Thursday, June 01, 2017
Germany, Paris Accord, and NATO; Thank You Mr. Trump!
What a great day! I spent most of the day attending a Hillsdale College outreach event in Bozeman, Montana, listening to talks from Professors R.J. Pestritto and Gary Wolfram, and talking with old friends, former students, and all sorts of other people. Then I drove home to hear that President Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord ... Great News! Barack Obama could never get this ridiculous treaty ratified by the Senate, so he committed the U.S. to it without Senate approval, his usual "government by executive decree" M.O. But what one President can decree, another can un-decree, and President Trump has done just that.
The United States should stay out of international arrangements that commit us to regulate our economy to satisfy international environmental agendas, the better part of which have nothing to do with environmental quality, and everything to do with rent-seeking and political power grabs.
There's the expected end-of-the-world hysteria over this. The Germans seem particularly upset, especially after being told by Trump to quit being NATO deadbeats. Merkel indignantly responded that Germany will now chart an independent course, and Foreign Minister Gabriel became hysterical, accusing Trump of weakening the West and destroying Western values. Hahaha! The Germans' reaction makes me visualize some 30-year-old college graduate living in his parents' basement playing video games. He's suddenly told he should go out and find a job, and responds with outraged shrieks about the unfairness of it, and runs off to join the anti-Trump "resistance." The Germans have already greatly increased their energy costs and weakened their economy by "going green" with respect to energy, with zero environmental gains to show for it. I guess that's what Gabby means by "Western values." And Frau Merkel's heroic "we shall go it alone"is silly. Yes, Germany spends a miniscule 1.2% of its GDP on defense; they are not they are not prepared to be independent and have no will to be. This is posturing.
I think Trump is right. Bad international deals (e.g. Paris)? Get out of them. Good ones (e.g. NATO)? Get them right and then insist our partners living up to the terms. That's the art of the deal.
Pay up, deadbeat Germans. (Kind of like you want the deadbeat Greeks to pay!)
The United States should stay out of international arrangements that commit us to regulate our economy to satisfy international environmental agendas, the better part of which have nothing to do with environmental quality, and everything to do with rent-seeking and political power grabs.
There's the expected end-of-the-world hysteria over this. The Germans seem particularly upset, especially after being told by Trump to quit being NATO deadbeats. Merkel indignantly responded that Germany will now chart an independent course, and Foreign Minister Gabriel became hysterical, accusing Trump of weakening the West and destroying Western values. Hahaha! The Germans' reaction makes me visualize some 30-year-old college graduate living in his parents' basement playing video games. He's suddenly told he should go out and find a job, and responds with outraged shrieks about the unfairness of it, and runs off to join the anti-Trump "resistance." The Germans have already greatly increased their energy costs and weakened their economy by "going green" with respect to energy, with zero environmental gains to show for it. I guess that's what Gabby means by "Western values." And Frau Merkel's heroic "we shall go it alone"is silly. Yes, Germany spends a miniscule 1.2% of its GDP on defense; they are not they are not prepared to be independent and have no will to be. This is posturing.
I think Trump is right. Bad international deals (e.g. Paris)? Get out of them. Good ones (e.g. NATO)? Get them right and then insist our partners living up to the terms. That's the art of the deal.
Pay up, deadbeat Germans. (Kind of like you want the deadbeat Greeks to pay!)
