A Republican Trifecta
Legislation that the Republican Party should look to pass while it can.
Welcome back to The Burnett Breakdown! It’s been forever (March) since I last wrote because, honestly, hardly anything has happened in politics since then…
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Courtesy of New York Times
Trump Wins and Republicans Sweep
I’ll make this section short because I’m not sure there is anyone reading this that needs to be informed on what has happened. The Republicans, in particular Donald Trump, had a wonderful election. I, like some others, did not anticipate this red wave. I expected more Republican voters, primarily in the suburbs, to sit out of the election as they did in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
I was wrong. Republicans showed up in much larger numbers than I anticipated and Trump even flipped many previously non-Republican voters.
I felt (and feel) overwhelmingly indifferent about this because I still believe Donald Trump is a morally repugnant person whose character and previous actions make him completely unqualified to be president. I hope and pray that nothing serious happens that requires a test of character from Trump because, well, I anticipate it ending as well as a blind person taking a driving test.
I also hope I’m completely and totally wrong. I would love nothing more than for Trump to be the most conservative (in the Reagan-era sense of the term) president in American history in a way that is honorable and virtuous.
With all of that said, it appears as of this writing that Trump will step into office with an entirely Republican-controlled Congress, which means this is an opportunity for Republicans to pass some significant legislation that could improve the lives of Americans. I want to focus on three specific pieces of legislation that I think Republicans can pass and should pass while they have control. I know they probably can’t pass all three within the next two years, but I hope they focus on at least one of these areas and get something done.
Immigration
Immigration should be the number one legislative priority for all Republicans. Trump has run on immigration since 2016 and Republicans incessantly talk about our immigration system being a disaster. Despite this, Trump worked with House Republicans earlier this year to shut down a border deal because he wanted to pass it during his administration.
This means they better pass a bill.
Regardless of what anyone says (including Trump himself), Trump did not fix our immigration system while he was president. He may have done some things that made it not as bad through various executive orders, but this is the equivalent of a cancer patient taking some Advil- they may have made things less bad in the short term but failed to provide any sustainable solution. The fact that President Biden was able to completely reverse those policies and create an immigration disaster in the first two years of his administration only proves the flimsiness of Trump’s first-term immigration policy.
A sustainable solution to our immigration system is no small task though. Immigration is a problem that has plagued every presidential administration in the last few decades because it requires a herculean effort with no simple solution. For the solution to hold for a long time, there has to be enough buy-in from both Democrats and Republicans that neither side wants to immediately overturn the legislation as soon as they get in power (see Obamacare).
There are two problems that any immigration reform will have to address: how to prevent people from illegally coming into the country and what to do with the people who are already here.
More funding for border enforcement (a border wall and/or more border patrol personnel) will help curb some of the illegal crossings but will do nothing to address the people who enter legally via a port of entry and claim asylum. The "Remain in Mexico” policy originally implemented during the Trump administration would do wonders in processing these asylum claims in a more orderly way but needs to be made formal law so it’s not subject to the whims of a future administration. I think Democrats, especially ones in moderate districts/states, would be wise to support such measures.
Solving the second problem, of what to do with the people who are already here, will be much tougher. However, bipartisan buy-in is going to require this problem to be addressed because Democrats think, I believe rightly, that “mass deportation” of people who have established lives in the country is going to do more harm than good. If Republicans are serious about providing a sustainable solution, they will need to be willing to consider amnesty for at least some people who are already here. There will be negotiations regarding who exactly qualifies for this amnesty, but I think some concessions must be made.
The degree to which Republicans are willing to work with Democrats to create a sustainable solution to our disastrous immigration system will demonstrate just how much they care about fixing the immigration problem instead of merely campaigning on it.
Increase Defense Spending
To be clear, defense spending is the only acceptable form of spending for the Federal Government to increase and they desperately need to. Now, I don’t mean that they should just increase the amount they spend broadly with no thought to where it goes, but there are specific defense priorities that will mean spending more money.
The first of these priorities, in light of China, should be building out our submarine fleet. As Seth Crospey wrote in National Review last year:
“Unfortunately, America’s submarine fleet is in disrepair. At any given time, around 40 percent of attack submarines are not deployable because of repairs, maintenance, refueling, and ageing, which shrinks the fleet to around 30 boats… The Navy retires two submarines per year while adding three every two years, resulting in a net loss of one submarine every other year.”
Submarine warfare will be essential in any confrontation with China, so it is vital that the United States reverses the current trajectory in its submarine fleet capacity.
The defense legislation should also look to revamp the United States’ production capacity to ensure they are prepared if, God forbid, it is necessary for the United States to expend a large amount of artillery. Here is what the Wall Street Journal editors said of a 2023 war game that simulated a Chinese invasion of Taiwan:
In a war game for control of the island that the House Select Committee on China played this year, the U.S. ran out of long-range antiship weapons in three days. Retired Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery says in most games the U.S. needs roughly 1,200 long-range antiship missiles, known as LRASMs. But U.S. inventories are in the low hundreds after years of small orders.
When one of the only roles of the Federal Government is to ensure its citizens are protected from foreign enemies, it is unacceptable for the capacity of the United States military to ever be in doubt or run out of anything within three days.
As for other investments that need to be funded, here is what Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at American Entreprise Institute wrote:
The military also needs more F-35s and expendable drones, as well as expanded logistics support and long-haul capacity in the form of C-130s. The Army will need more manned cargo and attack helicopters for bridge capacity while it awaits Future Vertical Lift. This isn’t an exhaustive list of investments and reforms that should be made but are first steps to increasing capacity in the Indo-Pacific.
The armed forces need more equipment, higher readiness, and greater urgency to deter Beijing.
The United States Federal Government spends way too much money in general for its military to have the shortcomings that it does. With total control of government, there is no reason for the Republican Party to allow this to continue.
Student Loan Reform
Finally, one piece of legislation that I haven’t seen mentioned at all is legislation to reform our entirely broken student loan system. One of the worst policies pursued by the Biden administration was its insistence on “forgiving” billions of dollars worth of student loans. While I fully anticipate the Trump administration to stop this nonsense, I believe it would be wise to enact some laws that would prevent a president from doing this again and to put an end to the Federal Government’s involvement in student loans at all.
This means the Republican Congress would first need to evaluate every law that the Biden administration cited as giving them the power to “forgive” student loans and write narrowing language to those laws. They also need to find any other law that may be used in the future to justify such action and add narrowing language to those laws that clarify it does not apply to student loan forgiveness writ large.
More importantly, legislation should be passed that stops the Federal Government from guaranteeing and/or directly lending virtually all student loans in the country. Right now, anyone and everyone can get a loan from the government to go to college with no credit check or regard to what the individual is planning to study. This system leads to a significant amount of people taking out loans that they simply have no way of ever paying back, which then creates a negative feedback loop demanding they get forgiven.
Rather than the government directly loaning money for college, banks should provide these loans (as they once did) without any guarantee that they would be repaid by the Federal Government. This would mean the banks were actually taking on the risk of not being paid back and would be more careful in offering loans.
This would also solve a lot of woes with higher education since the nonsense degrees that made no money would have very few students, as banks would not lend to students wanting to get those degrees. This market-like competition for degrees would lead colleges and universities to prioritize the degrees that actually produced economic value because those would be the only degrees banks would be willing to provide loans for.
I think student loan reform would be a slam dunk for Republicans.
Entitlement Reform
Just kidding. Republicans obviously should do this, but the lack of political appetite for such a move means they “can’t” and therefore won’t. Instead, we will continue our meander to the abyss that awaits whenever our out-of-control spending finally catches up with us.
We’ll See
With all of that said, we’ll see if the Republican Party passes any of this legislation. They are sure to continue the tax cuts from the 2017 tax bill passed in President Trump’s first term, but I don’t think that is enough to be considered a successful term. I think any of the legislation mentioned above (even versions watered-down to win votes) would be massive wins and ones I hope the Republican Party passes.
God Bless,
Hunter Burnett