College Republicans Respond to the State of the Union
February 2, 2018
The country, the government and the GOP had a lot to be proud of at this year’s State of the Union. With the economy at all-time highs, ISIS on the run and middle-class Americans bringing home more money than ever, it would be hard not to celebrate a new era of prosperity.
Yet, it seemed as if Democrats could not be bothered. While staying seated for opposing presidential remarks is sadly a mainstay these days, some members of the Democratic party refused to attend. The ones who did attend sat on their hands or phones while the heroic war stories of Coast Guard Agent Ashlee Leppert, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent CJ Martinez or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea defector Ji Seong-ho were celebrated.
The singular focus on derailing the Trump administration has resulted in Democrats losing what is really important: the welfare of the American people. It is their job to improve the lives of their constituents. They are making a conscious decision to do the opposite by actively choosing to shut down the government, temporarily closing the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Education and more.
The new tax law has resulted in millions of employees receiving pay raises and millions of jobs are pouring back into our nation, jobs President Obama swore “were never coming back.”
President Trump’s speech on Tuesday Jan. 30 was a manifestation of the growing partisanship that plagues legislative chambers. More and more it is apparent that party comes before country, a tragedy by any standard.
To have success in the 2018 midterms, Democrats must abandon the ‘doom and gloom’ rhetoric that has plagued their party through years of lost elections. They, to some degree, have to adopt a calculated mix of optimism and national pride. Instead of actively fighting against legislation that is bringing wealth back to their constituencies, they should focus on the future with a fresh agenda and feasible plan of action that includes building people up, not tearing them down. Both sides need to drop this disrespectful mentality. Now is the time for action, for change, for America. We’ve heard the talking points now, and as Trump pointed out, is the time for results.
Esse Em • Feb 5, 2018 at 2:52 pm
Editors: the comments are getting deleted again…
Esse Em • Feb 5, 2018 at 2:39 pm
Hank, I’m not sure how you deduced that I am a HRC supporter. I was expressing my horror that Max and his cohorts can actually publicly support the brain damaged monster who runs the world while watching Fox and Friends as he scarfs down cheeseburgers in bed.
Hank Wordsworth • Feb 5, 2018 at 2:36 am
Esse, my dear fellow classmate, the dems need to field better candidates. Whatever reservations I have about Trump all I need do is imagine Hillary in his stead to counter them. The woman is veritably possessed, satanic. And the observation is not original to me. Believe it or not, I’m quoting a black guy. I’m expecting to see her head spin around on her shoulders any day and spew green vomit. Let her go! Her rich, degenerate Hollywood donors can take care of her. She’s perfectly suited for endless cameos in their horror films. But, please, leave the nation free not to attend.
Esse Em • Feb 3, 2018 at 1:08 pm
Sad. As this mentally ill demagogue destroys civility, truth, the environment, human rights…you sit on your perch at lily-white Wake Forest and celebrate an economy built of straw.
Your hero dogged a porn star while his third wife was post-partum with his fifth child. Oh, and he would be opposed to her immigration, unless his “merit based” immigration scheme values the skills of a nude model/call girl. (Well, actually, that probably would be a favored skill considering his history.) She certainly would not have qualified based upon her fraudulent claim to have an design and architecture degree, which has now been scrubbed from her biography after scrutiny: https://www.snopes.com/melania-trump-architecture-degree/
Your hero also praised white supremacists (clearly you’re not alone in excusing that at Wake), bragged on tape about his ability to grab women’s genitalia, claimed to personally observe celebrating Muslims after 9/11, unilaterally barred transgender troops from the military and has led the country into an unprecedented level of mass stupidity with his attacks on the legitimate media while making clearly proven fallacious claims at a rate of about 7 per day: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.e97899e20c8f
I don’t know your history Max, but if you can’t see that Donald Trump is a demagogue with incredibly weak character, I pity you. Does your Dad brag about grabbing women’s genitalia? Does your uncle have more than a dozen women claiming sexual assault or harassment? Did your grandfather cheat on two wives and then marry an escort? Did he brag about it and then go on Howard Stern and say that the escort had a week to lose the babyfat while he dogged a porn star? Is your family full of dog-whistle racists who call countries with people of color “s-holes” and label African American athletes with sincere and legitimate concern about widespread racism as “b-stards.” On a more absurd note, do your brothers live in luxury in Manhattan but fly to game reserves to shoot caged animals? http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/07/30/16/2AF709B600000578-0-image-a-2_1438268837759.jpg
Who are you? And how did you get this way?
Oh, and as someone who worked as a stockbroker fresh out of Wake in the 80’s before discovering what Wall Street is really about…I actually have some good advice for you in regards to the only thing you seem to care about: buy puts on the S & P.
Esse Em • Feb 3, 2018 at 1:01 pm
Sad. As this mentally ill demagogue destroys civility, truth, the environment, human rights…you sit on your perch at lily-white Wake Forest and celebrate an economy built of straw.
Your hero dogged a porn star while his third wife was postpartum with his fifth child. Oh, and he would be opposed to her immigration, unless his “merit based” immigration scheme values the skills of a nude model/call girl. (Well, actually, that probably would be a favored skill considering his history.) She certainly would not have qualified based upon her fraudulent claim to have an design and architecture degree, which has now been scrubbed from her biography after scrutiny: https://www.snopes.com/melania-trump-architecture-degree/
Your hero also praised white supremacists (clearly you’re not alone in excusing that at Wake), bragged on tape about his ability to grab women’s genitalia, claimed to personally observe celebrating Muslims after 9/11, unilaterally barred transgender troops from the military and has led the country into an unprecedented level of mass stupidity with his attacks on the legitimate media while making clearly proven fallacious claims at a rate of about 7 per day: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.e97899e20c8f
I don’t know your history Max, but if you can’t see that Donald Trump is a demagogue with incredibly weak character, I pity you. Does your Dad brag about grabbing women’s genitalia? Does your uncle have more than a dozen women claiming sexual assault or harassment? Did your grandfather cheat on two wives and then marry an escort? Did he brag about it and then go on Howard Stern and say that the escort had a week to lose the babyfat while he dogged a porn star? Is your family full of dog-whistle racists who call countries with people of color “s-holes” and label African American athletes with sincere and legitimate concern about widespread racism as “bastards.” On a more absurd note, do your brothers live in luxury in Manhattan but fly to game reserves to shoot caged animals? http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/07/30/16/2AF709B600000578-0-image-a-2_1438268837759.jpg
Who are you? And how did you get this way?
Oh, and as someone who worked as a stockbroker fresh out of Wake in the 80’s before discovering what Wall Street is really about…I actually have some good advice for you in regards to the only thing you seem to care about: buy puts on the S & P.
Tom Daly • Feb 3, 2018 at 12:28 pm
Trumps’s SOTU
“Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including
200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone.”
Trump often inflates the number of jobs created under his presidency by
counting Election Day, rather than when he took the oath of office. There have
been about 1.8 million jobs created since January 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s theslowest gain in jobs since 2010, which indicates how well job growth was going before Trump took office.
“After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising
wages.”
Trump once again takes credit for something that began to happen before his
presidency. Wages have been on an upward trend since 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in fact their growth slowed during the first
year of Trump’s presidency. In inflation adjusted dollars 2017 was the lowest increase since 2013
“African American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever
recorded, and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”
This is a flip-flop by Trump. During the 2016 campaign, Trump claimed that
58 percent of African American youths were unemployed. The African American unemployment rate has been on a relatively steady decline since it hit a peak of 16.8 percent in March 2010, during the Great Recession. The rate had already fallen to 7.7percent when Trump took the oath of office — it is now 6.8 percent — so Trump taking credit for this is like a rooster thinking the sun came up because he crowed.
“The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining
$8 trillion in value. That is great news for Americans’ 401(k), retirement,
pension and college savings accounts.”
Trump frequently brags about the rising stock market — he’s done it about
once every three days as president — even though during the 2016 campaign he had said it was “a big fat bubble” that was about to pop.
The U.S. rise in 2017 was not unique. When looking at the Standard &
Poor’s 500-stock index, it’s clear U.S. stocks haven’t rallied quite as
robustly as their foreign equivalents. So it’s hard for Trump to make the case
that his stewardship is making that much of a difference if stocks are doing
better in other developed countries.
In fact, Trump even falls short in comparison to Barack Obama’s first year.
The S&P 500 gained about 33.3 percent from inauguration through Jan. 29
under Obama, compared with 25.5 percent under Trump.
“Just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months
ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history.”
Trump repeatedly claims he passed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history, but
it’s just not true. The best way to compare tax cuts (or spending plans)
over time is to measure them as a percentage of the national economy.
Inflation-adjusted dollars are another option, but a percentage of gross
domestic product helps put the impact of the bill into context. Trump’s tax cut, according to Treasury Department data, is nearly 0.9
percent of GDP — compared to 2.89 percent of GDP for Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Trump’s tax cut is only the eighth-largest — and is even smaller than two of Barack Obama’s tax cuts.
“Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle
class and small businesses.”
Trump is spinning the effects of his tax plan. Most of the benefits in the
tax bill flow to corporations and the wealthy, according to numerous
independent analysts. More than three-quarters of the $1.1 trillion in individual tax cuts will go to people who earn more than $200,000 a year in taxable income, who constitute only about5 percent of all taxpayers, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service
“Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the
United States — something we have not seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan.”
Trump’s timeline is mixed up. Fiat Chrysler is investing $1 billion in a
factory in Michigan, but that plan was in motion before Trump’s election in
2016, according to Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler chief executive.
Marchionne specifically credited talks with the United Auto Workers in 2015,
not Trump. It was Obama that bailed out
Chrysler and GM (which they have since paid back with a profit.)
“We are proud that we do more than any other country to help the
needy, the struggling and the underprivileged all over the world.”
In raw dollars, the United States does contribute more development aid. But
the United States is also richer, so as a percentage of gross national income,
the United States ranks relatively low, according to 2016 figures published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The United States contributed $33.6 billion, followed by Germany with almost
$25 billion. The United States ranked 22nd out of 29 wealthy countries tracked by the organization.