The House Republicans blocked a major tax financing and tax reduction bill and will meet on Sunday to negotiate more.
Scott Simon, host:
Calls him a major bill, but the compatriots of President Trump’s Republicans blocked him in the House yesterday. Ron Elving de NPR joins us now. Ron, thank you very much for being with us.
Ron Elving, byline: delighted to be with you, Scott.
Simon: The president said online to stop talking and doing so. What happened?
Elving: They didn’t do it, at least not yesterday. The major bill with a large part of Trump’s inner agenda failed in a committee. Four Republicans have taken the side of all the Democrats of the Committee to vote it. Now these four have voted this way, but not for the same reasons as the Democrats have done. The Democrats said that the bill had written too Medicaid and other programs and health and education. The four Republicans said that the bill had not reduced enough and that on the whole, the bill added far too much to the deficit and the national debt. And 3.7 billions of additional dollars over 10 years, according to the non -partisan joint tax committee, is the result of this great and beautiful bill. Now, a striking issue, and there is a large group of republicans in the two rooms saying that they will resist Trump on it. They did not come to Washington to sign more deficit expenses.
Simon: Is this bill stopped-is that why the rating agencies-Moody’s voted to strip the United States of his AAA note yesterday?
Elving: In terms of calendar, he certainly seems to do so, but the other two main rating agencies had already made a degraded based on American debt and future deficits. And all of this was long in the making, Scott. We did not accumulate 36 billions of national debts in a budgetary cycle or four or even 10. If you return to the first year, Ronald Reagan was president, the national debt was around 1 Billion. But after that, the previous aversion for big budget deficits year after year has weakened or even disappeared in our two main political parties. The national debt therefore tripled in the 1980s. He took off in the early 2000s. Twice, the major tax reductions were not equaled by restraint. There were wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, we have had a simulated and post-fedest stimulus and, once again, income loss due to tax discounts.
Simon: President Trump put an end to his trip to the Persian Gulf States yesterday, announced many trade agreements, bypass Israel, open relations with the new government in Syria, led by a man a few weeks ago had been sought as a terrorist. And the president said he wanted to reach an agreement with Iran. What has kept you, Ron?
Elving: Trump says that he is bringing transactions back to the United States that will mean billions of dollars in investment here. Not a lot of details on them or the clarity of knowing if they are all new offers, but everyone does it. He is a president focused on transactions. He likes offers, and the royal families of the Persian Gulf speak this language fairly well.
On Iran, Trump allegedly alleged that a kind of agreement could be in preparation, but he added that there was soon to be an agreement or, quotes: “Something bad will happen”. It looks a bit like threats to fire and fury against North Korea eight years ago. And by the way, another agreement attracting a lot of attention, the leading family of Qatar offered Trump a brand new plane to be used as a new Air Force One, then donated to the Trump library after their mandate. Trump said he was inclined to accept this gift and said it would be silly to refuse it.
Simon: He decried what he called foreign interventionary policies of previous administrations. It was an argument of the Liberal Democrats, isn’t it?
Elving: Yes, it did. The slogan of Democrat George McGovern in his 1972 presidential campaign was, quotes: “Come Home, America”. It has long been a central element of the populist creed to question foreign commitments, and the populists had the impression at various times of our main political parties. And you certainly do not need to be an isolationist to ask you what the United States has won in some of its adventures abroad – Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan.
Simon: The revelations continue to detail what they say to be the mental decline of President Biden in the White House. I feel the need to be frank. Did the powerful democrats and the white house staff deliberately leave a man whom they considered unable to fulfill his sworn tasks in the most powerful office in the world so that they can elect a successor?
Elving: reports in these books develop on what was obvious a year ago. Biden was not entirely the man he had been. So was he unable to fulfill his sworn homework? We will probably never know. However, these journalists allege that Biden and the people around him thought that he and they could continue to manage his decline and his duties under oath and the perception of the public. They thought they could protect him and win another mandate and thus manage the succession.
Simon: Ron Elving de NPR. Thank you very much for being with us, as always.
Elving: Thank you, Scott.
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