After two terms of failures in foreign policy and domestic issues, in the remaining weeks of his presidency, President Obama has made a number of decisions and issued a flurry of executive orders with the goal of boosting his legacy.
TO SOLIDIFY HIS “GREENIE” STATUS, he removed millions of acres of Atlantic and Arctic territory from petroleum development just before Christmas. Last week he proclaimed 1.35 million acres in Utah and 300,000 acres in Nevada to be new national monuments, and there’s concern that he’s planning another land grab to enlarge the Grand Canyon acreage in Arizona. Utah’s legislators plan to ask incoming President Trump to reverse Obama’s order, citing law that no presidential action can bind a future president.
ANOTHER OBAMA SPEECH – In one last chance to pad his legacy, President Obama is planning a farewell address from his hometown of Chicago on Jan. 10. In an e-mail to supporters, he said it will give him “a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.” This president, who you could count on to use “me” and “I” extensively in all of his speeches, added “I hope you will join me one last time. Because, for me, it’s always been about you.” Sure it has, Mr. President.
SCHOOL CHOICE – In my Dec. 3, 2016 post about President Elect Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to be his secretary of education, I opined that she was an excellent choice, given that her advocacy of school choice vouchers was in line with Trump’s. The Wall Street Journal reported that a study on Milwaukee landmark voucher program will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Thanks to higher graduation rates and lower crime rates, Milwaukee’s voucher program will provide the city, state and students nearly $500 million in economic benefits through 2035. DeVos will surely use the results of this study and others to push school choice in the Trump administration.
KELLY LEAVING FOX FOR NBC – You may recall my Oct. 27, 2016 post, “Too big for her britches,” when I wrote about Megyn Kelly making herself the news with glamour pieces in Vogue and Vanity Fair and an endless promotion of her book. I told you I planned to tune out on her show, and now that she’s moving to NBC that makes it even easier as I’m not even sure of NBC’s channel. She once spoke of being the next Barbara Walters. I wish her well.
DEMS WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN CONFIRMATIONS – Word from traditional “Old Washington” is that the Democrats are hoping to stretch the confirmation votes into March, while Republicans want to confirm most of President Elect Trump’s selections by Inauguration Day. Democrats want to restrict hearings to two per week, which the Republicans say is an admission that the Dems can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. With each of the Senate committees working in parallel, there’s absolutely no reason not to proceed with moving the transition along at the pace of previous transitions.
MEANWHILE, the Republican majority in the House will be taking up two bills – the Midnight Rules Act, to allow Congress to invalidate rules in bulk passed by the president in the final year of a presidential term, and the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act, to block and roll back federal regulations. The House may also consider a nonbinding resolution disapproving the Dec. 23, 2016 United Nations Security Council vote calling for Israel to stop building settlements on the West Bank.
THE GOVERNMENT WOULD LIKE US TO BELIEVE them when they say the Russians hacked the DNC and John Podesta’s e-mail, thus having an effect on the presidential election. They tell us that 17 intelligence agencies are in agreement, yet only two of them are into cyber collection. By the way … why do we need 17 intelligence agencies? Perhaps you recall the statement of DNI James Clapper in 2013 – “I responded in what was the most truthful, or at least untruthful, manner,” during a Senate hearing. And who can forget his response to the question, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” His response was, “Not wittingly.” It should be noted that the recent FBI/DHS joint report contained no forensic proof of Russian involvement in hacking. And WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be believed. I plan to wait to hear President Elect Trump’s remarks after his briefing. Sharyl Attkisson recently alluded to the possibility that the e-mails were leaked to Assange by an insider.
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