So why did Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) flip-flop on the committee vote on Mike Pompeo? “Paul is entitled to take strong libertarian views on counterterrorism and health care policy. His views aren’t the problem. The problem is that he advances those views, not by proposing alternatives and leading his colleagues to embrace them, but merely by blocking whatever he can find to block. Rand Paul’s perverse and increasingly dangerous naysaying affords him copious attention from the news media—and that, we’re left to conclude, is the point.” Sounds right.
They’d vote to stay in the deal. “Trump essentially is taking hostage something the Europeans value, threatening to kill the agreement unless they pay him ransom. So France, Germany, and the U.K. have been valiantly seeking a way out of the crisis Trump manufactured, attempting to accommodate the president’s demands while staying true to their own obligations under the JCPOA. They are doing so not because they agree that the deal is in urgent need of repair. They don’t. Rather, they are rightly worried that Trump will make an ideologically inspired and fact-free decision to tear it down, with profoundly negative consequences for their national security interests.”
Leaking this amounts to a vote of no confidence. “Two sources familiar with Pruitt’s preparation for the hearing say that the EPA has turned down an offer from the White House to help prepare the administrator for what is sure to be a bruising few hours of questions about the ethics and government spending controversies that have dogged him of late.” No their fault!
Republicans may come to regret their vote. “All told, instead of a $440 billion deficit if Congress hadn’t done anything, the nation is facing a $981 billion shortfall. And that gap is only projected to rise in the subsequent decade. . . . What is particularly making the credit markets nervous is the fact that such large deficits have historically only been incurred when the nation is suffering through recessionary conditions, such as high unemployment. In 2009, for example, when unemployment was 9.3%, our deficit reached a post-war high of 9.8% of GDP. In 1983, when unemployment was also over 9%, the deficit was just under 6% of GDP. Now, with unemployment at 4.1% and projected to decline to 3.3%, the deficit is on track to reach about the same size as it was in 1992 and 1976, when unemployment was at least 7.5%. This is what can cause the economy to overheat and spur inflation.” Uh-oh.
Many Americans would vote for this: “I argue that a sensible policy agenda should: 1) Improve education and skills among non-college educated workers but also create better jobs that reward their skills; 2) Improve job availability in depressed geographic regions; 3) Reduce barriers to work associated with opioids and criminal records; and 4) Strengthen work incentives, by “making work pay“ and reforming some income support programs to encourage more employment and training among recipients.” (Emphasis added.)
Lots and lots of votes were driven by white grievance — fear of losing dominance. “Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds.”
Investors vote by their sales. “Stocks tumbled as a rout in the shares of industrial and technology companies deepened, sending major indexes spiraling lower amid a raft of earnings and renewed selling in the bull market’s biggest winners. The 10-year Treasury yield pierced 3 percent for the first time in four years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped as much as 2.5 percent, the biggest decline in more than two weeks.” So much winning.