Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Repeal and Replace With Empowerment and Control
“Repeal” and “replace” are the new buzzwords, with no signs of being bumped from the headlines anytime soon. Since the 2016 election, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been in the crosshairs of the Republican-controlled Congress and Donald Trump. The vow to repeal and replace ACA was a keystone campaign promise that tapped into the frustration of many Americans hit with skyrocketing health care premiums and limited plan options. While “repeal” will be fairly straightforward, what will “replace” actually entail? More importantly, in an effort to wrest control of health care from the federal government and return it to individual Americans, what *should* it entail?
The World Turned Upside Down
Legend has it that the British played “The World Turned Upside Down” after their unforeseen and disastrous defeat at the Battle of Yorktown. Such topsy-turvy upheaval characterizes the start of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Feeling Good (So Far)
President Trump’s critics are finding it difficult to stay focused following a flurry of actions taken by the new American CEO. In just the first two working days of the new administration, the president has signed an executive order withdrawing from the negotiating process of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), aligning him with socialist independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who broke with former President Obama over the agreement. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama oppose withdrawal. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
Having a Ball at the Ball
Last Friday, as guests of the Trump family, my wife, Jeanne, and I braved inclement weather to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration. By now you know it was a typical Trumpian ceremony. It was peaceful, elegant, momentous and frightening. At least the protesters were frightened. What they were frightened about is a bit unclear, but many of them were certainly alarmed.
The Greatest Debt Producer That God Ever Created?
Libertarians and conservatives are skeptical of the government’s ability to do anything well. But there’s one thing the government excels at producing: debt. Granted, this isn’t a good thing, but we must nevertheless recognize the government’s skill at it. And just when you think it can’t outdo itself, our government surprises you with an extra production of debt and deficit, just like that.
Under Republican President Trump, the Media Rediscovers Its Purpose
Only hours into his new job, White House press secretary Sean Spicer attacked the media for what he called “dishonesty” and “deliberately false reporting.” He specifically challenged the reporting that said President Donald Trump’s inauguration had a smaller audience than the inaugurations of President Barack Obama and that Trump removed the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.
A Big Day!
[Tuesday] night, President Trump tweeted, “Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!” [Yesterday] he followed through with two executives orders. The first authorizes the construction of a wall along the Mexican border. The second directs the federal government to terminate grants to sanctuary cities, a move the vast majority of Americans support.
House Makes Fund-amental Change to Abortion
Who needs 100 days? Donald Trump is accomplishing amazing things in three! It’s been a big week in Washington for the unborn. First, we watched the new president move quickly to deliver on his promise to wipe out the funding for overseas abortion groups and redirect that money to real health care providers.
The Real Cost of Protectionism
When the president speaks of closed factories scattered like “tombstones” across America, has he noticed the shuttered stores in shopping centers, and entire malls reduced to rubble? He promises “protection” to prevent foreigners from “destroying” manufacturing jobs by exporting to America things that Americans want to import. Does he know that one American company might be “destroying” more American jobs than China is? And that this supposed destruction is beneficial?
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The Utter Selfishness of Radical Feminists
This last weekend, as tens of thousands of radical feminists marched in cities around the nation, their vulgar and “nasty” remarks received prime coverage by a media eager to feature their heinous and godless tirades. Their despicable comments were beamed to homes and mobile devices everywhere.
Where’s Our Outrage?
After Katie Rich, a “Saturday Night Live” writer, tweeted last week that 10-year-old Barron Trump “will be this country’s first homeschool shooter,” she was widely lambasted on social media. Her inappropriate, insensitive remarks deserve to be widely denounced. No child should be subjected to such a tactless, demeaning attack in public or private. It is appalling, however, that few Americans express similar outrage about the troubled and sometimes tragic circumstances in which millions of our precious children live.
#NotMyMarch: Elitism, Abortion and the March for (Some) Women
As we try to hear above the noise, it can be difficult to distinguish the exact grievances that the Women’s Marches over the weekend sought to remedy. They appeared to be a conglomeration of anyone who was angry about anything — ranging from abortion and birth-contro, to race and social justice to guns and Trump. The women who marched all across the country (and the world) seemed to hold one thing in common: a feeling of disenfranchisement and under-representation fueled by anger. Yet, many of the non-participating women felt, in turn, misrepresented and disenfranchised by a march that claimed to be for women but in reality only represented the women who agreed with them. This one was #NotMyMarch.
Marching for Life, and for Our Future
I wonder why when hundreds of thousands of women show up in Washington to demonstrate for what one Wall Street Journal columnist called “everything under the progressive sun,” the press goes bonkers with coverage. Yet, when similar numbers of pro-lifers reportedly show up for the March for Life, as they have been doing every January since the Roe v. Wade decision in January 1973, and as they will do again this week, they barely get a nod from the media.
Trump Gets Labor Love
[Monday] at the White House, President Trump met with ten top business leaders. What struck me about the meeting was that this was a businessman talking to businessmen and women. He vowed to slash regulations, ideally by as much as 75%.
House to Taxpayers: The Bucks Stop Here
Abortion isn’t health care. But try telling that to the Left. After President Trump pulled the plug on the millions of dollars our government sends to abortion groups overseas, liberals pitched a predictable fit.
The Ongoing Gosnell Blackout
Six years ago, a deeply disturbing story emerged from a poor neighorhood in Philadelphia. In a horrific 261-page report, prosecutors accused abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell of delivering seven babies alive and then killing them by snipping their spinal chords with scissors, as well as allowing a woman who had survived 20 years as a refugee in Nepal to be incompetently overmedicated. She died.
Ultrasound: The Anti-Science Left’s Bugaboo
Abortion extremists are the new Luddites. Remember Ned Ludd from your grade-school history lessons? He was the Occupy Wall Street agitator of his time — a phantom leader of early 19th-century British textile workers who vindictively smashed spinning jenny power looms to bits in a desperate bid to halt technological progress.
Trump’s America First Policy Is Conservative Policy
“My goal,” said candidate Donald Trump, “is to establish a foreign policy that will endure for several generations.” He spoke these words last April in a prepared address delivered not at a massive rally in a basketball arena, but before a few Washington insiders at the Mayflower Hotel.
The Left’s Vagina-Based Politics Demeans Women
Last Saturday, in an attempt to demonstrate outrage at ... at ... well, at *something *, some three million people across the country, mostly women, participated in women’s marches. The scattershot platform for the march included public funding for contraception and abortion, equal pay, protections for illegal immigrants, anti-Israel activism and taxpayer-subsidized tampons, among other disparate causes. What united them? Hatred for the reality that Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States on Friday.
DeVos SHOULD Have Said...
Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, probably survived the grilling she got from angry Democrats last week. When Sen. Patty Murray demanded she promise not “to privatize public schools,” DeVos replied, “Not all schools are working for the students.” When Sen. Bernie Sanders asked her to make “universities tuition free,” DeVos replied, “I think that’s a really interesting idea (but) there’s nothing in life that’s truly free.” Those answers were fine. I suppose it’s important for a nominee to be polite. But what I *wish* she’d said was: “No, Sen. Murray, I won’t promise not to privatize! Didn’t you notice the mess government schemes create? Many government-run schools are lousy! Private is better!”