Republican: Beware the ‘Fiscal Cliff’
“Republicans’ election celebrations” soon must yield to facing the “fiscal cliff,” warns ex-Rep. Jeb Hensarling at The Wall Street Journal. “Key” Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions expire next year as Uncle Sam hits the $26.1 trillion debt ceiling, even as the feds are set to add $5 trillion to debt. And neither stronger growth nor cuts by the new Department of Government Efficiency can fill the hole. Time to target “tax expenditures,” such as for corporate health insurance and those in the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act. Throw in assorted credits, like the deductibility of student-loan interest, and “you begin to unearth a target-rich environment.” To maintain economic growth, Congress will have to cut the budget and outlays like these.
Liberal: Don’s Much-Improved ‘2nd Honeymoon’
“Americans appear likely to look more favorably upon Trump’s second term in office” than the first go-around in 2016, observes The Liberal Patriot’s John Halpin. Many, if not most, support his economic and immigration policies; polls show up to 60% want “to see Trump’s border and deportation plans pursued in 2025 along with his ideas for cutting personal taxes, reducing government spending, and increasing domestic oil drilling.” He’d be wise to prioritize these issues, as his “pro-corporate and nationalist agenda items are viewed as far less of a priority.” If Trump focuses “on the core economic and social priorities” most Americans’ share, he should remain popular. “Too much time and energy on the narrow political obsessions” and “he will quickly lose public support.”
Health beat: How Gov’t-run ‘Care’ Kills
Those arguing to imitate the UK or Canadian “free” health-care systems “are either misinformed or intentionally trying to deceive the public, because government-run health care systems frequently delay or deny needed medical care,” cautions Merrill Matthews at The Hill. Indeed, those “systems have serious problems” — and consequences. When Britain’s National Health Service doctors went on strike in May and June, an estimated “300 to 500 people were dying each week” as a result of delayed care. A Canadian who loses her primary-care doctor can wait “months or even years to be accepted by a new one, which can mean no referrals to a specialist.” Beware: “Delayed care is often denied care.”
Mideast desk: Assad’s Fall & a New ‘Great Game’
“The last time a power vacuum of this magnitude opened up in the Middle East was the fall of the Soviet Union,” notes Commentary’s Seth Mandel. Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, “Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Jordanian King Abdullah cannot wait for the dust to settle.” Turkey’s been “newly empowered” by “territorial gains in the wake of Assad’s fall” made by its proxies. “The U.S. has immediate interests on the ground as well. American troops worked with Kurdish forces against ISIS.” New Syrian supremo “HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani is keeping his options open.” “There is rarely a dull moment in the Middle East, but this moment is unusually frenetic. And no one in the region or among world powers can afford to sit it out.”
From the right: Why Trump Approval Is Sky-High
President-elect Donald Trump’s 55% approval rating “is nothing short of astonishing,” considering he was at 40% eight years ago, cheers Hugh Hewitt at FoxNews. “?‘Not being Biden’ (or Vice President Kamala Harris for that matter) is helping the numbers,” as is the fact that “the majority of Americans aren’t buying what legacy media is selling” anymore. But the real reason is Trump himself. Americans “now have a side-by-side comparison of government under the direction of” Trump vs. Biden. The Donald “is more popular today than ever before because Americans like optimism, and Trump’s not only selling hope, he believes in it.” Combine “the crumbling into dust of the credibility of Trump’s critics and the disasters of the Biden years, and you get 55% instead of 40%.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board