Hi everyone.
Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw at me.
Let’s get right to it…
John, there are so many challenges politically for the US, it’s just difficult to imagine who or what can get us back to “old school” common sense politics. I do have THE answer … Term Limits! Everyone gets six years - Reps, Senators, and the President. Then, they will VOTE THEIR CONSCIENCE - not worrying about running for reelection. After six, then out, with a nice little pension. No longer will the Representatives in the House spend all their waking hours groveling for money - running for office EVERY two years? Really? That system is broken. So, going forward, whenever someone speaks about one of our elected officials not standing up for what most thinking people consider “American Values” - do what your elected officials won’t do, yell “WE NEED TERM LIMITS”! Bingo! John, do you agree? I haven’t heard a peep from either side (of course), so let’s fill in the blanks, shall we? —Aloha, Mike
Hi Mike. I was asked about this in the Q&A not long ago. Here was my answer:
I struggle with the idea of term limits… I understand the sense behind them, and I’m open to the idea, but when I look at the current makeup of Congress, I see bigger problems than representatives being around too long. Frankly, I would take a serious, effective legislator who’s been in office for 20 years any day of the week over a fresh face who spends all their time trying to get on cable news, and pursue a dream of becoming a celebrity-firebrand.
I think you bring up good points, though. It’s a topic I’m sure I’ll think some more about in the future.
Sir John: Jasmine Crockett grew up in an upper class area of St. Louis, Missouri. Earlier interviews in her career reveal her to be articulate and well-spoken. Lately however she has adopted street lingo as her current mode of speaking. Since it makes her sound less intelligent and less respectable, why do you think she’s doing this? And any thoughts on her referring to Governor Abbott as “Hot Wheels” recently? —“Hot Wheels” regards from The Emperor
Regarding lingo, a number of politicians on both sides do that type of thing in an attempt to sound like “one of the people.” I’ve always thought it was silly. As for the “Hot Wheels” comment, I thought it was gross. I’ve been very consistent in my position that it’s disgusting whenever a politician (or anyone for that matter) mocks someone’s disability.
The whataboutism I’ve read online this week, defending Hegseth and Waltz, has been even worse than what you described in your column on the topic. Now Trump supporters are saying what those two shared in an insecure chat-room was okay because of Biden’s health cover-up, and the awful Afghanistan withdrawal. In other words, the Biden presidency in itself justifies everything the new Trump administration has done and will do. How convenient! — Ben G.
Yeah, I noticed that too. It went from the Hillary BlackBerry/email server comparison (which did have genuine similarities) to a laundry list of Biden and liberal-media outrages that had next to nothing in common with what happened. As you say, the logic being used is that no matter what bad things the Trump administration does over the next four years, it’ll be a-okay because Biden and other liberals did bad things too. I’m telling you, we are going to whatabout ourselves into oblivion.
John, Why are people more angry with Musk for exposing government spending waste, than at the people who committed it. This is the tax money of ALL Americans. My focus is on wanting some answers on how this all happened to begin with. Where was the oversight. — Rob O.
Hi Rob. Your framing may be consistent with how much of the right-wing media presents DOGE, but I disagree with the premise that Musk is merely exposing government waste, and that that’s the primary reason people are upset with him.
I’ve made the point on this website many times, but I don’t think Musk has any idea what he’s doing on this front (which was to be expected, being that he has no experience in government). To me, DOGE feels like 90% theater and chaos, and maybe 10% intended results. Let’s set aside for a moment that it’s saving us virtually nothing (while Congress continues to explode the debt and deficit), and that it may even end up costing taxpayers money. Instead, let’s flip the party script…
Imagine if President Biden, soon after being sworn in, deputized political mega-donor, George Soros (and a group of unknowns working for him), to — under the label of “efficiency” — log in to government computer systems, pour through sensitive personal data, and (with virtually no oversight, clear conflicts of interest, and little understanding of the departments they’re looking at) start shutting down operations, laying off workers in mass (seemingly at random), and cutting off funding. Imagine it not being clear that what Soros is doing is even legal (which spawns several potentially very costly lawsuits). Imagine Soros making all kinds of false statements about what he found in his “audit.” Imagine the financial reports Soros releases misaccounting tens of billions of dollars. Imagine Soros’ efforts disrupting aid to millions of AIDS patients, accidentally firing (then having to rehire) nuclear weapons workers, potentially cutting off Social Security communications, etc.
Even if Soros did manage to legitimately identify and neutralize some waste amidst the chaos he created, would you be wondering why people are more mad at him than the mismanagement (which is unfortunately typical in government bureaucracies) that led to that waste? Just something to think about.
GOP congressman Don Bacon is saying that congress should take back tariff power from the president. What do you think? — Alex D.
They should absolutely do it! And “take back” is the right phrase, because the power was indeed intended for Congress, not the presidency. Congress ceded “temporary” authority to the presidency years ago, which Trump has been abusing as an “emergency” measure (despite there being no emergency).
On a side note, I don’t know where in the heck Don Bacon has been all this time (he was first elected in 2016), but the guy has really been showing some brave, bold, Reagan-esque leadership in recent months. He’s just one guy, but I’m glad he’s there.
Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.
John, I know Bernie stepped away from the Q&A, but I think it would be cool if he submitted one question for you each week, like you used to do when he was doing the Q&A. Serious or humorous would be welcome....
Term limits are probably a good idea, but it really doesn't matter. In order to pass term limits, the people whose terms would be limited would have to vote for them - although, I supposed they could grandfather themselves in.