It’s one thing for Joe Biden to run as the anti-Trump and quite another to throw the baby out with the bath water, when the “baby” is the good change achieved by a change president. Suburban centrists put Biden over the top to heal and moderate – not open the southern border or hand America over to China. Only time will tell if Mr. Biden is patriotic enough to keep the best of Mr. Trump.
FOREIGN RELATIONS. If Biden is a patriot, he will add politesse and keep American interests first, beginning with NATO – where Trump cleaned up the Obama-Biden mess. Here’s the deal: token US military on the old Soviet border will be crushed by Russian tanks, requiring the use of American nuclear weapons – and our “allies” pay half price. In Queens, this is known as a dope-slapping a chump.
This view of America is an unintended consequence of the Marshall Plan and, after the Reich bail-out, Europe just assumed the US has more money than self-interest. This is true and, even with huge exports to America and puny militaries, the EU insisted we leave carbon-based energy (that France and Germany don’t have) in the ground. President Trump righted that wrong, and Biden shouldn’t grovel back into the EU’s good graces.
REGULATION. I ran a business under the Obama and Trump regimes, and saw firsthand the benefit of Trump de-regulation. As I write this article, DC bureaucrats are bending the knee to Biden, hoping for a restoration of the deep state. Let me be crystal clear: under Democrat presidents, the enemy of Washington’s bureaucracy is American business – and an un-leashed EPA will quickly derail this fragile economic recovery.
Because Trump has business in Europe, he’s aware of a EU ban on sales of new gas-fueled cars after 2030; meaning his pro-carbon policies were mere B-12 injections for a dying sector (Europe’s up-market auto dominance says the future is electric). Even with California’s 2030 ban on new gas cars, a Biden EPA will kill energy exports and great-paying jobs in 2021. Market forces are already making America green: let it continue unabated.
TAXATION. Trump’s paramount victory was the corporate tax cut, which made US manufacturing globally competitive and has no sunset provision. The guess here is Biden talks “progressive smack” and does nothing, because Silicon Valley and Wall Street love the current tax environment. On the other hand, Biden is under blue-state pressure to re-set SALT deductions to pre-Trump levels. That’s a big mistake.
Un-capped SALT deductions mask the dysfunction of tax-and-spend states (e.g. California) that Republicans know must become pay-go fiscal actors. As an economic matter, Californians fund social programs (e.g. cushy public-employee pensions) and buy/mortgage exorbitant homes because of the deduction; thereby forcing (1) residents of low-tax states to cover the deficit and (2) millennials to spend more on housing.
It’s a disaster-in-waiting if Biden thinks Americans want an Obama-Clinton restoration. The markets are signaling they want Biden’s personality and Trump’s policies. Walk softly into the UN and carry a big stick. Work with US businesses and hold bureaucrats accountable for economy-killing acts. Leave corporate tax rates alone and don’t bail out blue-state-employee unions. I don’t care if Hunter makes millions as long as Joe doesn’t screw up a winning streak.
