Retain check on judiciary picks
With Republicans dominating the White House, Congress and state governments, it’s no surprise that dominating the judiciary is the next goal. Efforts to control that independent branch of government have prompted debate on an obscure Senate rule called the “blue-slip” process.
Billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch, among leaders of the effort, urged supporters at a recent private retreat to work against the rule. The 100-yearold rule keeps judicial nominees from moving forward in Senate confirmation if a home-state senator objects.
The slim Republican margin in the U.S. Senate — 52-48 — has party bigwigs concerned that if the practice isn’t eliminated, Democrats will retain too much power to delay or derail President Donald Trump’s federal court nominees.
The stakes are high. Trump arrived in office with more than 100 vacancies to fill on the federal bench, partly because Senate Republicans blocked many of President Barack Obama’s nominees.
Nine of the country’s 13 federal appeals courts currently have a majority of Democratic presidents’ nominees. Among the 179 appeals court seats there are 21 vacancies. Trump has announced nine nominees for those courts and 22 for 107 lower court openings.
Congressional rules that aim to keep the branches of government operating within the two-party system must be carefully preserved. If they work for both Democrats and Republicans, the party in the majority shouldn’t opt to exercise their authority because it will come back to bite them.
Don’t give up on trade talks with China
American-Chinese trade talks started under the rubric of an ambitious 100-day U.S. China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue launched by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in April. They appear to have ended, for the time being, with a fizzle in Washington last week.
No date for a next round of talks emerged at the end. The U.S. delegation was headed by White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Trump administration heavyhitters all.
What they had sought was decisive change in trade policy that would result in a reduction of the deficit in U.S.-China trade, amounting in 2016 to $347 billion. It was an important campaign pledge by Trump. Whatever might happen would have a strong impact on the global economy. Trade between the world’s two largest economies represents a third of the world’s economic output.
In May talks, China had opened the door to access for U.S. companies to the Chinese market in credit ratings, U.S. credit card sales, and U.S. beef and liquefied natural gas imports into China. Trump had suggested that he expected China to help deal with the ongoing problem of North Korean nuclear and missile development as well, but that he had seen no results in that area yet.
It is important that this series of talks not come to nothing. The White House should be scratching its head at this point to think what can be done to breathe new life into the talks now, considering the unfortunate stalemate they seem to have reached.
The U.S. side should draw up some new talking points on an urgent basis and try again.