Trump Wins Again
Ford announced today that it was cancelling a planned $1.6 billion investment in Mexico. Instead the automaker is now planning to invest $700 million in a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, which is expected to create 700 new jobs at the plant.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said the change of plans amounts to a "vote of confidence" in the pro-business policies being advocated by the Trump/Pence team. Trump is also calling on General Motors to follow Ford's example.
On an unrelated issue, House Republicans this morning scrapped plans to weaken an independent ethics panel after criticism from the president-elect.
Trump made "draining the swamp" a key promise of his campaign. When news broke about the GOP move, Trump blasted the decision, urging House Republicans to instead, "Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!" GOP leaders got the message loud and clear.
Schumer's "Hit List"
Over the holiday weekend, incoming Senate Democrat Leader Charles Schumer announced that Democrats planned to "slow walk" several top Trump cabinet nominees, delaying their confirmations for months. In his remarks to the Washington Post, Schumer expressed disdain for the idea that hearings should be held before Inauguration Day.
The Post wrote that Sen. Schumer's threat amounted to "an unprecedented break with Senate tradition." Among the nominees on "the Democratic hit list," as the Post described it, are:
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Attorney General
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education
Rep. Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Andrew Puzder, Secretary of Labor
Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury
Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and
Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Republicans did not stall Obama's nominees in 2009. The response of Senate leaders was, "Elections have consequences. The president deserves the cabinet he wants." Absent any evidence of ethical problems or scandal, Republicans fully cooperated to ensure a smooth transition of power from the Bush Administration to the Obama Administration. In fact, at least six Obama cabinet members were confirmed on January 20, 2009.
But here we are eight years later and once again the left is demonstrating that regardless of what the GOP thinks, there are no sacred rules. Left-wing activists and politicians are going to do everything possible to make sure that the Trump/Pence Administration is unable to hit the ground running.
By the way, the bureaucracy sees what is going on. They didn't need any encouragement, but liberals are sending the clear message that resistance is the order of the day.
Over the New Year's holiday, news broke that agencies all over Washington are hiring at a frantic pace, in spite of an agreement with the Trump transition team to stop hiring after December 1. These agencies are moving liberals into key positions and hoping to thwart a potential federal hiring freeze by the new administration in order to get a grip on the out-of-control bureaucracy.
Will The GOP Respond?
Senate Republicans should use every tool available to thwart the left-wing obstructionists. Under no circumstances should they make any concessions that reward liberal intransigence. Schumer should be warned that his efforts to frustrate the transition will result in severe limits on the Senate minority.
Every incoming Trump official should understand that there will be no Kumbaya moments for them. The same forces that sent paid agitators to disrupt Trump rallies and which smeared the president-elect and his supporters as a "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic basket of deplorables," did not suddenly become choir boys after losing the election.
In fact, many on the left believe that they have a mandate to stop Trump because Hillary won the popular vote. And the attempts to blame Russia for Hillary Clinton's loss have only one real purpose -- to delegitimize the incoming Trump/Pence Administration.
How out-of-touch is the left? A recent poll found that 52% of Democrats believe that Russia hacked voting machines and changed vote totals, something that even Barack Obama has said there is no evidence to support.
Here's more evidence of the lengths to which the left is prepared to go in order to get its way. Some left-wing extremists were urging Obama to use today's five-minute "intercession recess " -- the time between the formal end of the old 114th Congress and the beginning of the new 115th Congress -- to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
There is precedent for this. But given the Supreme Court's 9-to-0 decision striking down Obama's previous abuses of his appointment powers, the Court would undoubtedly reject such a brazen attempt to circumvent the Constitution.