid growth rate than Trump’s first two full quarters of annualized increases in GDP of more than 3 percent.

Dozens of large companies are already passing along some of their anticipated tax cuts to employees through increased wages or bonuses — dismissed as “crumbs” by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Rising workers’ wages and anticipated tax credits and savings for the lower and middle classes for now are rendering almost mute the age-old fights about state-mandated minimum-wage laws. The mostly unheralded nixing of the Obamacare individual mandate — once the great ideological battlefield of the Affordable Care Act — will insidiously recalibrate the ACA into a mostly private-market enterprise.

Domestic oil production is slated to exceed 2017 record levels and soon may hit an astonishing 11 million barrels a day. “Peak oil” for now is an ossified idea, as are massive wind and solar Solyndra-like government subsidies and the mostly unworkable Paris Climate Accord.

Gas, oil, and coal production are expected to rise even higher with new Trump initiatives to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge field in Alaska, encourage more fracking on federal lands and offshore, and complete needed pipeline links while encouraging coal exportation.

For all the political horse-trading over extending or ending the Obama executive orders on DACA, illegal immigration has declined according to some metrics by over 60 percent. It is now at the lowest levels in the 21st century — even before the ending of chain migration and enacting of new border-security initiatives.

Abroad, the ISIS caliphate is for all purposes now extinct. Its demise is in part due to Trump’s outsourcing of the conflict to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who liberated ground commanders from Obama-administration-era legalistic rules of engagement. Trump’s appointees, such as Mattis, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have worked in concert to restore U.S. deterrence. Variously called “principled realism” or a new “Jacksonianism,” the Trump doctrine has now replaced the “strategic patience” and “lead from behind” recessionals of the prior administration and not emulated the neoconservative nation-building of the George W. Bush administration.

New pressures on nuclear North Korea have prompted the toughest U.N. trade sanctions in history on the rogue state. After Trump’s fiery and erratic rhetoric and muscular displays of U.S. naval and air power in the Pacific, Pyongyang has agreed to landmark talks with Seoul. China is slowly beginning to pressure North Korea to stop launching missiles. Beijing’s Asian neighbors are beefing up missile defense and growing closer to the U.S. For now, the bad cop Trump and the good cops Mattis and McMaster have encouraged friends and frightened enemies, although the shelf life of such diplomatic gymnastics is limited.

Trump almost immediately voiced support for mass demonstrations in Iran, in a manner Obama failed to do in 2009. An ironic fallout of the disastrous 2015 Iran deal may be that the theocracy so hyped its cash windfalls from American relaxation of embargoes and sanctions that it inadvertently raised Iranians’ expectations of a rise in the standard of living. Then it dashed just those hopes by squandering hundreds of millions of newfound dollars in subsidizing Hezbollah, conducting a costly expeditionary war to save the genocidal Bashar al-Assad regime, and likely continuing an exorbitantly costly nuclear-weapons program.

What is different about Iran’s internal unrest this time around is twofold. The Trump administration is not invested in any “landmark” deal with Tehran that requires ignoring protesters in the street. Trump also does not envision revolutionary and terror-sponsoring Iran as a “very successful regional power” with “legitimate defense concerns.” Rather, he sees Tehran, along with ISIS and al-Qaeda, as the chief source of Middle East unrest and anti-Americanism.

Moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, in line with past congressional mandates, along with threatening to curtail Palestinian aid, only reifies what is now widely accepted. The new Middle East is not the old. There are no longer any ongoing and viable “peace plans,” “road maps,” or “summits.” America is becoming energy-independent and immune to oil boycotts. There are new and greater threats than Israel to Arab regimes, from nuclear Iran to the scourge of Islamic terrorism in Iraq and Syria. Patience is wearing thin as after 30 years the Palestinians still cannot create transparent and consensual government. Seventy years after the birth of Israel, the Palestinians still insist on being called “refugees” — when most of the world’s millions of displaced persons decades ago moved on.

(In response to this post by Simeon)

Posted: 05/04/2018 at 3:23PM



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Current Thread:
 
  
That Silver Tongued Devil is speaking now ** -- 757 05/04/2018 2:37PM
  Here is a good one from today: -- hooshouse 05/04/2018 3:07PM
  You're right, no one has even put forth a bill -- hoothat 05/04/2018 9:46PM
  I did. -- hoothat 05/04/2018 10:11PM
  Which part is the problem -- hoothat 05/04/2018 10:20PM
  Oh I get what YOU think is funny -- hoothat 05/04/2018 10:32PM
  "Intentionally obtuse"? Hello pot, meet kettle. ** -- VAGentleman05 05/05/2018 2:00PM
  Ahhh, you decided to join the discussion. cute ** -- hoothat 05/05/2018 6:43PM
  You’re under seige! And not under seige! ** -- hooyorkcity 05/05/2018 6:53PM
  You clearly are a real deep thinker... -- hoothat 05/05/2018 8:32PM
  What's funny is... -- hoothat 05/05/2018 8:46PM
  True that, hoothat. Have a good rest of the weekend. ** -- hooyorkcity 05/05/2018 8:48PM
  You went to UVA? -- hoothat 05/05/2018 11:03AM
  I just asked you to quote me accurately -- hoothat 05/05/2018 11:53AM
  Ok let’s delve into the long version of this -- hooyorkcity 05/05/2018 12:09PM
  But that isn't what he said hooyork -- hoothat 05/05/2018 12:44PM
  I didn't get upset, I corrected you. -- hoothat 05/05/2018 1:54PM
  And yet when I expanded on my thought -- hoothat 05/05/2018 6:42PM
  ...I wasn't upset... -- hoothat 05/05/2018 8:30PM
  Lol. it was intentional. -- hoothat 05/05/2018 8:45PM
  That moron wiped the floor with you last election -- TomKazanski 05/04/2018 11:04PM
  “Wiped the floor” “landslide” -- hooyorkcity 05/04/2018 11:12PM
  Largest crowd ever . . . . -- HokieDelNorte 05/04/2018 11:17PM
  Most popular President ever at this point. -- hooyorkcity 05/04/2018 11:26PM
  And his robust good health, historic! ** -- southdenverhoo 05/05/2018 1:54PM
  And don’t forget the best brain! ** -- hooyorkcity 05/05/2018 2:38PM
  And the best words! ** -- Hoo TV 05/05/2018 5:27PM
  Would rather have a guy who gets stuff done -- Simeon 05/04/2018 2:59PM
  Fortunately, we had both with Obama. -- DanTheFan 05/05/2018 09:04AM
  You misspelled Reagan :) ** -- Simeon 05/05/2018 09:18AM
  Does this really mean anything? -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 5:37PM
  Those are generally my views -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 8:49PM
  It seems like all of you have policy disagreements. -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 7:12PM
  Responding to yourself? -- hoothat 05/04/2018 8:04PM
  So Obama did nothing? -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 8:46PM
  Did you fall into a bottle last night? -- wahoo138 05/05/2018 10:37AM
  He asked me to cut and paste his reply -- hoothat 05/05/2018 11:04AM
  South China Sea was a failure under Obama. -- Lupos 05/04/2018 8:51PM
  Have you been following this thread? -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 8:58PM
  You are flailing. -- hoothat 05/04/2018 9:04PM
  No, it was not consensus on exiting Iraq. -- ryno hoo 05/04/2018 7:02PM
  Please tell you are not using Iran deal as an example -- TomKazanski 05/04/2018 6:38PM
  Hindsight? -- hoothat 05/04/2018 6:32PM
  I wish it were simply about lack of eloquence. -- hoolstoptheheels 05/04/2018 4:32PM
  Tax cuts will be revenue neutral. ** -- 81_Hokie 05/04/2018 8:02PM
  You think tax cuts hurt people? -- TomKazanski 05/04/2018 8:59PM
  The people that have to pay it back. ** -- 81_Hokie 05/04/2018 9:51PM
  Liberals are going to confiscate everyone's guns? Yeah, sure. -- hoolstoptheheels 05/04/2018 5:52PM
  I normally agree with a lot you have to say -- hoothat 05/04/2018 9:44PM
  Liberals would do that in a second. -- ryno hoo 05/04/2018 7:11PM
  Umm....You should talk to Boca -- hoothat 05/04/2018 8:06PM
  Heh, good stuff. -- hooyorkcity 05/05/2018 06:07AM
  They just look scary -- Hoo TV 05/05/2018 07:14AM
  Lol, exactly. Take note Hoolstop. -- hoothat 05/04/2018 9:01PM
  Sounds like he wants to ban semi auto assault style rifles. -- hoolstoptheheels 05/05/2018 08:07AM
  Umm no. -- hoothat 05/05/2018 11:08AM
  I don't own firearms. -- hoothat 05/06/2018 12:07AM
  Well we have had a long going debate -- hoothat 05/06/2018 10:46AM
  Ok, let's assume that's true. -- hoolstoptheheels 05/06/2018 11:06AM
  Lol, be right? -- hoothat 05/06/2018 10:48AM
  Well, I'm sure Boca can state his own views. -- hoolstoptheheels 05/05/2018 11:38AM
  Understood -- hoothat 05/06/2018 12:05AM
  Why don't working Americans care about the truth? -- HptHokie 05/04/2018 5:28PM
  Speculation on the gun confiscation? -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 5:27PM
  Sorry I am not here 24/7 -- hoothat 05/04/2018 6:21PM
  Name the stuff ** -- hooshouse 05/04/2018 3:01PM
  ISIS routed, Korean War nearly over, -- Simeon 05/04/2018 3:14PM
  Economic growth is up since Trump took office -- Simeon 05/05/2018 08:14AM
  I'm good with more Hope Hicks! Just sayin'. ** -- Hoodafan 05/04/2018 4:10PM
  You know Miller tried so hard. ** -- hooshouse 05/04/2018 4:15PM
  Gotcha. That sounds terrible. ** -- hooshouse 05/04/2018 4:09PM
  ...SMH -- hoothat 05/04/2018 9:39PM
  27 months? ** -- BonsackHoo 05/04/2018 5:29PM
  I thought you skimped on my fries too! ** -- Shenhoo 05/04/2018 8:08PM
  Ugh. don't do it ** -- hoothat 05/04/2018 6:34PM
  We haven't all died bar. lol ** -- hooshouse 05/04/2018 4:16PM
  It’s not 27 months. Just feels like it. ** -- fphoo 05/04/2018 4:05PM
  From Victor Davis Hanson: -- JMHoo 05/04/2018 3:23PM
  From Rich Lowry: -- JMHoo 05/04/2018 3:26PM

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