The Biden-Trump consensus encompasses protectionism (you, President Biden, have intensified Mr. Trump’s), which is industrial policy — government management of the economy, picking economic winners and losers. Because communities and industries become dependent on protection, is it forever?
The Biden-Trump consensus includes impatience with the Constitution. Mr. Trump, when Congress refused to fund your border wall, you “repurposed” money Congress had appropriated for other uses. And you reportedly plan to claim a presidential power to impound appropriated funds when you dislike Congress’s choices. President Biden, you tried to spend, unilaterally, more than $400 billion on student debt forgiveness, and when the Supreme Court said this violated Congress’s constitutional prerogatives under the appropriations clause, you said, “The Supreme Court blocked me from relieving student debt, but they didn’t stop me.” What other constitutional requirements do you two consider flimsy legal cobwebs?
President Biden, twice you have expressed a U.S. commitment to the military defense of an attacked Taiwan. Twice your underlings “clarified” your remarks to restore ambiguity. Should not a commitment so momentous be made by Congress? Would either of you favor a congressional declaration making the commitment explicit?
Mr. Trump, you say that if you are elected, Russia’s war against Ukraine will be “solved” in “24 hours.” How, without validating George Orwell’s axiom that the quickest way to end a war is to lose it? Would you, President Biden, agree that the minimal criterion of not losing is restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty over all territory it controlled before Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion?
President Biden, during your 36 Senate years, both parties embraced the filibuster as now practiced, requiring 60 votes to pass significant legislation. If you are reelected and Democrats control the Senate, would you favor abolishing the filibuster? Mr. Trump, if you are elected and Republicans control the Senate, will you use their canine loyalty to speed enactment of your agenda by abolishing the filibuster?
Mr. Trump, there are 10.5 million (down from 12.2 million in 2007) illegal immigrants. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 62 percent have been here at least 10 years, 22 percent at least 20 years, 21 percent for less than five years. Twenty-eight percent own their homes. Do you favor deporting them? Might this reduction of the workforce, during full employment, injure America? Describe the police measures necessary for expelling a cohort larger than Michigan’s population.
President Biden, are nine Supreme Court justices enough? You favor statehood for the District of Columbia. Do you agree that, given the 23rd Amendment, statehood would require a constitutional amendment? Do you know that only 16 states ratified (38 are required) such an amendment proposed in 1978?
In World War II, the United States pursued “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers by, among other measures, “dehousing” Germans and Japanese — bombing urban residential areas. Do either of you think Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas less defensible than was “unconditional surrender”? Are Israel’s military measures more disproportionate or indiscriminate than U.S. tactics were?
President Biden, the armed services are experiencing serious enlistment shortfalls. Could this be a consequence of schools teaching that the nation is systemically racist, hostile to “equity” and not worth defending?
Mr. Trump, the 2017 tax cuts you signed will expire next year. Extending them would, the Congressional Budget Office says, have a 10-year lost-revenue cost of $3.9 trillion ($4.5 trillion including servicing the debt increase). Worrisome?
But, President Biden, expiration of the $10,000 per filer cap on deducting state and local taxes, disproportionately paid by blue-state and Biden voters, would raise $1.2 trillion. Copacetic?
President Biden, you say our democracy hangs by a thread, that you are the thread, and that Mr. Trump is a pair of scissors in human form. How exactly do you envision Mr. Trump destroying democracy — canceling elections, scrapping the Constitution, neutering the judiciary?
See you again on Sept. 10.
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