I thought the resignation of Richard Nixon over the cover up of Watergate would be the most important political statement in my lifetime. Now with the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, throwing the whole of Congress into chaos, this matches it.
For the past several years our nation has been transformed into a lawless, hate filled nation. Washington resembles Germany in the 1903’s, more than a free nation with a Constitution.
Colman is right—Clinton and Gingrich, though political opposites, were able to do the nation’s business.
Can we bring them back?
BRING BACK BILL CLINTON AND NEWT GINGRICH
By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 10/5/23 www.capoliticalreview.com
In the 1990’s, America did well.
Inflation was low and so was unemployment. From 1996 to 2000, America had balanced budgets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went from 3,000 to about 12,000. The national debt was reduced.
In public, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, a Republican, feuded — often bitterly. Clinton was president from 1993-2001. Gingrich was Speaker from 1995 to 1998.
But in private, they worked together.
Gingrich wanted balanced federal budgets. Clinton was determined to protect Social Security and Medicare from budget cuts.
Now, the Republicans in the House of Representatives are feuding. Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) wants to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
The answer to this political brawl is bipartisanship, which is difficult to achieve. But with some compromising, bipartisanship can be obtained.
Over the weekend of September 30, 2023, and October 1, 2023, both major parties compromised. There was a plan to shut down the federal government at 12:01 A.M. on October 1. Instead, a bipartisan agreement kept the federal government open until mid-November.
There are two extremist factions in Congress. The Democrats have Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her squad of followers. The Republicans have Gaetz and his supporters. The time has come to overrule extremists in both parties.
(On Oct. 4, 2023, a group of House Republicans, with help from House Democrats, ousted Speaker McCarthy. The consequences of McCarthy’s departure may not be known for months.)
Democrats currently control the Senate and the White House. The Republicans, by 222 to 213 seats, control the House. If the Democrats pick up six House seats in 2024, the Democrats will control the House.
The solution, unpleasant as it may be, is to have House Speaker McCarthy return to his Speaker’s job with the support of non-extreme House Democrats. In effect, a bipartisan House of Democrats and Republicans should be able to help run the government.
Compromise will be necessary to halt inflation, balance the budget, pay down the national debt (now $33 trillion and growing), reform immigration, and do what is necessary to halt the nation’s current crime spree.
On immigration, the federal government must say that America has done more than its fair share of letting immigrants cross the American-Mexican border. A barrier must be built to keep illegal –- and unwanted –- immigrants from entering the United States. However, the barrier must contain a door to let in immigrants who truly deserve asylum.
Immigration reform must demand the expulsion of any immigrant involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs. Any immigrant with a crime record or a communicable disease must be deported. Any immigrant entering the United States must have a job. Finally, any immigrant must be proficient in the use of the English language.
Inflation is a tax without legislation. Annual inflation should be no more than 0.5%. An inflation rate of 0% is even better. Currently, inflation is running at 3% to 4% per year.
When Clinton was president (from 1993 to 2001) he proposed putting an extra 100,000 police on the streets. Federal funds should be used to provide money to states and cities to hire more police. The days of hoodlums looting stores must end and must end quickly. Local officials who are not tough on crime must be fired or voted out of office. There is no excuse for having public officials being “soft” on crime.
The government cannot take care of everybody. Social Security and Medicare should remain intact -– even if some tax increases are needed to protect both programs. These programs are enormously popular. Any elected official who opposes these programs is likely to be voted out of office.
There are plans for the government to offer universal child care and pre-school. Preferably, parents or charities should take care of these programs.
Silicon Valley in California has changed many aspects of life. Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture must be maintained. People should ask themselves if life would be better without such companies as Apple, Meta (Facebook), Intel, and Twitter (now called X.)
In any Republican-Democratic compromise, there must be an economic goal of increasing the American standard of living.
Also, at the local and state level, there must be educational reform. Too many schools are functioning poorly. There should be support for charter schools and private schools. (Government should not fund religious schools because government might try to take over the management of such schools. For example, government could object to Catholic school’s not allowing women to become priests and try to shut down the school.)
In the 1950’s Dwight Eisenhower was president, and the Democrats controlled Congress during six (1955 to 1961) of Eisenhower’s eight years as president (1953 to 1961). Once the Korean war was settled in July 1953, America had no wars for the duration of Eisenhower’s presidency. Inflation was low. There was a serious recession in 1957-58. But America prospered during most of Eisenhower’s years. And for most of those years bipartisanship prevailed.
America would benefit from more, not less, bipartisanship as the nation had during the Eisenhower years and had again during the Clinton-Gingrich years. With bipartisanship, prosperity will re-appear.
Why did Kevin McCarthy let Pelosi keep her exclusive offices since last January?
McCarthy admitted that he had a pact with Pelosi to guarantee enough Democrat votes for KM if a Motion to Vacate ever came up
Pelosi backstabbed him and didn’t give McCarthy the votes Brake in the UNI PARTY
The best political minds are sitting on the sidelines…waiting for the noise to cease. .
Totally agreed that political extremism is a bad thing. However, the Freedom Caucus does have a point — compromise is what Congress has been doing for the past few decades, and what has resulted in the obviously unsustainable $33 trillion national debt. So, their point is that we cannot call for compromise and call for a reduction on the debt at the same time. The challenge to the Freedom Caucus is that voters of all stripes prefer to continue getting their “benefits” (Social Security, Medicare, public assistance, etc.) and prefer to continue pretending the US can afford to send gobs of money abroad (Ukraine, NATO, etc.). In today’s public view, the children and grandchildren who will inherit the mess be doggoned — “give me mine now.”