| | | |  | Friday Apr. 21, 2017 11:55 am |
RealClear Originals Your weekly roundup of the best original content from RealClear Media Group. |
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| Congress Returns Next Week
Congress returns next week facing an important deadline – funding for the federal government runs out at midnight on April 28, which happens to be the 100th day of President Trump’s tenure.
RealClearPolitics’ James Arkin and Rebecca Berg report that “lawmakers and the administration are confronting a potential deal-breaker: The White House is requesting money for a wall on the border with Mexico and increased security there, one of Trump’s most prominent campaign promises, and Democrats are threatening to block any such measures. The first signs of a standoff burst into public view Thursday, although it is unclear whether they represented strategic posturing or a genuine deadlock.”
The White House is also pressuring Republican leaders to schedule another vote next week on repealing Obamacare.
At his news conference on Thursday, Trump was asked if he’d rather keep the government open or have a health-care repeal vote. “I want to get both. Are you shocked?” he said.
Topics du Jour
But before the American political drama heats up again, French voters go to the polls on Sunday for the first round in their presidential election.
RealClearWorld has a French Presidential Election polling average, where Emmanuel Macron narrowly leads Marine Le Pen, 24.0 percent to 22.6 percent.
But a possible terrorist attack in Paris on Thursday could change things. Trump agreed with that sentiment, tweeting early Friday morning: “Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!”
RealClearWorld managing editor Joel Weickgenant writes on the election: “France is in enough turmoil to spark talk of the end of the Fifth Republic and a new constitutional arrangement. This makes the polls more difficult to read.”
Robert Zaretsky writes in RealClearWorld of the French election: “With mere days remaining before the first round of the presidential election, the four leading candidates all stand a solid chance to make the second-round run-off. This situation, French commentators remind us, is ‘inédit,’ or unprecedented in the nearly 60-year history of the Fifth Republic. No less inédit is that three of the four candidates -- Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon -- do not represent the country’s traditional political parties.”
And voters in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District went to the polls on Tuesday to select a replacement for former Rep. Tom Price, who became Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary. Democrat Jon Ossoff just missed winning the race outright, with 48.1 percent of the tally, and will head toward a runoff on June 20 against Republican Karen Handel. RealClearPolitics’ Sean Trende has five takeaways from that special election
Trump’s job approval is at -8.2 points in the RealClearPolitics Average.
In Other Originals
In this week’s “First 100 Days” podcast, RealClearPolitics co-founder and publisher Tom Bevan talks with Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, about Trump’s foreign policy. Then RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy talks with Valorie Aquino, the national co-chair of the March for Science, about this weekend’s rally for science.
At RealClearPolicy, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Ryan Radia examines ways the Federal Communications Commission can undo regulations made under President Obama.
Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, writes at RealClearDefense on whether “16 years after the first Special Operations Forces unit stepped onto Afghan soil, does the United States have a strategy in Afghanistan?”
RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy advocates for college courses specifically teaching critical thinking.
And, in RealClearBooks, Nicholas Evan Sarantakes reviews a biography of Leo Durocher and a history of Dodger Stadium.
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