Pack the Court!
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
Ron Wyden (D-OR) who chairs the Senate Finance Committee has introduced legislation to add six new justices to the Supreme Court increasing its number from nine to 15 over a 12-year period. I think it is a brilliant idea. Just like when Harry Reid got rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court justices and gave us the three Trump appointees, Wyden suffers from the same stupidity, thinking that the Democrats will always control the Senate.
If Trump gets elected, despite all his efforts to the contrary, and somehow the Republicans take control of the Senate, I want them to pass Wyden’s bill. The only difference is that I want Donald Trump to appoint six new justices during the first months of his term rather than having the size increase over 12 years. That will ensure that the Supreme Court will continue to be a firewall into the foreseeable future against the Democrats’ efforts to destroy the republic.
What are the chances that the Republicans can take the Senate? All signs point to Republicans winning in Montana and West Virginia. The only reason why Ohio is not in the Republican column is that its candidate, Bernie Moreno, is solidly anti-abortion. Otherwise, that Ohio keeps electing the far-left Sherrod Brown is a real puzzler. Arizona Republicans keep nominating the toxic Kari Lake, a proven loser, and so the scandal-ridden Ruben Gallego will likely win. In Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Maryland, Democrats all enjoy comfortable margins over the Republicans. The only close race for a Republican incumbent is Texas where Ted Cruz is only three points up over Rep. Colin Allred. But say that on Election Day, the Republicans somehow end up with 52 seats in the Senate and Trump wins, they should take the cue from the Democrats and ram through their agenda. Of course, this assumes that they will temporarily cease from being the Stupid Party.
Instead of honing his message to highlight the failures of this administration (Afghanistan, illegal immigration, crime, inflation, lower real incomes, obsession with climate change, Title IX and all the rest), Trump has resorted to pandering to whatever audience is before him. I am not going to bemoan that he cannot stay on message since I am not sure I know – or he knows – what his message is. Trump is undisciplined. He is also a narcissistic bully. But hey, nobody is perfect. Better a narcissistic bully than a vacuous empty suit incapable of cogently articulating policy initiatives. I doubt if Trump can be dominated by pressure groups and their surrogates but I don’t have that doubt when it comes to Harris. She will be worse than Biden who at least had a veneer of being a moderate. Harris has no veneer. She will double down on the past four years much to the delight of AOC and the Bernie Bros.
It is obvious to me and likely also obvious to many in the voting public that the ills plaguing the economy are the result of actions of the government. Trump needs to point that out and hammer home that message. Thus far he has not talked about the adverse effect of heavy-handed regulation. He has not talked about the administrative state or out-of-control government spending. He has avoided talking about the federal debt. These are issues that would redound to the voters who cringe at “I’m from the government and am here to help you.” So maybe Trump and Vance should start saying “It’s the government, stupid.”
Maybe Trump isn’t talking about the federal debt because he knows that the Democrats would rip him apart for any suggestions he might make to curb the growth of government spending. Once in office, he should aggressively pare down the administrative state. In the past, he has favored the elimination of the Departments of Energy and Education, two of the most useless cabinet offices. Their budgets are $50 billion and $84 billion respectively. Trump could also adopt a variant of Rand Paul’s idea of instituting an across-the-board cut in federal spending of 2% per fiscal year that he is in office.
