"TRUMP RETURNS U.S. TO REALPOLITIK IN WORLD AFFAIRS"

- Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal

Gerald Seib of The Wall Street Journal writes on President Trump’s first address to the 72nd United Nation General Assembly, calling it “the return of American foreign policy to realpolitik,” as he remarks on the President’s “refreshing” bluntness when speaking about engaging with the world “in pursuit of American interests.” Sieb states the President delivered “the most important and most revealing speech of his young presidency,” with his declaration to defend the U.S. against North Korea’s nuclear weapons and his devotion to encouraging sovereignty and responsibility in all nations. As a result of the broader strokes of American ideals and leadership entwined with more direct messages to American foes, President Trump’s address was more of two speeches back-to-back that offered the best and most concise summary of his approach to world politics: “We are guided by outcomes, not ideology,” Sieb observes.
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On tax reform, Luke Messer of The Indianapolis Star writes “President Trump is right. American workers need a raise.” Messer states the President’s tax plan “will help create jobs and increase wages” and “delivers the lowest tax rates in modern history for American job creators of all sizes.” Not only will the tax cuts restore confidence in the American worker, but they have “the potential to launch our country into a new era of economic growth,” Messer concludes.

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Regarding health care, The New York Times’ Lanhee Chen and Micah Weinberg comments that “single-payer healthcare, including the proposal advanced by Senator Sanders, is the wrong choice for the country.” According to Dr. Chen and Dr. Wienberg, “a vanishingly small number” of countries actually have single-payer health care systems, and those that do have “failed to control rising health care costs.” They conclude by saying “if the Sanders plan sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

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In regulation reform news, Paul Bedard of The Washington Examiner reports the Trump administration’s “one in, two out” plan for cutting Obama-era regulations has successfully saved $645 million, and has “another $600 million in savings on the way.” This achievement fulfills “one of the president’s key campaign promises” and is a result of cuts made through the Congressional Review Act and Executive Order 13,771, Bedard writes.

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And on the Graham-Cassidy bill, CNN’s Deirdre Walsh writes House Speaker Paul Ryan called the proposal “our best, last chance to get repeal and replace done,” and was encouraging the Senate to vote for the plan. Ryan further said the bill was “a far greater improvement over the status quo,” Walsh states, and that he would bring the bill immediately to the House floor if it passed the Senate.