Schumer: Trump is playing a dangerous game with health care
Democratic leadership talks health care replacement
If you don’t succeed at first, fail and fail again. Democratic congressional leaders who seem to be pursuing that strategy trotted out a series of failed solutions Monday to problems that only worsened under the Obama administration. They mislabeled their absurd plan “A Better Deal.”
If truth-in-labeling laws applied to political slogans, the Democrats would have to rename their new game plan “An Awful Deal.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were joined by other top Democrats at a news conference in tiny Berryville, Va., in a laughable effort to show that big-city Democrats really and truly care about ordinary Americans and not just far-left elites.
But instead of coming up with effective and workable policies, the mislabeled Better Deal is the same old collection of anti-business, anti-growth, anti-job policies that guided the Obama White House and that resulted in eight years of sluggish economic growth and stagnant family incomes.
Rather than recycling tired old ideas that are proven failures, Democrats should put the interests of our country ahead of their partisan sniping and reflexive opposition to whatever President Trump and the Republican majority in Congress try to accomplish.
These are the same worthless policies that Hillary Clinton foolishly promised to pursue, and that voters rejected in November. Putting a 2017 spin on those failed ideas doesn’t make them better. It’s like putting a new case on a Samsung Galaxy 7; you still wouldn’t want it in your pocket.
In addition to doubling down on past mistakes, Schumer and Pelosi’s plan hops aboard ideas that have propelled the Trump Train – like the president’s promised trillion-dollar infrastructure program, reworking trade agreements, job training and Ivanka Trump’s push for paid sick leave. Give the Dems high marks for political acumen, but low marks for originality.
The Democrats’ new plan filled with old ideas puts government bureaucrats in charge. In a New York Times op-ed Monday announcing the Democratic reboot, Schumer says he wants to “increase people’s pay” and extols the virtues of more than doubling the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Raising the minimum wage – particularly so dramatically – is an idea that has been discredited in actual practice, as any first-year economics student should know. Drive up the cost of labor and – surprise! – you get less demand for it.
Recent studies of minimum wage hikes in Seattle by the University of Washington and the National Bureau of Economic Research confirm this. Naturally, unions and Democratic activists around the country have come up with many reasons why this actual real-world result isn’t nearly as compelling as a bunch of ivory-tower theoretical studies. They should be ashamed.
It is untrained entry-level workers, millions of students, and stay-at-home moms who want to work part-time who will be hurt by the push for higher minimum pay. Employers will invariably respond by cutting the size of their workforce and cutting the number of hours worked, turning to automation and outsourcing to replace American workers.
The Democrats’ other Big Idea is to attack corporate America. They want voters to blame businesses – not Obama’s harmful policies -- for our woes. This is yet another prescription for failure.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon explained the absurdity of the anti-business jihad that so many Democrats embrace when he spoke on an earnings conference call earlier this month. Dimon said he had recently visited France, Argentina, Israel and Ireland, and spoken with the prime ministers of India and China. “It's amazing to me that every single one of these countries understands that practical policies that promote business and growth is good for the average citizens of this countries, for jobs and wages, and that somehow, this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it," Dimon said.
Obama’s anti-business posture, echoed in the Democrats’ new platform, hurt the country and hurt job creation. How can Democrats deny it, when even the prospect of lower corporate taxes and lighter regulation under President Trump caused the World Bank to raise its growth expectations for the United States. Why do they think the stock market keeps hitting new highs?
Rather than recycling tired old ideas that are proven failures, Democrats should put the interests of our country ahead of their partisan sniping and reflexive opposition to whatever President Trump and the Republican majority in Congress try to accomplish.
Imagine what our country could do if Democrats began to partner with the GOP to Make America Great Again. Now, that would really be a Better Deal.
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