Oct. 15, 2019
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Trump keeps promise to cut regulations, make them more reasonable and less costly
President Donald Trump is
keeping his promise to rein in the regulatory state and make it easier for
individuals and businesses to comply with federal regulations. According to the
White House, the administration has cut 14 regulations for each significant
regulation it has implemented. Just in the past few weeks, the Department of
Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture have repealed
regulations that would have cost the economy over $9.2 billion. Yet President
Trump is not content to rest on his laurels. This past week, he signed two
executive orders to increase transparency and fairness in the federal
regulatory system. The first executive order requires federal agencies to post
guidance documents to “easily searchable websites” and requires that the public
be consulted before guidance documents of utmost importance are issued. The second
executive order “prohibits agencies from enforcing rules they have not made
publicly known in advance.” It also requires federal agencies to offer opinion
letters to both individuals and businesses that request them to help them
comply with the law.
Cartoon: Overlords
Why are the ‘woke’ NBA and
Nike enabling slave labor conditions in China?
Turkey’s invasion of Syria tests NATO alliance, advises caution
Turkey told President Donald
Trump they were going into northeastern Syria to fight Kurdish terrorists,
leaving him to either leave U.S. troops
in harm’s way or to deconflict with a NATO ally and move them out of the way.
He opted for the latter and has since threatened sanctions if Turkey does not
limit its operations. The Incirlik Air Base still appears to be a major part of
our forward nuclear forces. The obvious downside of pushing the Syrian issue
too much with Turkey, including with the sanctions the President is readying,
is losing Turkey from NATO forever. In 1974, when Congress did its arms embargo
in response to Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, Turkey months later retaliated by
reducing U.S. military conduct in its country to simply NATO activities until
1978 when the embargo was lifted. So it would be wise for President Trump — and
Congress for that matter which seems to want to go to war every two minutes but
never vote to do so — to weigh all of the costs. This is a provocative move by
Turkey, but it is not unprecedented.
ALG joins conservative organizations calling for Ken Cuccinelli to be nominated as DHS Secretary
Americans for Limited
Government President Rick Manning: “Americans for Limited Government joins
dozens of other conservative leaders in urging President Trump to name former
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security. The joint letter sponsored by the Conservative Action
Project praises Cuccinelli as ‘uniquely qualified to navigate the complexities
of the numerous statutes and regulations DHS is tasked with enforcing. He understands law enforcement priorities and
the importance of securing the nation’s homeland. Additionally, he brings an outsider’s
perspective to a bureaucracy of nearly 250,000 people, and will offer fresh
insights in processes and redundancies in need of streamlining of a huge
federal agency.’ It is clear that President Trump will be seeking a leader for
Homeland Security who shares his vision of the need to enforce our nation’s
laws and secure the border, General Cuccinelli is the right person for the
job.”
Trump keeps promise to cut regulations, make them more reasonable and less costly
By Richard McCarty
President Donald Trump is keeping his promise to rein in the regulatory state and make it easier for individuals and businesses to comply with federal regulations.
According to the White House, the administration has cut 14 regulations for each significant regulation it has implemented. Just in the past few weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture have repealed regulations that would have cost the economy over $9.2 billion. Yet President Trump is not content to rest on his laurels. This past week, he signed two executive orders to increase transparency and fairness in the federal regulatory system.
The first executive order requires federal agencies to post guidance documents to “easily searchable websites” and requires that the public be consulted before guidance documents of utmost importance are issued.
The second executive order “prohibits agencies from enforcing rules they have not made publicly known in advance.” It also requires federal agencies to offer opinion letters to both individuals and businesses that request them to help them comply with the law. It might seem that such a policy should go without saying. However, under Obama, the Department of Labor refused to issue opinion letters, which was bad for businessowners trying to follow the law — but great for Obama’s lawyer buddies.
In its announcement of the executive orders, the White House included a couple examples of abuse by the regulatory state under Obama. One of the victims of this abuse was an elderly veteran who was incarcerated and heavily fined for building ponds to fight forest fires. The other victims were a family who faced millions of dollars in fines from the Environmental Protection Agency for creating a pond for their livestock. In the future, federal agencies will have to provide fair notice of alleged violations and allow time for people to respond.
Responding to the signing of the executive orders, Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning stated, “After eight years of a Democrat Administration that had few job creators in senior positions, it is great having a job creator in the Oval Office. Unlike his predecessor, Trump understands the problems that red tape causes for businessowners and is determined to eliminate needless regulations that slow economic growth. Furthermore, these new executive orders will make regulatory enforcement — which is, too often, arbitrary and capricious — more reasonable and fair.”
Nor is Manning alone in his praise of Trump’s deregulatory record. The Vice President for Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Wayne Crews, studies the issue of federal regulation. Crews wrote, “Trump's achievements on the regulatory liberalization front … still appear to have no equal among recent presidential administrations.” The President of American Action Forum, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, has called regulatory rollback “one of the least appreciated accomplishments” of Trump’s presidency.
One of the reasons that people support President Trump is because he is keeping his promises. Some of those kept promises include appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, approving the Dakota Access Pipeline, ending Obama’s “Clean Power Plan,” withdrawing the country from the Paris Climate Agreement, negotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), withdrawing the country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, labelling China a currency manipulator, withdrawing the United States from the Iran “deal,” moving our embassy to Jerusalem, forgoing his presidential salary, and eliminating two federal regulations for each new one.
Now Trump is keeping his promise to rein in the administrative state.
President Trump has established an impressive record on deregulation, and these latest executive orders will further enhance that record. Supporters of good government as well as supporters of limited government should heartily applaud the Administration’s efforts to make the bureaucracy more responsive and to cut red tape.
Richard McCarty is the Director of Research at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
Cartoon: Overlords
By A.F. Branco
Click here for a higher level resolution version.
Turkey’s invasion of Syria tests NATO alliance, advises caution
By Robert Romano
On Oct. 6, the Office of the White House Press Secretary released a statement that after a telephone conversation by President Donald Trump with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that “Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area.”
This is not the first time Turkey has crossed the borders of Syria and Iraq to deal with Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) forces — officially designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization since 1997 — and this undoubtedly won’t be the last as the conflict there escalates.
Turkey’s conflict against the Kurds in Syria and Iraq has been ongoing since 2015, with multiple battles and strikes along the borders with thousands dead. Each time, when the Turkish forces engage in hostilities with PKK and allied groups in those areas, they have not generally been met with a response by the U.S. or NATO beyond public statements. In 2015, the U.S. actually requested Turkey step up its military efforts on the border to deal with fleeing Islamic State forces at the time.
The current operation by the Turks does mark an escalation, but it is also nothing new.
Within a week, Turkey has moved ahead with its invasion of Syria and fired nearby U.S. positions in Syria, highlighting the danger. The U.S. has since announced that almost all forces are completely withdrawing from that country.
On Oct. 14, Trump asked on Twitter very pointedly, “Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey?”
That is actually a great question, and underscores President Trump’s relatively cautious approach to the Syrian conflict. Turkey has been a part of NATO since 1952.
When Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, the U.S. arguably faced a far worse situation because it was two NATO allies, Greece and Turkey, in a conflict and even then the U.S. sided with Turkey. By comparison, this situation doesn’t come close.
Legally, whose side are we on? The NATO treaty says Turkey. We don’t have any treaty with the Kurds — their assistance in the Iraq war and later against Islamic State notwithstanding — and we certainly don’t have one to defend Syria from invasion by Turkey or anybody else. Nor does the U.S. officially recognize the independence of Kurdistan.
Now none of that absolves Turkey from its responsibilities under the United Nations Charter including obligations to maintain international peace and stability and to not invade other countries. But we’d have a hard argument to make, since Article I declarations of war and authorizations to use military force have not been used since 2001 and 2002, when authorizations to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq were adopted.
Since then, the U.S. has routinely engaged in military operations in countries like Syria, Libya and elsewhere without any debate by Congress. Americans for Limited Government supported members of Congress who rejected Syrian intervention when Obama wanted to go in without Congressional authorization in 2013, and made the same argument when the troops went in to fight Islamic State (the position was vote so they have support) in 2014 and again after Trump took over in 2017 and escalated the U.S. presence.
Even today there is no Congressional military authorization to be in Syria at all and it doesn’t sound like the President wants one as he proceeds with his preannounced plan to pull forces out of there.
Which, on that count, it’s about time. Those forces in Syria never had the full support of the American people’s representatives in Congress. If we’re supposed to be in Syria to fight Turkey, a NATO ally, for Kurdish independence, that should be debated — after the President goes to Congress and requests authorization to do that.
In the meantime, there are other approaches, including sanctions and diplomacy, for which there is authorization, which can be utilized to solve the crisis on the borders there that have been ongoing since 2015. Removing the troops in harm’s way seems the least of it.
Turkey said they were going in and Trump was left to either leave U.S. troops in harm’s way or to deconflict and move them out of the way. He opted for the latter and has since threatened sanctions if Turkey does not limit its operations.
Think of how many wars we’ve been asked to get involved with in Syria the past few years. First, official Washington, D.C. wanted to overthrow Bashir Assad, a Russian ally. Next, it instead decided to kill Islamic State who was fighting Assad, thereby helping Syria. Now, the hawks want to somehow stop Turkey, a NATO ally, in Syria for aiming at a group we have labeled a terrorist organization, who have now sided with Assad and Syria.
You would think Trump had pulled out of NATO or something to hear some members of Congress. Instead he was deconflicting with a NATO ally. It’s a complete mess. Those calling for all these wars cannot even think a few minutes down the road of what the consequences might be.
That’s the state of play. Now that the President and Congress dialing up the sanctions, it is probably a good time to think of the long term consequences. Going forward, the most pressing question is how to keep NATO intact and resolve this crisis? And if it comes to losing all our bases and support in Turkey, what are the costs?
It may come down to removing Turkey from NATO, a very drastic step, but that should not be decided in the deserts of Syria with something awful happening with our troops in harm’s way, it requires deliberation among the allies and Congress.
Article 13 of NATO is clear. Any NATO country is free to leave if they want. Those bases, strategically located where they are, have historically been critical to keeping military parity against Russia but perhaps being located in Turkey is not as important as it once was. On the other hand, the Incirlik Air Base still appears to be a major part of our forward nuclear forces.
The obvious downside of pushing this issue too much with Turkey, including with the sanctions the President is readying, is losing Turkey from NATO forever. In 1974, when Congress did its arms embargo in response to Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, Turkey months later retaliated by reducing U.S. military conduct in its country to simply NATO activities until 1978 when the embargo was lifted. So it would be wise for President Trump — and Congress for that matter which seems to want to go to war every two minutes but never vote to do so — to weigh all of the costs. This is a provocative move by Turkey, but it is not unprecedented.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
ALG joins conservative organizations calling for Ken Cuccinelli to be nominated as DHS Secretary
Oct. 14, 2019, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement joining with conservative leaders urging President Donald Trump to nominate former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for Department of Homeland Security Secretary:
“Americans for Limited Government joins dozens of other conservative leaders in urging President Trump to name former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
“The joint letter sponsored by the Conservative Action Project praises Cuccinelli as ‘uniquely qualified to navigate the complexities of the numerous statutes and regulations DHS is tasked with enforcing. He understands law enforcement priorities and the importance of securing the nation’s homeland. Additionally, he brings an outsider’s perspective to a bureaucracy of nearly 250,000 people, and will offer fresh insights in processes and redundancies in need of streamlining of a huge federal agency.’
“It is clear that President Trump will be seeking a leader for Homeland Security who shares his vision of the need to enforce our nation’s laws and secure the border, General Cuccinelli is the right person for the job.”
To view online: https://getliberty.org/2019/10/alg-joins-conservative-organizations-calling-for-ken-cuccinelli-to-be-nominated-as-dhs-secretary/
