Blog

While results are still coming in, two are final. Donald Trump will be our 47th President. He won the Electoral College, and it appears he will also win the popular vote. Second, for the next 2 years Republicans will have the majority in the Senate. Which Party will control the House of Representatives was still undecided when I posted this blog. The outcome in the House will be critical in deciding whether Trump will be successful in implementing his agenda. He has approximately 75 days to assemble the team he will work with to put the U.S. back on the right track.

His task is daunting as 70% of us believe the greatest nation on earth is headed in the wrong direction. Because Trump can only serve for 4 years, it is critical that his team is ready to go on Inauguration Day. We should expect his team to consist of the best and brightest people in the nation, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other immutable factor. As a successful businessman he knows that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, will not be a consideration when selecting his team. Nor should they be. In that Americans pay their salaries we have a right to expect his hires to be based strictly on merit.

If you agree that a $36 trillion national debt is dangerous you should join me in hoping Elon Musk will be the first appointment to Trump’s team. Musk said that he would be proud to head up Trump’s proposed Government Efficiency Commission. It will be charged with conducting financial and performance audits of the federal government. It will look for fraud and improper payments from government programs. And lastly, it will recommend structural and operational changes to streamline state agencies, and make government perform better and at lower costs. It is highly likely that Musk will be able to find a lot of the above. Ponder this: The Federal Registrar tells us the Federal Government consists of 15 departments, which are divided into 229 agencies and 201 sub-agencies. That sounds like fertile ground for anyone who is serious about making our government more efficient. Musk will likely find trillions of dollars of savings for the American people. Any savings will go a long way toward supporting new Trump tax cuts and reducing inflation. The heads of departments, agencies, and sub-agencies, got very uneasy Wednesday morning.

Starting today, Trump will begin the onerous task of filling around 4,000 political appointments in the government. Only(?) about 1,200 of those appointments will need the advice and consent of the Senate. While the wheels of the Senate grind at approving his appointments, Trump will be busy writing a mountain of Executive Orders (EO). Some of them will rescind Biden EOs that rescinded Trump’s EOs. This activity is ruinous to productivity and is a waste of both time and money. EOs are published in the Federal Register and are legally binding until they are rescinded, overruled by a Court, or changed by legislation.

We will see multiple EOs intended to close our southern border. His EOs will restart construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. They will reopen public land so that oil companies will be able to increase the amount of crude oil we produce in the U.S. We will be energy self-sufficient like we were when he left the White House in 2021. That extra supply will result in lower oil prices. Lower oil prices, as they permeate our economy, will reduce inflation. We should expect EOs that will ban biological men/boys from using restrooms and locker rooms designated for women/girls, and vice versa. He’ll likely issue one that will preclude biological males from participating on female sports teams. (That this is an issue is mind numbing). I’m sure there will be a plethora of others, but these are a few of which I am relatively certain. Governing by diktat, by EOs, is never optimal in our Republic. Until, or unless, the two warring Parties stop acting like self-serving infants, and put the well-being of the American people paramount in their decision making, EOs will remain a necessary evil in governing.

It is imperative to Trump’s agenda and to the American people that Republicans maintain a majority in the House. If they do, they will not need the help of Democrats. Having said that, it would be great for our country if Democrats, in both the House and Senate, decided to join with Republicans to pass some of the bills that are going to be debated in the coming months. Either way, it would be healthy for our country if Congress followed up on Trump’s EOs with legislation that will make them permanent. I’m not holding my breath that Democrats have the courage to roll up their sleeves and work with the man they have vilified for nearly a decade. For the good of our country, I pray that at least some of them will.

In closing, we all need to be realistic. Trump’s victory, as widespread as it was, will not lead to cheaper groceries, or gas prices, next week, or next month. But they will arrive. Illegals won’t stop entering our country right away. But very soon, they will stop entering. Men/boys had better accumulate all of the sports medals meant for women/girls they can over the next couple of months. By 2/1/2025 they will no longer be able to steal success and opportunity from women/girls. We must be patient and understand the problems facing our country took 4 years to develop. Our votes last Tuesday started the ball rolling toward fixing them. While it will take a little time, relief is on the way.

Thank you for reading my post-election blog. Those of you who are regular readers can imagine how good I feel being able to write it. Thanks again, Bob