The China War DC STILL Isn't Fighting
Thankfully, President Donald Trump has bypassed DC and the Globalists regarding Communist China. He is acting as if Communist China is (at the very least) a serious threat to US economic security. Mostly because it is.
Having a $1.2 trillion per annum trade deficit with a country is certainly a serious threat to US economic security. Just ask American manufacturers in the Rust Belt. Oh wait….
To address this, President Trump has FINALLY engaged the US in what the DC-Globalist Cabal now inaccurately, disingenuously dubs the Trump Trade War. Which is how the Cabal bizarrely describes China shooting at US for a half-century-plus - and then President Trump FINALLY having US shoot back.
Soviet Union Communist Vladimir Lenin predicted: “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.” Right sentiment - wrong Communists.
We starved the Communist Soviet Union to death. We’ve super-fed Communist China into a global super-pain in the keister.
China has taken the trillions of dollars we have idiotically gifted them - and done awful things…everywhere else on the planet.
Including throwing LOTS of money at US, Germany, England, France and all the other members of what we once referred to as Western Civilization. So as to bribe them all into perpetual submission. And instigators of - and advocates for - their respective nations’ demises.
The DC-Globalist Cabal has made trillions of dollars selling the US to…everywhere else on the planet. Most especially China. So the Cabal absolutely does not want to see any aspect of that sellout ever end.
If it ends the US? That’s a price they are willing to pay. But they absolutely will not pay $40 more for an iPhone.
The same people who want to tax everyone and everything INSIDE the US? Suddenly become anti-tax free marketeers when it comes to tariffing China (or anywhere else on the planet). Weird, huh?
Meanwhile, that’s EXACTLY how we should fund our government.
Very low taxes and very few regulations on economic activity inside the US. Build a big, beautiful domestic economy. And then - like the world’s greatest night club? Impose a cover charge upon other countries wishing to gain entry.
US citizenship and residency should have their privileges.
Oh: And prior to 1913’s idiotic ratification of the 16th amendment to the Constitution? Which created the domestic income tax?:
“Tariffs were the greatest (approaching 95% at times) source of federal revenue….”
Otherwise known as the Good Old Days.
Back to the present: Over the weekend the White House announced a partial agreement on the China front of the trade war:
“The United States and China agreed to slash tariffs on each other's imports for 90-days, and implement a new platform to resolve trade disputes, according to a joint statement from Geneva.
“Starting Wednesday, the U.S. will temporarily lower its tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent, while the Chinese side will drop measures from 125 percent to 10 percent.”
I’d like to see the foreign tariffs stay - and the domestic income tax go. But that would dramatically undermine DC’s ability to commit cronyism. So it almost certainly will never happen.
Speaking of cronyism - and China’s MANY billions in bribes….
America Has Lost Its Lead in 5G:
“China is surging ahead, and the U.S. needs better infrastructure and new spectrum auctions.”
This article was written by Trump’s first-term Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai. It highlights the non-DC approach the Trump FCC took towards wireless spectrum, the Fifth Generation (5G) wireless network built upon spectrum - and the global race against China to get there:
“By the end of Mr. Trump’s first term, the U.S. led the world in 5G availability. China, our most formidable global competitor, ranked a distant 17th.”
But then Joe Biden’s machine stole the presidency. And things returned to DC business-as-usual:
“(I)n the past few years, that urgency has waned in Washington - and so has our lead….
“The Federal Communications Commission’s auction authority - critical to deploying commercial airwaves through a transparent, free-market approach - was allowed to lapse in 2023, for the first time in three decades. Coordination between the FCC and other federal agencies on spectrum ground to a halt.”
This is an all-hands-on-deck DC failure.
Spectrum is a finite resource. And some spectrum is better than other spectrum. The 456+ federal agencies (yuck) hold approximately 60% of all the spectrum. And much of it is higher-to-high-quality.
The agency coordination to which Pai referred? Is for them to work together to consolidate their use of spectrum. So as to clear spectrum. So that the FCC may then sell the cleared spectrum to the private sector’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs). So that the ISPs may continue their work on 5G. Except the 456+ agencies (yuck) are now not doing that.
And before those FCC sales can happen? Congress must pass law reauthorizing the FCC’s auction authority.
(And why does Congress sunset these things? Like Trump’s 2017 tax cuts? And FCC spectrum authority is far less partisan and controversial than tax cuts. Why did Congress time bomb it?)
Except this Congress doesn’t seem to be doing that. My Web search yielded ZERO reauthorization bills filed in either House. There is also very little discussion of the issue - and, apparently, very little earnestness about it.
Which is not a shocker. This Congress has been incredibly inert.
It’s mid-May, and the “big, beautiful bill” still languishes.
President Trump’s avalanche of executive actions must be backed by legislation if they are to not be reversed by the next Democrat president. And thus far the only such bill filed by Congress? Is for the idiotic order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump 2.0 is going to have to do with spectrum policy what it’s doing with China trade policy. And what Trump 1.0 did with spectrum policy.
Ignore DC’s malevolent neglect. And end-run it. Commandeer control of the narrative - and the policy making.
Demand his agencies clear spectrum. And demand Congress reauthorize his FCC to sell it.
Because a Communist China-led 5G network? Won’t be a lot of fun.
Editor's Note: This also appeared in the Daily Signal.