Don's Tuesday Column

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson Red Bluff Daily News   3/09/2021

The circus and sideshows in D.C.

The Big Top showed up—complete with megaphone-wielding “ringmasters,” flame-blowers, phony lion tamers, hobby-horse riders, and the “bringing in of clowns” ad nauseum. Most impressive (and not in a good way) was the arrival of the 250+mule-team straining to deliver the bluster-greeted, bauble-and-trinket festooned, just-so-they-can-say-they-did-it: the $1.9 trillion “COVID relief” bill.

To placate the “animal rights” crowd, the elephants were left out of the performance; the donkeys limited the pachyderms to the role of non-trumpeting observers. What a circus: party-line passage of a legislative and budget monstrosity; the 628-page “American Rescue Plan” amounted to a lot of lipstick on a gargantuan pig.

Local Democrats might be secretly embarrassed and ashamed over it, if they know the minimal relevance to the pandemic and economy. First, experts expect the economy to come back swiftly, given the record strength of the pre-pandemic Trump economy. America needs little “rescuing” beyond ending the wrong-headed “lockdowns” and business restrictions—mostly burdening Democrat-run, blue states.

The 10 best state economies are Republican (plus Vermont), with 3 to 4 percent unemployment; the 10 worst are—no surprise—all Democrat-run with 6 to 7 percent joblessness. The Dems’ solution? Burden future taxpayers with borrowed “COVID relief” $300 weekly unemployment benefits through September, and another $1,400 check per person making under $75,000.

How about removing impediments to job-creating businesses? How does $350 billion sent to blue states—that have over-promised public employee benefits with little hope of fulfillment—do anything but reward irresponsible profligacy at the expense of other states?

Of the $1.9 trillion, only 9 percent (or $170 billion) is “COVID Health Spending.” The rest, over $1.7 trillion: money for Planned Parenthood, bailouts for New York and California, (public employee) unions, artsy-fartsy money, Schumer’s bridge and Pelosi’s train. “In a gross public union kickback, and bribe to betray their kids, fed workers with children in distance learning can get $1400 weekly for as many as 15 weeks” (Rich Baris). States and countries that kept kids in school have shown that neither teachers nor children had much risk.

Unsurprisingly, the first month of Biden/Pelosi/Schumer rule produced only 1) zero legislation; 2) a pointless, failed impeachment charade; 3) job-killing anti-energy cancellation of Keystone pipeline and oil and gas exploration leases; 4) no effective school opening plans; 5) potentially destroyed women’s sports by forcing inclusion of “transgender” boys; 6) return to “open borders” alien floods  (see “The new border chaos: a crisis of Biden’s own making” (Rich Lowry, New York Post);

7) Broken promises regarding overuse of executive orders; 8) broken promise to fire “on the spot…no ifs, ands or buts”—any disrespectful behavior (ref: T.J. Ducklo); 9) ethics hypocrisy as Kamala Harris’ niece, Meena Harris, cashed in on her aunt’s name selling labeled clothing; 10) son Hunter remains under federal investigation.

It’s a continuation of the scandal and pay-to-play patterns Biden perfected as Vice President, under the corrupt nose of: “Meet the New President of the United States…Barack Obama” (W. A. Root, 2/21). Remember: Obama’s Benghazi disaster and lies, “fast and furious” gun-running-to-Mexico scandal, Iran payoff with secret flown cash-on-pallets, financial payoffs to auto worker unions in the rescue package, etc.

Now, “with every move congressional Democrats and President Biden take to dismantle the former president’s legacy, Trump becomes more popular,” as Paul Bedard writes in “Top pollster: Trump’s agenda 'more popular than ever'” (March 3). John McLaughlin, polling CPAC conservatives, found 93 to 99 percent support for: Congress fighting for our conservative agenda; acting aggressively to fight vote fraud and restore election integrity; getting children back to school and opening the economy.

Conservative Republicans believe that the Washington establishment thinks itself better than ordinary people; that Joe Biden doesn’t have the mental capacity to be president (as his last remarks about the COVID relief bill suggest); and that Trump’s policies on the economy, immigration and “America First” were successful.

In “Parallel Worlds” (powerlineblog.com, 2/26), polling by Kristen Soltis Anderson reveals the top Democrat and Republican voter concerns. To summarize, Democrat concerns—“problems for the country”—are largely fanciful: “Donald Trump’s supporters,” “White nationalism,” “Systemic racism,” and “Gun violence.”

They mostly don’t know, nor have been hurt by, Trump supporters; neither they, myself or any Republicans that I know, have ever met a “white nationalist”; while racists exist, there is no “systemic racism”; outside of gangs and criminals, gun violence is irrelevant to most voters.

Other largely inconsequential “problems” Dems obsess over: Domestic terrorism, police brutality, “LBGTQ” discrimination, sexism, voter suppression and student debt. If news media says it; they believe it.

Republicans, however, point to actual life-and-economy-threatening concerns: illegal immigration, lack of support for police, high taxes, media liberal bias, general moral decline, socialism, antifa violence, China, third trimester abortion and tech giants censoring Americans.

A poll by USA Today found support for Black Lives Matter movement has dropped to 50 percent; trust and support for local police and law enforcement has risen to 69 percent. However, those numbers are reversed among Black Americans; it’s unfortunate because the BLM agenda does no good for Black (or any) Americans.

Hence, Biden and the Dems have embraced the radicalism of the BLM agenda and the outlandish elements of the BREATH Act: defunding private prisons, forcing high-density housing into suburbs, and advancing “Critical Race Theory” in government; those are just the least radical parts that the Biden Democrats openly support.

It’s not about civil rights or police brutality; it’s about decriminalizing prostitution, sex trafficking, gang-related offenses and failure to pay child support; abolishing I.C.E., using tax dollars for abortions; and teaching school kids that America is evil. Martin Luther King would roll over in his grave at these sideshows.