January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in BBC News - Business, news / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in latest news, Reuters: World News / with No comments /
January 31, 2018 / / in news, The Daily Signal / with No comments /
President Donald Trump reportedly asked why the U.S. is “having all these people from s—hole countries come here.” I think he could have used better language, but it’s a question that should be asked and answered.
I have a few questions for my fellow Americans to consider.
How many Norwegians have illegally entered our nation, committed crimes, and burdened our prison and welfare systems? I might ask the same question about Finnish, Swedish, Welsh, Icelanders, Greenlanders, and New Zealanders.
The bulk of our immigration problem is with people who enter our country criminally from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East. It’s illegal immigrants from those countries who have committed crimes and burdened our criminal justice and welfare systems.
A large number of immigrants who are here illegally—perhaps the majority are law-abiding in other respects—have fled oppressive, brutal, and corrupt regimes to seek a better life in America.
In the debate about illegal immigration, there are questions that are not explicitly asked but can be answered with a straight “yes” or “no”: Does everyone in the world have a right to live in the U.S.? Do Americans have a right to decide who and under what conditions a person may enter our country? Should we permit foreigners landing at our airports to ignore U.S. border control laws just as some ignore our laws at our southern border?
The reason those questions are not asked is that one would be deemed an idiot for saying that everyone in the world has a right to live in our country, that Americans don’t have a right to decide who lives in our country, and that foreigners landing at our airports have a right to just ignore U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Immigration today, even when legal, is different from the immigration of yesteryear. People who came here in the 19th century and most of the 20th century came here to learn our language, learn our customs, and become Americans.
Years ago, there was a guarantee that immigrants came here to work, because there was no welfare system. They worked, begged, or starved. Today, there is no such assurance. Because of our welfare state, immigrants can come here and live off taxpaying Americans.
There is another difference between today and yesteryear.
Today, Americans are taught multiculturalism throughout their primary, secondary, and college education. They are taught that one culture is no better or worse than another. To believe otherwise is criticized at best as Eurocentrism and at worst as racism.
As a result, some immigrant groups seek to bring to our country the cultural values whose failures have led to the poverty, corruption, and human rights violations in their home countries that caused them to flee.
As the fallout from Trump’s indelicate remarks demonstrates, too many Americans are afraid and unwilling to ask which immigrant groups have become a burden to our nation and which have made a contribution to the greatness of America.
Very unfortunate for our nation is that we have political groups that seek to use illegal immigration for their own benefit. They’ve created sanctuary cities and states that openly harbor criminals—people who have broken our laws.
The whole concept of sanctuary cities is to give aid, comfort, and sympathy to people who have broken our laws. Supporters want to prevent them from having to hide and live in fear of discovery.
I’d ask whether, for the sake of equality before the law, we should apply the sanctuary concept to Americans who have broken other laws, such as robbers and tax evaders.
We should not fall prey to people who criticize our efforts to combat illegal immigration and who pompously say, “We’re a nation of immigrants!” The debate is not over immigration. The debate is over illegal immigration.
My sentiments on immigrants who are here legally and who want to become Americans are expressed by the sentiments in Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” which is on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty and in part says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The post How to Decide Which Immigrants to Allow In appeared first on The Daily Signal.
January 31, 2018 / / in news, The Daily Signal / with No comments /
In his first State of the Union speech, President Donald Trump made quite a few claims and assertions, and we’ve examined six of them.
Statement 1: “Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses. … A typical family of four making $75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by $2,000—slashing their tax bill in half.”
The facts: A Heritage Foundation analysis estimate found that the tax bill for a married couple who are homeowners with three children earning $75,000 in annual income would “decline by $2,014, or 115 percent, to $0, plus a refundable credit of $261.”
Statement 2: “We built the Empire State Building in just one year—is it not a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?”
The facts: Empire State Realty Trust states that “construction of the building took only one year and 45 days from the setting of the tower’s first steel columns on April 7, 1930, to the completed building by March 31, 1931—a full month before the official opening ceremonies.”
Statement 3: “Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages. Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low. African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, and Hispanic-American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”
The facts: According to the latest jobs report, black unemployment has dropped to 6.8 percent. That is the lowest point it has been at since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the data in 1972.
The Hispanic unemployment numbers are currently near a record low. They hit 4.9 percent, up 0.1 percent since they hit a record low in November, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Statement 4: “Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax-cut bonuses—many of them thousands of dollars per worker.”
The facts: According to Americans for Tax Reform, this figure is accurate. At least 3 million Americans are receiving “special tax reform bonuses,” the taxpayer advocacy group reported, and that doesn’t even include “those receiving pay increases or increased 401(k) contributions from their employer due to tax reform.”
Companies that have handed out tax-cut bonuses include Apple ($2,500 in stock for tens of thousands of employees), Waste Management Inc. ($2,000 bonuses for 34,000 employees), and Fiat Chrysler ($2,000 bonuses for 60,000 employees). Read more here.
Statement 5: “In 2016, we lost 64,000 Americans to drug overdoses: 174 deaths per day. Seven per hour.”
The facts: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which studied this question, drug overdoses killed roughly 64,000 people in the United States in 2016. This account was echoed by The New York Times, which conducted its own investigation into drug deaths in America as well.
Statement 6: “I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria.”
The facts: The Pentagon said Islamic State fighters have been cleared from 98 percent of the territory they held in Iraq and Syria at their high point in 2014 and 2015, according to USA Today. The newspaper also reported that “Only about 3,000 militants are left in Iraq and Syria, down from a peak of more than 25,000 in 2014 and 2015, according to recent U.S. military estimates.”
The post Fact-Checking 6 of Trump’s Claims During State of the Union appeared first on The Daily Signal.
January 31, 2018 / / in news, The Daily Signal / with No comments /
President Donald Trump heralded a strong economy and pressed for bipartisan deals on immigration and infrastructure in calling for a “new American moment” Tuesday night during his first State of the Union address.
“Americans are dreamers too,” @RealDonaldTrump says.
“In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life,” Trump said. “Our motto is ‘In God we trust.’”
He added later: “Americans love their country. And they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return.”
Lawmakers interrupted the speech 115 times with applause. It was mostly along partisan lines but also in unison as Trump saluted special guests watching from the gallery who ranged from the parents of a young man fatally brutalized in a North Korean prison to relatives of a teen girl slain by MS-13 gang members.
“It’s the people who are making America great again,” Trump said, echoing his campaign slogan as he neared the conclusion of the 80-minute address.
Here are 11 elements stressed by the president during the speech to a joint session of Congress and a worldwide audience 10 days following his first full year in office.
1. Rewarding Good Work
Speaking about a bill he signed into law last year to make it easier to fire bad employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Trump asked Congress for governmentwide civil service reform to advance his stated goal of “draining the swamp” of Washington.
“All Americans deserve accountability and respect—and that is what we are giving them,” Trump said. “So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers–and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”
2. 21st-Century Immigration System
For four decades, Trump said, Washington has tried and failed to solve its illegal immigration problem and “bring our immigration system into the 21st century.”
“I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties—Democrats and Republicans—to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion, and creed,” the president said.
“My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans—to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American dream. Because Americans are dreamers too.”
The line played on the term “Dreamers,” a word advocates use for those brought here illegally as children.
Trump’s proposal would provide amnesty for 1.8 million of those illegal immigrants brought to the country as minors. That is more than twice the almost 800,000 shielded from deportation under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump scrapped in favor of congressional action.
In exchange, Trump seeks an end to chain migration (the term for giving preference to extended family members of legalized immigrants), ending the visa lottery system, and $25 billion for increased border security, including a wall at the border with Mexico.
3. Nation of Builders
The Trump administration is pushing a $1 trillion public-private infrastructure proposal that would involve the federal government’s spending $200 billion to leverage $800 billion from state and governments and the private sector to rebuild roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.
“America is a nation of builders,” Trump said. “We built the Empire State Building in just one year—isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a minor permit approved for a simple road?”
“I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.”
4. ‘2.4 Million New Jobs’
In touting the strong economy, Trump talked about the early success of the tax reform package passed late last year by Congress, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses,” Trump said.
At least 285 employers have announced bonuses for more than 3 million Americans after passage of the $1.5 trillion tax reform package, which decreased individual rates, slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, and closed loopholes.
“Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax-cut bonuses—many of them thousands of dollars per worker,” Trump said.
“Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.”
Trump noted that unemployment claims hit a 45-year low. He said “African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded,” and “Hispanic-American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”
“The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion in value,” the president said. “That is great news for Americans’ 401k, retirement, pension, and college savings accounts.”
5. Rewarding America’s Friends
Trump brought up the U.N. General Assembly’s vote of disapproval for the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He connected this to financial aid for countries that voted against the U.S.
“Shortly afterward, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America’s sovereign right to make this recognition,” he said.
“American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year,” Trump said. “That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America’s friends.”
6. Keeping Gitmo Open
Earlier Tuesday, Trump said, he executed an executive order to keep the controversial detention center at Guantanamo Bay open to hold terrorists and other enemy combatants—a facility his predecessor President Barack Obama pledged to close down, but didn’t.
“I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay,” Trump said, referring to Defense Secretary James Mattis.
“I am also asking the Congress to ensure that, in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda, we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists—wherever we chase them down.”
The president also touted a strong national security record, highlighting military victories over the Islamic State, the brutal terrorist army also known as ISIS that has operated in Iraq and Syria.
“Last year I pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the earth,” Trump said. “One year later, I’m proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria.
“But there is much more work to be done. We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.”
7. Trials and Heroes
Trump acknowledged that over his one year in office, America has experienced many hardships, specifying the Las Vegas massacre as well as natural disasters in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Louisiana, and wildfires in California.
He vowed that the rest of the country would stand with those suffering such trials, and celebrated the resilience and courage of the American people by returning again and again to the stories of special guests seated near first lady Melania Trump.
Early on, the president also recognized a beaming House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who was gravely wounded last summer when a man opened fire as Scalise and fellow lawmakers attended a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia.
“With us tonight is one of the toughest people ever to serve in this House—a guy who took a bullet, almost died, and was back to work three and a half months later: the legend from Louisiana, Congressman Steve Scalise,” Trump said.
8. Standing for the National Anthem
Trump indirectly touched on the controversy over pro football players’ kneeling during the national anthem when talking about Preston Sharp, a 12-year-old boy from California who started a movement to place 40,000 flags on the graves of veterans.
“Preston’s reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem,” Trump said.
9. Preserving History and Its Monuments
On another controversial topic, Trump talked about the nation’s history and monuments that have come under attack. He referred not only to moves to remove monuments to Confederate generals during the Civil War, but demands to remove statues of presidents such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
Trump mentioned both the first president, George Washington, and 1960s civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
“Monuments to Washington and Jefferson—to Lincoln and King, memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga—to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia,” Trump said, suggesting the importance of understanding and remembering American history.
10. Right to Try
Trump asked Congress to pass legislation already embraced by almost 40 states to allow terminally ill patients to take experimental drugs. These are referred to as “right to try” laws.
“We also believe that patients with terminal conditions should have access to experimental treatments that could potentially save their lives,” Trump said.
“People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure—I want to give them a chance right here at home. It is time for the Congress to give these wonderful Americans the ‘right to try.’”
11. Criminal Justice Reform
On another issue with bipartisan support, Trump talked about something he has worked on with governors: criminal justice reform geared at integrating former prison inmates back into society.
“As America regains its strength, this opportunity must be extended to all citizens,” he said. “That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance.”
The post 11 Touchstones for Trump in His First State of the Union appeared first on The Daily Signal.
January 31, 2018 / / in news, The Daily Signal / with No comments /
Here is the full text of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, as prepared for delivery.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, the first lady of the United States, and my fellow Americans:
Less than one year has passed since I first stood at this podium, in this majestic chamber, to speak on behalf of the American people—and to address their concerns, their hopes, and their dreams. That night, our new administration had already taken swift action. A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land.
Each day since, we have gone forward with a clear vision and a righteous mission—to make America great again for all Americans.
Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success. We have faced challenges we expected, and others we could never have imagined. We have shared in the heights of victory and the pains of hardship. We endured floods and fires and storms. But through it all, we have seen the beauty of America’s soul, and the steel in America’s spine.
Each test has forged new American heroes to remind us who we are, and show us what we can be.
We saw the volunteers of the “Cajun Navy” racing to the rescue with their fishing boats to save people in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.
We saw strangers shielding strangers from a hail of gunfire on the Las Vegas Strip.
We heard tales of Americans like Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashlee Leppert, who is here tonight in the gallery with Melania. Ashlee was aboard one of the first helicopters on the scene in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Through 18 hours of wind and rain, Ashlee braved live power lines and deep water to help save more than 40 lives. Thank you, Ashlee.
We heard about Americans like firefighter David Dahlberg. He is here with us too. David faced down walls of flame to rescue almost 60 children trapped at a California summer camp threatened by wildfires.
To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, California, and everywhere else—we are with you, we love you, and we will pull through together.
Some trials over the past year touched this chamber very personally. With us tonight is one of the toughest people ever to serve in this House—a guy who took a bullet, almost died, and was back to work three and a half months later: the legend from Louisiana, Congressman Steve Scalise.
We are incredibly grateful for the heroic efforts of the Capitol Police officers, the Alexandria Police, and the doctors, nurses, and paramedics who saved his life, and the lives of many others in this room.
In the aftermath of that terrible shooting, we came together, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as representatives of the people. But it is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy. Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve.
Over the last year, the world has seen what we always knew: that no people on Earth are so fearless, or daring, or determined as Americans. If there is a mountain, we climb it. If there is a frontier, we cross it. If there is a challenge, we tame it. If there is an opportunity, we seize it.
So let us begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our union is strong because our people are strong.
And together, we are building a safe, strong, and proud America.
Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.
Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low. African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, and Hispanic-American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.
Small business confidence is at an all-time high. The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion in value. That is great news for Americans’ 401k, retirement, pension, and college savings accounts.
And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history.
Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses.
To lower tax rates for hardworking Americans, we nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone. Now, the first $24,000 earned by a married couple is completely tax-free. We also doubled the child tax credit.
A typical family of four making $75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by $2,000—slashing their tax bill in half.
This April will be the last time you ever file under the old broken system—and millions of Americans will have more take-home pay starting next month.
We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 a year—forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford government-ordered health plans. We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare—the individual mandate is now gone.
We slashed the business tax rate from 35 percent all the way down to 21 percent, so American companies can compete and win against anyone in the world. These changes alone are estimated to increase average family income by more than $4,000.
Small businesses have also received a massive tax cut, and can now deduct 20 percent of their business income.
Here tonight are Steve Staub and Sandy Keplinger of Staub Manufacturing—a small business in Ohio. They have just finished the best year in their 20-year history. Because of tax reform, they are handing out raises, hiring an additional 14 people, and expanding into the building next door.
One of Staub’s employees, Corey Adams, is also with us tonight. Corey is an all-American worker. He supported himself through high school, lost his job during the 2008 recession, and was later hired by Staub, where he trained to become a welder. Like many hardworking Americans, Corey plans to invest his tax-cut raise into his new home and his two daughters’ education. Please join me in congratulating Corey.
Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax-cut bonuses—many of them thousands of dollars per worker. Apple has just announced it plans to invest a total of $350 billion in America, and hire another 20,000 workers.
This is our new American moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.
So to every citizen watching at home tonight—no matter where you have been, or where you come from, this is your time. If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.
Tonight, I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have, and what kind of nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family.
We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny, and the same great American flag.
Together, we are rediscovering the American way.
In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. Our motto is “in God we trust.”
And we celebrate our police, our military, and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support.
Here tonight is Preston Sharp, a 12-year-old boy from Redding, California, who noticed that veterans’ graves were not marked with flags on Veterans Day. He decided to change that, and started a movement that has now placed 40,000 flags at the graves of our great heroes. Preston: a job well done.
Young patriots like Preston teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans. Preston’s reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.
Americans love their country. And they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return.
For the last year we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government.
Working with the Senate, we are appointing judges who will interpret the Constitution as written, including a great new Supreme Court justice, and more circuit court judges than any new administration in the history of our country.
We are defending our Second Amendment, and have taken historic actions to protect religious liberty.
And we are serving our brave veterans, including giving our veterans choice in their health care decisions. Last year, the Congress passed, and I signed, the landmark VA Accountability Act. Since its passage, my administration has already removed more than 1,500 VA employees who failed to give our veterans the care they deserve—and we are hiring talented people who love our vets as much as we do.
I will not stop until our veterans are properly taken care of, which has been my promise to them from the very beginning of this great journey.
All Americans deserve accountability and respect—and that is what we are giving them. So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers—and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.
In our drive to make Washington accountable, we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in history.
We have ended the war on American energy—and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world.
In Detroit, I halted government mandates that crippled America’s autoworkers—so we can get the Motor City revving its engines once again.
Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States—something we have not seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan; Toyota and Mazda are opening up a plant in Alabama. Soon, plants will be opening up all over the country. This is all news Americans are unaccustomed to hearing—for many years, companies and jobs were only leaving us. But now they are coming back.
Exciting progress is happening every day.
To speed access to breakthrough cures and affordable generic drugs, last year the FDA approved more new and generic drugs and medical devices than ever before in our history.
We also believe that patients with terminal conditions should have access to experimental treatments that could potentially save their lives. People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure—I want to give them a chance right here at home. It is time for the Congress to give these wonderful Americans the “right to try.”
One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. That is why I have directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down.
America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our nation’s wealth.
The era of economic surrender is over.
From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and to be reciprocal.
We will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones.
And we will protect American workers and American intellectual property, through strong enforcement of our trade rules.
As we rebuild our industries, it is also time to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.
America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just one year—is it not a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?
I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.
Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need.
Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment—to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit.
Any bill must also streamline the permitting and approval process—getting it down to no more than two years, and perhaps even one.
Together, we can reclaim our building heritage. We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land. And we will do it with American heart, American hands, and American grit.
We want every American to know the dignity of a hard day’s work. We want every child to be safe in their home at night. And we want every citizen to be proud of this land that we love.
We can lift our citizens from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity.
As tax cuts create new jobs, let us invest in workforce development and job training. Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential. And let us support working families by supporting paid family leave.
As America regains its strength, this opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance.
Struggling communities, especially immigrant communities, will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of American workers and American families.
For decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. They have allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans. Most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives.
Here tonight are two fathers and two mothers: Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens. Their two teenage daughters—Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens—were close friends on Long Island. But in September 2016, on the eve of Nisa’s 16th birthday, neither of them came home. These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown. Six members of the savage gang MS-13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa’s murders. Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors—and wound up in Kayla and Nisa’s high school.
Evelyn, Elizabeth, Freddy, and Robert: Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow, but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain.
Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13, and other criminals, to break into our country. We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws, and support our ICE and Border Patrol agents, so that this cannot ever happen again.
The United States is a compassionate nation. We are proud that we do more than any other country to help the needy, the struggling, and the underprivileged all over the world. But as president of the United States, my highest loyalty, my greatest compassion, and my constant concern is for America’s children, America’s struggling workers, and America’s forgotten communities. I want our youth to grow up to achieve great things. I want our poor to have their chance to rise.
So tonight, I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties—Democrats and Republicans—to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion, and creed. My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans—to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American dream. Because Americans are dreamers too.
Here tonight is one leader in the effort to defend our country: Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Celestino Martinez—he goes by CJ. CJ served 15 years in the Air Force before becoming an ICE agent and spending the last 15 years fighting gang violence and getting dangerous criminals off our streets. At one point, MS-13 leaders ordered CJ’s murder. But he did not cave to threats or fear. Last May, he commanded an operation to track down gang members on Long Island. His team has arrested nearly 400, including more than 220 from MS-13.
CJ: Great work. Now let us get the Congress to send you some reinforcements.
Over the next few weeks, the House and Senate will be voting on an immigration reform package.
In recent months, my administration has met extensively with both Democrats and Republicans to craft a bipartisan approach to immigration reform. Based on these discussions, we presented the Congress with a detailed proposal that should be supported by both parties as a fair compromise—one where nobody gets everything they want, but where our country gets the critical reforms it needs.
Here are the four pillars of our plan:
The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age—that covers almost three times more people than the previous administration. Under our plan, those who meet education and work requirements, and show good moral character, will be able to become full citizens of the United States.
The second pillar fully secures the border. That means building a wall on the southern border, and it means hiring more heroes like CJ to keep our communities safe. Crucially, our plan closes the terrible loopholes exploited by criminals and terrorists to enter our country—and it finally ends the dangerous practice of “catch and release.”
The third pillar ends the visa lottery—a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of our people. It is time to begin moving towards a merit-based immigration system—one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society, and who will love and respect our country.
The fourth and final pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. This vital reform is necessary, not just for our economy, but for our security, and our future.
In recent weeks, two terrorist attacks in New York were made possible by the visa lottery and chain migration. In the age of terrorism, these programs present risks we can no longer afford.
It is time to reform these outdated immigration rules, and finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century.
These four pillars represent a down-the-middle compromise, and one that will create a safe, modern, and lawful immigration system.
For over 30 years, Washington has tried and failed to solve this problem. This Congress can be the one that finally makes it happen.
Most importantly, these four pillars will produce legislation that fulfills my ironclad pledge to only sign a bill that puts America first. So let us come together, set politics aside, and finally get the job done.
These reforms will also support our response to the terrible crisis of opioid and drug addiction.
In 2016, we lost 64,000 Americans to drug overdoses: 174 deaths per day. Seven per hour. We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers if we are going to succeed in stopping this scourge.
My administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need. The struggle will be long and difficult—but, as Americans always do, we will prevail.
As we have seen tonight, the most difficult challenges bring out the best in America.
We see a vivid expression of this truth in the story of the Holets family of New Mexico. Ryan Holets is 27 years old, and an officer with the Albuquerque Police Department. He is here tonight with his wife Rebecca. Last year, Ryan was on duty when he saw a pregnant, homeless woman preparing to inject heroin. When Ryan told her she was going to harm her unborn child, she began to weep. She told him she did not know where to turn, but badly wanted a safe home for her baby.
In that moment, Ryan said he felt God speak to him: “You will do it—because you can.” He took out a picture of his wife and their four kids. Then, he went home to tell his wife Rebecca. In an instant, she agreed to adopt. The Holets named their new daughter Hope.
Ryan and Rebecca: You embody the goodness of our nation. Thank you, and congratulations.
As we rebuild America’s strength and confidence at home, we are also restoring our strength and standing abroad.
Around the world, we face rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy, and our values. In confronting these dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unmatched power is the surest means of our defense.
For this reason, I am asking the Congress to end the dangerous defense sequester and fully fund our great military.
As part of our defense, we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression. Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.
Last year, I also pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth. One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria. But there is much more work to be done. We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.
Army Staff Sergeant Justin Peck is here tonight. Near Raqqa last November, Justin and his comrade, Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy, were on a mission to clear buildings that ISIS had rigged with explosives so that civilians could return to the city.
Clearing the second floor of a vital hospital, Kenton Stacy was severely wounded by an explosion. Immediately, Justin bounded into the booby-trapped building and found Kenton in bad shape. He applied pressure to the wound and inserted a tube to reopen an airway. He then performed CPR for 20 straight minutes during the ground transport and maintained artificial respiration through two hours of emergency surgery.
Kenton Stacy would have died if not for Justin’s selfless love for a fellow warrior. Tonight, Kenton is recovering in Texas. Raqqa is liberated. And Justin is wearing his new Bronze Star, with a “V” for “Valor.” Staff Sergeant Peck: All of America salutes you.
Terrorists who do things like place bombs in civilian hospitals are evil. When possible, we annihilate them. When necessary, we must be able to detain and question them. But we must be clear: Terrorists are not merely criminals. They are unlawful enemy combatants. And when captured overseas, they should be treated like the terrorists they are.
In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield—including the ISIS leader al-Baghdadi.
So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.
I am also asking the Congress to ensure that, in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda, we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists—wherever we chase them down.
Our warriors in Afghanistan also have new rules of engagement. Along with their heroic Afghan partners, our military is no longer undermined by artificial timelines, and we no longer tell our enemies our plans.
Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Shortly afterwards, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America’s sovereign right to make this recognition. American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year.
That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America’s friends.
As we strengthen friendships around the world, we are also restoring clarity about our adversaries.
When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom.
I am asking the Congress to address the fundamental flaws in the terrible Iran nuclear deal.
My administration has also imposed tough sanctions on the communist and socialist dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela.
But no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea.
North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.
We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from happening.
Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation. I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position.
We need only look at the depraved character of the North Korean regime to understand the nature of the nuclear threat it could pose to America and our allies.
Otto Warmbier was a hardworking student at the University of Virginia. On his way to study abroad in Asia, Otto joined a tour to North Korea. At its conclusion, this wonderful young man was arrested and charged with crimes against the state. After a shameful trial, the dictatorship sentenced Otto to 15 years of hard labor, before returning him to America last June—horribly injured and on the verge of death. He passed away just days after his return.
Otto’s parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, are with us tonight—along with Otto’s brother and sister, Austin and Greta. You are powerful witnesses to a menace that threatens our world, and your strength inspires us all. Tonight, we pledge to honor Otto’s memory with American resolve.
Finally, we are joined by one more witness to the ominous nature of this regime. His name is Mr. Ji Seong-ho.
In 1996, Seong-ho was a starving boy in North Korea. One day, he tried to steal coal from a railroad car to barter for a few scraps of food. In the process, he passed out on the train tracks, exhausted from hunger. He woke up as a train ran over his limbs. He then endured multiple amputations without anything to dull the pain. His brother and sister gave what little food they had to help him recover and ate dirt themselves—permanently stunting their own growth. Later, he was tortured by North Korean authorities after returning from a brief visit to China. His tormentors wanted to know if he had met any Christians. He had—and he resolved to be free.
Seong-ho traveled thousands of miles on crutches across China and Southeast Asia to freedom. Most of his family followed. His father was caught trying to escape, and was tortured to death.
Today he lives in Seoul, where he rescues other defectors, and broadcasts into North Korea what the regime fears the most—the truth.
Today he has a new leg, but Seong-ho, I understand you still keep those crutches as a reminder of how far you have come. Your great sacrifice is an inspiration to us all.
Seong-ho’s story is a testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom.
It was that same yearning for freedom that nearly 250 years ago gave birth to a special place called America. It was a small cluster of colonies caught between a great ocean and a vast wilderness. But it was home to an incredible people with a revolutionary idea: that they could rule themselves. That they could chart their own destiny. And that, together, they could light up the world.
That is what our country has always been about. That is what Americans have always stood for, always strived for, and always done.
Atop the dome of this Capitol stands the Statue of Freedom. She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her.
Monuments to Washington and Jefferson—to Lincoln and King.
Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga—to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia.
And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people.
A people whose heroes live not only in the past, but all around us—defending hope, pride, and the American way.
They work in every trade. They sacrifice to raise a family. They care for our children at home. They defend our flag abroad. They are strong moms and brave kids. They are firefighters, police officers, border agents, medics, and Marines.
But above all else, they are Americans. And this Capitol, this city, and this nation, belong to them.
Our task is to respect them, to listen to them, to serve them, to protect them, and to always be worthy of them.
Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it is the people who are making America great again.
As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve.
As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.
Our families will thrive.
Our people will prosper.
And our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.
Thank you, and God bless America.
The post Read President Trump’s State of the Union Address appeared first on The Daily Signal.
January 31, 2018 / / in news, The Daily Signal / with No comments /
President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Experts from The Heritage Foundation weighed in with responses on various policy fronts. Here’s what they had to say.
Tax Reform Is Delivering Results
President Trump is right. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is providing tremendous relief for the American people.
Within less than a month of the bill signing, over 260 businesses across all industries announced raises, bonuses, and new investments directly benefiting over 3 million Americans. Next month, almost every American worker will have a larger paycheck thanks to tax reform.
Tax reform is expected to result in hundreds of thousands of new jobs and wage increases for American workers of all income levels. Down from 35 percent—one of the highest in the world—the U.S. now has a globally competitive corporate tax rate of 21 percent, which will lead to even more jobs, higher salaries, and increased economic opportunities for Americans for years to come.
However, there is still work to be done. Many of the individual and business tax cuts expire before 2026, providing an opportunity for big government to raise taxes rather than cut spending. Congress and the president must work to make the tax cuts permanent for American taxpayers.
Most Americans Will Receive a Tax Cut
Most Americans now have lower tax rates, allowing them to save more and invest in their family’s futures. President Trump highlighted a typical family making $75,000. They will see their tax bill cut in half.
To illustrate the size of the tax cuts, meet the Joneses. They have three kids and a mortgage. As a sales rep and a part-time nurse, they currently earn $75,000 a year. Under the new bill, they can keep an extra $2,000 of their hard-earned money to invest in their children’s future.
Their neighbor Tom Wong is a teacher earning $50,000. About 10 percent of that currently goes to taxes, but under the new bill, he can expect a $1,100 savings. More than 80 percent of Americans receive a tax cut.
The Fernandez family, who run a family-owned blinds and shades business, will also get a tax cut. This year, their hard work paid off and their company earned $250,000. Now, they can invest an extra $13,000 in growing their business. They can also raise wages and give out bonuses to their employees instead of handing the money over to the government.
When Washington takes less of the American people’s money, everyone wins.
Small Business Deduction Should Be Replaced With Lower Rates
President Trump highlighted the new 20 percent pass-through business deduction, one of the few parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that should not be extended.
Small and pass-through businesses that pay their taxes as individuals and face the new lower individual tax rates will receive a newly created deduction.
Although lower marginal tax rates for small and pass-through businesses are an important component of economic growth, the newly created discrepancy in top rates between individual income and small and pass-through business income will increase the incentives to treat income from wages artificially as business income.
This new tax privilege has no consistent policy rationale, arbitrarily favors certain types of businesses over others, introduces new complexity, and will provide new opportunities for unproductive tax planning. When the business deduction expires in 2025, Congress should not extend it and instead focus on further lowering individual tax rates to treat all income sources equally.
– Adam Michel, policy analyst, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies
Tangible Effects of the Tax Law
The president talked about how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will soon result in higher paychecks for the overwhelming majority of American workers.
In fact, some have already experienced a significant change in their after-tax pay. That is because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s lower rates and a higher child tax credit will provide higher disposable incomes. (See these examples of how the revised tax system will affect different workers’ and retirees’ annual incomes after taxes.)
Simpler Taxes for Individuals
The president emphasized how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will help ordinary, working-class Americans. In addition to higher take-home pay, the new tax law will also simplify taxes for tens of millions of Americans.
By replacing some existing deductions and exemptions with a higher standard deduction and lower tax rates, many workers will spend less time keeping track of tax records and filing their tax returns. They may even be able to save the cost of paying an accountant to help with their taxes.
We estimated that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will cut the number of taxpayers who itemize by more than half, saving between 21 and 28 million Americans the hassle of keeping track of and itemizing their deductions.
No More Individual Mandate Tax
As the president highlighted, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act got rid of a tax that fell most heavily on individuals and families making less than $50,000 per year.
Eliminating the Obamacare individual mandate will reduce the tax bills of many individuals and families—based on their own choices—by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. And most importantly, it will leave taxpayers freer to make personal decisions absent the heavy hand of Uncle Sam.
Government Reorganization
The president highlighted what his administration has done to “restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government.” This includes making the government more efficient and accountable to the American people.
Heritage responded to the president’s executive order to reorganize the federal government by producing two comprehensive reports that include proposals for cross-cutting government reforms, like making federal compensation more competitive with the private sector and reducing red tape; and more than 100 individual proposals to cut waste, duplication, inefficiencies, and unnecessary federal functions.
Many of those Heritage proposals are now part of the administration’s plans and some have already been implemented.
Reforming the Federal Workforce
Congress should respond to the president’s call to “to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers—and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”
Removing a federal employee should not be tantamount to a criminal prosecution and take well over a year to complete. In addition to making it less burdensome to remove federal employees, The Heritage Foundation proposes a comprehensive set of federal compensation reforms that would make the federal government more competitive and result in over $300 billion in taxpayer savings over a decade.
– Rachel Greszler, research fellow in economics, budget, and entitlements, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
Eliminating State and Local Deductions
One important component of the president’s tax reform was the (partial) removal of state and local tax deductions.
Heritage research has found that state and local deductions contribute to enormous distortions in the tax code, unjustly benefit high-income taxpayers in high-tax states, and incentivize states to raise taxes. These deductions, coupled with the municipal bond interest deduction, account for an estimated $1.7 trillion in revenues over the next 10 years.
Even partial removal of these deductions not only provides justification for significant rate cuts that will boost economic growth, but also removes incentives for states to unnecessarily raise taxes.
– Kevin Dayaratna, senior statistician and research programmer, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
– Rachel Greszler, research fellow in economics, budget, and entitlements, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
Sizing Down the Administrative State
The Trump administration has eliminated more regulations during its first year in office than any prior administration in American history.
A longstanding criticism of the administrative state has been that it imposes unduly burdensome costs on the American economy through the issuance of a blizzard of unnecessary rules that stifle investment and reduce employment.
In 2015 alone, the Obama administration imposed more than $22 billion in annual costs on the nation. During the presidential campaign and first year of his administration, President Trump made clear that he intends to address that problem. In fact, he and senior members of his administration have vowed to remake the administrative state as we currently know it.
The president has tried to carry out that reform in two ways.
First, he appointed Mick Mulvaney to head the Office of Management and Budget, and Neomi Rao to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Together, they see their mission as implementing the president’s goal of eliminating unnecessary regulations.
Second, President Trump has issued a series of executive orders directing senior agency officials to aggressively review the effects that excessive federal agency regulations have had on economic growth, to eliminate unnecessary rules, to ensure that agencies do not act in an ultra vires manner, to respect the values of federalism, and to always measure and be guided by the costs and benefits of any rules an agency considers.
Third, as an additional step in his regulatory reform program, President Trump signed 15 congressional joint resolutions passed under the Congressional Review Act of 1996. Those joint resolutions nullified agency rules promulgated during the last year of former President Barack Obama’s administration or, in one case, in 2017 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
– Paul Larkin, senior legal research fellow, Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Institute for Constitutional Government
Inconsistent on Trade
The first year of the Trump administration has seen more movement toward economic freedom than most proponents of limited-government, pro-growth policies had hoped for. However, the trade policy and rhetoric of the past year runs counter to these job-creating trends.
One of the problems with discussions on international trade is the vocabulary. Words that mean one thing in the context of personal or business finance mean something else in an international balance of payments context.
Suppose a foreign company builds an oil processing facility on a barge in Houston. If the facility (and its jobs) is towed away to another country, the value of the facility counts as an export and shipping the barge away tilts the balance of trade toward a surplus. If, instead, the facility is permanently moored in Houston, it adds to our foreign debt.
For most people, “trade surplus” sounds better than “foreign debt.” In both cases of our hypothetical example, a foreign company paid for something made by Americans, but in the worse-sounding case the permanent operating jobs stay in the U.S.
Both theory and the data show that with international trade, the money flows both ways in similar magnitudes—even when we have a trade deficit. The shortfall of a trade deficit is necessarily made up by a surplus on the inflow of foreign investment.
To be sure, violating trade rules should be challenged and trade agreements can be improved to address things like intellectual property rights protection. However, trade deficits are not signs of unfair trade or trade violations.
Allowing trade policy to be driven by a misconception can take us away from the job-creating economic freedom we are seeing play out so well on the domestic side.
– David Kreutzer, senior research fellow in labor markets and trade, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
New Trade Deals
The president’s call for new trade deals that are fair and reciprocal, and that protect American workers and American intellectual property, bode well for a ground-breaking free trade area agreement between the U.S. and Britain.
President Trump’s administration has already made it clear that Britain is at “the front of the line” for a trade deal, and his statement tonight makes clear why.
Trade in goods between the U.S. and Britain is well-balanced. Each country has massive investments—worth over a quarter of a trillion dollars—in the other. And there is no question that Britain, as a nation with tremendous intellectual capital and a legacy of common law more than a millennium old, is committed to property rights and the enforcement of trade rules.
In a world where free trade has become controversial in part because of the failure of nations like China to respect their commitments, free trade with Britain—which will soon be free of the controls imposed by membership in the European Union—is in the American interest.
In 2014, The Heritage Foundation was the first to make this argument, and the case for a U.S.-U.K. free trade agreement is stronger today than it has ever been.
– Ted Bromund, senior research fellow in Anglo-American relations, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom
Renewing the Federal Bench
President Trump briefly mentioned his work appointing excellent originalist judges, but his historic success in remaking the federal judiciary cannot be understated. To date, the Senate has confirmed 13 courts of appeals judges—more than any president in U.S. history.
Trump stated that he is “working with the Senate, [to] appoint[] judges who will interpret the Constitution as written.” With the appointment of judges like Neil Gorsuch, Amy Barrett, David Stras, and others, he has done this flawlessly. But with more than 160 vacancies, the president’s work is far from done.
– Tiffany Bates, legal policy analyst, Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Institute for Constitutional Government
President Trump correctly praised the constitutionalist judges he has appointed and continues to appoint. He also highlighted the defense of the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment and the protection of religious liberty under the First Amendment. Bravo, President Trump!
– Alden Abbott, deputy director, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies
Giving Inmates a Second Chance
Trump focused on economic policies that are creating an economic boom that benefits everyone, embracing workforce development, and enabling everyone to “realize their full potential.”
Therefore, he rightfully addressed legal reform that would better prepare convicted criminals to return to society, as 95 percent of all convicted offenders do, to lead law-abiding, prosperous lives.
“As America regains its strength,” Trump said, it is important for Congress to tackle prison reform in order “to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance at life.”
The Trump administration should work with Congress to incentivize eligible convicted individuals to participate in mentoring, job skills training, addiction treatment, and other recidivism reduction programs. Thus, the administration can share the success of conservative states like Texas that have reduced crime rates and corrections spending, and increase public safety and prosperity for all.
– John-Michael Seibler, legal fellow, Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, Institute for Constitutional Government
Ending Chain Migration and the Diversity Visa Lottery
President Trump rightly called for an end to chain migration and the diversity lottery in his State of the Union address.
The U.S. immigration system gave out over 72 percent of its green cards in fiscal year 2018 for family-based or diversity reasons. At the same time, the system allocated only about 12 percent of its green cards for employment-based reasons.
For some perspective, U.S. lawmakers should look at the immigration systems of other traditional immigrant-receiving nations such as Canada and Australia. Those countries strongly value merit- and economic-based immigration.
In 2016, Canada gave out 26 percent of its permanent resident visas on the basis of family and 52 percent on an economic basis, while Australia gave out 33 percent for family and 67 percent for economic.
It is past time for the U.S. to embrace a merit-based economic system. Yes, we should reunite spouses and minor children, but the majority of the U.S.’ green cards should go to immigrants who want to work in the U.S. and have a company that wants to hire them. It’s a win for those immigrants and a win for the U.S. economy.
– David Inserra, policy analyst in homeland security and cyber policy, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy
Cracking Down on Gang Activity
The president correctly highlighted thousands of MS-13 gang members who have been expelled or imprisoned.
– Alden Abbott, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies
Celebrating Victories Against ISIS
President Trump was right to celebrate the progress made by the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, whose ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq has been essentially dismantled. The president deserves credit for green-lighting a series of tactical adjustments on the ground that have hastened ISIS’ fall.
President Trump is also correct to point out that ISIS is not yet defeated. Indeed, much hard work lies ahead. ISIS will likely launch an insurgency in Iraq and Syria and the threat will mutate further in years to come—not just in current ISIS strongholds across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, but also in the West. The U.S. must stand ready to respond to this.
Furthermore, the war on radical Islam does not begin and end with ISIS. Al-Qaeda—who President Trump also mentioned—remains highly dangerous. Any comprehensive U.S. strategy against Islamist extremism must also address the danger it poses.
– Robin Simcox, Margaret Thatcher fellow in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy
Rebuilding Our Military
The president noted that “unmatched power is the surest means of our defense.” Unfortunately, America’s armed forces as described in the Heritage Index of U.S. Military Strength are in desperate need of rebuilding.
Severe budget cuts over the last eight years and constant deployments for the last 26 years have not been kind to the military.
Ship crews are tragically untrained, and Air Force fighter squadrons and Army brigades are not ready. They are too small: the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force are smaller today than they have been in over a half century.
Yet America’s interests are under threat every day by challenges like North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles or aggressive postures by Russia and China. That’s why President Trump’s call to “fully fund our great military” is welcome.
But there is a hiccup. In order for the military to actually get the funds, Congress must act—first to find overdue agreement on 2018 defense funding, and then to approve the money the president requests for 2019. The longer it delays, the greater the danger to our country.
Modernizing Our Aging Defense
The president’s call to “modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never to use it, but making it so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression” is on target. Our nuclear arsenal is aging, the infrastructure decaying, and the scientists retiring. If we are not careful, our nuclear deterrent will be jeopardized.
The U.S. has not tested a nuclear weapon since 1992. Our intercontinental ballistic missiles are 48 years old, our sub-launched missiles 28 years old, and some of our bombers are 58 years old. We must invest in this critical area.
– Thomas Spoehr, director, Center for National Defense
US Continues to Wisely Distrust Russia
The Trump administration has stood firm against the Russian Kremlin this past year.
The U.S. cannot trust a Russia led by Vladimir Putin. He has proven to be nothing but deceitful when dealing with the U.S. He does not care about his country, nor his people. He only cares about maintaining his power.
Under President Trump, the U.S. has maintained and increased economic sanctions against Russia. This is good news. Russia continues to fight in eastern Ukraine and occupies Crimea, breaking the Minsk II ceasefire agreement.
Russia still occupies a massive area of Georgia’s territory—20 percent, in fact—according to a recent report by Luke Coffey of The Heritage Foundation. Russia’s invasion, illegal occupation, and meddling of these further proves that it cannot be trusted.
In the 2018 State of the Union address, President Trump declared that our rival, Russia, challenges “our interests, our economy, and our values.” This could not be truer.
The White House has acted realistically and wisely against the Kremlin during President Trump’s first year in office. This is reassuring because it demonstrates our president’s understanding that Russia is a threat, and that Putin cannot be trusted.
– Luke Coffey, director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy
Strong on Iran
President Trump singled out Iran for special attention in his speech, saying: “When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom.”
This is an important message to send not only to the people of Iran, but to the Islamist dictatorship that holds them hostage.
President Trump previously had blasted the regime in a series of tweets that zeroed in on an important factor that sparked the protests: simmering resentment over the economic, financial, and human costs of Iran’s aggressive foreign policy, which has diverted billions of dollars from Iran’s domestic needs to pay for the regime’s military interventions in Iraq and Syria, support for insurgents in Yemen and Afghanistan, and financing of a wide variety of terrorist groups.
Washington must continue to drive up the long-term political, economic, and military costs of Iran’s hostile foreign policy. It should underscore that the regime’s support for terrorism and Islamic revolution, which provoked sanctions and exacerbated Iran’s economic problems, are direct threats to the long-term interests of the Iranian people.
The U.S. should support the right of Iranians to challenge the heavy-handed repression and corruption of a tyrannical regime, but it should hold off on endorsing specific opposition leaders or movements until their character and goals are assessed.
Until then, the Trump administration should do its best to publicize and promote the legitimate political and economic grievances of frustrated Iranians and support their efforts to recover freedom from a tyrannical regime that depends on thugs to suppress its own people.
President Trump also mentioned that he has asked Congress to work with the administration to “address the fundamental flaws in the terrible Iran nuclear deal.”
A possible legislative fix would impose additional constraints on Iran’s nuclear activities by mandating the restoration of nuclear sanctions if Tehran crossed designated red lines on enriched uranium stockpiles, centrifuge development, nuclear-capable missiles, or other benchmarks.
Washington could unilaterally extend key restrictions on Iran’s accumulation of fissile material beyond the sunset provisions that expire within 15 years under the deal.
This would deprive Tehran of the option of ramping up to industrial-scale uranium enrichment to shorten the time required to stage a nuclear breakout. Tehran would need much more time to make the final sprint to a nuclear weapons capability, giving Washington more opportunity to fashion diplomatic, sanctions, and possible military responses.
The Obama administration settled for deferring, not preventing, an Iranian nuclear capability. President Trump has rejected this course and adopted a hardline policy that will include renewed sanctions if the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not adequately reinforced or renegotiated.
To strengthen the deterrent effect of sanctions, it would be preferable if the administration worked closely with Congress to address the flaws of the Iran nuclear agreement. Bipartisan congressional support is an important pillar for sustaining long-term U.S. foreign policy.
But if Congress is not willing or able to present a united front against Tehran on the nuclear issue, then President Trump must go it alone to prevent Iran from becoming the next North Korea.
– Jim Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs
New Infrastructure
President Trump repeated his call for a major initiative to repair the nation’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and rails. The more pressing need is to eliminate the regulatory barriers that impede these projects and vastly inflate the costs.
Any new infrastructure funding should be conditional on meaningful regulatory reform, starting with the National Environmental Policy Act. The average time to complete a NEPA impact assessment of a transportation or water-related project—just one of several permitting exercises—expanded from 2.2 years in the 1970s to 6.6 years in 2011. Each day of delay increases taxpayers’ costs.
Ultimately, NEPA must be rescinded. In the interim, there are several steps Congress and the Trump administration can take to mitigate the harm caused by this obsolete statute:
– Diane Katz, senior research fellow in regulatory policy, Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
Details Still Forthcoming
As expected, the president gave a nod to his upcoming infrastructure push, which is anticipated to be announced within the next two to four weeks.
The president is correct that there is much that can be done to modernize the nation’s infrastructure. The solution, though, is not to further entrench the federal government’s pervasive influence over infrastructure. It is to fix the broken system that has resulted from extensive federal interference in regulating and controlling the funding of the nation’s infrastructure.
The president is right that the current regulatory delays that impede infrastructure projects are a “disgrace” and must be addressed. As the president referenced, projects can be delayed for years, needlessly increasing the completion time and total costs for most projects.
On average, it takes infrastructure projects of all types over five years to receive a final environmental impact statement—just one aspect of the federal review process. Some larger projects are stuck in this regulatory purgatory for decades. Minimizing this time to two years (or even one) would be a fundamental improvement over the current system.
There are a host of similar reforms that the administration should undertake to efficiently and responsibly build a better infrastructure system. Indeed, Heritage estimates that enacting a package of strategic reforms can fully drive the $1 trillion in infrastructure investment that the administration is seeking to accomplish without the need for new federal spending.
However, it must be noted that in broadly deriding the nation’s infrastructure as “crumbling,” the president mischaracterizes the condition of the U.S. infrastructure. In reality, the nation’s major infrastructure is in satisfactory condition:
A thoughtful infrastructure proposal will consider this data instead of rhetoric that calls for billions of dollars of unnecessary new federal spending.
While the president only briefly detailed his infrastructure plan, the administration has an opportunity to pursue free-market principles as a means to drive infrastructure investment. The nation would benefit tremendously if the president embraces this opportunity.
– Michael Sargent, policy analyst for transportation and infrastructures, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
A New Direction on Energy
President Trump has made the right decision to end the war on conventional energy sources, which began with several energy executive orders and culminated with his decision to withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.
Pulling out Paris and reversing Obama-era climate regulation was a dodged bullet for the American economy.
The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis estimated that by 2035, participation in the Paris Agreement would produce an aggregate loss of $2.5 trillion in U.S. gross domestic product, resulting in $20,000 of lost income for a typical family of four and a notable increase in electricity expenditures.
Our modeling also found that heavy costs would be accompanied by negligible changes in the climate and sea levels.
On the other hand, the president has also given our country much to look forward to regarding American energy. His Energy Independence Executive Order, for example, has permitted fracking on federal lands, thus enabling our best and brightest to access our previously untapped vast oil and gas resources.
Heritage analysis found that capitalizing on our domestic energy abundance would make America a worldwide energy powerhouse, generating tremendous economic benefits. The gains include $2.4 trillion in gross domestic product from now until 2035, which is the equivalent of $27,000 per family of four.
We found that these benefits would also be accompanied by negligible changes in climate and sea levels.
Clearly there are stark differences in the direction the Trump administration’s energy agenda would take the economy as compared to the Obama anti-energy policies. One of the very few similarities is that both would make no noticeable impact on the climate.
Eliminating the Faulty ‘Social Cost of Carbon’ Measure
The president alluded to unnecessary regulations that are stifling the American economy and could stall infrastructure investment. A critical component to the Trump administration ending the war on coal and the war on American energy is eliminating use of the social cost of carbon in regulatory analyses.
The Obama administration used the social cost of carbon to justify its climate agenda. By placing a significantly high arbitrary price on a ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, the agency can inflate the benefits of regulation or inflate the costs of a new project, claiming that the project will emit X tons of CO2 over its lifetime and inflict Y damage on the planet through global warming.
At The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, we rigorously examined these models and found that can be readily open to manipulation by policymakers. Simple, very reasonable changes to the inputs in the model produce wildly different results, making them useless for regulatory analysis.
President Trump was rightfully informed by our research to eliminate these models as a justification for regulatory policy.
– Kevin Dayaratna, senior statistician and research programmer, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
Moving Toward Energy Dominance
The president remarked that the war on coal and American energy is over.
The president deserves a victory lap on energy policy. In one year, the Trump administration made significant progress in accomplishing The Heritage Foundation’s energy agenda by opening access to the abundance of domestic resources and rolling back costly, ineffective regulations.
Through executive action, the administration approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. The EPA reversed the staple of the Obama administration’s climate policies in repealing the Clean Power Plan, and Trump announced his intent to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
The administration also took the necessary steps to unwind the previous administration’s “keep it in the ground” anti-energy agenda. It revoked a moratorium for new coal leases on federal lands and proposed to make more than 90 percent Outer Continental Shelf available to energy exploration, which includes 98 percent of the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas off America’s coastline.
The Department of Interior also opened new areas of federal land in Alaska to energy production, and the administration’s signature tax victory included a significant victory for energy policy in opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
Tonight may be Trump’s victory lap in the Capitol, but the winners are spread throughout the country. Policy reforms that make energy markets freer and more competitive will not only be a boon to the American economy, but also for households who will benefit from more affordable energy prices.
– Diane Katz, senior research fellow in regulatory policy, Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity
Use Infrastructure to Implement a Lasting Legacy on Environmental Reform
America has a clean, healthy environment as well as safe, structurally sound infrastructure. However, our country’s major environmental policies are outdated and, consequently, stall infrastructure investment, misalign or create perverse incentives, and centralize power in Washington for little to no meaningful environmental benefit.
The EPA has used ever-expanding authority to implement stringent regulations with increasingly high compliance costs and diminishing marginal environmental returns. These environmental regulatory roadblocks impede infrastructure investment of all types, from roads and bridges to pipelines and transmission lines.
Any infrastructure proposal must come with substantial regulatory environmental reform, with a focus on transitioning authority to the states, creating market incentives, and removing costly, ineffective regulations to improve the environment at a lower cost.
– Nick Loris, Herbert and Joyce Morgan research fellow, energy and environmental policy
No Mention of Repealing Obamacare
Unfortunately, President Trump did not call on Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare this year. Without his leadership, millions of Americans will likely continue to suffer from the health care law’s skyrocketing health costs and reduced coverage choices.
As the president noted tonight, Congress did the right thing in December when it repealed the unpopular Obamacare mandate to either buy health insurance on a private market broken by Obamacare’s mandates or pay a tax. Now, lawmakers need to finish the job and fix the broken private market, so that all Americans have better and more affordable health choices.
For the past seven years, GOP lawmakers promised to undo the damages of Obamacare. And today, according to a Fox News poll, fully 82 percent of Americans are extremely or very concerned about health care.
Conservatives stand ready with a health reform proposal that promotes increased coverage options by empowering states to run truly competitive health insurance markets and help the most vulnerable get access to high-quality care.
– Marie Fishpaw, director of domestic policy studies, Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity
Addressing the Opioid Crisis
Tonight, the president reaffirmed his commitment to responding to the “terrible crisis” of opioid addition.
Combatting the nation’s opioid crisis is complex. The administration’s list of federal actions demonstrates the size and scope of the problem and response. Actions taken at the state and local level further underscore the depth of issues connected to the crisis.
There is no single action alone that will end this crisis. It requires a range of strategies to address supply, demand, and care for those in need. It is also not a problem the government can solve alone. It requires continued collaboration and coordination between federal, state, and local partners, and it takes communities, neighbors, and families joining together to help one another.
Policy initiatives in response to this crisis—whether federal, state, or local—should be careful to strike a proper balance, minimize unintended consequences, and be measured by outcomes.
– Nina Owcharenko Schaefer, senior research fellow in health policy studies
Tonight, President Trump wants to “get tougher” on drug dealers, but he also wants to get treatment for those in need. He already has addressed this problem in numerous ways.
President Trump expressed his awareness of the opioid crisis in his inaugural address, expressly noting that drugs “have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.” Since then, President Trump has mobilized much of his administration to confront the opioid crisis from all sides, declaring drug addiction and opioid abuse a public health emergency.
In March 2017, the president, by executive order, created his Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis to evaluate the extent and effectiveness of the current federal response to drug addiction and to propose strategies to refine and improve that response. The commission worked expeditiously to produce its final report on Nov. 1, 2017.
In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched Rx Awareness, a prescription awareness campaign to communicate the very real and extraordinarily pervasive dangers of opioid addiction.
The Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit of the Department of Justice has, for the first time, secured indictments against foreign fentanyl manufacturers, and seized a large fentanyl and heroin sourcing web-based criminal market, AlphaBay.
Through its Opioids Action Plan, the FDA is working to impose new requirements on manufacturers of prescription opiates.
The National Institutes of Health is working with the academy and pharmaceutical industry to explore nonaddictive pain.
In September 2017, the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services announced an $81 million, six-year, collaborative multiagency research initiative to develop non-drug pain management solutions for service members and veterans.
The Department of Health and Human Services identified five specific strategies to combat the opioid crisis: improving access to treatment and recovery centers, promoting use of overdose-reversing drugs, strengthening understanding of the epidemic through better public health surveillance, providing support for innovative addiction research, and advancing better practices for pain management.
The State Department has taken a strong international stance by finalizing a binding United Nations agreement that adds two fentanyl precursor chemicals in Table I of the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, which places them under international control.
The White House notes that, since President Trump took office, more than $1 billion has been distributed for prevention, treatment, first responder coordination, law enforcement funding in high-risk communities, prescription drug-monitoring programs, rehabilitation and recovery, and correctional systems.
– Alden Abbott, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and the John, Barbara, and Victoria Rumpel senior legal fellow
– Dylan Brandt, administrative assistant, Institute for Constitutional Government, Center for Principles and Politics
Right to Try
President Trump stood up for the right of seriously ill patients to try experimental drugs, something they are often blocked from doing by unnecessary regulations.
– Alden Abbott, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and the John, Barbara, and Victoria Rumpel senior legal fellow
Supporting Vocational Education
The president talked about the need for vocational education, a key option for many young adults because a traditional, four-year college degree is not for everyone.
Some high school graduates define success as being skilled in the workplace. College is a gateway to success for many young adults—but it doesn’t have to be the only path.
Critically, parents and families and students should be able to make choices about what is best for a student’s future. Congress and the administration should make sure obstacles like regulation and public sector unions don’t stand in the way of education opportunity.
Every student should have the chance at the American dream, no matter if that means entering the workforce right after high school or pursuing an advanced degree.
More Savings for Education
President Trump touted a victory for education and freedom in his speech this evening. He cited the additional funds many families will have due to the tax cut enacted at the end of last year and can use to save for college.
In the tax cut, lawmakers gave families more ways to use their own savings in tax-neutral college savings plans commonly known as “529 college savings plans.” Under the new law, families can save for future K-12 and postsecondary expenses with 529 plans.
Congress and the administration have more work to do, but the recent 529 expansion to include K-12 expenses is a good step.
– Jonathan Butcher, senior policy analyst, Center for Education Policy, Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity
The post Here’s an In-Depth Analysis of Trump’s Policy Proposals in His State of the Union Speech appeared first on The Daily Signal.