Part III – Prediction: Jim DeMint Will Join The Trump Administration…

♦In Part-I we explained how legislation is actually constructed in 2017. NOT how most people think it is constructed – SEE HERE

♦In Part-II we explained what that modern reality means with a Trump administration, and what will be needed to overcome the corrupted swamp – SEE HERE

The final paragraphs include accepting the reality and pondering:

[…] President Trump is not going to sit and wait for congress to evolve in their ability to turn away from existing lobbyists hanging around to defend their interests.  Sooner or later President Trump is going to do something dramatic to break the impasse within the broken legislative system.

Considering that Trump is not a politician, that “something” could get rather ugly.

We are not going to get bogged down in the weeds and loose the capacity to see the larger, more consequential, picture.  Staying elevated – However, as if guided by a prescient cue, part of the possible answer to the quagmire becomes evident today:

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Part II – Why President Trump Has Not Received Legislative Action From Congress – and What Can Be Done…

In Part I we explained why President Trump has not received any legislation:

To Wit: President Donald Trump winning the election threw a monkey wrench into the entire DC system…. The modern legislative machine is frozen in place.

The “America First” policies represented by candidate Donald Trump are not within the legislative constructs coming from the authors of the legislation.   Congress has no bills to advance because all of the myriad of bills and briefs written are not in line with President Trump policy.

That’s why congress has not passed any legislation for President Trump to sign.

There’s no entity within DC writing legislation that is in-line with President Trump’s economic and foreign policy agenda.  Exactly the opposite is true.  All of the DC pipeline legislative briefs and constructs are antithetical to Trump policy.

There are almost zero organizational entities within K-Street presenting any legislative constructs or legislative briefs intended to advance any of Trump’s policy objectives.

Think about how much money is behind the legislative business when those who control the legislation are willing to spend $3.1 BILLION in a single year to achieve their needs.

♦The “Associated American Southern Border Wall and Security Builders” – special interest and lobbying group – simply doesn’t exist. Nor are there any entities creating legal briefs (bills) to facilitate the southern border wall construction.

♦There is no “Associated Illegal Immigrant and Deportation Enforcement” group lobbying for the removal of undocumented illegal aliens; or writing legislation to fast-track deportation of illegal aliens.

♦There’s also no official corporate political action committee or group office on K-Street creating legislation to repeal ObamaCare, or lobby for the removal of government interventionism into the healthcare system.  etc.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Discusses NAFTA and Congress Refusing to Accept “Notification of Intent” Letter…

There has been some confusion, mostly spurred by media falsehoods, about whether or not Secretary Ross had submitted the ‘notification of intent’ letter to congress to begin the clock to renegotiating NAFTA.

Early in this video, yet again, Secretary Ross clearly states he is waiting on congress to accept the letter; ie. it was sent mid-March.

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Republicans control the Senate. Republicans, not democrats in the Senate, do not want the Trump administration to renegotiate NAFTA. This is one of the clearest examples of the UniParty at work and the anti-American principles behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce corporate lobbyists – lobbying directly against the Trump administration.  “The Big Club”.

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Understanding Why President Trump Has Not Received Legislative Action From Congress…

There are many new commentators at CTH, and even more new people taking notice of politics for perhaps the first time in their lives.   There is also some confusion noticed between two distinct groups who appear to be talking above and around each other.  Two groups trying to communicate from two entirely divergent sets of understanding.

Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity.

Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.

There is not a single congress person who writes legislation or laws.

In 2017 not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct.  This simply doesn’t happen.

Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body.  Here’s how it works.

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President Trump Welcomes President Macri of Argentina – Discusses NAFTA….

Earlier today President Trump and first lady Melania welcomed the President of Argentina Mauricio Macri and his wife Juliana Awada to the White House.

One of the key topics on the agenda for President Macri is trade with the U.S., specifically the Argentinian export of lemons into the U.S.  Understandably California, and to a lesser extent Florida, citrus growers are opposed to large scale imports of competing crops.

Additionally, during the customary Oval Office photo-op President Trump remarks about the ongoing NAFTA trade issues, and the phone calls yesterday between Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and Mexico’s President Peña Nieto:

“If I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States–meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA.”

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The U.S. media are considerably invested in framing NAFTA trade issues around their ever-present need to oppose the White House (Trump Derangement Syndrome); and many of the recent media narratives around NAFTA are entirely false.

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OMB Director Mick Mulvaney Discusses The Pending Economic Policy Confrontation…

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney appears on Bloomberg News to discuss the seismic, epic, thundershock confrontational clash that is about to take place between the Trump administration and the DC UniParty.

There are no adjectives capable of describing the scope and immeasurable scale of the battle that is about to transpire between the White House and the Democrat/Republican UniParty.

MONEY is where every entity within the full-swamp goes nuclear against President Trump and the administration.  Despite all prior discussions toward this end, it is doubtful that more than one-in-a-million people can fully grasp the dynamic at play.

Because the procedural wonk is so inherently riddled with ten thousand tentacles of political schematics, I will defray the wonk-speak until after the video.

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If you are interested in deep political weeds, keep reading. However, if you have blood pressure issues or are concerned about your physical or mental health, STOP HERE and go enjoy life. Believe me.

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A Reflective Perspective on Jason Chaffetz Announcement To Leave Congress…

The time-frame was 2011 – the Tea Party had just crushed a republican Utah senator named Bob Bennett a year earlier.   Massive push-back against growth of government including TARP, Auto Bailouts and now ObamaCare was fueling the grassroots movement; the Professional Republican Party hierarchy, the GOPe, was furious; the Tea Party represented a risk to the establishment republican authority.

The GOPe were in the midst of formulating a push-back plan against the Tea Party through the use of the SCOTUS decision “Citizens United”.  Establishment Republicans were organizing tens of millions into Super-PAC constructs to crush Tea Party insurgents.

The time-frame was 2011 –  Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was up for reelection in ’12 and the Tea Party wave was pushing House Republican Jason Chaffetz to challenge Hatch for the Senate seat. The GOPe knew if Chaffetz challenged Hatch their tenured statesman would be lost (just like Bennett before him).

GOPe corrupt Senate leadership (McConnell, Portman, Cornyn, Corker, Blunt, Burr, Crapo et al) were assembling all resources to kill the Tea Party uprising. They reached out to like-minded colleague John Boehner, Speaker of the House for support. Hatch must be protected from the challenge.

Speaker Boehner, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy (influence agents) told Jason Chaffetz to back away from the primary challenge and he would be rewarded with a bigger office, cushy career advancement, and the Chairmanship of an important and powerful committee.

The GOPe warned Chaffetz it would be in his long-term best interests to turn away from the Tea Party because the GOPe were going to go nuclear against the rebellion.  There was also a 2012 Presidential race on the horizon and all efforts would be expended to destroy the opposition to their previously selected candidate, Mitt Romney.   (more…)

Here Comes The Tax Reform Challenge…

The issue we historically held with Mick ‘Cantalopes’ Mulvaney, was his direct association with Speaker Ryan when it comes to tax/budget plans. Thankfully, so far, Mulvaney has outperformed expectations and our fears have not been seen in Trump policy. We are cautiously optimistic.

One AP article disingenuously previously reported the White House was moving away from the initial campaign tax reform proposal. That outline was pure gas-lighting. The central issue of tax plan disparity centers around import tax tariffs and various alternative proposals.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is all-in with his “Border Adjustment Tax”, it is part of his larger ‘Better Way’ tax agenda. Apparently, according to The Hill, Mulvaney is not in alignment with Ryan. Good. The bottom line is Ryan’s plan is Tom Donohue’s plan. Ryan’s “Better Way” is the construct of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

President Trump is not in line with the complex Border Adjustment Tax nonsense. We’ll have to wait and see how this shakes out in the weeks ahead.

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Secretary Wilbur Ross Delivers A Message – The “UniParty” Congress is Put On Notice…

To say we consider Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a man with a unique skill-set for this defined moment in U.S. economic history would be an understatement of epic proportions. Ross is one of the most consequential and dynamic forces within the President Trump administration.

That said, Secretary Ross also knows the real economic adversary is not necessarily external to our border. The bought-and-paid-for UniParty congress has been under the influence of the globalist-minded U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the myriad of K-Street lobbyists, for almost two decades.

Today, Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross fires a shot across the bow of the U.S. Economic Swamp Defenders:

Our message is simple – the games are over, and improper treatment of the United States will no longer be tolerated. We will approach future negotiations and actions with a clarity of purpose guiding us as we work to establish both free and fair trade.

Unfortunately, NAFTA negotiations cannot begin until Congress accepts our 90-day notification letter in compliance with the Trade Promotion Act. But, under President Trump’s leadership, I have no doubt that we will be successful in rebalancing American trade in favor of American workers and businesses.

There are, as you know, trillions of dollars at stake. The American electorate have no reference points for the battles that lie ahead within budgets and trade principals.  The Trump administration will necessarily direct attention to the real source of political power and influence, the DC financial system. (more…)

Trump Doctrine: America First – Officials Briefing on Syria, North Korea and China…

A background briefing transcript from yesterday might aid in larger understanding of White House policy and strategic objectives toward Syria, Russia, North Korea and China.

[Transcript] – SENIOR ADMINISTRATON OFFICIAL:  (In progress) — on the relationship between the leaders of the United States, our President and Premier Xi, and then applying that newly formed relationship to complex problem sets from the Middle East to Northeast Asia, and then a result in the United Nations, it helps advance our mutual interests and the interests of all civilized people.

So I think it’s difficult to portray this as anything but a really great week for our citizens and the United States.

♦  Q    Thanks so much.  Japanese media is reporting that the USS Carl Vinson is in operations with the Japanese naval forces.  As you know, they have a (inaudible.)  What happens if there is a confrontation this week between North Korean forces and Japanese and U.S. forces?  And how will you prevent this from spiraling into a broader military conflict?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATON OFFICIAL:  Well, as you heard from the President many times, we’re not in the business of trying to predict with a high degree of certainty precisely what our response is going to be.

I think what we demonstrated last week was the ability of the President’s national security team to come together, convened by the National Security Council, to look at events such as those that might occur on the Korean Peninsula, quickly analyze those events, place them in context with U.S. vital interests, establish objectives that protect American citizens and advance our interests, and then develop and present the President with options.

So we have a team that is, I think, particularly adept at doing that.  And if there were to be continued destabilizing and aggressive behavior by the North Korean regime, that’s how the national security team would respond. (more…)