President Donald J. Trump just previewed why he will be re-elected in 2020 with his 2019 State of the Union speech.
The Democratic Party has been hijacked by Democratic socialists intent on revenge. While the president promised to keep America safe, strong and proud, the Democrats in attendance pouted and sneered at his vision of American greatness. Democrats have been self-defined as the party of gridlock, resistance and vengeance.
The president declared to Congress that “we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good.” The fact is that Democrats are not the old party of John F. Kennedy, nor even Bill Clinton; they are a party dominated by the visions of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) who want to bankrupt taxpayers with trillions in big-government spending.{mosads}
Socialists hate the idea that capitalism has worked in America, and they talk down the economic growth spurred by President Trump’s regulatory reform and tax cuts. The president bragged that “in just over 2 years since the election, we have launched an unprecedented economic boom — a boom that has rarely been seen before. We have created 5.3 million new jobs and, importantly, added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs — something which almost everyone said was impossible to do, but the fact is, we are just getting started.” Democrats are trying to use socialist ideas to stop this growth with class warfare and trillions in new spending.
If you need a smoking gun that the Democrats have officially embraced socialism, you had some evidence in what one Democrat said in response to the State of the Union address. The idea of “cradle-to-grave” welfare spending is a socialist idea. The Democratic response to President Trump was given by the defeated 2018 Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, Stacey Abrams, who declared that “children deserve an excellent education from cradle to career.” Interesting play on words and a dog whistle to socialists in America that Democrats are on your side.
President Trump officially recognized Juan Guaido as the new interim president of socialist-controlled Venezuela. He explained that “we stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom — and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair.” America can get prepared for similar poverty and despair if one of the many Democratic socialists running for president is successful; these candidates are pushing massive new expenditures on a government-run, taxpayer-funded health care system that will rely on rationing. Venezuelans followed the policies of free health care and “cradle-to-grave” welfare spending, and look where it got them.{mossecondads}
President Trump worries that Venezuelan socialism has come to America. He made the case at the State of the Union: “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” America is a proud capitalist nation that is experiencing record growth, low unemployment and better trade deals. Socialism would put America on the Venezuelan track to go from a rich to a poor nation.
The next time a socialist asks you what’s wrong with “Medicare for All,” a “Green New Deal,” free college tuition and taxes on the wealthy, ask them: “What’s the cost?”
“Medicare for All” costs $32 trillion over ten years, according to George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. A “Green New Deal” costs between $2 trillion and $5.7 trillion over ten years, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Free college tuition and college loan forgiveness is about $2 trillion over ten years. Add up the tab for socialism, and it dwarfs the $22 trillion national debt we have accumulated over the history of the nation. In other words, Democratic socialist ideas would bankrupt our nation.
Democratic socialists will lie and tell you that all these ideas can be paid for by taxing “the rich” (also known as job creators). A Washington Post analysis concluded that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s idea for a 70 percent tax on those earning more than $10 million a year only raises $720 billion over ten years. A wealth tax on those worth $10 million of 1 percent would raise $2 trillion over ten years. A tax on the so-called “one percent” would reach down to those making $600,000 per year and raise $3 trillion, if taxed at 73 percent.
When you match up the class-warfare taxes versus the cost of Democratic socialism, you have a huge deficit. The Democratic Party of today is intent on growing government and soaking taxpayers in a way that will kill off American capitalism.
The president gave a great State of the Union address, and his strongest point was to expose the Democratic Party for becoming extreme left-wing nuts. A successful businessman like Trump understands, better than any career politician, the evils of cradle-to-grave socialism. The American people understand that the Democrats of new don’t resemble the party of JFK; the new Democrats are morphing into the party of Sen. Sanders, and adhere to the policies promoted in communist Cuba and socialist Venezuela.
The state of our Union will be great, as long as American socialism is defeated by President Trump.
Corey R. Lewandowski is President Trump’s former campaign manager and co-host of the podcast “Deep in the Swamp.” He is a senior adviser to the Great America Committee, Vice President Mike Pence‘s political action committee, and co-author with David Bossie of the new book, “Trump’s Enemies,” and of “Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency.” Follow him on Twitter @CLewandowski_.