I’ve said for some time now that there have been two reasons I could get behind Trump; his SCOTUS picks, and his stance on healthcare.
And now there’s a third:
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump — who said he has a concealed carry permit — called for the expansion of gun rights Friday, including making those permits applicable nationwide. In a position paper published on his website Friday afternoon, Trump called for the elimination of gun and magazine bans, labeling them a “total failure.”
“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” Trump wrote.
And he brings some fairly ineluctible logic to the argument:
The permits, which are issued by states, should be valid nationwide like a driver’s license, Trump said. “If we can do that for driving — which is a privilege, not a right — then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege,” Trump said.
It may be political red meat to keep his base whipped up.
Good.
I honestly thought Trump would have rolled over and become a standard NYC RINO on guns, so this is a pleasant surprise. He’s going squishy on Ocare, which I understand, but that’s somewhat disappointing. Still, the Supreme Court nominees he proposed were pretty good, and if he gets started on immigration and trade well I suspect I’ll actually be pleased rather than just satisfied that Hillary was stopped.
Call me cautiously optimistic at this point.
We’ll see how Trump does when he faces the “Schumer Test.”
That is when Trump has a meeting with Schumer, and Schumer is chummy and clubby, and treats him like a man of the world, like him, and shows Trump how, if things were just a little different, they’d both be on the same side, and Schumer starts out agreeing with Trump, and pretty soon Trump finds himself agreeing with Schumer.
Rubio failed the Schumer test. That cost him the nomination.
I’m not sure Trump has really gone squishy on Obamacare. During the debates he said he wanted to keep the provision about not denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions so his statements in the 60 Minutes interview are consistent with that. We already had that with HIPAA (although it was conditioned on paying your premiums and maintaining coverage before you got sick – so it’s possible that whatever preexisting coverage provision we have going forward will be closer to HIPAA than ACA). The only other thing he said he’s open to keeping is letting parents keep their children on their insurance up to age 26. This is a very popular provision (a lot of Republicans in Congress would probably support keeping it) and because this age group tends not to use a lot of health care services, it’s probably pretty cheap (may even help to keep costs down if they’re paying more in premiums than they use in services). As long as he gets rid of the onerous provisions – the mandates, taxes on medical innovation, Medicaid expansion (replace with block grants), IPAB and allow people to buy policies across state lines with the benefits that they want – I can live with the provision for the twenty-six year olds.
Jethrene,
Trump has FAR FAR more negotiating skills and experience than Rubio has ever had. I believe he won’t have a problem not falling under Schumer’s spell. Hell, he may be able to garner more than 50/50 out of any negotiating with Schumer.
Remember, his book is called “The Art Of The Deal”, and Scott Adams laid out exactly what he saw Trump doing: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/150919416661/why-i-switched-my-endorsement-from-clinton-to (#5 and #6)
Bill C –
I would love to be a fly on the wall when Trump meets closed doors with Senate and House Democrat leadership