Trump’s OMB Pick Shares Vision on Social Security, Regulation

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., appeared before the United States Senate Committee on the Budget Tuesday to share how he will reform entitlement programs and regulations, should he be confirmed by the Senate as the next director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In his opening statement, Mulvaney said that the Office of Management and Budget has likely been falling short on its duties to oversee entitlements and regulations.

“I think the law currently requires OMB to do a retrospective analysis of regulations, and it’s probably been falling short on that,” Mulvaney said.

During the hearing, Mulvaney stressed the importance of reforming entitlement programs in order to save them for future generations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Mulvaney about his intentions to “save” the Social Security program.

“Would you agree with me that for younger workers, they may have to work longer when they enter the program to save the program?” Graham asked.

Mulvaney said that he has told his children to “prepare for exactly that.”

Graham also questioned Mulvaney about his vision for other entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Mulvaney said that failing to take action on these programs is not an option.

“If we do nothing, then by the time I retire, there will be an across-the-board 22 percent cut to Social Security benefits,” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney said that he would not be advocating cuts to Social Security benefits for the elderly.

“I don’t think that any proposal that … that I would take to the president, should I be confirmed, would suggest that we touch folks anywhere who are already—I’m not making my parents go back to work, they’re 74 years old,” Mulvaney said.

If the Social Security program is not reformed, Mulvaney said that individuals will not receive the full benefits of the program.

“Without changing the current Social Security program, a 40-year-old today will receive roughly 77 percent of what they have been promised for their adult life,” Mulvaney said.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., questioned Mulvaney about the future of Social Security and its implications on being available to young people.

“To continue to suggest that we do not have to do anything here is just being dishonest to the young people … Is that fair?” Toomey asked.

Mulvaney said that Toomey’s estimation was “correct” and stressed that in order to fix the program, people will have to work more hours in order to close the budget gap in Social Security.

“It would require, I think, one of the proposals would require a need to work an extra couple of months before I retire … ” Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney also stressed the importance of reforming government regulations.

He said that Trump is committed to significantly reign in regulatory programs.

“My very distinct impression, from working with the transition team, is that regulatory reform is going to be an absolute priority for this president,” Mulvaney said. “In fact, I think you saw him mention yesterday that he wants to cut 75 percent of the regulations. He is absolutely dead serious about this.”

Mulvaney expressed confidence in the dedication to reforming regulation, stating that he believes Trump to be “the first person to campaign for president on regulatory reform since Ronald Reagan.”

“I have some plans or ideas of how we could help to [reform regulation], but I absolutely believe that you will see this be a priority for President Trump,” Mulvaney said.

In mid-December, Trump, then-President-elect, announced Mulvaney as his choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Republican leaders have expressed confidence in Mulvaney to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said that Mulvaney would do a “great” job in the leadership role.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Budget, said in a statement released Tuesday that he is “pleased that President Trump has nominated a fiscal conservative for this key post” and expressed faith in Mulvaney’s ability to “reform the broken budget process.” (For more from the author of “Trump’s OMB Pick Shares Vision on Social Security, Regulation” please click HERE)

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Trump Signs ‘Mexico City Policy’ Banning Foreign Aid-Supported Abortions

President Donald Trump on “Day One” of his presidency signed an executive order restoring the so-called “Mexico City Policy,” which requires all foreign non-governmental organizations that receive federal funding to refrain from performing or promoting abortion services.

Ronald Reagan first established the broader policy 33 years ago, which built on a 50-year-old law banning USAID from providing funds to any nongovernmental organization providing a number of services — including abortion.

Called the “global gag rule” by critics, the policy has been lifted or reinstated by presidents since Reagan, depending on whether the president was a Republican or a Democrat. Bill Clinton lifted the policy in 1993, George W. Bush reinstated in 2001 and Barack Obama pulled it during his first term as president.

Under the policy, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) will lose federal funding. Alison Marshall, the director of advocacy for IPPF, estimates that the abortion organization will lose approximately $100 million over a period of two to three years.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the only woman remaining on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she has a legislative plan in place now that President Trump moved forward with restoring the policy. Shaheen is also worried that President Trump will gut gender equality programs, among other “liberal social policies.” Calling the move to reinstate the Mexico City policy “short-sighted,” Shaheen said that “Abolishing those programs is antithetical here in our democracy.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that it was “time to take a hard look at women’s aid programs,” reported Foreign Policy. “The State Department is trying to basically get countries who receive foreign assistance to sign up for a liberal agenda,” said Graham. He added that under the Obama administration, “It’s been out of control.”

In addition to his action on the Mexico City Policy, President Trump signed executive orders withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and freezing federal workforce hiring. President Trump exempted the military from the hiring freeze. (For more from the author of “Trump Signs ‘Mexico City Policy’ Banning Foreign Aid-Supported Abortions” please click HERE)

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Trump Just Kept 3 Major Campaign Promises. Here’s What You Need to Know.

On day one of his first week in office, President Trump kept several campaign promises in a series of executive orders issued Monday.

The first executive order was the fulfillment of a long-standing campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

“Great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump said as he signed the order at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

Secondly, President Trump instituted a federal hiring freeze on all federal workers, excluding the military. This policy was the second point in the president’s “Contract with the American Voter.”

Thirdly, the president reinstated the Mexico City abortion rule – a rule that requires foreign non-governmental organizations to not provide or promote abortion services if they receive funds from the U.S. government. The rule was put in place by President Ronald Reagan, and President Obama overturned it in his first week in office in 2009. Now that President Trump has undone what the Obama administration did, hundreds of millions of dollars used for international family planning funds will no longer go to organizations that promote abortions.

Hopefully, President Trump’s actions on federal hiring and on funding for abortion signal that his administration will be serious in his campaign’s commitment to reducing the size of government and to the pro-life cause.

Conservatives should be encouraged by today’s executive actions and look forward to ensuring the president fulfills the rest of his campaign promises. (For more from the author of “Trump Just Kept 3 Major Campaign Promises. Here’s What You Need to Know.” please click HERE)

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I Was Trapped on a Train with Smug ‘Women’s March’ Feminists. This Is What I Overheard.

After spending a busy inauguration week in D.C., I couldn’t have been more ready to board the train home to New York City. As I waited at Union Station, I felt the adrenaline leaving my system, and began to notice how completely drained I was.

The task that took the greatest toll on me, I realized, was covering the Women’s March on Washington Saturday. Beyond the normal fatigue that comes after writing, tweeting, and Facebook Live-ing for hours on end, the Women’s March left me feeling less satisfied and more desperate … and even angry.

After boarding I observed, to my dismay, that the train from D.C. to Penn Station was packed with Women’s March attendees — a horde of smug feminists, some still carrying signs and sporting their pink “pussy” hats. There was one exception: a college-age girl wearing a “Make America Gay Again” hat.

I tried to continue listening to music and scrolling through the news on my phone, but my attention kept straying to the conversations around me.

One teenage girl was reading an article aloud to her mother, sharing how “cute” and “awesome” it was that former Secretary of State John Kerry spent his “first day off” walking his dog through the Women’s March in D.C.

I overheard a man talking on the phone (rather loudly), giddily discussing all the speakers he saw at the march. He gushed over Gloria Steinem, who co-chaired the event. I tried not to giggle, recalling how the feminist icon bemoaned a male-dominated society in the speech she delivered Saturday:

“God may be in the details, but the goddess is in connections. We are at one with each other, we are looking at each other, not up. No more asking daddy.”

A middle-aged woman sitting across the aisle from me with her tween son sipped red wine while explaining to an older woman nearby how she had a “great time,” but regretted not being able to meet up with her “friends from Planned Parenthood.”

I witnessed others catching up on Instagram and Facebook posts, adding the occasional triumphant remark about “making history,” “speaking out,” “sending a message to Trump,” or “impeachment.”

“Oh my gosh,” I thought to myself. “These people really feel like they’ve turned the country on its head.”

After what felt like the longest three-and-a-half hours of my life, we had arrived. I exited the train and hopped on an elevator with four other women. An older woman, with short, spiked hair, turned around to ask everyone if we were coming from the march.

“YES!” two pink-hatted women responded immediately, beaming with satisfaction. I remained silent, but the woman who inquired gave us all a big thumbs-up.

My ride on the Mutual Affirmation Train was like attending the March on Washington all over again: Crowds of like-minded, mostly white urban women celebrating how “strong,” “educated,” and “virtuous” they all are. I felt like the undercover conservative, harboring secrets I was sure none of these individuals were interested in hearing.

In her speech Saturday, Gloria Steinem cited “violence against females in the world” as to why there are “fewer females than males” alive today. As the crowd roared, I thought to myself, “She had to have meant abortion, right? Does she hear what she’s saying? Do these protesters?” I’m certain that I was alone in my thinking.

I am just as offended by Trump’s derogatory “pussy” comment as anyone else. But an average bystander watching the Women’s March participants — reading their signs and t-shirts, seeing their costumes, and hearing their chants — would reasonably conclude that feminists aren’t offended by the profane; they’re utterly obsessed with it.

This weekend, I stepped into the alternative universe that is the Left’s reality. There, everyone agrees with everyone, and even when they lose, they win. Lack of self-reflection and critical thought is pervasive. It’s how I imagine an insane asylum feels.

Needless to say, I’m happy the march is over. I’ve never felt so keenly aware of how broken our culture is — with hundreds of thousands of militant women around the world boldly asserting their right to kill unborn children, threatening any man or women who dares to stand in their way. How confidently did they assume that no reasonable person would object to their noble cause. How wrong they were. (For more from the author of “I Was Trapped on a Train with Smug ‘Women’s March’ Feminists. This Is What I Overheard.” please click HERE)

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GOP Squishes Dig Their Heels in against President Trump’s Budget Cuts

President Trump’s team is seeking “dramatic” cuts to government spending. If you voted for the president and for Republicans in Congress with the belief that they would support an agenda to reduce the size of government, you are likely thrilled with this news.

The plan being considered by the newly inaugurated president would reduce federal spending by an estimated $10.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

But it could run into a wall of opposition in the GOP-controlled Congress.

Several Republican senators are voicing opposition to provisions in Trump’s plan that would cut their favorite pet-spending projects.

For example, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (F, 33%) told The Hill that eliminating the Legal Services Corporation – a move that would save $400 million – would not get through the Senate.

“I think that would be hard thing to do. Even if you wanted to do that, you couldn’t get it through the Senate,” he said.

President Trump’s plan closely resembles proposals from the Heritage Foundation and from the Republican Study Committee. According to The Hill, Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska (F, 20%) will “pull out all the stops” to oppose any cut to the essential air service program, a subsidy for rural airports in areas with low populations that the Heritage Foundation and RSC propose to end.

Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. (F, 15%) unapologetically dismissed cuts to discretionary spending as a means of tackling the debt. “Any effort to balance the budget by cutting discretionary spending is not a straightforward approach,” he said. “The part of the budget that is creating the debt is the entitlement part of the budget.”

While it is true that entitlement programs are the largest drivers of the near-$20 trillion debt, President Trump has previously indicated that he has no interest in touching entitlement spending.

“I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump told The Daily Signal in 2015. “Every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. (F, 28%) has pledged to fight the elimination of a catfish inspection program the Heritage Foundation argues is redundant and ripe with government waste. The Mississippi Republican, whose home state is the nation’s leading producer of catfish, said ending the program “would be a problem and wouldn’t save any money.”

The long story short is that given the president of the United States opposes reigning in entitlement programs, any cuts to come from this administration must come from discretionary spending. And while Republicans can talk a great game on government spending on the campaign trail, once they’re in office, no one wants to end their personal favorite pork projects.

If President Trump is serious about cutting government spending, he’s going to have to fight for every penny. (For more from the author of “GOP Squishes Dig Their Heels in against President Trump’s Budget Cuts” please click HERE)

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The Start of a New U.S.-Israel Relationship? President Trump Invites Netanyahu to DC

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington, D.C., in February to meet with President Donald Trump.

President Trump extended the invitation to the prime minister during a telephone conversation that took place on Sunday, a conversation that Netanyahu described as “very warm” in a Facebook post.

“The Prime Minister expressed his desire to work closely with President Trump to forge a common vision to advance peace and security in the region, with no daylight between the United States and Israel,” the post reads.

Among the issues discussed between the two leaders were the nuclear deal with Iran, peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and “other issues.”

Late Sunday the White House confirmed reports that the Trump administration is in the “beginning stages” of discussing a plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Israeli news earlier cited an unnamed source that said the president’s team would make an announcement regarding their plans for the embassy move on Monday.

A White House statement made no indication that the two leaders discussed the embassy over the phone.

“The President emphasized that peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties, and that the United States will work closely with Israel to make progress towards that goal.” (For more from the author of “The Start of a New U.S.-Israel Relationship? President Trump Invites Netanyahu to DC” please click HERE)

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President Trump Could Build Bridges to Some of His Reasonable Critics

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”

So spoke Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, to the seceding South. Even in that late moment of national division, a man who would go on to be perhaps the greatest of all presidents sought to bring healing to a broken country.

It is time for President Trump to do the same.

Seeking Healing After Division

The recent “women’s march” in Washington represents the profound fissures running through our republic. Of course, the “march” was a rally, and represented only some women. Those believing unborn children possess sufficient dignity to merit the right to life — in other words, about half of the women of the country — were excluded publicly and deliberately.

I am not suggesting that the President extend to Gloria Steinem an invitation to the Oval Office. She is so ideologically rigid that finding common ground with her would be a waste of time. Rather, there are many women in the nation who need to hear President Trump talk thoughtfully about his commitment to providing economic opportunity for disadvantaged women and ensuring that their children get a healthy, hope-filled start in life.

If President Trump shows by his demeanor and his tone that he cares about serving not only his supporters but even his most vociferous critics, he might win some good will from his more reasonable critics.

Additionally, if he meets with leaders willing to work with him on issues of mutual concern — sentencing reform, support for Israel, fighting human trafficking, and rebuilding our inner cities are a few that come to mind — he could help dissipate the genuine fear of many who did not support him.

When All You Can Do is Pray

At the same time, there are those who use the pretext of political opposition for mere thuggery. These were the people who destroyed storefronts and set fire to the American flag in the streets of American cities the day of the inauguration.

Seeing a flag that represents liberty, justice, hope, and human dignity burned by people so cowardly that they hide behind facemasks is enraging. It reminds me of Margaret Thatcher’s remark that the veneer of civilization is very thin. They are tearing that veneer, and they deserve whatever legal justice affords them.

It was hard not to take their activities personally, as two of the stores they vandalized — the Atrium Café and the 7th Street NW Starbucks — are places I patronized regularly when I worked for over seven years at the Family Research Council, which is only about a block away from each restaurant in downtown D.C. I had many good lunches and coffees with interns, colleagues, and friends at these places and got to know some of their employees on a first-name basis.

The Atrium Café is owned by Korean immigrants and staffed largely by Latinos. These are hard-working people who deserve respect and appreciation, not shattered glass and threat-filled screams. The black-clad phonies who decried President Trump’s “fascism” are the moral descendants of Mussolini’s “blackshirts,” the collation of disaffected brutes that helped him retain power in Italy.

With such persons, outreach by the new President would be pointless. So it is with such ludicrous, self-parodying “celebrities” as Madonna and the sad proponents of radical sexual autonomy (“Abortion on Demand and Without Apology” is their doxology). Such persons need prayer and personal compassion, not political dialog.

Trump’s Opportunity

Yet there are many well-intended Americans troubled by President Trump’s personal history and often inflammatory pronouncements. They might be won over, or at least disabused of their wariness.

To this end, the President has a tremendous opportunity. He can assure them that he and they must not be enemies, but friends. He can speak to their hopes and dreams, hopes and dreams common to all Americans, as he did eloquently in his inaugural address when he said, “Whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their hearts with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator.”

All decent Americans — and that number vastly exceeds the small number of pathetic criminals who immolated the flag and destroyed property — can identify with these things. President Trump must seize the opening days of his term in office to identify himself with these ideals and the people who share them.

As Mr. Lincoln said so long ago, “Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” (For more from the author of “President Trump Could Build Bridges to Some of His Reasonable Critics” please click HERE)

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‘America First’ Donald Trump Acts to Save Nonwhite, Foreign Babies

It might seem counterintuitive: One of President Donald Trump’s first actions in office, on the Monday morning after he was inaugurated, was to act in defense of foreigners — most of them yellow, black, or brown. As LifeSiteNews reports, President Trump

signed an executive order today reinstating the “Mexico City Policy” banning government funding of foreign pro-abortion groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

A cultural political football, the policy was first enacted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and was maintained by President George H.W. Bush until it was rescinded first by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1993. Eight years later, President George W. Bush reinstated Mexico City and it was in effect until Barack Obama reversed it upon entering office in 2009.

The Mexico City Policy bans funding to organizations that perform abortions overseas or lobby for legalizing them in foreign nations.

“But wait,” some liberal might say, as he peels off his vaginal protest hat. “I thought that Trump was for America First. If he thinks that fetuses are human, wouldn’t he first act to protect some American ones?”

The Civil Rights Movement for Unborn Americans

The obvious answer is that Trump doesn’t have the executive power to protect unborn children in the United States. That will take a complex series of courageous political actions, from choosing the right judges to appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court to doing whatever it takes — including trashing the Senate filibuster — to get each of them confirmed. We will need to throw all our political support behind each of those necessary actions.

After that, we will have to battle in each of the 50 states to pass the most protective laws that we can. A federal law protecting unborn children seems unlikely to pass, and would be difficult to enforce in places where the Culture of Death is deeply embedded. (Just check the map of counties that voted for Hillary Clinton.)

As the Civil Rights movement worked incrementally, pro-lifers want to pass the most protective enforceable laws that are politically possible at any given moment, while constantly pushing the envelope to protect even more Americans. The example of Prohibition reminds us of the drawbacks of imposing on a large and diverse country the norms of a narrow majority. It doesn’t last.

First, Kill No Foreigners

But there’s something deeper going on here. Yes, it’s true that this America-First president who has been smeared as a white racialist wants to protect non-white foreign children from U.S.-taxpayer subsidized violence. If that’s really surprising to anyone, it’s because that person has guzzled fake news and hysterical slander for so long that he thinks it’s a pumpkin latte.

A proper nationalism — for which the best word is patriotism — begins by accepting limits.

There are limits to U.S. borders: We don’t want to conquer the world.

There are limits to the vigor of Anglo-American culture: We cannot assimilate limitless numbers of immigrants all at once.

There are limits to our influence: We can’t remake the political cultures and defang the hostile religions of every nation across the earth.

The foreign policy that comes with healthy patriotism is traditionally called “Realism.” It accepts the fact that in a fallen world with tragic limits, we Americans are also fallen and limited. We must tend the flame of Liberty here at home, and cheer on others who wish to light it on their shores. But we won’t descend with fire and sword to set the world ablaze, as a past Republican president once recklessly promised the planet. As surviving Iraqi Christians would tell us, we might well do more harm than good.

Realism starts with the Hippocratic principle: First, do no harm. So it is only right and just that a Trump administration begin by cutting off U.S.-funded aggression against unborn children around the world.

Who Wants to Abort More Africans and Bolivians?

There are a few groups that are deeply unhappy with Trump’s decision:

White racists (like those at Radix magazine) who want to see non-white kids aborted, both here and in America.

Population cranks (like Paul Ehrlich) who want to see as many kids of any color aborted everywhere as soon as possible.

Radical feminists who believe that unborn children are the moral equivalent of fibroid tumors, who want the U.S. government to impose that superstition on foreign countries (from Ireland to the Philippines) where the majority disagrees.

Leftists at the Sierra Club, who are worried about population growth in the U.S. They think it’s immoral to stop foreigners from crossing U.S. borders, but moral to stop them from having children back at home.

Elitists in every country who crave control over the child-rearing choices of the poor, who for decades have threatened the weakest people on earth with cutting off food and medical aid, if they didn’t stop having children. From forced sterilization in India to forced abortion in China, the track record of global “population” activists makes the worst of European colonialism seem positively benevolent.

Dark warnings from elitists at the Rockefeller Foundation and similar groups that population growth (here and abroad) threatened America largely lay behind Roe v. Wade, as Justice Blackmun’s citations in that decision freely admitted. As current abortion enthusiast Justice Ginsburg told the New York Times: “[A]t the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Are We Images of God or Pets at a Kill Shelter?

And there’s the rub. Supporters of national sovereignty and a market economy see poor people (both here and abroad) as our equals under God, who stand in need of enforceable property rights, economic freedom, and sane political order. Given those crucial but fragile human goods, they can equal us or outpace us, as many recently destitute Asian nations are doing.

Scornful leftists like Hillary Clinton who find millions of Americans “irredeemable” and “deplorable” see poor people differently. The Clintons, Blackmuns, and Ginsburgs of this world look at less fortunate countries like vast shelters full of adorable, starving pets. We’ll adopt as many as we can (via immigration), then neuter or euthanize the rest.

And that’s the bottomless chasm of world view that now divides America. (For more from the author of “‘America First’ Donald Trump Acts to Save Nonwhite, Foreign Babies” please click HERE)

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It’s Time for Leaders to Earn Back the People’s Trust

Conventional wisdom holds that the great malady plaguing American life today is the toxic combination of political polarization and social fragmentation.

And there’s a great deal of truth to this diagnosis. We are, as one astute observer put it, a “fractured republic,” fraught with intense divisions and deep anxieties that are not easily resolved.

But I believe our polarization is merely a symptom of a far deeper problem in America today—a problem that actually unites us, more than it divides us.

Ask the American people to share their opinions on a particular public policy—be it immigration, health care, same-sex marriage, or any hotly contested issue—and you’ll likely receive a wide variety of responses. These are our dividing lines.

But ask them whether they think their opinions actually matter to those charged with making policy—ask them whether their elected representatives truly represent their interests—and the public is suddenly unified.

A recent public poll found that three-quarters of Americans believe most elected government officials “don’t care what people like me think.”

What do they care about? Catering to the narrow agendas of the powerful and well-connected, according to the same supermajority of respondents, who said the federal government is “run by a few big interests” rather than “for the benefit of all the people.”

The American people know they are no longer in charge of their government. They know each year their elected representatives in Washington grow increasingly indifferent, if not downright hostile, to their interests and concerns.

And they know—thanks to last year’s election—that they no longer have to tolerate a political establishment committed to taking power away from the people, first by pulling it up away from states and localities and toward the federal government, and then by consolidating it in the hands of Washington’s unelected bureaucrats.

This drive toward centralization of policymaking power is rooted in an unspoken distrust of the American people’s capacity to govern themselves. But the history of America, and the principles of the Republican Party, prove this distrust to be utterly unfounded.

As Abraham Lincoln—America’s first Republican president—put it in his first inaugural address: “Why should there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?”

On the eve of America’s Civil War, Lincoln placed his trust—and his hope for a brighter future—squarely on the side of the people. As we seek to heal the wounds of division in our own day, we should follow his lead.

Winning back the people’s trust must be the primary goal of the Republican Party as we assume unified control over Congress and the presidency, and there’s only one way to accomplish it: by putting our trust back in the people. (For more from the author of “It’s Time for Leaders to Earn Back the People’s Trust” please click HERE)

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Newt Gingrich Condemns ‘Propaganda Media’ for Biased Coverage of Trump

Just days into his presidency, Donald Trump is already experiencing an unprecedented level of one-sided media coverage, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. And don’t expect it to get any better, he warned.

Speaking Monday at The Heritage Foundation—the fourth of a six-part series on understanding Trump and Trumpism—Gingrich addressed the media’s negative coverage of Trump’s inaugural address.

According to Gingrich, the left’s dishonesty and hostility is something Trump should expect to deal with “every day for eight years.”

“It will never go away, it will never end, and it’s not an accident, it’s not confusion, it’s not misinformation,” he said. “These people are their mortal enemies.”

Gingrich cited a clear and purposeful misrepresentation of the president when Time journalist Zeke Miller mistakenly tweeted that a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office on Saturday.

“It is so enraging to have the propaganda media put out something like the Martin Luther King Jr. story because it’s designed to sustain a specific attack, designed to create a brand that says you cannot be for Trump if you’re nonwhite because he is a racist,” Gingrich said.

While Trump’s inaugural address was categorized by several in the media as dark and militant, Gingrich suggested it was the most vivid statement of anti-discrimination of any other president in American history.

“These are pretty strong statements against discrimination, which had it been uttered by a liberal Republican or a liberal Democrat, it would have led to rhapsodic response from people like Chris Matthews, flowing with joy at the commitment to a colorblind America,” Gingrich added.

“Instead of covering this extraordinary commitment to anti-discrimination on the part of President Trump in his new inaugural,” Gingrich said, “you have a brief flurry over whether or not he has kicked out Martin Luther King Jr.”

Outraged by the media’s coverage of Trump’s first days in the White House, Gingrich addressed what the world looks like from middle America, not the coastal elites.

“Trump, at one point, talked about America and the pain we’re living through and people thought he’s using much too strong of language,” he said. “We had 4,000 people shot in Chicago last year. What words would our left-wing friends like to use to describe a city in which 4,000 Americans are shot in one year?”

“Trump, to his credit, is threatening both the left and the establishment simultaneously,” Gingrich said. “That is so different than anything we’ve seen in our lifetime.”

Trump’s success is a result of “the hostility of the left-wing fascists” funded by George Soros and the “propaganda media” to create a country that is unacceptable to the majority of Americans, Gingrich argued.

“Soros would like to impose Soros’ vision of a hard-left world,” Gingrich said. “The fact that the day after the inaugural, you go and look at their speeches, you go and look at what they said, there’s no middle ground here. Either Trump surrenders or Trump wins. There’s not going to be any zone of compromise.”

Gingrich will continue part five of his six-part series on Trumpism at Heritage on Wednesday. The speech will take place at 11 a.m. EST. (For more from the author of “Newt Gingrich Condemns ‘Propaganda Media’ for Biased Coverage of Trump” please click HERE)

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