DONALD TRUMP wasn’t my choice for president. In fact, I urged Americans to vote for Kamala Harris. But he won fair and square. So let’s get on with it.
Republicans had an exceptionally good night, taking the Senate and likely holding their narrow majority in the House, but their paper-thin majority should not be mistaken for a mandate. The challenges facing the country can only be tackled effectively with bipartisan compromise.
One irony of the outcome is that, on almost every issue that voters identified as a priority, Trump’s proposals would likely make matters worse. The goal for Congress over the next four years should be persuading the president to avoid these bad ideas and offering him better alternatives. Trump himself should recognize that what plays in a campaign is often far different than what works in government.
Take inflation, a top concern for most voters. Trump’s plans for comprehensive tariffs, regressive tax cuts, a devalued dollar, and a newly politicized Federal Reserve seem tailor-made to push prices up, just when the Fed has largely succeeded in getting them under control. Enacting any element of this agenda would be irresponsible, not least because it would worsen the country’s spiraling fiscal problems, to the tune of perhaps $15 trillion in additional debt over a decade.
Lawmakers, including Republicans, should have every interest in averting this course. They could assert Congress’ rightful power to refuse his across-the-board tariffs, for instance, while offering the president more targeted ones focused on national security and market access. A prudent revision of the expiring 2017 tax cuts — one that pairs a higher corporate tax rate with more generous expensing rules, say — might also be feasible. Forming a fiscal commission would be a good way to get on with the hard choices needed to forestall a looming budget crisis.
On immigration, too, Trump’s proposals are hugely misguided. It’s true that the current administration has made a hash of things at the border. But the mass-deportation effort Trump has theorized would be (in addition to cruel) prohibitively costly, while also impeding economic growth and doing little to fix the underlying problem. Legislators should instead revive a bipartisan reform effort, focused on popular policies such as easing the path to citizenship for foreign graduates of US colleges combined with more restrictive enforcement measures. They should also push Trump to focus on the quasi-effective policies from his last term, such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, and avoid needlessly inflammatory rhetoric.
A final priority must be to thwart the corruption that marred Trump’s first term. The president is entitled to his own agenda, but not to his own rules. (The recent Supreme Court ruling granting presidents sweeping immunity could be interpreted to give Trump enormous latitude, but it may be tested in the courts.) Public servants should do their duty while availing themselves of whistleblower protections if asked to engage in misconduct. Reporters and watchdog groups should be on the lookout for Trump’s reflexive financial malfeasance. Congress should pass levelheaded laws that respond to the legitimate concerns of Trump’s voters, while also opposing him as needed, as Mitch McConnell, the departing Republican Senate leader, did during Trump’s first term. Republicans must not allow the president to obliterate norms of American democracy.
Democrats, for their part, might ask themselves how exactly they lost to Trump, an ailing 78-year-old who much of the country despises. It probably wasn’t great to cover up President Joe Biden’s infirmities until they became undeniable on live TV. It wasn’t ideal that party elders replaced him with Harris, a nominee who had received no electoral votes and had failed decisively in a previous presidential run.
But for now, the country will simply need to deal with Trump, and begin to restrain his worst excesses, one more time.
Dealing with a reckless president is an exhausting job, but it can and must be done – and it’s a job for members of both parties.
BLOOMBERG OPINION