Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 64

Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know about the Trump-Republican Tax Plan

Have you noticed that there’s no Trump tax plan and no Republican tax plan? All they’ve come up with...

It’s Now Time for Medicare for All

Senator Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Jeff Merkley, are introducing a Medicare...

TRUMP’S OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICESteve Bannon recently called...

TRUMP’S OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

Steve Bannon recently called Trump’s firing of James Comey the biggest political mistake in modern political history. But it was more than that. It was outright obstruction of justice – another impeachable offense to add to the impeachable offenses Trump has already committed (violation of the Constitution’s “emolument’s clause,” failure to faithfully execute the laws, and abuse of power).

Obstruction of justice was among the articles of impeachment drafted against both Presidents Nixon and Clinton. The parallel between Nixon and Trump is almost exact. White House tapes revealed Nixon giving instructions to pressure the acting FBI director into halting the Watergate investigation.

It’s worth recalling that two weeks after Trump told Comey privately “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty,” he had another private meeting with Comey in the Oval Office. After shooing out his advisers – all of whom had top security clearance – Trump said to Comey, according to Comey’s memo written shortly after the meeting,“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

Then on May 9, Trump fired Comey. In a subsequent interview with NBC Trump said he planned to fire Comey “regardless of [the] recommendation” of the Attorney and Deputy Attorney General, partly because of “this Russia thing.” Trump also revealed in the interview that he had had several conversations with Comey about the Russia investigation, and had asked Comey if he was under investigation.

The federal crime of obstruction of justice applies to “[w]hoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law” in a proceeding or investigation by a government department or agency or Congress.

As in Nixon’s case, a decision to support an “inquiry of impeachment” resolution in the House—to start an impeachment investigation—doesn’t depend on sufficient evidence to convict a person of obstruction of justice, but simply probable cause to believe a president may have obstructed justice.

There’s already more than enough evidence of probable cause to begin that impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump.

Trump’s Policy Catastrophe

It’s easy to get caught up in the
deeply flawed character of Donald Trump. We also need to recognize...

WHY WE SHOULD ABOLISH THE DEBT CEILING Congressional Democrats...

WHY WE SHOULD ABOLISH THE DEBT CEILING 

Congressional Democrats have pulled a fast one on Republicans by striking a deal with Trump to raise the federal debt ceiling only until the end of the year. This will give them bargaining leverage in December to strike a bigger bargain with Republicans: Democrats will agree to raise the debt ceiling then in return for Republican cooperation on legalizing Dreamers (unauthorized immigrants brought into the U.S. as children), making small but necessary fixes in the Affordable Care act, and other things Democrats seek.  

Raising the debt ceiling is always a political football, used by whichever party is in the minority to extract concessions from the majority party or from the majority party’s president.

The debt ceiling is how much the government is allowed
to borrow. It shouldn’t be a political football. It should be abolished. It serves absolutely no purpose.

When the debt ceiling was first adopted in 1917, it might have
been a useful way to prevent a president from spending however much he wanted.
But since 1974, Congress has had a formal budget process to control spending
and the taxes needed to finance it.

There’s no reason for Congress to authorize borrowing for
spending that Congress has already approved, especially when a failure to lift
the debt ceiling would be so horrific.

Having a debt ceiling doesn’t discipline government, anyway. The
national debt is obligations government has already made to those who lent it
money. Discipline has to do with setting spending limits and legislating tax
increases, not penalizing the lenders.

Which is why most modern democracies don’t have debt ceilings.
Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia – they do just fine without
explicit borrowing limits.

Even more basically, the nation’s debt is a meaningless figure
without reference to the size of the overall economy and the pace of economic
growth.

After World War II, America’s debt was larger than our entire
Gross Domestic Product, but we grew so much so fast in the 1950s and 1960s that
the debt kept shrinking in proportion. 

Today’s debt is about 77 percent of our total national product.
The reason it’s a problem is it’s growing faster than the economy is growing,
so it’s on the way to becoming larger and larger in proportion.

This
is what we ought to be focusing on. Fighting over whether or not to raise the
debt ceiling is a meaningless and dangerous distraction. So abolish it.

Google, Trump, and the Arrogance of Power

Google’s search engine runs
two-thirds of all searches in the United States and 90 percent in...

Why CEOs are Turning on Trump

Trump isn’t just alienating Republican
senators. He’s also pissing off the executives of
America’s...

When Big Money Buys Off Criticism of Big Money

Since its founding in 1999, the New America Foundation – an important voice in policy debates on the...

What Do Democrats Stand For?The Democratic Party can lead the...

What Do Democrats Stand For?

The Democratic Party can lead the country in a new direction, but will it?

Millions of Americans who are politically engaged for the first time in their lives are crying out for a bold alternative to bigoted and destructive policies.

But Democrats can’t just be anti-Trump or move to the middle.

To be successful Democrats must address the forces that created Trump: The toxic combination of widening inequality and racism.

The richest one percent now own more than the bottom 90 percent. Corporations and the rich are running our politics.

The resulting economic stresses have made many people vulnerable to Trump’s politics of hate and bigotry.

If Democrats stand for one thing, it must be overcoming this unprecedented economic imbalance and creating a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition of the bottom 90 percent, to take back our economy and politics.

This requires, at the least:

1. Public investments in world-class schools and infrastructure for all.

2. Free public universities and first-class technical training for all;

3. Single-payer Medicare-for-All;

4. Higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for this;

5. Using antitrust to break up powerful monopolies on Wall Street, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Agriculture.

6. Getting big money out of our politics.

Together, these steps form an agenda to reclaim our economy and democracy for all. Will Democrats lead the way?

Trump’s Labor Day

This will be the first Labor Day of
the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who came to office riding a...