Category: Domestic Policy

2022 Election, Domestic Policy, Infrastructure, Politics

2022 American Nationalist Voting Index – A Strong America

Bob Claude |

The USS Theodore Roosevelt is a proud symbol of American strength and the selfless service of our armed forces in preserving our freedom. However, a nation’s true strength is found in the commitment of its people to their fellow citizens and their nation as a whole. This is doubly true of the America of TR, who stood for both democracy and equal opportunity for all. While it was often an ugly process, Congress actually considered and occasionally passed legislation consistent with TR’s ideals and deserved the support of American nationalists.

Congressional Gold Medals for Capitol Police

This Congress convened amidst an attack by a rebellious mob that came perilously close to overthrowing a newly elected president during the certification of the electoral count. The Capitol Police bore the brunt of the attack and defended congressmembers with conspicuous bravery. The House and Senate recognized their service to the nation by voting to award them Congressional Gold Medals.The Senate vote was unanimous and the House roll call vote can be found here:

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2021161

Every true American nationalist should agree and salute them as well.

Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

We have lived with the decline in our national transportation infrastructure for decades. As I discussed in this previous post, Congress finally took action when it passed the Infrastructure and Jobs Act (HR 3684) more commonly known as the Bipartisan infrastructure bill. The links to the House and Senate Votes are

House Vote : https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2021369

Senate Vote: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00314.htm

CHIPS Act

The COVID pandemic exposed dangerous gaps in the supply chains of our basic industrial materials and human needs products.  The shortage of domestically produced computer semiconductor chips that are key components of almost every product led to the passage of the CHIPS Act (HR 4346), which will jump start the production of them in the US. The bill also makes important investments in research and technology education. Here are the links to the votes in the House and Senate:

House Vote ; https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022404

Senate Vote – https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00271.htm

Economic Security

Congress voted on several other bills to address supply chain shortages threatening our economy. HR 4476 would have created an Office of Trade & Economic Security in the Department of Homeland Security charged with monitoring critical supply chains and coordinating a response to potential issues.  It passed the House but died in the Senate. The House vote can be found here:

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022112

Finally, the House and Senate considered a bill called the America COMPETES Act, a predecessor to the CHIPS Act which would have created a Committee on National Critical Capabilities to monitor and prevent the transfer of vital American technology to China and other foreign adversaries. The bill passed in both Houses of Congress, but differences in the text were never resolved. The two votes can be found here:

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202231

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00109.htm

Conclusion

Theodore Roosevelt was a paragon of personal resilience and knew America needed to be resilient to be a truly strong (see this previous post). As we head to the polls, let us reject many politicians calls to division and ease and, instead, recommit ourselves to building the nation and the people that TR envisioned. Remember to vote and God bless America!

Domestic Policy, Environment, Uncategorized

Climate Change Realism

Bob Claude |

The debate over climate change policy has historically been dominated by globalist proposals that impose a crushing socioeconomic burden on the United States and weaken us by endangering our energy reliability.  Meanwhile, China, Russia, and the developing countries of the global south would continue to prioritize strengthening their economies and national power even at the cost shamelessly increasing their carbon emissions. As I discussed in this post, the American nationalist approach of Theodore Roosevelt would balance environmental responsibility, national security, and economic fairness to achieve realistic carbon reductions as well as the necessary adaptations to the changing climate.

The (unfortunately misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act recently negotiated by Sen. Joe Manchin and Democratic Senate leadership is a step in the right direction despite its various flaws. It appropriates $380 billion over ten years to spur production and installation of clean energy technology,  as opposed to the original budget-busting $1.78 trillion of President Biden’s Build Back Better proposal. At the same time, it contains tax credits for nuclear power and clean hydrogen.  It also recognizes that oil and gas must remain part of the energy mix for now by opening up off-shore and federal lands for drilling (for an in-the-weeds analysis of the energy provisions, see this link to one law firm’s analysis).

There is, however, a cost.  To be at least deficit-neutral, it primarily relies on the following revenue and tax increases:

Authorizing Medicare to negotiate and purchase certain prescription drugs in bulk for Medicare drug plans

Creating a 15% minimum corporate income tax

Strengthening IRS enforcement efforts

Imposing a new fee on excess emissions of methane from oil and gas facilities

Tightening the loophole that taxes investment manager’s income at capital gains rates instead of ordinary income rates.

All of these are welcome changes in tax and spending policy in and of themselves. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the legislation will result in a small 155 billion reduction in the budget deficit over the next ten years.  

The bill could have been better in two ways.  While it imposes domestic content and prevailing wage requirements on clean energy producers, a more robust tariff to support domestic producers and prevent Chinese predatory pricing should have been added. As even the New York Times admits, the bill also allocates far too little to expanding and modernizing the transmission grid to support large scale energy projects so important to achieving energy reliability. Indeed, it seems to favor rooftop solar and other forms of distributed generation over central generation such as nuclear and gas-fired generation and wind farms that provide crucial backup generation.  The Biden Administration has promised Sen. Manchin that the permitting process for such projects will be streamlined to encourage transmission projects in future legislation. 

Nevertheless, the bill meets Roosevelt’s sobering realism expressed above by beginning the process of reducing carbon emissions here at home, but not at the price of economic dislocation or strategic weakness.  Much more needs to be done, especially in the realm of climate adaptation.  However, America would retain the leadership in environmental stewardship that TR established while refraining from sacrificing its strength.  This is the kind of national responsibility he would have enthusiastically supported.

Domestic Policy, Government

A Constitution By the People and for the People

Bob Claude |

I have not previously commented on social issues like abortion because they are so divisive in a world where national unity is a key element of strategic strength. Personally, I am a practicing Roman Catholic and am pro-life on the issue. However, as an attorney, it has been heartbreaking to see the division over this issue corrupt the judicial nominating process.  The branch of the federal government once called “the least dangerous” now mirrors our divisions instead of healing them.

The Supreme Court’s Dobbs opinion feeds this polarization by punting a fundamental human rights issue to the vagaries of federal, state and local politics.  It overrules Roe v. Wade on the theory that the right to an abortion and indeed, the question of when life begins, is not deeply rooted in the concept of American due process and human rights and thus protected by the 14th Amendment.  The majority opinion rules it is thus “time to heed the Constitution” and return these issues to the states.

Herein lies the one concept on which pro-life and pro-choice activists can both oppose; namely, that the question of when human life is entitled to protection should be allowed to differ from state to state.  This is a fundamental national value enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and protected by the due process clause of the Constitution.  Instead, the definition of this right will now be subject to the whims of state legislatures, which can change the definition after each election. At the same time, pro-choice advocates are pushing a federal stature legalizing abortion nationwide even though it also could be repealed by a subsequent Congress. Many states will continue to offer liberal abortion services and structures are now being developed to allow women from anti-abortion states to travel to those states to obtain one. In the end, the rate of abortions may change little because of this opinion.

The Constitution provides a nationalist solution to this dangerous political chaos – a constitutional amendment creating a national standard.  If the pro-life movement had put its energy since Roe into evangelizing for such an amendment instead of trying to reshape the courts, we might now have one that bans abortion nationwide.  Conversely, the pro-choice movement also could propose a constitutional amendment overruling Dobbs and legalizing abortion nationwide. The adoption of either amendment would require supermajorities at both the federal and state levels. Thus, the eventual solution would have to be supported by a broad consensus achieved through an open democratic process rather than judicial fiat. Each would clearly involve a period of intense debate, but the eventual solution would have more legitimacy in the eyes of the American people. 

As Theodore Roosevelt says above, the Constitution was designed to insure that, in the end, the American people always had the last word. The constitutional amendment process is an integral part of the checks-and-balances system designed to insure it reflects the fundamental values of the American people.  It has been used several times in the past to overrule Supreme Court rulings.  If the issue of abortion must be addressed through the democratic process as suggested by the Supreme Court’s opinion, the two sides should concentrate on building the support necessary to propose and adopt an amendment that reflects their position.  This is the best way to achieve a resolution of the issue in a way that also preserves our unity in the long run.