Associated Press journalist Kevin Freking in a Times Picayune article dated 7/29 titled, "Trump turns GOP orthodoxy on its head" is a commentary out of touch with the facts. His opening statement that "Trump's trade policies on tariffs and the $12 billion in farm aid are turning long established republican orthodoxy on its head" should be taken with a grain of salt.
The GOP controls both houses of congress and could put a halt to President Trump's policies if they wanted to but they are Trump's ditto heads. Therefore it is the GOP's own lack of policy that has come into play and not orthodoxy. And as far as a give away to farmers, there is nothing new there. This writer had to laugh when the article quoted Louisiana's senator John Kennedy as saying, "I didn't come up here to start new government programs." But do not think for one moment Senator Kennedy will introduce any legislation to kill the farm aid bill. He already voted for Trump's tax scheme that will add $1.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. One could also say that tax scheme was aid for corporate America and the wealthy.
Another statement Freking made in the article reads, "republicans have altered the priority of tackling the national debt, an issue the GOP hammered President Obama on." The GOP actually altered the deficit spending and national debt problem in 1960. That was the last time a republican President balanced the federal budget. And if President's Reagan and Bush 43 would have balanced the federal budget as President Clinton did the national debt would not be a problem today. The national debt increased 178% in Reagan's 8 fiscal years and 105% in Bush 43 eight fiscal years. No democratic administration even comes close to that staggering figure. This writer wonders if Freking wrote commentary and pointed those numbers out when the GOP attacked President Obama over the national debt. The record shows the GOP did not just recently alter their priority on the national debt, they did that long ago. Its just that journalists just kept printing the GOP's rhetoric on the matter.
The bottom line is so called republican conservative orthodoxy has not existed for over 40 years The problem lands with journalists who fail to point out the facts and just run with the GOP rhetoric. And when they do, they themselves become GOP ditto heads. And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
