Picto Diary - 22 October 2019 - Hoover Fall Retreat Speaker Notes
Above: John Yoo, Former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Professor of Law University of California Berkeley. Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution.
Bishop's Speaker Notes
Fall retreat
JOHN YOO.
Topic: ON WINDING BACK THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE.
Most of law Americans follow is written by an unelected bureaucrat not an elected legislator .
Administrative State. FDR, LBJ, borrowed concept from Germany. Let's have experts write the laws, not legislators. Let's insulate the legislators from having to make the real hard, often controversial, determination of what actually goes into the law.
Administrative State is unaccountable. Only tool to control Administrative State is firing by President. And, even that is called into question by legislators who have vested interest in retaining the fired individual. Think James Comey.
No president has tried to reign in Administrative State until Trump.
Top twenty most costly regulations set up by Obama, now repealed by Trump, saved taxpayers $220 billion annually.
Controversy. Can a sitting President bind a future President to retain any given policy line? Constitution says President has executive power. Trump first to aggressively test "repeal aggressiveness." We should expect President to use legitimate executive power...and not be stymied for same by his opponents. That's what the Founders wanted. Not a protected Administrative State.
Trump's own forceful use of executive power:
Paris Accord
Iran Deal
Firing Comey
Best presidents used executive power.
Washington was our best president. Set up cabinet. Next is Lincoln. Lincoln won on Dred Scott. He wanted to bring down apparatus that protected slavery. Then FDR. Both sides agree FDR could see threats of Germany and Japan.
Other next best Presidents successfully used executive power:
Truman
Reagan
Jackson
Jefferson
Eisenhower
Worst President:
Buchanan. Right before Lincoln. Same circumstances faced by Lincoln. But, he punted secession issue to Congress. Lincoln took charge. Used executive power.
Q and A
Impeachment.
Deliberately made difficult by Founders. Two thirds vote of Senate required to convict. Founders intended it to be difficult. Founders wanted change to occur via election. Founders would have never wanted an impeachment to happen less than one year from election.
Chevron Decision
Insulate administrative state from political control. Goresuch and Kavenaugh are both hostile to administrative state. Thomas even more so. Also Alito. Robert's not so much. He has become subject to personal pressure. Most important consequence of appointing Gorsuch and Kavanaugh may be peeling back of the Administrative State. — with Margaret Taylor at Hoover Institution.
Above: Kevin Hassett. Two years Whitehouse. Chairman Trump Council Economic Advisors. Now Hoover Senior Fellow. Last of Trump appointees to get majority Democrat vote.
Bishop's Speaker Notes
Fall Retreat
KEVIN HASSETT
The Trump Record. Short and Long View.
The three most important economic thinkers of last century:
Joseph Shumpeter
Marshal McCluhan
Donald Trump
SHUMPETER. 1940's. Capitalism is good way to set up economy. It will lead to prosperity unimaginable to Socialists. But Capitalism will begin to destroy itself. Notwithstanding economic prosperity deriving from Capitalism, we'll send our kids to colleges to be taught Socialism in an academic milieu curated by the left, abetted by left leaning media. Prescient was Joseph Shumpeter!
MCCLUHAN. First intellectual who saw internet coming. He saw that with internet we would no longer live in curated society. Everyone will have a voice. More coarseness will accompany discourse to be sure, but traditional curators of information, main stream media and academia, will lose power to shape public's thinking.
TRUMP. Trump alone perceived the McCluhan world where there could be competition for attention not curated or adjudicated by traditional American media. A competition Trump is winning, using social media and the internet. Old time main stream media curators can't control Trump. Trump can make himself (tweets etc.) ubiquitous outside of media curation.
Schmpeter didn't anticipate this ability to bypass the curators.
Trump's message went decidedly against the rising Socialist grain, and, unexpectedly, it was heard by the electorate.
Left: 3% GDP growth no longer possible. New normal GDP annual growth is only 1%. Live with it. In reality low growth was an excuse for policy errors made by the left.
Trump proved the left doomsayers wrong. Achieved 3% GDP growth for a year. Lowest unemployment in American history for all cohorts. Four million more jobs than initial predictions. Revival of manufacturing. Wages average annual growth rate 3.5%, with disproportionate wage growth tilted towards the bottom. Bottom level wage growth 8.9%. $5.5 K more per family as a result of Trump tax cuts.
Trump is country's most successful social justice warrior. 2.5 million people lifted from poverty under Trump economic policies. Unprecedented entrepreneurial boom. 2016: Millenials were least entrepreneurial generation in American history. By 2019, 850K new business starts annual rate. US energy independence achieved under Trump. Just the delta of US oil production growth under Trump since Obama is greater then entire Iran oil production.
People on left should be rejoicing, but they are not..
Trump got elected despite the opposition of a curated media.
Opposition to Trumpian capitalism in media and universities remains strident... as Shumpeter, in the 1940's, predicted it would be
Trump, understanding McCluhan, bypassed the curated media. Tweets etc. The left can't stand it. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Shumpeter told us we'd prevail! Trump derangement syndrome ensues.
Donald Trump is a Black Swan... a genius for his ability to perceive the new paradigm of how to use the internet, outside of traditional curated channels, as a medium in the competition for attention.
Trump's prescience in making use of the power of the internet to directly make himself known is a development having as much impact today as Gutenberg's invention of the printing press had in the 16th century.
What a blessing it is to live in the Second Rennaissance!
Above: Eric Hanushek . Eric Alan Hanushek is an economist who has written prolifically on public policy with a special emphasis on the economics of education. Since 2000 he has been a Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an American public policy think tank located at Stanford University in California.
Above: Margaret Raymond. Margaret “Macke” Raymond has served as founder and director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University since its inception in 1999. She is a Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Bishops Speaker Notes
Fall Retreat
ERIC HANUSHEK and MAGARET RAYMOND
Hoover Institution Fellows
Five signs to look for in K-12 education
1. Teacher's unions in decline.
2. Charters go away.
3. Teacher compensation changes.
4. Accountability is tested.
5. Personalized learning affects diploma.
Above: Shelby Steele. Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He specializes in the study of race relations, multiculturalism, and affirmative action.
Above: Robert L. Woodson Sr.. American community development leader as well as the founder and president of the Woodson Center.
Bishop's Speaker Notes
Fall Retreat
SHELBY STEELE and ROBERT L. WOODSON SR.
Conservatism: The Antidote to Poverty
Shelby Steele: The values of conservatism are held suspect by black people long conditioned to be disappointed by what they see as unfulfilled government promises.
Good faith is required for black people to make the leap from dependency into the world of individual freedom, personal responsibility, and economic growth as promised by conservatives.
But, in black culture, "good faith" is not hip. Because they won't make the "good faith" leap, a majority of blacks live with the hip, cool, "bad faith...." which subjects them to ongoing poverty, dependency, and resentment.
$22 trillion has been spent on social programs all to assuage white guilt and advance white moral authority, NOT to help blacks. Blacks are locked into bad faith and victimhood mentality enabled by white liberals. The true white supremacists are white liberals.
Liberalism reinforces the idea that you as a black need white help...you are destined to remain a victim. You live in the world of ongoing perceived bad faith. This liberal posture is a unit of power for venal liberal politicians. And then we create a bunch of black leaders, overseers as it were, that feed off of the white guilt.
Best way to get blacks out of poverty? Stop subjugating them! Leave them alone!
Robert L. Woodson, Sr.: I want to talk about aspiration, inspiration, and change.
Conservatives have no strategic interest in the perpetuation of black poverty like the left has. Liberals need blacks as victims.
Pre 60's: Strong black families undergird by Christian values. 85% of black families stay together.
Today: Assault on culture of black America by the left. The left stimulates path to Socialism by flooding the US with black dependency. Many blacks discover the left's purposeful goal to disconnect money from having to work. Black people have been turned into a liberal commodity.
Four types of poor:
1. Some people are just broke. Often temporary.
2. People in poverty with character intact.
3. Disabled
4. People poor because of choices. Victims.
All forms of poverty are not to be desired, but, It's the fourth category that is truly tragic.
People tell me, don't blame the victim. I do blame the victim! The victim - who chooses dependency - IS the problem!!!
What to do? Look for the social entrepreneurs in victim enclaves. They are there! 30% of the people want to move forward the traditional way. There are many success stories of poor blacks using conservative principles to succeed, not reported by the media. Conservatives need to identify these people and support them. Help people help themselves.
There is a great history of blacks achieving against the odds. Find examples. Promote the success stories!
We want an alternative narrative. "The 1776 Consortium" has been formed to help advance black success via conservative principles. But so called friendly media doesn't cooperate. WSJ, Politico - inhibit. They are afraid of being called racist!!! I am sick of guilty white people and smug, entitled black people!!!
People are motivated by stories of victory, not by "woe is me" obstacles in the way. Victories are out there. We need to magnify and amplify them.
Shelby Steele: Woke. I hate that word. Woke blacks means that blacks accept their own victimhood. Forever grieving ...forever victims.