Aug. 26, 2019

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

President Trump hits China with more tariffs, sanctions on fentanyl and threatens broader economic sanctions — and it’s about time
President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on China last week by leveling sanctions against Beijing for its role in bringing tons of fentanyl to the U.S. that has killed more Americans than the Lusitania and Sept. 11, 2001 combined, plus a new round of tariffs to keep the pressure on Beijing to come to the table on trade. To top it all off, Trump threatened broader economic sanctions on China and urged U.S. companies to leave, citing authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to block transactions upon declaration of an emergency. Dialogue, of course, is preferred, but Beijing appears more interested in inflicting damage on the U.S. than talking ahead of the 2020 election in the hopes the American people elect a more acquiescent candidate. We’ll see, but history teaches it’s usually not a good idea to bet against America.

Video: If the Fed conducts monetary policy then why doesn't it pay attention to exchange rates?
The Great Depression went from bad to worse in part due to monetary policy that ignored competitive devaluations by foreign economies that left the interwar gold standard as unemployment skyrocketed. Is the Fed making the same mistake by ignoring China, Europe and Mexico’s competitive devaluations of their currency? President Trump thinks so. If the Fed conducts monetary policy then why doesn’t it pay attention to exchange rates?

Did the FBI brief the British spy working for Hillary Clinton on its Trump-Russia investigation in 2016 but not Congress?
When Attorney General William Barr begins declassifying documents from the FBI’s investigation into the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, it may show that not only was Christopher Steele giving information to the FBI, information that proved to be fake, but the FBI was giving information to Steele. Keep in mind that Steele is at the time a paid opposition researcher for Hilary Clinton and the DNC. This is going to be especially damning if the FBI made it known there was a counterintelligence investigation into then candidate Trump or his associates. They briefed Team Clinton, but not Congress?

ALG urges Congress to zero out funding for land acquisition by the U.S. Forest Service
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning: “Only in Washington, D.C. does an organization that can’t handle its current job get lavished with more money than it requests and asked to do even more. While there are many hard-working employees at the U.S. Forest Service, the agency has been badly mismanaging land for decades, which has enabled catastrophic fires to occur. Due to this mismanagement, the agency now has a huge backlog of work to do to keep its lands from continuing to be a threat to public safety. Last year, the Trump Administration requested very little money for land acquisition by the Forest Service, but Congress ignored this request and appropriated over $65 million. The Forest Service’s 193 million acres is clearly more than enough for it to manage so Congress should honor the President’s budget request for the next fiscal year and zero out funding for Forest Service land acquisition and focus instead upon engaging in proper forest management.”

President Trump hits China with more tariffs, sanctions on fentanyl and threatens broader economic sanctions — and it’s about time

By Robert Romano

President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on China last week by leveling sanctions against Beijing for its role in shipping tons of fentanyl to the U.S. that has killed more Americans than the Lusitania and Sept. 11, 2001 combined, plus a new round of tariffs to keep the pressure on Beijing to come to the table on trade.

To top it all off, Trump threatened broader economic sanctions on China and urged U.S. companies to leave, citing authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to block transactions upon declaration of an emergency.

“Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Aug. 23, to the shock of the Washington, D.C. establishment. Trump later clarified he was talking about imposing sanctions on China, “For all of the Fake News Reporters that don’t have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.”

It marks a steep escalation in the dispute with China, and with these powers, the President can prohibit “any transactions in foreign exchange,” “transfers of credit or payments,” “the importing or exporting of currency or securities,” and “any acquisition, holding, withholding, use, transfer, withdrawal, transportation, importation or exportation of, or dealing in, or exercising any right, power, or privilege with respect to, or transactions involving, any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”

With that, Trump could cut off all commerce with China with the stroke of a pen or bar it from treasuries markets. And yes, he can do that. Congress has the power under Article I to regulate foreign commerce and to enact laws deemed necessary and proper to bring them into execution, which is precisely what Trump is doing here. Similar sanctions are used against countries like Iran and North Korea.

On China’s opium war with the U.S., almost 29,000 Americans were killed by fentanyl overdoses in 2017 alone. That is up from 3,000 deaths in 2013, and a good chunk of that is coming from China. Now, President Trump is taking decisive action with the latest round of sanctions.

According to a White House press release, “the Department of the Treasury announced it is identifying two Chinese nationals and a China-based Drug Trafficking Organization as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) and designated one associate and a China-based entity for being owned or controlled by one of the Chinese nationals.”

On Twitter on Aug. 23, Trump urged UPS, Fedex and the U.S. Postal Service to do its part in enforcing the sanctions: “I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE… all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!)... President Xi said this would stop - it didn’t.”

China responded to the sanctions tit for tat by leveling another $75 billion of tariffs on U.S. goods that otherwise appeared unprompted after President Trump had postponed the latest 10 percent round of tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of goods until December. The U.S. already has 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion of goods.

With China’s new tariffs, Trump immediately raised the American tariffs to 30 percent on the $250 billion of Chinese goods starting on Oct. 1, and up to 15 percent on the $300 billion of goods, which are no longer delayed and will go into effect on Sept. 1.

Trump wrote on Twitter announcing the move, “For many years China (and many other countries) has been taking advantage of the United States on Trade, Intellectual Property Theft, and much more. Our Country has been losing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year to China, with no end in sight… Sadly, past Administrations have allowed China to get so far ahead of Fair and Balanced Trade that it has become a great burden to the American Taxpayer. As President, I can no longer allow this to happen!”

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning praised the move in a statement, saying, “Chinese and U.S. negotiators are scheduled to meet next week and President Trump will be meeting with other leaders at the G7 about China. Hopefully they will find a basic common ground that accomplishes three things: ending China's opium war against the U.S. using fentanyl, protecting intellectual property and ending competitive currency devaluations by China. In the past, Chinese and U.S. negotiators have agreed on all three of these points. Let's hope Beijing will finally sign off so the world can begin to embrace fair and reciprocal free trade and the scourge of fentanyl can be shelved forever, saving tens of thousands American lives every year.”

It’s about time.

The difference between Trump and his predecessors is that he actually fighting, which is what he promised to do in 2016. Getting tough with China has meant addressing the North Korean nuclear threat, arming Taiwan and Trump has also spoken out in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong who are marching for their freedom. In the meantime, Trump is seeking out alternatives to China, for example, with a new trade deal with Japan just announced at the G7 in France on Aug. 25.

Dialogue, of course, is preferred. Chinese officials keep saying that too but they also don’t appear to keep any of their promises when they are made. This is all coming to a head, and right now, Beijing appears more interested in inflicting damage on the U.S. economy than talking ahead of the 2020 election in the hopes the American people elect a more acquiescent candidate. We’ll see, but history teaches it’s usually not a good idea to bet against America.

The strategy appears to be to back Trump into a corner, who has responded by coming out with guns blazing. Whatever he intended to accomplish vis a vis trade, China and globalization, this is Trump’s moment and he intends to see it through.

And it could have a lasting impact. With these new sanctions, the likelihood is that Trump has already permanently shifted America’s footing to take a harder line on China, a policy his successor whether in 2021 or 2024 will be compelled to continue. For better or for worse, that is Trump’s legacy.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

Video: If the Fed conducts monetary policy than why doesn't it pay attention to exchange rates?

To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6t1Fpae7oQ

Did the FBI brief the British spy working for Hillary Clinton on its Trump-Russia investigation in 2016 but not Congress?

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By Rick Manning

There is one revelation in John Solomon’s latest column “10 declassified Russia collusion revelations that could rock Washington this fall,” that ought to enrage every American citizen. Certainly, the civil rights of political candidates being trampled on by the government spying on the opposition party in an election year based on false charges is something that we thought only happened in the Third World. But one revelation from Solomon should have Congress in an uproar, and possibly James Comey nervous about perjury.

According to Solomon’s reporting, when Attorney General William Barr begins declassifying documents from the FBI’s investigation into the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, it may show that not only was Christopher Steele giving information to the FBI, information that proved to be fake, but the FBI was giving information to Steele. Keep in mind that Steele is at the time a paid opposition researcher for Hilary Clinton and the DNC. This is going to be especially damning if the FBI made it known there was a counterintelligence investigation into then candidate Trump or his associates. Divulging this existence of the investigation is where Comey could be in more trouble than he already is.

When the “counterintelligence investigation” into candidate Trump and his team started, it was normal protocol for the FBI Director Comey to inform certain Members of Congress about sensitive investigations during a quarterly briefing. Certainly, investigating one of two remaining presidential candidates rises to that level of sensitive. Well, James Comey doesn’t think so.

In March of 2017 James Comey appeared before the House Intelligence Committee and was asked by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) why did the FBI wait three quarters to notify Congress of the investigation into Trump and his team. His answer was shocking and nonsensical then, it is downright ludicrous now. He stated the investigation “was a matter of such sensitivity that we wouldn’t include it in quarterly briefings.”

We further know this was a decision made by Comey and not any other person or group within the FBI thanks to closed door testimony from the then Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Bill Priestap. In the session, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) questioned Priestap asking, “I guess what I’m asking, Mr. Priestap, is who made the decision not to brief Congress in this particular instance?”

Priestap answered “Mr. Comey.”

The question must now be asked how an investigation is so sensitive that it cannot be divulged to the heads of the intelligence committees, but still be revealed to the foreign spy working for the opposing candidate? Not only was Steele working for Hillary Clinton and the DNC, he was a foreign spy, formerly of the United Kingdom, whose own dossier used in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by the Justice Department purported to have Russian ties and sources in the Kremlin. How does a foreign spy with ties to Russia rate higher than Congress?

Every Member of Congress should be furious if this is true. It goes beyond partisan politics and goes to the checks and balances of our constitutional system. An unelected bureaucrat was breaking protocol because he knew Congress would never hold him accountable, because Congress never holds the administrative state in the executive branch accountable.

There is a reason Congress is in Article I of the Constitution. It is supposed to keep the other branches in check, but if they allow this to go without punishment, they will continue to be walked over by the executive branch. Congress has the power of the purse, and can use the purse to hold people accountable, if it ever chooses to do so.

Fortunately, with Attorney General Barr at the helm at the Justice Department, draining the swamp can begin right now. This entire spygate saga is disaster for our faith in federal law enforcement institutions, but what James Comey did may have destroyed it. Now it is up to Barr to restore it. When Congress comes back from recess, it should immediately subpoena Comey and ask him if this is true and move to finally hold people accountable.

Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

ALG urges Congress to zero out funding for land acquisition by the U.S. Forest Service

Aug. 23, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging zeroing out land acquisition for the U.S. Forest Service budget as part of Americans for Limited Government’s program to identify wasteful federal spending:

“Only in Washington, D.C. does an organization that can’t handle its current job get lavished with more money than it requests and asked to do even more. While there are many hard-working employees at the U.S. Forest Service, the agency has been badly mismanaging land for decades, which has enabled catastrophic fires to occur. Due to this mismanagement, the agency now has a huge backlog of work to do to keep its lands from continuing to be a threat to public safety. Last year, the Trump Administration requested very little money for land acquisition by the Forest Service, but Congress ignored this request and appropriated over $65 million. The Forest Service’s 193 million acres is clearly more than enough for it to manage so Congress should honor the President’s budget request for the next fiscal year and zero out funding for Forest Service land acquisition and focus instead upon engaging in proper forest management.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2019/08/alg-urges-congress-to-zero-out-funding-for-land-acquisition-by-the-u-s-forest-service/