To fix awful Biden policies, GOP needs nominee who can truly govern. That sound like Trump? | Opinion
While top Republicans are arguing over how best to eat pudding, President Joe Biden — or the administration that works for him, at least — is working feverishly to lock in his legacy.
In just the last few weeks, federal agencies have taken steps on immigrant health care, auto fuel standards, power plant regulations and added fees for affluent mortgage customers. If those steps (and more sure to come) stand, Biden will have done more to push America to the left than Republicans like to think Barack Obama ever did.
Unless, that is, Republicans win in 2024 and elect a president who can actually govern, focus on rolling back Biden’s overreach and push Congress to lock in more conservative (or at least centrist) policies.
Focus. Governing. Does that sound like Donald Trump to you?
Biden is building the woke, expensive, energy-starved country that Republicans say they must win to prevent. In his re-election effort, announced Tuesday, he’ll tout a long list of achievements, and Republicans need to craft a strong counterargument.
In a span of weeks, Biden’s administration has proposed strict new emissions standards that will effectively force automakers to churn out mostly electric vehicles, whether the public wants them or can afford them. At the same time, Biden would push power plants into expensive new carbon-capture rules that will raise the cost of electricity and make it even more difficult to keep the lights on — or charge all those EV batteries.
On health care, Biden wants to expand health-insurance subsidies for so-called DACA recipients, those who were brought here very young by their parents and allowed to stay in a limbo status under Obama’s deferral policy. Most reasonable people want to find a way to allow them to become citizens and live in the only home they’ve known, then confer appropriate benefits. Not Biden; he just wants to write checks.
You may remember, of course, that Trump tried to end the DACA program, but his administration bungled the procedural steps and turned an obvious victory — a president can’t write immigration law from his desk, as Obama did — into defeat.
The federal government has intricate rules for making (or unmaking) policy. There are precise rules to implementing or changing policy. They must be followed. Deadlines must be met.
Discipline. Consistency. Does that sound like Donald Trump to you?
While it’s gotten less attention, the Biden mortgage policy is perhaps the worst of all. Banks will be required to charge homebuyers who present a good credit risk more to supplement those who don’t. In other words, punish merit and achievement to subsidize risk.
To reverse these policies, a Republican president will need smart, resilient Cabinet leaders and other appointees willing to dig in and do the work. He or she will need to back them up publicly when they’re called anti-immigrant, climate-killing, poor-people haters.
Smart hiring. Not throwing employees under the bus. Does that sound like Donald Trump to you?
As the saying goes, personnel is policy. With Trump, we know the record: Hire someone, get mad when they tell you truths you don’t want hear, harangue them publicly, humiliate them privately, cut them loose (sometimes in public), and replace them with someone of less skill but more loyalty.
Who will want to be attorney general after seeing how Trump treated William Barr at the end of his administration? Would a vice president such as Marjorie Taylor Greene or Kari Lake be able to steer an important policy portfolio beyond trolling the libs?
After all, we know Trump is not going to do it himself. He’s made clear that, if he is elected again, he’ll spend his time pursuing revenge against the “deep state” and goofy policies that would be laughed out of court, such as allowing people to vote on their local school principals.
With so much on the line, Republicans should vet their presidential candidates on two criteria: Can they win and can they govern? Think back to how little Trump achieved when he had a unified government for two years. A big tax cut bill, yes, but newsflash: Obamacare is alive and well.
The president need not be a micromanager. He or she should hire excellent people, set priorities, demand results and back them up when the fight comes. They shouldn’t have to constantly check social media to see if they’ve fallen out of favor because the president just talked to someone with a differing view or agenda.
Republicans, ask yourselves: Does that sound like Donald Trump to you?
This story was originally published April 25, 2023 at 3:06 PM with the headline "To fix awful Biden policies, GOP needs nominee who can truly govern. That sound like Trump? | Opinion."
