Lehigh Valley's freshman congressman, Ryan Mackenzie, was appointed to the Education committee. Considering that Trump has already signed an executive order abolishing that department, Mackenzie's appointment is akin to being assigned to the social committee on the Titanic.
In a recent Morning Call interview, he handled the reporter's (Lindsay Weber) questions fairly well. He asserted that only congress can ultimately end the department, but he avoided saying how he would vote on it when that time came. He did express concern that Special Education and student loans be protected.
Mackenzie is being assaulted by protests at his office. While the MC interview was a good opportunity for him, his midterm future could rest with Trump's popularity at that time. I suspect that Trump isn't a hill he wants his career to die on.
photocredit:Tom Shortell
Much too early in Mackenzie’s career for me to be very critical of him. I really do believe he will be seen by most as a huge improvement of Susan Wild who never could seem to come out from under Nancy Pelosi’s apron.
ReplyDeleteFrom statements I’ve read, the Federal Department of Education is NOT being completely eliminated. Most of its core functions, however, will be turned back to the responsibility of each State Department of Education. That, I believe, is the correct decision and proper choice in best interest of our young students.
Trump has about a 28% core of MAGA voters, and about another 40% of voters who supported him last November. The dislike of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was very strong and that was the primary factor which gave Trump his second term as President.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it must also be noted that the Congressional elections were pretty even, and the GOP has only slight majorities in both houses of Congress. That is why Trump is governing on the basis of Exective Orders, rather than sending legislation through the Congress.
It is because of Trump relying on EOs is why the Education Department was not abolished, as that would require congressional approval; legislation which may or may not pass the House or the Senate as not all GOP representatives or senators are part of his MAGA cult.
Actually, Trump has about 7 months left of MAGA controlling the national ajenda, as when November comes around is when the Congressional elections will start to heat up and there will be 20 GOP and 13 Democratic senators up for re-election; although perhaps maybe 6-10 senators face serious challenges, while the House will depend upon Trump's popularity rating - that 40% of the electorate who abandoned Harris for Trump last November.
Currently the Democrats are imploding as a party as they are divided between the left-wing Marxists that led them off the cliff and the few rational Democrats who you never really hear about as they have the good sense to lay low while the rest of their party self-explodes.
As long as Trump does things such as driving a wedge between the United States and Canada for really no good reason; hating the EU and NATO; the Greenland debacle, and siding with the Russians with regards to Ukraine, the Democrats have a real chance in 2026 to take over both houses of Congress.
We will see what happens.
I’m not someone who believes returning full control of the Congress back over to Democrats is a good thing. That party has a long way to go to regain my support so soon. In 2028? Perhaps.
DeleteWhat is Canada’s ‘good reason’ for now having tariffs on American products? For that matter, what is any other nation that already tariffs our products ‘good reason?’
DeleteTrump has made it abundantly clear his goal is to create more fair trade. Or, you tax us, then we’ll tax you. Remove your existing tariffs then we don’t place any on you. Simple enough.
How many realize just the threat of new American tariffs on other nations has ALREADY resulted in factory production moving back to America. More than a trillion dollars worth of construction now underway.
Rebuilding manufacturing capability right here creates employment and is a positive for securing our national security. That job starts now!
Before Trump came back into office, Canada had protective tariffs on meat and dairy products, along with alchohol proucts produced in the United States. The "good reason" was to protect its domestic industries. These were not new, Canada has had them on those products for decades.
DeleteCanada imported about $800 billion of US products in 2024 before Trump started this trade war. So it wasn't that Canada did not buy United States products. Now, as a result of the bitterness in Canada about the United States due to Trump and his policies, I suspect that 800 billion will be reduced significantly in terms what we sell to the Canadians.
Yeah, that helps the United States a lot..
Canada's reason is responsive to Trump's actions, supposedly because of "drugs coming over the border."
DeleteYou must understand that no company could plan a factory since the election. Any construction occurring was planned years ago already.
Tariff talk has only increased the price of goods and affected the stock market.
Actually, Canada’s tariffs have been longstanding. Check the tariffs that are on American dairy products.
DeleteBillions of dollars of new foreign automobile manufacturing facilities nearly completed in Mexico have already been halted due to our proposed tariffs. In addition, high technology manufacturing, robotics, A.I., etc. are swiftly now being moved here. They require almost no new construction.
Just read an article, Chinese products being sold now on Amazon are already being discounted by as much as 50% as that nation realizes its sales advantage could soon evaporate. Stock is being unloaded.
That’s funny. This weekend I bought gas (down significantly since the same time last year), and eggs (at a five month low).
DeleteMaybe the price of goods isn’t the problem, but where you shop and fill up.
Please point out where the trillions in new manufacturing is? And how it ever was able to happen so quickly, 3 months after Trump came upon us?
DeleteAhh . . . many are commitments that came accompanied with signed preliminary proposals submitted for regulatory review and approval. Several announcements between incoming corporate ownership officials shaking hands with Trump at the White House have been televised. Seek those out then read further about each.
DeleteNo one, not even at your level of intellect, would expect such large projects to magically appear over a period of weeks,
I have to chuckle about the concerns about the Department of Education.
ReplyDeleteIf you consider that there isn't a single federal school educating students, or looked at student test scores since the department was created, the question that should be asked isn't whether it should be eliminated.
The real question is why it has taken this long.
We keep hearing how the Federal government is better at doing things. With a $37 trillion debt, 1/3 of the budget borrowed, when is the big government lobby going to be objective about the need for drastic reform? Or is it same policy, that anything proposed by Trump must be bad, so they will do the opposite, Real objective thinking. All emotional responses, no real thinking involved.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Federal department of Education, their mandates often cost more than the money they contribute. A time for new ideas in education.
Ryan and his team were sharp enough to beat a three term Democrat incumbent even though they were out spent more than 3 to one. Keep in mind, while Trump's numbers are not great, the Democrats are at record lows. The Dems seem to be determined to stay stuck on stupid. This doesn't bode well for them next year. This said, if Republicans in the 7th congressional district want to hang onto this seat they will need to turn out for next years off year elections. McKenzie's job will be to get the independents to the polls to vote Republican. Smart politicians get the hard work done early, I suspect by this time next year the tariffs will be a distant memory, energy prices and inflation will be dropping. Time will tell. Meanwhile let the boomer Dems protest protest all they want. They may want to take notice the FBI won't be opening covert investigations on them as under this president.
ReplyDeleteCorrection. As under the previous president.
DeleteThe problem with public education isn’t the need for more money. Private and parochial schools that have far less funding routinely run circles around their public school counterparts.
ReplyDeleteThe advantages I see the parochial/private schools having:
A focus on the basics of education;
A low tolerance for (discipline) problem students;
A lack of a centralized, overbearing bureaucracy siphoning money away from the actual schools and classrooms;
A much higher focus on what parents want for their children. In the real world, they’d call that a focus on their customers.
What public schools have devolved into may be unfixable at this point. It’s time not only to abolish the Department of Education, it’s time to put school choice into the hands of parents.
Poor families and those living in bad neighborhoods deserve the opportunity to choose where their kids go to school. Nobody should be sentenced to mandatory attendance at failing and unsafe public schools.
Sorry, but parents are not trained educators and don’t understand how curriculums and lesson plans work in context from K through 12. If teachers had more time to spend teaching and didn’t have to deal with the bad behavior that starts at home you’d see the same success rates as private schools. A private school can toss a behavior problem but a public school has to deal with it. I can use the recent BASD middle school issue as an example. His mom thinks he did nothing wrong, and of course there’s nothing wrong with her parenting skills. Private schools work because a parent cares enough to truly prepare a student for learning which begins at home.
Delete4:59. How long must the failure to educate children who sadly come from dysfunctional households continue? Why hasn't the Department of Education or even our local school districts come up with a plan? It's not complicated, get the kids for dysfunctional homes to school early, tell them they can achieve their dreams by applying themselves, keep them there after school for tutoring and dinner. Lord! Someone in power get a clue please !
DeleteAnon 806. So. The most disadvantaged remain the most disadvantaged. Let's move every child ahead not just the kids who didn't draw a shorter stick.
Delete4:59 - Over the last few years, there have been countless stories about school districts, schools and teachers indoctrinating children in all sorts of ideological BS (woke, trans, DEI, etc.) that the many parents would never approve of. Laws have also been passed that allow teachers and other school personnel to keep things from parents. It doesn’t take an understanding of curriculum and lesson plans for parents to figure out their interests (and their children’s interests) are not at the top of the priority list.
DeleteAs to kids with behavior issues, maybe it’s time to change the laws about that. But all I ever hear from the school districts and teachers is that they need more money.
News flash: Money is not the problem.
Give the money to parents and let them decide where to send their children. Maybe the public schools improve with fewer students.
What is clearly not working is more of what we’re doing now. It’s been about 50 years of failure since the Department of Education was created, and the current system seems to drag everyone down to the lowest level instead of lifting them up to the highest.
That should be unacceptable to everyone, no matter what your political leanings are.
America has been used as everyone’s big cash cow. If we had more honest politicians in Washington who were not taking kick-backs from special interest groups the predicament we now face would be smaller.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie is on the Education Committee because it’s a hot potato that no Republican with any seniority wants to be associated with. I don’t know who his money people are but I suspect they will have to keep the money coming to keep him in office more than one term, especially since he won’t (or can’t) do a town hall in his own district. If he’s not a golfer who knows how to fake a loss he’ll never get noticed by Trump. Mackenzie is in place to do as he’s told. He might give a little lip support to education, but he’ll vote to get rid of the department.
ReplyDeleteOne can be for education yet dead set against the US Department of Education. I for one would make the argument that those who want to fix our badly broken education system understand the necessity of closing the Education Department and directing the money to the states for more local control.
DeleteRight now, the paid democrat left has turned “town halls” into screaming matches.
DeleteThey aren’t interested in what Mackenzie has to say, nor are they concerned with solving problems. They are not serious people,
They’re only concern is about obtaining political power
1:02 If one could count on Democrats to act civilly and actually engage in a productive back and forth with a Republican elected official I'm sure Ryan McKenzie would welcome the opportunity to hold town halls. Town halls used to be routine when people knew how to behave. The Democratic Party now resembles an angry mob. One can never reason or hold a productive discussion with a mob. I think we can all agree on that.
DeleteI received a comment, anonymous no less, referencing someone else's family member....such comments are not hosted on this blog.
ReplyDelete