We can do tax reform in less than ten days if we put our minds to it. Let’s have all committees meet at the same time. (And President Trump needs to go to Capitol Hill more than once. I just heard that a recent visit marked the first time he’d gone to the Hill. That’s crazy! That’s why the health bill never passed; Trump didn’t go to the Hill and push for it.) Trump must be involved. He needs to understand this and to bring the people together to the Hill and to the White House.
Trump needs to listen to both sides. He should take 10 people from each party and talk to each one separately — not in the same room where they would be arguing all the time. Then after Trump makes up his mind, he should bring both parties into the same room and listen to them and talk to them, one more time — and then go with his thoughts.
Trump must represent the people. He did not get elected by the Senate. He did not get selected by the House of Representatives. Forget about how things used to be done or what the standard protocol is. That’s how Trump got elected. Does he need to rewrite his own bills with the vice president?
Trump is having trouble “draining the swamp,” and when he goes to the Hill, he should demand that there are no lobbyists in those buildings — none whatsoever. We don’t need the lobbyists, and no one should be able to spend all this big money on lobbyists who influence our government for their own special interests. Look at what they’ve done: The prescription industry, for one, has murdered people in this country — and I don’t mean killed; I mean murdered — by allowing the system to be shaped by laws that Congress passes without reading.
Does anybody realize that congressional staffers are bribed as much as, or more, than members of Congress? That’s where some of the problem is: Staffers recommend that politicians vote for a bill because they’ve gotten all of these benefits from the lobbyist. Lobbyists are bribing people just to get in front of a senator. If they’re not bribing them with money, it’s with golf trips, lunches, and dinners. We must get control of that.
I believe that there should be people who represent different industries so that we can understand them, but that is not how the system ultimately works. If the people want something, there must be another way of telling Congress and the president.
