Vice President Mike Pence Helped Trump Reset the Agenda on Taxes. Or Did He Just Change the Subject?

As I remarked in an earlier post, debates are won by the side that sets the agenda. The side that debates on its own ground earns a big advantage. President Donald Trump's opponents are focusing on the growing Russia investigation, the Stormy Daniels controversy, and White House turmoil. These are all real issues, and the mainstream press has been reporting them, along with Mr. Trump's accomplishments. The press is also busy with the student gun control movement, Our Lives Matter. However, no good can come to Mr. Trump by wasting too much time talking about Russia, Stormy Daniels, or White House turmoil. Those are not his issues. Gun control is not the Republicans' issue. Mr. Trump simply issues a few implausible Twitter posts to deny these controversies, and moves on.

VP Mike Pence, WH photo

So, Vice President Mike Pence's speech in Atlanta yesterday, an event billed as the Tax Cuts to Put America First Event, helped out the administration's cause by ignoring the controversies, and instead drawing the public's attention to the Republican tax cuts. Tax cuts are always popular, and, although the tax cut bill mostly helps the rich, talking about tax cuts still seems like a good political move.

After a lengthy collection of pleasantries, Mr. Pence bragged about the Trump Administration's success: "it’s been a year of action; it’s been a year of results. In a word, it’s been a year of promises made and promises kept. (Applause.)"  He praised the spending bill that Congress passed at the last minute to avoid a government shutdown saying that "we saw the promises of this administration kept, one after another."  He did complain that government "is still too big and still spends too much," but simultaneously, somewhat contradictorily, boasted that the spending bill increased the military budget to "rebuild our military and restore the arsenal of democracy." (Curiously, the phrase "arsenal of democracy" traces back to Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt's interventionist strategy prior to United States entry into World War II, which would seem to contradict Mr. Trump's "America First" slogan. Well, no one ever expects politicians to be consistent.)

Mr. Pence also talked about increased funding for school security and fighting opiod addiction.  He highlighted "another $21 billion to rebuild our infrastructure." None of that sounds like reducing the size of government, does it? People want the government to do things, so Mr. Pence talked about some popular and necessary (but quite expensive) things that the government was doing.

Still, this was an anti-tax meeting, so Mr. Pence needed to talk about reducing government spending, not increasing it. He therefore called upon Congress to give President Trump authority to issue line-item vetoes. Of course, people informed about the issue, a group that seemingly does not include the President and Vice-President, knows that the Supreme Court of the United States already ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional, in the case Clinton v. City of New York.

Well, never mind.The point about the line-item veto is that it is a way to reduce government spending without asking Congress to reduce spending. This makes the line-item veto popular among anti-tax advocates. The fact that Congress can't implement it means little to those advocates, as long as the possibility intrigues the low-tax crowd.

Halfway through the speech, however, Mr. Pence did take time to highlight the Republican tax cuts:

"And finally, what brought us all here today on a Friday afternoon, taking a break from watching basketball — (laughter) — is that this President promised to cut taxes across the board for working families and businesses and family farms. And three months ago yesterday, with the strong support of these great leaders in the Congress, and with the support of every Georgia Republican in the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump signed the largest tax cuts and tax reform in American history. That’s promises made and promises kept. (Applause.)"

Well, Mr. Pence did need to talk about taxes, since this was an anti-tax meeting. He then rambled on, however, as politicians will do, to talk about what he said was the administration's success in reducing illegal immigration, "cracking down on drug dealers," and opposing sanctuary cities.

In other words, this speech was about the Trump administration's agenda. The Vice-President talked enough about low taxes to satisfy his audience, but he used the opportunity to highlight successes that were important to Republican core voters. By keeping those items on the agenda, the Vice-President gave his supporters something positive to think about, while he absolutely ignored the controversies that otherwise seem to swirl around President Trump's administration.

People who underestimate the importance of setting an agenda are making a mistake. The President and Vice-President have tremendous power to get the public thinking about the issues that they want people to talk about. That is what this speech was doing.

This was a very bad speech if you are concerned about proof and logic: as a rule, more spending doesn't lead to lower taxes, the line-item veto is unconstitutional, and immigration has little to do with tax rates. But it was a very good speech for the millions of people who support President Trump's agenda, and who are no doubt pleased to see it implemented. Mr. Pence moved the debate to his own ground.

Still, Russia, Our Lives Matter, and White House staff turnover haven't gone away. So, who, in the long run, will really control the agenda? Time will tell.