Trump must focus on the voters’ agenda

OPINION:

It has been a tough few days for President Trump as he works through problems left for him by his predecessors and some problems of his own making.

The pending loss of the current chairman of the Federal Reserve is the most obvious problem. Is Jerome Powell a good chairman? Who can really say? It is worth noting that the president selected him at the encouragement of Steve Mnuchin, his former Treasury secretary. All we can be sure of is that markets — the real day-to-day democratic structures in America — resist the politicization of the financial world, as they should. They prefer and are comfortable with reliably gray, boring, predictable apparatchiks in these government jobs.

This loss will be especially damaging because it has likely guaranteed that Mr. Powell will remain as Fed governor through 2028 and because it will limit the candidates for Federal Reserve chairman that the Senate will be willing to confirm.

Beyond the Federal Reserve, a handful of Republican members of Congress are becoming increasingly comfortable voting against the president’s wishes. Five Republican senators voted for Sen. Tim Kaine’s war powers resolution on potential further involvement in Venezuela. They may be flipped in the final vote, but the damage has been done.

Try to imagine how a similar vote regarding Greenland might look. If the president takes a more aggressive stance regarding Denmark’s territory — and he certainly seems serious about doing just that — then Congress is likely to deliver veto-proof margins against such actions.

In the same vein, 17 House Republicans inexplicably voted in favor of making insurers richer and taxpayers poorer by extending tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums, although everyone now agrees that most of that money winds up in the hands of the insurance companies. Surely, the administration cannot be in favor of that outcome.

The notion of capping credit card interest rates at 10% for the next year or so was widely panned, as it should have been. The result would have made credit cards the province of the rich; about 80% of current cardholders would have to cut up their cards.

Finally, the Trump administration yielded on the question of whether Planned Parenthood should be given access to Title X funding (again). This followed closely on the heels of an unwelcome suggestion that the Republicans give up on their generational commitment to the protection of life in the womb through the inclusion, in any extension of Affordable Care Act premiums, of the Hyde Amendment.

In all fairness, the surrender on Title X funding was driven in part by court action. However, the administration has fought more aggressively against less-significant judicial interventions.

A valuable lesson is to be learned from all this. First, everything in this world has a limit, and the fortunes of elected officials and their policy preferences are no exception. No matter how imposing an agenda, person or political movement seems, the laws of gravity, probability and the relentless nature of time eventually catch up with all of us.

The remorseless reality is that the American system of government is intentionally designed to frustrate, delay and retard change. Power is divided among the levels of government and then further divided among the various components at each level. It is made even more diffuse by staggered terms of office and election years.

Only political sentiments that are national in scope and durable over time become embedded in law.

Although improvisation is fun and can drive the daily agenda and help “own” one’s opponents, the harsh reality of the world is that planning, prioritization and an emphasis on fit and finish are irreducibly essential to any endeavor in life. It is important to measure twice and cut once.

In the most recent national election, the voters were clear that they had pressing concerns about the management of the economy and an immigration system that had allowed the United States to be penetrated routinely by those who enter the country illegally. Tackling just those two issues would be enough for most.

With respect to immigration, the administration has exceeded all expectations, with the notable exception of the H-1B visa program. It needs to refocus on the remaining concerns of voters, especially jobs, inflation and cost of living.

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor to The Washington Times.