Liz Peek: Republicans, don’t reward Democrats for their bad behavior -- vote in November!

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Democrats in fear of another election 'disaster'?

Republicans hoping for a 2016 repeat on the heels of the Kavanaugh confirmation.

There are two big reasons Republicans need to vote on November 6. First, President Trump has just begun to reverse eight years of Obama’s liberal folly. We need to keep the Trump Train rolling. Second, Democrats must not be rewarded for their bad behavior.

The Trump White House has accomplished a great deal over the past 22 months. Tax reform has made American businesses more competitive with their rivals overseas and made the U.S. a more attractive place to invest. The GOP tax bill also lowered taxes for middle-class Americans, allowing them to keep a bigger share of their hard-earned dollars.

The White House has also rolled back hundreds of costly regulations, freeing up funds for growth and innovation. Among the Obama-era rules that have been eliminated is the Clean Power Act, which threatened higher energy prices for all Americans and a vast reordering of our highly efficient power industries. Others, like those impacting federal lands, simply gave authority back to the people and their elected officials, and rightly so.

AS MIDTERM ELECTIONS APPROACH, REPUBLICANS MUST DO THIS

Most importantly, the White House has appointed two Supreme Court judges, 29 circuit court judges and 53 district court judges. These additions are a welcome down payment on rebalancing our liberal judiciary.

None of these things could have happened without the support of Congress. Legislators have played a critical role in confirming conservative judges, reversing some Obama-era rules and rewriting our tax code. If Democrats take control of the House or, heaven forbid, both the House and the Senate, the Trump Train will go off the rails. The country cannot afford to let that happen; there is still too much to do.

For instance, health care. The first year of the Trump presidency was clouded by the failure of Republicans in Congress to repeal and replace ObamaCare, but they did manage to abolish the individual mandate, arguably the least popular aspect of the bill.  Much more remains to be done. 

Democrats have lied about the GOP tax cuts, lied about Brett Kavanaugh’s record, lied about health care, lied about Trump’s connections to Russia and so much more.

Protecting ObamaCare is the Democrats’ signature issue in this election cycle, as they combat voters giving Republicans credit for the booming economy. They have accused the GOP of wanting to eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions and gut Medicaid. Republicans have given them this opening.

The GOP needs to respond by talking up the “association health plans” that became available starting September 1 and also the cheaper short-term plans now being offered. The first program allows small businesses and self-employed people the opportunity to band together to buy insurance, taking advantage of the cost savings available to larger groups. The plans can be sold across state lines, which will further reduce costs. The second program saves people money by sensibly shrinking the number of ObamaCare mandates; healthy males, for instance, do not need maternity or drug-treatment benefits.

We need more innovation of this sort, and more inclusion of the private sector.  Even though ObamaCare rates will rise only an estimated 3.3 percent next year, for many Americans the coverage is still too expensive.

Next up is further deregulation. President Obama enacted 3,853 (or a record 97,000 pages) of rules in his 8 years at bat. When he left office, there were an additional 2,391 regulations pending. Because Obama did not have a compliant Congress, he ruled by fiat; in 2016 alone there were 18 rules issued for every law that was passed.

Anyone who has tried to start a new business or build a building knows the toll that red tape can take; many think the virus-like regulatory creep is one reason why entrepreneurship in the U.S. has dropped off. We cannot afford to let that happen.

And, there are more judgeships to fill. Senate Majority Leader McConnell has rightly made these appointments a priority, as legislating from the bench has ballooned.

While tax reform, regulatory relief and sending more conservatives to serve on federal courts topped Trump’s to-do list, they are not the only challenges facing this country.  As hundreds of Hondurans march towards the U.S. southern border, we are reminded that our immigrations laws are a mess. That U.S. officials cannot prevent people from streaming into our country is appalling.  It is equally appalling that most will disappear from view, failing to show up for court hearings, relegated to the shadows and encouraged by liberal “sanctuary” policies that make a mockery of the rule of law.

The battle over immigration policy has nothing to do with tolerance or generosity. The United States will always be, as it has been, a beacon of hope for peoples oppressed around the world, who apply for and enter the country legally. But our porous borders must be protected and our laws obeyed.

We also need to change our admission policies, giving priority to those highly qualified individuals who can make a meaningful contribution to our country.

We need Congress, led by Republicans, to finally confront this issue.  In their push for Hispanic votes, Democrats have adopted absurd positions on this topic, effectively conflating legal and illegal immigration. They no longer deserve a seat at the table.

Immigration and health care are two big domestic challenges facing the country that demand real fixes, not political pandering. There are others, like mending our failing public education system, that Republicans alone can address.

There are also numerous international challenges, including China’s egregious theft of intellectual property, North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and Iran’s regional misbehavior. The White House is standing up to these adversaries, with the backing of Congress. Nothing could be more damaging to our standing in the world than to have Trump’s more muscular approach undermined by a Democratic Congress.

Republicans need to vote in the midterms to signal their support for all these initiatives. They also need to signal their disgust with the obstruction and deceit of Democrats who have lied about the GOP tax cuts, lied about Brett Kavanaugh’s record, lied about health care, lied about Trump’s connections to Russia and so much more.

While Democrats continue to march and scream and threaten, all because they cannot and will not accept the outcome of the 2016 election, Republicans must show they are the adults in the room, ready to move the nation forward. Ready to advance the Trump Train, which is just gaining steam.

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