Anyone with a whit of propriety should reject Roy Moore in his bid come Tuesday to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate.
Moore’s reported dalliances with six women when they were teenagers is unacceptable, plain and simple.
Trump’s eventual endorsement wasn’t a surprise, but the Republican National Committee’s was — until the Machiavellian attitude in big-time politics came to mind.
From all appearances the RNC’s rationale is if Moore is elected, the uproar to unseat him will send him packing, a la Al Franken. Then, with the position in the GOP fold, his replacement will be of Republican persuasion.
Let decency be damned.
THE NATIONAL debt is $20.6 trillion, a number next to inconceivable for the average Joe and Jill.
Proposed federal income tax cuts now residing in Congress would add $1 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, actuarial reviews suggest.
According to Trump, the next shoe to fall is spending cuts; entitlements are in his crosshairs. He promised no cuts for current recipients, but didn’t mention those of years ahead.
For the record: Unfunded Social Security liabilities are at $16.5 trillion, those of Medicare $27.8 trillion — each growing by the second.
Entitlement funds would move conspicuously toward the black if Congress would embrace three simple strategies.
— Raise age of eligibility. When Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated Social Security in 1935, with life expectancy much lower, full benefits were paid at age 65. That has crept up ever so slowly to 67, an age that seldom signals the end of a person’s productive life. Medicare, triggered at age 65, was added to the mix by Lyndon Johnson in 1966.
— Increase taxing authority. Today, entitlement taxes apply to incomes of up to $118,500. Entitlements by their very nature are welfare programs. Consequently, the tax threshold for support should be increased, in large measure because those who most need the benefits — of middle income and less — bear an inordinate share of the burden.
— Means testing for recipients. Does someone who can live very comfortably on his or her financial assets need to receive what to them is a pittance in Social Security benefits? Return what those retirees have paid in taxes, including fair interest, and be done with it. The rationale: Most recipients far outlive their tax contributions.
AN ARTICLE I read recently referred to Trump as having been swamped a year ago in the popular vote.
Swamped is a perfectly good word, particularly since one of his campaign promises was to “drain the swamp in D.C.” But the word’s impact may be a little misleading, even though Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes, Trump just under 63 million.
In California, Clinton had 8.8 million votes and won the populous state by 4.3 million. Trump had a plurality of 1.4 million in the remaining 49 states.
For his campaign to ignore California was not a stroke of genius — GOP presidential candidates often have — but did permit greater emphasis elsewhere and aid in accumulation of enough Electoral College votes for him to win.
