There is a budding enthusiasm in flyover America these days.
Its foundation is a growing belief that America’s economic might will soon be rekindled by a businessman-president. The initial macroeconomic signs are promising. Consumer confidence is up. And a Trump-inspired Wall Street rally has the Dow at record heights.
The construction of the Trump Cabinet has been another breath of fresh air. This group is heavy on relevant experience, private sector success, and conservative values. It is also quite wealthy. Accordingly, mainstream media coverage has been generally hostile. No surprise there. Its agenda of high taxes, high regulation, high pre-emption, high political correctness, and getting high (marijuana legalization) is now on ice. These disconsolate pundits understand their time in the wilderness has arrived.
Yet, President Obama’s final days have served to remind those of us who have been walking around with a smile for the last two months that he remains the contemptuous ultra-left progressive we have so adamantly opposed over the past eight years.
Some of you have been preoccupied with more pleasant tasks such as the Christmas holidays or the lead up to the National Football League playoffs. If so, the following bulletins will serve as an ice bucket over the head of cold reality:
Obama’s six-year ballot-box losing streak has not diminished his passion for federal pre-emption in the least. Accordingly, the soon to be dismissed lefties at the White House and its executive agencies have been working overtime to shove as many new rules down America’s throat as humanly possible.
Some of the major initiatives (shutting down pipelines, a new “permanent” drilling ban in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, and new limits on coal exploration) have garnered headlines — but many others have not. Here’s hoping the new Trump administration will follow its instincts and reject much of this stealthy last-minute rulemaking. We should expect similar close scrutiny of the 250 executive orders, 230 “executive memoranda”, and unknown number of informal “guidance letters” issued by Obama regulators. A pro-growth Congress stands ready to assist, as does a job creation class anxiously awaiting the installation of a president who has signed the front of payroll checks.
The relentless assault on all things Bibi Netanyahu and the State of Israel took one final duplicitous twist with the historic U.S. decision to “abstain” from a United Nations resolution harshly critical of settlement activity in the Palestinian territories. Worse, a number of top Israeli officials believe the Obama administration orchestrated the resolution. U.S. vetoes over the past 36 years had killed similar initiatives, but the man who had unsuccessfully attempted to defeat Netanyahu during his re-election campaign of 2015, and who no longer has to appease Jewish voters, could not pass up one last opportunity to weaken the State of Israel before his favorite anti-American world body. Leftist Israeli haters applauded the treachery. U.S. abandonment of the Jewish state is their goal, but (much) happier times await.
Trump’s election may have generated real consternation in capitals around the world, but not in Israel. No world leader will be happier to see President-elect Trump replace Obama than Bibi Netanyahu.
Who can forget candidate Obama’s relentless campaign assaults on our Guantanamo Bay prison facility? The specialty prison was repeatedly cited as a primary reason why our enemies hate us so much. The importance of the issue led Obama to sign an executive order mandating the facility’s closure on day two of his new administration!
Now fast-forward to today. Obama may be in the homestretch, but expedited departures from Gitmo are clearly on the menu. Only 64 terror detainees remain from the 242 housed at the island fortress when Obama took over. And it now appears the president will release up to 19 additional terrorists to Italy, Oman Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates before leaving office.
Obama, Biden and Kerry have expended plenty of energy in attempting to keep Obama’s original promise. Nevertheless, it now appears a residual population of around 40 will “greet” President-elect Trump.
Intensive tracking by the non-partisan Office of the Director of National Intelligence projects that approximately one-third of the detainees freed under Presidents Bush and Obama are confirmed or believed to have returned to jihad. A not-so-politically-correct Trump administration understands the stakes. The expedited releases need to stop. The American public does not view these terror soldiers as common street criminals. A majority does not want terror soldiers housed in our federal penitentiaries. Gitmo must remain open for the worst-of-the-worst enemy combatants.
The outgoing anti-fossil fuel ideologue in the White House has not been a happy camper. The world is awash in cheap oil, and sales of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles are through the roof. What to do? Well, why not add to your world record of designating western venues as “national monuments” in order to cordon them off from energy development? This deed was accomplished in the post-Christmas announcement wherein an additional 1.6 million acres of southwestern Utah and southern Nevada was declared off limits.
Note that no president has ever revoked a predecessor’s monument designation. Note, also, that one Donald J. Trump does not appear captive to such precedence.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich is a Washington Examiner columnist, partner at King & Spalding and author of three books, including the recently released Turning Point. He was governor of Maryland from 2003 – 2007.
