With Donald Trump out of the White House, President Joe Biden did not waste any time. He hit the ground running within his first two days in office with a series of executive orders (no less than fifteen). In many respects, President Biden was reversing what former President Trump had enacted via executive order. As you could imagine, I am not thrilled with the presidency, regardless of partisan affiliation, having such powers. At the same time, it is what it is. I'm not going to be able to cover every single executive order, but I would like to cover some of the main ones.
The Good
1. Travel Ban. This is not a "Muslim Ban," but a ban of seven Muslim-majority countries that was passed at the beginning of Trump's presidency. Semantics set aside, I took issue with the travel ban when Trump passed it. It does next to nothing to promote national security. It's costly, not to mention it erodes the values upon which this country was founded. Biden is right to reverse Trump's ban.
2. Border Wall. Trump's idea of a border wall was a bad idea to begin with. As I pointed out in January 2017, border walls are ineffective, they are costly to build, and are costly to maintain, not to mention it ignores the net benefits of immigration. More recently, the Cato Institute found that border walls do not have any effect on crime rates (Abman and Foad, 2020). Biden ceasing funding to this boondoggle was a good life choice.
3. Fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA allowed for those who entered the country illegally at a young age to stay in the country. As much as I would like to have seen such measures passed through Congress, I find there to be both an economic and moral case to be made for DACA.
The Bad
1. Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement. This is one of the few redeeming qualities of the Trump administration. I was glad to see when Trump pulled out of the Agreement. It did very little to stop anthropogenic climate change while costing a ton, especially for the United States. Biden's rejoining of this Agreement was political theatre at best.
2. Discontinuing the Keystone Pipeline Permit. I was all in favor of the Keystone pipeline in 2015. As the Institute for Energy Research points out, the pipeline is safer and cheaper than rail, not to mention such a move is going to piss off our neighbor to the North (i.e., Canada). This doesn't even get into the fact that such a move is to cut 11,000 jobs.
3. Allowing male-to-female (MTF) transgender individuals to play in female sports. This is not the single most pressing matter facing the American people. Even so, I covered this topic last year. As much as I believe in the dignity of other human beings, the physical rootedness of athletics has bearing on whether one is biologically male or female. Since biological males have an advantage in most sports, it would be unfair to allow for MTF transgender individuals to play in female sports.
4. Dismantling Trump's deregulation efforts. One of the other nice facets of the Trump administration was the idea that we did not need government bureaucrats to manage every aspect of our lives. Trump created a "one-in, two-out" rule in which for every new regulation created, the government had to eliminate two regulations. Trump also created Regulatory Reform Officers to remove outdated or unnecessary regulations that "inhibit job creation" or "impose costs that exceed benefits." Trump even signed in a law that protects citizens from being charged with violating opaque federal regulations. Biden repealed all of this, thereby bringing us closer to a leviathan in which government is the solution to everything.
I agree with every item that you quoted. There is only one exception. The wall and immigration policy. I disagree that the wall was harmful and costly. We need to protect our border. The US does not have an obligation to protect illegal aliens. It does have an obligation to protect its citizens from thugs and thieves. Not all Mexicans are thieves, but if you want to become a US citizen you should do so legally and learn the language (there is a way to become a citizen legally). Plus, mass immigration is stealing American jobs.
ReplyDeleteRegarding WHO, I agree with Trump. Why should we pay the most to a company run by China? Trump's decision to terminate relations and to terminate giving money to WHO (World Health Organization) was necessary. Tedros is a puppet for China. He's a communist from Ethiopia and China pays him a hefty salary. So, he willingly lied when he said in late January that COVID was not contacted via human-to-human. He's a spokesperson for China. For example, when a journalist called him for an interview he ignored her questions before proceeding to hang up. Even more importantly, WHO banned Taiwan from joining its organization because China hates Taiwan. It's disgusting.
Trump probably single-handedly saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of American lives when he stopped trade with China in early January. Hopefully, Biden will do some good. But they just stool the election. There were most certainly huge massive amounts of fraud. There is a lot of evidence.