When the Democrats lost the White House in 1980, they also lost the Senate. For the first six years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, his party was in control of the upper chamber of Congress. In the wake of the Iran-Contra scandal, the Democrats won back control of the Senate during the 1986 midterm elections. So, why was Bill Bradley, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, the chief architect of Reagan’s 1986 tax reform?
There’s an involved and complex answer to that, but the short version is that Reagan knew that he couldn’t get tax reform at all unless he had buy-in from a lot of Democrats. Even though Bradley wasn’t even the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, he was an expert on tax policy and he’d been advocating for reforms for several years. So, Reagan and Bradley went to work, along with the chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Dan Rostenkowski. They produced a mostly laudable bill and Reagan got a signature accomplishment during the worst year of his presidency when many thought he might be impeached.
If Donald Trump wants to do an infrastructure bill, he should follow Reagan’s example. At the very least, he should make the effort. His alternative is failure because the Republicans won’t move on infrastructure until they get tax reform, and they’re not going to get tax reform. Plus, whenever infrastructure does come up, it won’t be immune from a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, so Trump will need at least eight Democratic senators to sign off on the plan. To get that kind of buy-in, he’ll need more than to repair some hurt feelings. He’ll have to grant authorship to the Democrats.
And, frankly, between certain failure and letting the Democrats craft the bill, it should be as easy of a choice for Trump as it was for Reagan.
So, what could Trump do?
He could invite Senator Bill Nelson of Florida to the White House for discussions about what he and the Democrats would like to see in an infrastructure bill. Nelson serves as the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee which has jurisdiction over transportation. He could also invite Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Booker is the ranking member of the Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation. I’m sure Booker would be interested in getting the new rail tunnels completed that connect New Jersey to Manhattan.
Nelson and Booker would have incentives not to help, of course, but it would be hard to turn down the opportunity to get important things done for the country and their states and constituents. They’d have to negotiate with the Republicans in the House, too, who would be put out by having their leadership on the issue taken away from them. But Trump could make the case that they can’t produce for him on their own and he needs a win.
It would be a win for Trump if it happened, but also a win for the rest of us assuming that the bill would be worthwhile and addressed some of our most pressing infrastructure needs.
I can’t see Trump’s advisers giving this kind of advice, or even letting him know it’s an option. But maybe Trump will read this on his own and realize that there’s a way to make sure his name is mentioned in the same breath as Reagan, and not in a bad way.
There’s not much that I want to see Trump accomplish and I’m not interested in giving him easy wins, but this one thing I could sign off on.
Trump has no interest in or knowledge of policy. Look at how clueless his statements about the Republican healthcare plan are – and how he can’t even keep his own nonsense straight over the course of a day. He cares about using the Presidency for grift and protecting his prior crooked dealings. The only reason he’d talk to any Dem Senator would be if they were willing to stop the Mueller investigation before it digs up some actionable dealing. None would, and it’s probably too late anyway.
Nelson, Booker, Bradley, Rostenkowski, their names belong on a wall of shame.
Wow. Why trust the donald to make a deal and stick to it? The donald treats everyone like they work for him…subordinates. That rant of Jamie Dimon’s was basically reminding everyone on Wall Street that the new donald is just like the old donald they learned not to trust. Thus, again, why would you work with someone who will eventually throw you off the bus?
Greed.
Why would anyone want to work with this ass? He will only use it to say how great a president he is in 2020. And he did it all, right. ( Well Nelson and Booker might work with him.)
Greed. They want to use their position to enhance their personal fortune. Rich people are like that. An old expression “would pick a farthing from a dunghill with his teeth”. They are a strange mixture of extravagant and cheap. I was a party given by a rich lady on Sunday. She had some really big weeds like buckthorn at the edges of her large property in an expensive suburb.
She was complaining how she can’t get her nephew to clean it out. I was thinking that my Mexican landscaper would do it for less than that party (about fifty people) cost her.
Saying “my Mexican landscaper” sounds like I’m rich and snooty but I don’t know how else to describe him. He’s not on my personal payroll, but I say that like “my mechanic” or “my furnace tech”. I’m a customer, his second he told me after a year. He’s an enterprising guy from Oaxaca. After getting used to working in Northern Illinois he bought a dilapidated truck and went into business for himself. He does general landscaping, tree timing and the like. I taught him stuff about apples and apple trees. He taught me stuff about stonework. I help him with English. He helps me with Spanish. Half his kids were born there. Half were born here. No different than my grandparents.
This is a fantasy right?
Almost certainly.
I wondered if this was some sort of satirical piece. It is obvious that this administration is just a shell for maximum grifting for what amount to a loosely banded group of criminals.
What you outlined is simply impossible. Mainly because no one wants to do any of this shit.
The fact that it’s ludicrous is kind of the point.
Booman, I hope you didn’t take my initial reply to your post as critical of you.
I was just unnecessarily preaching to the choir, and always find your insights most excellent.
Thanks so much for all that you do, particularly in this time of madness.
“But maybe Trump will read this on his own and realize that there’s a way to make sure his name is mentioned in the same breath as Reagan, and not in a bad way.” – Booman
If by some wild chance were he to wander out of his Fox news bubble and doubly wildly read your blog post, I don’t think his brain would be physically up to the task of processing it, even if he triply wildly wanted it to.
There are no senses for him to return to in that noggin, they’ve left the building with Elvis.
It would be my guess that Trump would have to be introduced to Booker or Nelson. I suspect he realizes that Senators exist, but he probably doesn’t know what they actually do.
Like not knowing the difference between life insurance and health insurance,,,
you didn’t use Trump’s name enough throughout your piece as we know from the intelligence agencies he’ll stop reading after a few sentences
Q: How should Trump emulate Reagan.
A: He should ask Melania about her favorite astrologer and then follow that person’s advice to the letter!!!
Oh.
Wait a minute.
What’s that you say?
Steve Bannon already gets his all of his information from the stars!!!??? (And of course by telepathic communication from Vladimir “The Astrologer” Putin. How else could he be so consistently right in his choices?)
Oh.
Nevermind…
Yore freind…
Emily Litella
Something of a trap for the dms who work with him. We all know he will never share a project with anyone.
Oh, I dunno; he’s very willing to share the blame if a project fails, not to mention offload all debt, damage and consequences onto his partners.
You mean he will take all the praise but none of the blame. The blame always goes to someone else, in this case the dems. It is zero sum for the dems.
Precisely. As we’ve seen, he’ll also slag his allies when it suits him.
thought) Jon’s point was probably that that’s not exactly “sharing” the blame, which implies accepting at least some portion of it hizownself. He doesn’t do that. Ever.
Well, how could he share blame for anything when he’s never wrong?
As a fan of the Lord of the Rings books, I have sometimes engaged in pointless and sterile online discussions of whether the Dark Lord Sauron’s plan to dominate Middle Earth made any sense or not – that sort of thing. But, at least I know that it’s a pointless and harmless debate about fiction.
Positing a Bizzaro universe in which Trump actually HAD an agenda that didn’t involve getting billions more dollars from various cons around selling government contracts to insiders, playing lots of golf while promoting his resorts, and posturing like Julius Caesar is really more futile than arguing about Orcs.
He doesn’t CARE as much about his so-called agenda as George Bush did about his effort to send a manned mission to Mars. An idea he touted in a State of the Union speech, and then immediately forgot. He would like to build his “wall” because he’s a “builder” and would point to the wall with pride.
It will never be built. He would like massive tax cuts for people like him. He’ll probably eventually get those because the GOP is basically aligned with the idea, but as you point out, it won’t be easy and he hasn’t made any friends so far. Outside that? His massive infrastructure sending ideas are merely stuff to fool the rubes.
You are very well informed and seldom make factual errors, but this is one that you have made more than once. The Democratic rebound in 1986 had nothing to do with Iran-Contra. That story didn’t break until after the election. You can look it up.
This is a hoot, BooMan. It’s like you think someone else entirely is occupying the White House. DT isn’t smart enough to even read you blog post, much less implement anything in it.
This is probably the most hallucinogenic post I’ve ever seen you write. Trump has already proposed an “infrastructure” bill and it is basically publicly funding infrastructure plans that were already privately financed. Mostly for toll roads. The real need is public infrastructure: replacement of water-sewage systems in cities, improvements to existing roads, mass transit of various sorts that the private sector is utterly uninterested in doing. Trump is a fraud and a conman. He knows nothing about public infrastructure and could care less. To date, he has never invited the Democratic leadership in either house to the White House or indicated any interest in engaging them in dialogue. Nice idea but this is never going to happen.
Shorten the post and tweet it at him, repeatedly. Who knows, you might get lucky.
Trump is going to pardon himself, and all his family members.
After that, any policy is dead.
.
CBS News Marc Kasowitz and Mark Corallo depart Trump’s legal team. What do they know and when did they know it?
Kasowitz was probably kicked out, long overdue, for Corallo, see my comment below.
Interesting that T attacking Mueller seems to be turning the Rs – finally, probably added to failure to pass any lege, hence clinging to T admin isn’t gaining them anything. interesting times. The Rohrabacher thing [predicted long ago by Tim Hogan, for example,] doesn’t help their cause. somehow I can’t link or embed any twitter these days, sorry
and attacking Sessions perhaps preceding attacking Mueller in impact turning the Rs, since for the R senators, he’s one of them. that plus failure to pass “healthcare”
Nah, Sessions isn’t high enough on the Senate food chain for his former GOP colleagues to rush to his defense. My take on what has them spooked is Trump’s and over the top attacks on Sessions, Rosenstein, Mueller, and Comey and the obvious reason why Trump has gone ballistic. Nobody knows how many crawly things will begin slithering out as Mueller turns over the rocks of the Trump organization. Trump sure isn’t acting as if there is no there there. (And I don’t think it has anything to do with imagined Russian interference in the US election.)
It does beg the question of why the DOJ and Treasury haven’t long since nailed Trump. But they don’t much like going after big time, white-collar crime. (Watch the evolving responses from the bankers/brokers/developers. A lot of dirty money has been sloshing around in those quarters.)
Interesting that the “imagined” Russian interference in the election is the only reason Mueller is potentially looking into Trump’s financial affairs.
Like Whitewater was an entry point for Starr to look into Clinton’s personal sexual relationships that did after all lead to his impeachment.
Can’t think of a political party or President that more deserves whatever grief may befall them because the FBI found itself in the thicket of Trump’s financial misdeeds. But sure wish the FBI and Treasury had been doing their job wrt to Trump in the years and decades before then. Also hope as they pull on all those threads that other and authentic miscreants are nabbed in the process.
“get important things done for the country and their states and constituents.” – Oh? Is that why they are there? There’s so little evidence of that it’s easy to forget…