GOP establishment proving to be Trump’s biggest obstacle to passing his agenda, not Democrats
05/02/2017 / By JD Heyes
The latest budget “battle” has proven once again that the Republican Party, despite the fact that it has a president in the White House and owns both houses of Congress, is helping Democrats achieve legislative victory after legislative victory.
And all because establishment GOP leaders and their fat-cat K Street lobbyists and donors are #NeverTrump supporters who do not want to see the president’s agenda become a reality.
If we examine what has occurred, legislatively speaking, since President Donald J. Trump was inaugurated, it’s becoming very plain that there are powerful factions working behind the scenes to sabotage his agenda – despite the fact that Trump’s election victory is traceable to a very specific legislative and policy agenda that included building a border wall, enforcing immigration law, repealing and replacing Obamacare, enacting major tax cuts and reforms, and embarking on a nationwide infrastructure rebuilding plan.
On health care, reports claimed Monday that the White House believes new legislation aimed at paring back at least some of Obamacare could garner enough Republican support to pass. But let’s not forget this would be the second attempt at repealing Barack Obama’s and the Democrats’ signature legislation, and we don’t even know yet whether a decent bill will be offered. We do know the new legislation is supposed to contain compromise measures that are backed by the GOP’s various factions. (RELATED: Obamacare REPEAL? It’s more like health care system COLLAPSE!)
However, repealing and replacing Obamacare was a major campaign promise made by Trump – and it was also a major campaign promise made by Republican congressional leaders and most GOP rank-and-file; so why hasn’t it been done yet?
Then there’s tax reform. Trump wants to lower the top corporate income tax rate from 39 percent – the highest in the developed world – to something like 15-20 percent, while lowering personal income tax rates and getting rid of a lot of deductions. GOP leaders say tax reform might actually be harder than repealing and replacing Obamacare because the tax code, over the years, has been written to reward or punish certain demographics. In other words, our tax code is not designed to raise revenue for the government, since Washington spends whatever it wants no matter how much revenue is brought it. No, it’s designed to empower Congress to lord over the masses, giving to some while taking from others.
What about the border wall? Haven’t Republicans been all about border security for who knows how long?
On another note, weren’t Republicans screaming a few years ago they wanted to defund Planned Parenthood – a long-held objective – after learning that the organization sold baby body parts for profit?
Oh, and what about defunding “sanctuary cities,” another major Trump policy objective and alleged GOP priority?
None of these are included in a new $1 trillion stopgap spending bill that the Republicans just made with Democrats, as noted by Conservative Review:
This omnibus bill is yet another massive spending bill that rolls 11 smaller 2017 appropriation bills into one behemoth piece of legislation. This is not the way congressional appropriations are supposed to be; under regular order, Congress would pass a budget, and then pass 12 separate annual appropriation bills. Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have each promised to return to “regular order.”
Well, count this omnibus spending bill as another broken promise under unified Republican government — one of many broken promises in this bill.
None of this is lost on Vice President Mike Pence, a former U.S. congressmen who is very familiar with the swamp that Trump has pledged to drain. (RELATED: No, Trump and GOP should not ‘reach across the aisle’ to pass their agenda)
During a Sunday interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Pence said that although Trump has signed more bills in his first 100 days than any other president since Harry Truman, the bulk of his agenda is being stonewalled.
“And he’s, frankly, been fighting against the gale-force wind of the establishment here in Washington, D.C., and frankly, fighting against the gale-force wind of many in the national media who would constantly like to change the subject away from the president’s relentless promise to the American people,” Pence said.
No doubt that’s true. And while the vice president remains optimistic that key legislation will eventually get done, he is nevertheless certain that major campaign pledges made by Trump on the campaign trail remain mired in the political morass that epitomizes the nation’s capital.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
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Tagged Under: drain the swamp, GOP establishment, GOP leaders, obamacare, repeal and replace, tax reform
