The Patriot Post Digest 12-4-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 12-4-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Dec. 4, 2017 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/52728

IN TODAY’S EDITION

The Senate passed tax reform. It’s not the prettiest bill but better than the status quo.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about something that wasn’t a crime. No smoking gun.
ABC suspends Brian Ross for another episode of fake news.
The Leftmedia and entertainment industries know how to circle the wagons.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any material oppression of the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself a natural limitation of the power of imposing them.” —Alexander Hamilton (1787)

IN BRIEF

Tax Reform: Political (Pyrrhic) Victory?1

By Nate Jackson

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, Senate Republicans managed to pass their tax reform package. It’s a “yuge” political win for both the congressional GOP and for President Donald Trump. The bill will now go to conference with the House, as both chambers have passed reform along the same broad outline and compromise before Christmas is quite doable.

There are some caveats to everything we just said, however. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was the lone Republican “no” on the Senate’s bill; he objected to how much it would add to the deficit. We share his concerns about our national debt, but our problem2 is with the spending side of things. Meanwhile, 13 House Republicans voted against that chamber’s bill, and Democrats, who know how to march in lockstep, were unified in both House and Senate. Thus the lack of any bipartisan consensus, the rushed and opaque work outside regular order, and the middle-of-the-night vote is all somewhat reminiscent of ObamaCare. Will tax reform similarly end up as a Pyrrhic victory for the GOP? Democrats and their media mouthpieces will continue to attack it as “tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the poor,” perhaps costing the GOP control of Congress in 2018.

We’ve certainly done our share of reporting on the mixed bag of the GOP’s reform efforts3, and we’d prefer any number of different prescriptions. But politically it’s the overall perception of the bill among the electorate that will matter next year. So Republicans hope that people see through Democrats’ class warfare rhetoric, that biased realtors are wrong about the damage to home prices, and that the Keynesians are underestimating economic growth generated by more Americans keeping more of their money. Leftists are wrong, of course. For one thing, just wait until the lower corporate tax rate results in a stock market boost, adding more money to the 401(k)s of millions of American workers. The economic effect will be good, even if it could be better with policy tweaks.

In short, Republicans are hoping that far-from-perfect tax reform is better than the status quo.

Flynn’s Plea — Much Ado About Nothing?4

By Thomas Gallatin

On Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged Michael Flynn, former national security advisor for Donald Trump, with lying to the FBI. The charge states that Flynn “willfully and knowingly” made “false, fictitious and fraudulent” statements to the agency while it was investigating Russian election meddling. David French of National Review points out5 that “the sharp-eyed reader will note that Flynn is being charged with lying to the FBI about activity that isn’t criminal.” Flynn has pleaded guilty to the charge and has now promised full cooperation with Mueller’s investigation.

What does this mean? The mainstream media outlets are speculating that Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump directed him to “make contact with the Russians.” While the Democrats and their Leftmedia mouthpieces are wildly playing this up to be the smoking gun of Russian collusion6 they have long been clamoring about, it’s not even remotely that. The devil is in the details — or in this case the timing — if in fact Trump directed Flynn after the election and during the transition to contact the Russians. Thus, this has nothing to do with the fake collusion charges. Moreover, there was nothing illegal about Flynn’s contact with the Russians.

Responding to the news of Flynn’s plea, the White House issued the following statement:

Today, Michael Flynn, a former National Security Advisor at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration, and a former Obama administration official, entered a guilty plea to a single count of making a false statement to the FBI.

The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year. Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn. The conclusion of this phase of the Special Counsel’s work demonstrates again that the Special Counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion.

So, why has Flynn been the target of both the FBI and then the Mueller investigation? Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy believes7 the answer to be threefold, hinging upon Barack Obama’s desire to handicap Trump’s ability to reverse his policies both foreign and domestic. McCarthy writes that Obama aimed to “(1) to punish Flynn, and derivatively the incoming Trump administration, for opposing Obama’s anti-Israel legerdemain in the Security Council; (2) to promote the political narrative that Russia–Trump collusion had cheated Clinton out of her rightful election victory; and (3) to tie this collusion narrative to sanctions relief, thereby making it politically impossible for Trump to roll back Obama’s sanctions once he was sworn in — a boon for the Democrats’ collusion narrative since the sanctions stand as a reminder of Russia’s election meddling.”

This latest news is reminiscent of the special counsel railroading of Scooter Libby. And this is once again a reminder that Mueller’s investigation is free to go almost anywhere. For Democrats and their cohorts in the mainstream media, the endgame is the removal of Trump, because his election victory amounted to a massive refutation by the American people of Obama and his leftist policy agenda. Refusing to stand by and allow Trump to reverse their political achievements, Democrats have essentially opted for a resistance plan that seeks what McCarthy calls the “criminalization of politics.” Hence the call by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) on Sunday for pursuing a case against Trump for obstruction of justice8.

Fake News Alert at ABC9

ABC News’ Brian Ross had a Dan Rather moment Friday. Jumping at the apparent opportunity to make a name for himself as he laid the ax at the foot of Donald Trump’s presidency, Ross erroneously reported that Michael Flynn4 had made a plea deal in Robert Mueller’s investigation to testify that candidate Trump had directed him to contact the Russians. Ah ha! The smoking gun of the Trump/Russia collusion conspiracy had finally been unearthed! … Except for the matter of one massive detail — a detail that would temporarily send the stock market into a downward spiral negatively impacting the pension funds of millions of Americans. Then came the correction. It was not “candidate” Trump, but President-elect Trump who had directed Flynn to contact the Russians.