Political considerations still control how our government works

January 7, 2025

As we watch Joe Biden’s presidency ending and prepare for President-elect Donald Trump to take office, some notable things have occurred.

First, Biden continued his questionable behavior by killing the sale of the troubled U.S. Steel company to Japan’s Nippon Steel. This transaction, had it been completed, would have been for more than $14 billion. 

In doing this, Biden said it was his “responsibility to block foreign ownership of this vital American company” as “this acquisition would…create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains.”

There is little evidence to support that. However, had the purchaser been our most significant adversary, Communist China, those who condemn Biden’s action would have celebrated it.

U.S. Steel was founded 1901 by Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and Charles Schwab. It is the first U.S. company to achieve a worth of at least $1 billion not long after its creation. However, during the 20th century the company had serious problems, which brought about trying to sell it.

Japan is a strong ally of the U.S. and would have been a good owner of the company, keeping it alive. U.S. Steel had warned that, “without Nippon Steel’s cash, it will shift production away from its aging blast furnaces to cheaper non-union electric arc furnaces and move its headquarters out of Pittsburgh,” as reported by the Associated Press.

Biden, who prides himself as the most pro-union president ever, seemed to not notice that possibility.

Also, Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people at a White House ceremony. The Medal is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, and is presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the United States, to world peace, or other significant endeavors.

Prior to giving the awards Biden noted that the recipients are “a collection of people, with different backgrounds, beliefs, talents, generations, and agendas, using their remarkable gifts and unwavering passion to strengthen our resolve as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Among those receiving this special award were some well-known people, including Robert F. Kennedy (posthumous), Michael J. Fox, Denzel Washington, Lionel Messi, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Ashton B. Carter (posthumous), Bill Nye, and Ralph Lauren.

However, there were two others who are well known, and controversial: former Secretary of State and former Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and notorious philanthropist George Soros.

As Secretary of State, Clinton was lackluster. Her time as a senator and first lady were no better. She is best known for her erroneous claims, such as that as first lady she traveled to Bosnia, and “landed under sniper fire.”

More recently, she said that “If you’re just catching up: The Republican Party, taking orders from the world’s richest man, is on course to shut down the government over the holidays, stopping paychecks for our troops and nutrition benefits for low-income families just in time for Christmas.” Really?

George Soros is a strong supporter of progressive projects, and has poured billions of dollars into them through his Open Society Foundations. He funded groups supporting anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

Worse, he has invested heavily in political campaigns of far-left, progressive — read “pro-criminal” — district attorneys in major cities. Two of these are Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg and Larry Krasner in Philadelphia. These two prefer pursuing criminal justice reform over finding and prosecuting criminals.

Just last week as the 119th Congress prepares to begin working, the House of Representatives addressed its first step, which is electing its Speaker. The Republican candidate, who was depending on a very narrow majority, was former-Speaker Mike Johnson, and the Democrat candidate was Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The House can do nothing until it elects the Speaker, and a vote to certify the election of the next President is at the top of the list, right after members of the House are sworn in. So, a smooth and quick Speaker election is critical.

What should have been a simple task of taking an hour to count the votes and complete the election was thrown into chaos by a few Republicans who did not want Johnson in the position.

Of the 219 House Republicans all but three understood the importance of getting Johnson elected quickly so they could get on with the important work of the House did vote for Johnson. He then fell short of the needed 218 votes, which was the majority of those voting.

The three who wanted to play games with this important action were Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Rep. Keith Self of Texas. It would have made more sense to elect Johnson and get to work, and if there was strong enough support to replace him, wait until the House was up and running. 

It appeared initially like a second vote would be needed. Johnson talked with each of the three to try and work things out. But ultimately, what did the trick was a phone call from Trump.

So, the efforts of three Republicans to continue the insanity that began with the ouster of former-Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023 did not succeed. And now the House can focus on passing legislation that will help restore America. 

2025 can be the year to get America back on the right track

December 31, 2024

Last November’s election has given many Americans reason to be optimistic about the future. This feeling is amplified virtually day-by-day as President Joe Biden continues adding items to the long Biden’s Worst Actions List.

Even some on the left have been shocked into reality, understanding that the Democrats’ radical “progressive” movement is well beyond what a substantial majority of Americans can stomach.

Things like open borders and the horrors that result; ridiculous level of inflation and the high costs of wants and needs; government agencies and departments straying from their duty and unelected bureaucrats making rules and punishments with the force of law; government spending well beyond income levels; important areas like education being infected by socialistic goals; the military adopting the idiotic concept of diversity, equity and inclusion; out of control and harmful mandates during the COVID pandemic; a high level of regulation that makes it more difficult for businesses to operate profitably; government propping up people who don’t want to work; and trying to relieve education loan debts in order to buy votes. 

While some of this has been going on for many years, the Biden-Harris administration has jammed the accelerator to the floor and removed protections that prevented or slowed problems from developing. They have done more damage than the guy who started all this, former President Barack Obama.

How will this next presidential transition go? Will the Democrats in Congress stick to their “oppose Trump on everything because he is Trump” behavior, opposing his nominations for key government positions? Or, will they return to the idea of being an American and make sensible decisions on these nominations, doing what Congress is supposed to do by approving a president’s nominees unless there are real and significant problems? We must hope for the latter choice.

One of the United States most serious problems is an enormous national debt caused by foolish spending levels by a government that is too big and too broad in its reach.

The federal government does not need to be controlling every aspect of our lives, or even be involved in many of the things over which it now has control or affects strongly.

Under our system of “federalism,” the federal government has limited powers, which are outlined in the U.S. Constitution, and the states are left with control of many aspects of daily life that are not given to the federal government, as per the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This sensible concept has been diluted over the past decades, and needs to be re-established.

Our federal government is too big and too powerful. It employs too many people, and has too many departments and agencies, and it exerts power over the people in far too many areas of their lives.

Back in 2011, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-SC, was concerned with federal agencies that he said are not constitutional. He specifically mentioned the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the National Labor Relations Board. If his was an accurate evaluation, then these departments should be eliminated, along with any others that may also be outside the limits of the Constitution.

According to a Gallop poll in 2022, “a 54 percent majority of Americans say the federal government has too much power, while 39 percent say it has about the right amount of power and 6 percent say too little. … Since 2005, no less than 50 percent of Americans have said they believe the federal government is too powerful, with some of those readings reaching 60 percent.”

As for the number of employees, USA Facts tells us that “as of November 2024, the federal government employed just over 3 million people. … Federal government employees work at departments or agencies housed under one of the three branches of government — executive, legislative, or judicial, though most federal agencies are under the federal executive branch. Across all US industries, it’s the15th-largest workforce overall.”

Trump has expressed his intention to address this situation. One beneficial idea for his presidency is the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, called DOGE. This proposed presidential advisory commission will work to identify areas of inefficiency and over-reach, remove harmful and invasive regulations, identify wasteful spending and other similar things. Trump has nominated Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run this operation.

All one has to do to understand that changes must be made is to look at the National Debt of $35 trillion, and the interest on that enormous amount of $1.2 trillion in 2023. 

We have to get the size, cost, and over-regulation of the federal government down; re-establish our energy superiority; and get inflation under control, among other important things.

We have seen so much domestic production and so many jobs in those production areas moved out of the U.S. and into foreign countries. America needs to be the primary provider of the products we need and want, and Americans should be the ones who produce them. We need to begin to bring those back.

Donald Trump intends to address these problems, but we must remember that it will take more than one year or four years to complete this gargantuan project.