WWBD What would Biden do?

 

While we await the election, think of changes from a Biden win.  Revoke USMCA?  It is a treaty passed by the US Senate and would require 2/3 to revoke.  Moreover it was ratified by Mexico and Canada who both agreed it was helpful to themselves, in other words a win/win/win agreement.  USMCA will remain in effect. 

            Second, the matter of admitting new states might admit Puerto Rico.  But Republicans are in favor there at this time.  DC statehood is unconstitutional—Art. 2, Section 8, paragraph 17—which give Congress full power of governance of the seat of government.  Any statehood would be challenged.  Of course Congress could take away the seat of government from DC and make it a state. A friend of mine suggests an alternative of Salina, Ks.  I snicker since I know the city very well and it actually would make some sense.  Central location. A decommissioned  AF base on the west side of town and it is the intersection of important interstate highways.  Moreover, today’s sky-high cost of living would be averted since west of Salina is Lincoln County, a vast grassland area of only 3000 citizens. Then too, a move would give the Feds a chance to downsize some departments seriously.  Ahem. 

            Even crazier is the suggestion that US Virgin Islands be a state. Tiny population and area, Enormous debt. Or the proposed Micronesia.  In the middle of the islands, Chinese have seized a reef and put in a facility whose purpose would be to kill satellites and disrupt the Pacific in war.  We’d need to evict ‘em.  What’s more, most of Marshall Islanders I know are huge Trump fans. Art. 4 sect. 3 says you can’t merge two states nor split a state. So ideas like splitting CA into 5 states would be challenged constitutionally. 

Third item.  Article 3 governs the Judiciary Branch and explicitly says they have power over ALL judicial cases in the United States. What if someone brought suit against a SCOTUS packing?  The present court would then have jurisdiction and could argue and rule their own ideal concerning number of members.  And as I understand, many of the justices like 9 people—enough to sit around a table and hear everybody’s opinion yet diverse enough to provide majority opinions.  SCOTUS might just nix a court packing. And certainly it would provide a backlash among many citizens. 

Next is the idea of eliminating the Electoral College.  That takes a constitutional amendment of 2/3 of both houses of Congress and ¾ of the states.  But there are 13 states with less than 1.4 million people who get a lot of clout from the Electoral College.  Their dislike would make it almost impossible to repeal Art. 2, Sect. 1.  What about the notion of a bunch of states signing onto “whichever way the popular vote goes, our electors will support that candidate.” Won’t work.  Art. 1, Sect. 10 says no special compacts allowed between states.

Enough of this constitutional stuff. Could Biden resurrect Obamacare?  He’d need the votes to reinstate the individual mandate and penalties.  This is politically very unpopular and as of this writing it looks like a Senate which is closely split will happen this election. Re-enacting taxes on “Cadillac healthcare plans” would drive the unions into Republican arms.  How then could Obamacare be fully funded? Stop funding Medicaid expansion in 37 states and break them? This stuff gets real expensive and real ugly real fast.

Could they enact the massive tax Biden proposes?  Yes, but the political fallout would be bad. Look for everyone to get out their Tea Party signs again. What if he opens the borders and lets in a flood of illegal immigrants and gives them citizenship?  The Hispanics who worked hard to establish themselves will revolt.  So might the new conservative Afro-American movement.  Can he ban fracking? Yes, but directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing have both been common practice separately since the 1960s.  You could ban the drilling but that would nix all offshore platforms.  You could ban the hydraulic pressure fracturing but that would kill practically every revival of an old field in the country. And the idea of getting rid of fossil fuels is far-fetched.  Trying to make electric vehicles universal without market advantage might work for the rich, but the bottom quintile in income drive old iron.  Find out what they say if you raise gasoline prices to 5 bucks.

Can I be excused if I think a lot of this talk is hot air?