| Kensington Review |
9 July 2025 |
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Cogito Ergo Non Serviam |
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Latest Commentary: Trump Delays Tariffs Again -- The Trump-Always-Chickens-Out theme got another boost as the president send letters to some of the trading partners with whom he wants to cut trade deals. The letters threaten tariffs at punitive levels unless the others start doing as Mr. Trump wants. That sounds like a strong play, but by delaying the tariffs that were supposed to go into effect today, he has shown he is making a weak showing of things. What he has not paid any attention to, and what the markets have yet to price in, are the structural changes to global trade that his fixation on tariffs has created.[9 July] Musk Starting New Political Party -- Elon Musk has had a falling out with President Trump over the tax bill that become law last week. Mr. Musk rightly said it was a bad bill that blew up the national budget deficit and the national debt. Mr. Trump thinks it is the greatest thing ever, and will bring America a new golden age, blah, blah, blah. It is holes the American economy below the waterline, so Mr. Musk is right. His solution is to launch his own political party called "The America Party." The only thing more troubling that the unimaginative name is the lack principles. The big question is just what is the new party for? [8 July] Trump Tax Bill Signed -- The Trump administration finally has a legislative win to report. The tax bill, which Mr. Trump has falsely dubbed "one big, beuatiful bill," passed the House, and the president signed it on Friday. The shift of wealth from the poor to the rich that it embodies is the largest such theft in a great many years. Even that would be tolerable if the financial damage the bill is going to do could be avoided. It cannot. The arithmetic says that this is going to balloon the national debt to levels where servicing it becomes difficult. America will face lower growth, fewer jobs, higher prices and a decline in global power as a result of this folly. [7 July] Senate Passes Tax Bill, Back to the House -- The US Senate has finished is stupidly named vote-a-rama on the big tax bill the president is aching to sign. It finally got to the end of the amendments and passed the resulting package on a 51-50 vote. The vice-president in his role as President of the US Senate to break the 50-50 tie. Three Republicans joined the Democrats in voting against it: Rand Paul (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Susan Collins (R-ME). The vote that got the GOP to 50 came from Lisa Murkowsky of Alaska, who demanded a carve out for her state in exchange for her vote. She still calls the bill a bad one. It now returns to the House so they can address the amendments made in the Senate. Passage is likely but not inevitable. [2 July] Supremes Hand Executive More Power -- Last week, the Supreme Court handed the executive branch even more power than it has taken from Congress in recent years. The move was part of a case involving an executive order limiting birthright citizenship. The Supremes have held that a district court can issue an injuction staying an executive action but that injunction only applies to the case before it. Heretofore, the injunction applied nationwide. The Repubilcan Party claims this reins in radical judges, but all it really does is let the exeucit vemake whatever rules it wants and only the Supreme Court can stop it on a national basis. This will result in an unworkable patchwork of regional injunctions that will boost the number of cases the Supreme Court must hear each term. [1 July] © Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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22 Years Online Volume XXIII, Number 106
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