The sad/annoying thing about Trump's speech last night to Congress is that people are praising it because he didn't sound like too much of a know-nothing demagogue. The bar has been set so low for a Trump speech that he's considered "presidential" if he gets through it with only minor lies and brags. Here are some links…
- Jeff Shesol explains why what Trump said in the speech he wants to do is not in sync with the directions in which his administration is actually heading.
- Trump says he wants to increase the defense budget by $54 billion. Kevin Drum explains why that's not possible under the rules. So my question is that when Trump announced his plan, did no one tell him that it's not as easy as he thinks? Does he think he has a way around the rules? Or a way to attract Democratic support? Or is this maybe a bluff to be sacrificed in service of some other, possible goal? Beats me.
- The Yemen raid last month is the kind of thing that, had it occurred under a Democratic administration, would have caused Republicans to immediately hold Benghazi-style hearings — and lots of them. They'd be out there arguing that the recklessness of the President had gotten a good, loyal American soldier killed needlessly. But Democrats don't have that ability to gin up outrage and didn't even when they had control of Congress. Daniel Larison is shocked that Trump will probably get away with it and maybe be equally reckless in the future.
- As Jonathan Chait notes, the new plan is to try and pass an Obamacare replacement so quickly that no one will really get an idea of what's in it or what it would do. There's only one reason our lawmakers ever do that.
Stephen Colbert's live show last night following the Trump speech was amazingly good, given how little time he and his writers had to assemble the monologue and desk spot. I'm not sure every bit of it was live but the parts that obviously were were really sharp and they felt truly connected to the day's events. Wish he'd do more of that.