The Press-Dispatch

October 13, 2021

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D-4 Wednesday, October 13, 2021 The Press-Dispatch OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Eons ago, when I was in school, students learned that in "1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue" and discovered America. Since my school years, I have learned that Columbus was a low- brow, uneducated impostor, pirate, usurper, rap- ist, mass murderer, poor sailor, accidental discov- erer, bumbling fool, tyrant, liar, greedy gold hunt- er, religious fanatic, hypocrite, evil slaver, blood- thirsty indiscriminate killer and raving lunatic. To right this wrong, many public statues honor- ing Columbus have been pulled down or removed from public viewing. Because of the negative pub- licity surrounding Columbus, fourteen states and over 130 cities observe Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. President Biden is the first President to observe Indigenous Peoples Day in place of Columbus Day. Statues and memorials in honor of Columbus, Robert E. Lee, and many other Southerners are being removed and replaced with statues or me- morials dedicated to felonious lawless criminals and hoodlums. History is being distorted and re- written to make our forefathers racists and Cau- casian American the children of racists. You can readily predict the effect this is having on race re- lations in America. Revisionists have uncovered more facts which will help set the record straight about America's discovery and colonization. Americans, and es- pecially impressionable children, now have "Crit- ical Race Theory" and the "1619 project" to assist them in their studies of American History. Each of these theories claims to set the record straight on the rise of slavery and systemic racism in Ameri- ca. We are told that Critical Race Theory is a com- plex theory and difficult for laypeople to under- stand; so, we need professors with their superi- or knowledge to help us comprehend the incom- prehensible. People who challenge the teaching of CRT are being labeled as subversives and do- mestic terrorists, much like Columbus, especial- ly if the critic is not a person of color. The National School Boards Association (NS - BA) in a letter formally asked the Biden Adminis- tration to treat parents protesting CRT and other socialist agendas at school board meetings as like- ly acts of "domestic terrorism." Parents have be- come incensed that these far-left socialist teach- ings have made their way into the public-school classroom. They have showed their displeasure at school board meetings by demanding these teachings stopped. Biden has allowed the De- partment of Justice (DOJ) using the FBI to go after parents that publicly oppose these Far-Left 2022 looking good for Republicans Going back to the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the party of first-term presi- dents gained seats in House midterm congressional elections only twice. Karl Rove reminded readers a few months ago in his Wall Street Jour- nal column that, since World War II, the average loss of House seats of the party of each first-term president in congressional midterms is 28. The largest loss was 63 in the first midterm elections in Barack Obama's first term. This was after Democrats rammed through the A f- fordable Care Act without a single Republican vote. Given that Republicans need to pick up only five seats in 2022 to re- gain control of the House, Demo- crats who retain any sense of reality are concerned by the political atmo- spherics being created by their $ 3.5 trillion welfare state/Green New Deal spending blowout. But the very idea that there is something called "reality" is now politically incorrect in today's woke-dominated Democratic Party. The sway of Democrat "moder- ates" — that is, those who have not detached entirely from reality, such as Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and Rep. Josh Gottheimer — is in question now that the on-again, off-again vote on the trillion-dollar in- frastructure bill, independent of the $ 3.5 trillion welfare state blowout, is now off-again. The infrastructure bill, $1 trillion of spending on public works proj- ects like roads, bridges and trains, is something of more conventional pedigree in Washington, which we normally expect from our elected of- ficials. The strategy of crazy left-wing House Democrats, pushing the $ 3.5 trillion welfare state/Green New Deal spending, has been to link this to their support of the $1 trillion in- frastructure bill. If you want roads and bridges, sign off on the $ 3.5 tril- lion socialist dream. It had appeared that sobriety would have its day in Washington as the Senate passed, with Democrat and Republican votes, the infrastruc- ture bill, with understanding that the House would vote on it and Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing back on the far left's condition of linking this to the welfare state trillions. But lo and behold, the speaker backed off on scheduling the vote, and we're back to the "roads and bridges on condition of the socialist dream" deal. One notable factor pushing things in this direction was a visit by Pres- ident Joe Biden to Capitol Hill, in- dicating his support of the House far-lefties to link infrastructure to socialism. This could well do for the pres- ident's ratings on domestic policy what his horribly botched exit from A fghanistan did for his ratings on for- eign policy. Let's recall that initially the Dem- ocratic presidential nomination was heading to the far-left Sens. Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren wing of the party. Things turned around for Biden when House Majority Whip James Clyburn endorsed him, delivering for him the South Carolina primary. Clyburn's endorsement was essen- tially an "establishment" endorse- ment of the Democratic Party. Cly- burn cautioned against the far-left campaign rhetoric on issues like de- funding the police. Now Biden has put his presidential seal on that far-left wing of the party, and this will cost him. New Gallup polling shows re- cord-low trust in government. Trust in federal government han- dling of international problems now stands at 39 percent, compared with an average from 1997-2021 of 59 percent. Trust in federal govern- ment handling of domestic problems stands at 39 percent, compared with an average of 53 percent from 1997- 2021. Earlier this year, Gallup polling showed satisfaction with the coun- try plunging to 39 percent, com- pared with 53 percent in 2020. Sat- isfaction with overall quality of life was 67 percent, down from 84 per- cent in 2020 ; with opportunity to get ahead with hard work at 58 per- While the greens in America, including their champion zealot, President Joe Biden, howl their primal screams over climate change, the rest of the world is turning to coal. The dark stuff. The sa- tanic fuel. But it's back big-time across the globe. So is old-fashioned petroleum. Bloomberg reported last week that because of high natural gas prices due to a reduced supply from the United States, Europe is "snapping up coal." It's cheaper now, and compared to wind and solar it's a much more reliable source of power. Euroland is also starting to give up on the green energy dreams that are still alive and well in the minds of American pols in Washington, D.C. Great Britain and Germany have experienced soaring energy prices at the gas pump and in electric utili- ty costs for homes, factories and businesses. Some relief will come from natural gas that will eventu- ally be supplied to Europe via a gas pipeline from Siberia. Don't forget, Biden greenlighted that pipe- line just a few weeks after killing the Keystone XL pipeline and thousands of jobs here at home. Meanwhile, the nation with three times the pop- ulation of the U.S. and the world's largest energy consumer, China, is all-in on coal. The Daily Mail reported that China's 1,000 coal plants "make a mockery" of any promises by Beijing that China will move to renewable energy. Coal is by far the largest source of energy in China, and new plants are being built every week. This is, as the Tele- graph put it, "Beijing's dirtiest little secret." Despite those solemn pledges for China to clean up its air, the Chinese emit three to four times more green- house gases into the atmosphere each year than does the U.S. Then there is the situation with oil. The price has been rising as demand remains steady. The Wall Street Jour- nal reported that OPEC nations predict that demand for their oil will at least double over the coming decades. That doesn't sound like a fuel source that is going out of fashion. This is all happening just at the very moment that Democrats in Congress are about to pass green energy bills that will cripple our fossil fu- el industry. These fuels could make America the energy powerhouse of the 21st century. It's hard to see how dismantling U.S. oil, gas and coal will stop the rise of the oceans when the rest of the world's addiction seems incurable. Last month, Biden went to the United Nations and lectured the world about an international part- nership to combat climate change. You could al- most hear the snickering in the audience of for- eign diplomats. It is a foreign and economic policy driven not by realism, but by fantasy. Biden sees the world as he wants it to be, not as it is. He reminds me of Britain's Neville Chamberlain circa 1939, who believed Hitler's promises of "peace in our time," up to the mo- ment the bombs started falling like rain on London. The shame of all this is that when Trump left office, America was all but energy self-sufficient and even an energy exporter. Thanks to the shale oil and gas revolution, the U.S. has access to more oil and gas (and coal) than any other nation. We have many hundreds of years of energy supply. Now that the rest of the world is thirsting for U.S. oil, gas and coal, the Left wants to shut down all domestic production by 2035, even though our fossil fuels are the cleanest. So, instead of the world's energy coming from the U.S., it will come from Russia, Saudi Arabia and the OPEC nations. To borrow a Trumpism: Those nations are now laughing behind our backs. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at Freedom- Works. He is also a co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and a Washington Examin- er columnist. With the Biden administration's China policy under wraps for months, no one quite knew what to expect from U.S. Trade Representative Kath- erine Tai's speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Leading up to Monday's event, it sounded like she would use this oppor- tunity to put China on notice. Last week, Tai told Politico that "the Biden ad- ministration plans to 'build on' existing tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese imports and confront Beijing for failing to fulfill its obligations under a Trump-brokered trade agreement." However, the speech took a much more moderate tone. While Tai called for holding China accountable on its hu- man rights record and industrial policies, she also advocated for a "durable coexistence." A fter a months-long review of China policy, the Biden administration has determined that the Chi- na Phase One Deal, signed by the Trump admin- istration in January 2020, "did not meaningfully address the fundamental concerns that we have with China's trade practices and their harmful im- pacts on the U.S. economy." According to Tai, the agreement failed to push for fundamental changes in Beijing's state sup- port for certain sectors of the economy, such as its steel, solar, and semiconductor industries. Biden's emerging China trade policy includes several positive steps. For starters, Tai announced that she will reinstate the exclusion process for products subject to Section 301 tariffs on imports from China. Tariffs of up to 25 percent remain on roughly two-thirds of U.S. imports from Chi- na. Earlier this year, the Biden administration stopped processing exclusion requests for non-medical products. And, even before the speech, Tai had already made strides to lessen trade tensions with U.S. allies, primarily the United Kingdom and the Europe- an Union. Earlier this year, the admin- istration signed an agreement to defer additional retaliatory measures in the decades-long dispute over aircraft sub- sidies with those countries. Tai is also engaging in multilateral discussions on "market distortions and other unfair trade practices, such as the use of forced labor in the fisheries sector, and in global supply chains, including in Xinjiang." While these are good points, the administra- tion could be doing more. The tariffs on imports from China are broad and have cost Americans an extra $106.8 billion in import taxes since 2018. Such costs weigh heavily on the economy as we try to recover from the pandemic-related econom- ic downturn and rising inflation. Fear of "stagfla- tion" is already rising among markets and cen- tral banks. National security tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, much of which is applied to imports from key allies such as the UK, EU and Japan, also re- main in effect. These tariffs have cost Ameri- cans $11.4 billion since 2018. A true multilater- al response would not target our allies, especial- ly with tariffs that claim the imports threaten na- tional security. While Tai did not repeat her earli- er talk of building upon existing tar- iffs, Tai did vow that the U.S. would "defend – to the hilt – our economic interests." It is unclear how that de- fense would take place, but tariffs, which are taxes on American fami- lies and businesses, should be a last resort. Tai also used her Monday speech to advocate for increased govern- ment spending on infrastructure, and arguing that President Biden's Build Back Better plan would somehow counter China's as- cendance. But trying to outspend China with American tax dollars is not a free market-driven response to this challenge. In fact, doing so will just make America more like China. The administration should look first to non-tar- iff and free-market strategies for addressing any legitimate concerns they may have with Chinese competition. A 2019 report by The Heritage Foundation highlighted seven mechanisms for targeting Chinese trade practices, including sanctioning Chinese companies that violate U.S. intellectu- al property laws and utilizing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to ad- Race for the Cure By Star Parker Continued on page 5 Eye on the Economy By Stephen Moore Fossil fuels are back Heritage Viewpoint By Tori K. Smith Points to Ponder By Rev. Curtis Bond Biden's trade strategy would make U.S. more like China Healthy conversation better than CRT Continued on page 5 Continued on page 5 Court

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