President
Donald Trump really meant it, by
Rick Manning, 1/20/17
“He
really meant it.” That’s what I thought as President Donald Trump began
wrapping up his Inaugural Address. My God, he really meant it.
For
me the journey began in April of 2015, when Senator Ted Cruz joined then House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan in signing a joint opinion piece in
the Wall Street Journal urging passage of fast track legislation. A few short
days later, I developed a strategy to counter their support. That
strategy was built around Donald Trump. At the time, now President Trump
was dismissed by almost everyone as a sideshow, but as he proved, he was much
more than that.
Donald
Trump immediately agreed to voice a radio ad for my group, Americans for Limited
Government, against fast track uttering the famous words, “It’s a bad, bad
deal.” The ad ran continuously in New Hampshire and South Carolina up
until he announced his candidacy for the presidency, and played a major role in
getting a majority of the GOP candidates for President to agree with Mr.
Trump. Eventually, even
Senator
Cruz voted against fast track, but it was Donald J. Trump who knew in his heart
that corporate crony trade deals were bad for America’s workers and disastrous
for America.
Now,
twenty months later, Donald Trump is President, and virtually every Washington
D.C. power broker has been routed. He really means it.
President
Obama’s last three years in office have been predicated on the principle that
he could regulate, sign away and stretch the bounds of Executive Orders with
impunity, disregarding the rightful Constitutional role of Congress.
Today,
that work which was like a house built on sand, will begin to be washed away as
Trump appointees take immediate control of the levers of power at virtually
every agency in government. As a member of the Trump transition team at the
U.S. Department of Labor, I got the opportunity to work with some of the most
brilliant, dedicated minds in D.C. in an exercise in cross-pollination between
the various Departments in federal government to help remake the relationship
between the government and the people and indeed between the Executive Branch
and Congress.
Obama’s
impatience and demands for a whole loaf through Executive fiat means that every
one of these actions can, and many will, be wiped from the books using the same
pen and phone that willed them into existence.
The
Madisonian vision of separation of powers creating a balancing act to ensure
that no one branch got too strong will be restored, and Obama’s arrogance the
led him to ignore Congress when he couldn’t get everything he wanted will lead
to most of his Administration’s “accomplishments” being cast onto the scrapheap
of history.
This
definitely would not be true if Hillary had won in November, and most likely
would not be true if virtually any other Republican candidate would have won
the nomination.
But
I predict before the weekend is out, America will learn that when President
Donald J. Trump says he is going to make America great again, he really means
it. And that is reason to celebrate.
The author is President of
Americans for Limited Government.
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