From Huffington Post:
At a private meeting of conservatives in Cleveland this summer, Donald Trump’s senior economic adviser, Stephen Moore, said the candidate planned to pay for his costly proposals by eliminating the departments of Commerce, Energy and Education; lifting all restrictions on mining, drilling and fracking; ending Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs, and offering rust-belt factory workers new jobs on oil rigs and steel mills.
Speaking at the private summer meeting of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive group of powerful conservatives, Moore, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, also described how Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions had “infiltrated” Trump’s campaign operation, and how Moore and other supply-side economists were working hard to get Trump to be more supportive of free trade…
Personally, I don’t see Trump as in opposition to free trade – I just see him as reasonably suspicious of trade deals which do always seem to work out to higher profits for American corporations and lower employment rates for American citizens. My views are long known on this – I believe in Freedom Trade…free trade with free, democratic nations which having a free press can ensure against cheating (not perfectly, of course, but much better than China’s tyrannical regime allows).
Also long known is my view that we must reduce the size of government and not so much because of government power, but because the way Big Government works out to be a gigantic subsidy machine for the left. The smaller the government, the less money the left has to pursue it’s Progressive goals (and, of course, less chance for Progressives to use government to oppress us). But I’m doubtful of fighting on the hill of the Department of Education right out the gate – that is too easily painted as being “against education”, even though it is nothing of the sort. Now, someone willing to vigorously attack on the issue can, correctly, make out the case that the Department of Education has been directly destructive of education in the United States, but I still wonder at the wisdom of picking that fight right away. On the other hand, picking a fight where you actually are trying to reduce the size of government is a fight worth having – and I note, with great care, that Trump would be the first Presidential candidate since Reagan arguing for a reduction in the size of government – and he’s already staked out a position of protecting Social Security come what may, so the Democrats can’t really use the charge of “Trump wants to starve seniors” with any great effect.
Now, I don’t know how true this all is, nor how committed Trump is to it…but if it is true, it is a political earthquake.
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I have so much respect for Stephen Moore, I will listen to what he says. He is a man of integrity as well as very knowledgeable about economics, and with him as a guide Trump has a good chance to get it right.
It is some good advice – with my reservation about picking a fight with the Department of Education noted. But if Trump does want to give all but a few die-hard Never Trumpers a reason to swing his way, then this sort of economic plan would do the trick.
I too have always liked Stephen Moore, and the whole crew at Heritage for that matter, and this is just another example of Trumps conservative positions that gets over looked. Many of the NeverTrumpers claim that Trump isn’t a conservative but Trump has staked out some positions that are much more conservative than Romney, McCain or the Bush’s ever did. Trump is also pushing school vouchers really hard, promising tax reform, promising to rebuild the military, and of course his border position is more conservative than really any GOPer. My main complaint with the Bush’s were that both of them were really just big government conservatives, and neither Romney nor McCain never really did stake out conservative economic positions.
Re: the nearly dead even polls, considering the possible hidden Trump vote that I think is out there, Trump is up by probably 2 or 3 points. Re: Trump and Putin, I think there is some mutual respect there, but I also think Putin will not at all be so cavalier with a president Trump. I also think that Trump is maybe using a strategy to flatter and soften Putin which can be an effective strategy going into negotiations.
“As president, I will establish the national goal of providing school choice to every American child living in poverty,” Mr. Trump said. “If we can put a man on the moon, dig out the Panama Canal and win two world wars, then I have no doubt that we as a nation can provide school choice to every disadvantaged child in America.”
It is time to expand charter schools. This position has all Democrats worried, particularly the bureaucrats at the Education Dept. and the teachers unions, who have always put their pensions ahead of the children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/politics/donald-trump-education.html?_r=0
When Colorado started its first charter school, the educrats claimed it would fail, that everyone loved public “education” and so on. The first year the new school had parents signing up on a years-long waiting list.
Home schooled children do better on college entrance exams and in college than graduates of public “education”.
The teachers union and Department of Education are right to be worried.