Weekly news commentary and features from the editors of the Wall Street Journals editorial page. 1. 3 trillion spending bill, we know that we have to push both parties to do the right thing and not sideline on individual parties. This is not a Binary Choice, how do we drive members of congress and those who want to seek our support to do the right thing on the issues for the American People and help them improve their lives. Paul all right, thank you, davis, i appreciate you being here. Coming up, President Trump calling out the Koch Brothers for refuse to go support some republican candidates, what effects dispute have on midterm elections next. Over 75 years of great savings and service. You cant argue with more. Why would ya . Geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. Tiredness, and trouble breathing. Stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction. Symptoms of an allergic reaction include rash, swelling, and Difficulty Breathing or swallowing. Do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. Other side effects are sudden kidney problems, genital yeast infections, increased bad cholesterol, and urinary tract infections, which may be serious. Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions. Man ask your doctor about jardiance and get to the heart of what matters. Against strong borders and powerful trade. I never sought their support intaus i dont need their money or bad ideas, they love my tax and regulation cuts, judicial picks and more, i made them richer, network is highly overrated. Ive beaten them in every turn, they want to protect their companies outside the u. S. From being taxed, im for America First and the American Worker a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. So with two major Gop Powers Currently feuding, what does this mean for the future of the Republican Party. Lets ask columnist Dan Henninger and bill mcburn and Mary Anastasia ogrady. Dan, what do you think President Trump is on assault with the kochs . Picked somebody to have a fight with so that it reflects well on him and animates his base. Donald trump is all about that base. Lets talk about that, despite what the kochs paul is not a minor event, i think it is a warning shot across american politics, as spokesman said they dont see as Binary Choice but the trump people think its his way or the highway and on the Left Progressive its their way or highway, increasing number of americans are starting to drop out the Binary Choice and what the Koch Brothers are doing, some of it a mistake, but i think we are going to see much more of this sort of thing, substantial things within the two parties withdrawing from the kind of Binary Choice that theyre being forced to make. Paul well, we know, mary, republicans arent in a very tough fight to hold congress, okay, so you need all the allies you can get . [laughter] right. Paul why would you get in the fight with one of the biggest Donor Networks out there . Brian hooks, charles koch
deputies said that the Trump Administration is engaging in things that are divisive and damaging for the long term and that really hit a nerve with donald trump maybe because its true and charles koch came up, theres been a lot of divisiveness before donald trump but thats what dan is referring to with respect to the base, thats what the real risk is here. All the kochs are saying on immigration, trade and fiscal deficit we want to stick with core values, free market, welcoming immigrants, legally, and basically controlling federal spending and some of these people who donald trump is defending and want the kochs to go along with are very much on the other side of the arguments. I think thats an important place to draw the line. Paul important place because in particular, bill, i agree with mary on this because the kochs
unlike a politician, right, politicians have a hard time disagreeing with donald trump because they can pay a price at the polls or republicans, the Kochs Have Freedom just as you do as columnist. First amendment, right. Paul they can say what they believe. And i think by standing up and saying what they believe they are actually creating space to have a debate about some of the important issues within the party. Yeah, look, i think its insane to do this before the midterms. The goal of a party is to get 50 plus 1, right, in an election, the kochs are traveling on the trump train about 80 of this, its their money. Theres always tensions between groups who have issues in the party and the party wants majority, the other groups want little more purity and the problem is if youre one of these groups whether youre the nra or Koch Brothers or Prolife Group they always say would you have a democrat, they are worse, the democrats have the same goal with their groups, you know,
planned parenthood, they are open to republicans who are prochoice but people say would you rather have a republican in there, occasionally if youre one of these groups, i think you have to take someone down or let be taken down to be serious or not taken for granted. The Koch Brothers are spending a lot of money to support Brett Kavanaugh, his nomination, why you wouldial would alienate someone like that . They have pretty good record. Paul steve bannon, dan, piled on afterwards and said to republican candidates, if you take koch money there will be punishment. That was his word. Bannon wants to remake the Republican Party to Protectionist Party into an Immigration Restrictionist party, not just illegal but also legal immigration, really cut it down, and i think this is the fight in many ways for what the
Republican Party believes in. Yeah, it is, and what we are doing here is getting mixed up between partisanship, the party, and ideological beliefs, the Koch Brothers are fundamentally an Ideological Organization not a partisan organization, most of the time that corresponds with the Republican Party but since the Trump Presidency some of the splits have become evident as steve bannon trying to create a trumpian party. Sure, hes entitled to do that, but in the next 3 months between now and november, i mean, you have about 25 Republican House seats on there that are not safe, they are on the bubble and they have got to decide for themselves whether they are going to align themselves with steve bannon or whatever it takes to get them reelected and control hold control of the house of representatives. I think the reaction of donald trump is very much related to the problems hes having with his trade policy. I mean, he is getting incredible
pushback from within inside the Republican Party about the problems that the farmers are having, the problems that manufacturing is having, so hes already on the ropes on this and now hes confronted by the kochs, thats why he exploded, i think. Paul when we come back President Trump to raise tariffs on china, how do we expect china to respond and what does this mean to the American Economy . Motorcycle revving Motorcycle RevvingMotorcycle Revving no matter who rides point, there are over 10,000 allstate agents riding sweep. And just like tyrone taylor, they know what it takes to help keep you protected. Are you in good hands . Guys,but youve got sto be strong. St remember janet . She got cash back shopping with ebates
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are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi. . A more powerful way to stay connected. It gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most Wifi Coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. Paul as the trade war with china continues to escalate President Trump has asked advisers to explore the possibility of raising tariffs from 10 which was announced last month all the way up to 25 drawing criticism from both sides of the political aisle advocating a more open trade policy, this coming as the bureau of labor statistics
released latest jobs report showing the Unemployment Rate dropping to 3. 9 , so what does this mean for the economy as a whole lets bring back Deputy EditorDan Henninger, and Columnist Bill mcgurn and mary ogrady. So mary, you saw the jobs report. Little more little lighter job creation but still pretty strong. Well let me say at onset, everything is okay, we are doing fine, we are still in sweet spot but the jobs number was disappointing a little bit below what the expectations were, Labor Participation is still below 63 , weve been hope to get that higher and theres a lot of focus on the fact that wages are up, wage gains 2. 7 but lets remember that those those are nominal wage gains. In real terms wages are flat over last year and a lot of that, i think, can be explained by rising Healthcare Costs which become more and more part of the
conversation. And i think that what we are seeing here is a real problem, again, with Donald Trumps trade policy, not only because of the trade policy but because thats where hes spending all of his Political Capital instead of fixing other things. Paul mayjune numbers were raised 59,000, so the average so seventh year of economic recovery is more than that. Its really very good. On average 2, 20 over paul thats good. Its very good paul from 2016 and 17. Yes, i agree, but what i would say is, again, the numbers are disappointing and lets remember that we are running into headwinds here because Interest Rates are going back up and we have the tariffs coming which, you know, i think donald trump feel like, hey, i announced tariffs were going up and Nothing Happened therefore i can do more and i think the repercussions of what is going to happen as these tariffs hit
the economy havent been factored in yet and when they are you run into some problems. Paul thats the question of audience, i get it emails all of the time, if trade is so dangerous as a policy, so damaging, then why is the market not going down and why is the economy strong, your reply . Im saying a lot of Effects Havent Hit yet. In the first half of the year exports, they rushed them to the docks to get them out of the country so that they could beat the the retaliation that were getting hit with in europe, in mexico, in canada and in china and as that starts to actually sink more into the economy, i think you start youre going to start to feel it in the jobs numbers and in wage numbers and thats important to wall street and the market. Paul the president had truce with europe, bill, hes working on a deal trying to get one with mexico and canada. If he did that and then china was the only trade feud, can the economy kind of plow through that . Yeah, i have a slightly different take from mary, i share her concerns, this is good news, we are in an economy where the growth is 4. 1, higher than Unemployment Rate, only in the times that i lived in hong kong did i enjoy Something Like that. [laughter] the good economy sort of gives cover a little bit to hide some of the costs and i agree that the full costs have not been yet felt, if you compare to Bush Deal Tariffs in 2002, much worse economy, the pain was much sharper because you could see it. Who knows, maybe the tariffs knock off a few points on the growth, we dont really know, unfortunately thats i think its giving coverage to the idea
that there are no costs and i agree with mary and i think we will see them later. Its good news for what we have, The Dark Side that it may give excuses for more and the tariffs. Paul dan, you have been arguing that trump should use the economy, Strong Enough and grown enough that he ought to run on it and instead of some of the other issues and stress Whats Going On in the economy . Well, hes running on it. Ive watched two huge rallies hes had recently and midst the 70 or 80 minutes which he talks theres a lot about the economy and there should be. The question is should the republican candidates themselves be doing it and i argue that is the single thing that they should be con concentrating on. The economy is booming after 8 years of torture in obama years. They rolled back regulations, liberated the American Economy, but i think there is a flag flying out there and that is
trump has died today use tariffs, try to force changes in the chinese economy and the simple question is, is this tool, the tariff war right tool to change the chinese because they just this week said they would retaliate with tariffs on over 5,000 american goods. Theres a risk factor no question built into this. A game of chicken, paul. Paul and somebody loses. Right. Paul thank you all, still ahead a look at midterms election has new poll indicate that is trump may be losing support in the Battleground States of the midwest. Felt great not having hepatitis c. Its like a load off my shoulders. I was just excited for it to be over. Harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of Chronic Hepatitis c. Its been prescribed to more than a quarter Million People and is proven to cure up to 99 of patients
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nationwide is about 43, 45 now, so in the mid western states which, you know, you have republican governors and two of them, and youve got a former republican governor tim running again for governor in minnesota, those numbers are 5, 6, 7 points lower than national average. How do you explain that in the Upper Midwest . Well, its just the makeup of the electorate if you will. Oneone of the things we had to o when trump came in because it was a different environment and different factors come to play quite frankly is we start going a step beyond approval that none of the polls are doing, we look at those that if you look at nationwide, the president has about 31, 32 but hardcore base, he has another 12, 13 that are mainly republican
frankly and they like his policy but dont particularly like his persona, but Pu Priority On Policy and that thats where you get job approval nationwide into 40s, theres another 11 or 12 that are more Internal Revenue dependents soft republicans and soft democrats that also have this, they like policy but not persona and put priority on persona and those are the ones that answer that theyre not they dont approve of the job hes doing but when you ask them specifically him on taxes, him on the economy, him on jobs, him on foreign affairs, thats where you see the measurements going up over 50 . Paul okay. Thats what all campaigns are having to deal with. If the focus on policy, he starts getting not only 40 but to 50 . Paul okay, but what do you think about the strategy which steve bannon and some of the white house now and maybe even the president want to go ahead with to put trumps persona front and center in this race,
to stay a steve bannon did this referendum on donald j. Trump and youre either with him or against him. Is putting that him at the center of the election a smart strategy for congress . Not not with what the numbers that im seeing. You know, again, i think one of the things we did see, there was a period of time where the Intensity Gap june of last year was at 13 points. When he is stirring the pot of his base and getting their intensity up, thats going to be helpful in the offyear election. What we dont know is very much like obama was during his his offyear elections that you saw him able to move the intensity of the africanamerican vote up but if he wasnt on the ballot they didnt turn out. So i think we all know on both sides of the equation know that this is a fight over intensity and turning out your vote not just back and forth. I would say that to have a
bigger opportunity to get a larger number of voters, focusing on his persona is exactly the wrong thing to do. The right thing is to go after the policy. Paul focus on the results so far and what you will do in next two years if you keep a republican congress. Absolutely. Paul lets talk about this ohio special election. On tuesday, its replacing a republican who resigned his seat, it should be a republican district, its around suburban and Rural Counties but, yet, polls show its a dead heat, how do you read that . Well, i will take a couple of things, one is we have suburban women, not turning democrat but not being intense about participating in the election, so i think that is part of the fact or, but, again, this is more of trump, this is this district before tea berry was
represented by john kasich, this is not going to be a race about trump or not donald trump, a race about turnout and who does a better job turning it out. The one thing i always say and we talked about this before in years past, they call it special because for a very good reason, it is special, theres a tremendous amount of money thats being spent by both sides in the special election and it comes down to not moving voters but turning out voters and i think what we are going to see on tuesday is who does a better job turning out those voters and thats where a visit from President Trump can have a big impact on the turnout because he raises the intensity of our key voters to turn out. Paul thank you for being here. We will watch closely on tuesday, appreciate it. Still ahead democrats line up against Supreme Court come knee Brett Kavanaugh while the media wants access to his email, do
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maryland. So, bill, what do you make of where the Kavanaugh Battle Stands . Yeah, im with senator graham, look, theres an effort as senator hatch said for the democrats who have gone mad to take Brett Kavanaugh down, but, look, i i look at Elizabeth Warrens attacks on this. I remember ted kennedy, Elizabeth Warren is no ted kennedy. It has this feel that theyre going through the motions and the reason for that is that the weak spots on the Republican Party in the Senate Rand Paul seem to be solid whereas on the democratic side, a lot of the senators running in trump states are under a lot of pressure, each Heidi Heitkam is meeting with kavanaugh. I think he gets 52 points. Paul what about document demand fights, mary, Chuck Schumer said you have to turn every document when he was in white house, turn over every document when he worked in stark campaign. We will turn over a million or so but we wont turn everything. Archives said that they wouldnt be able to get that by the end of october and, of course, thats the strategy, if you cant produce all these documents then the people like the Red State Democrats will be able to say, well, you know, the process isnt complete and so try to drag it out and, of course, get it into the lame duck or even next year. And so this is going to require a lot of leadership on the party of Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley to say, look, we are going to draw the line here because we will get this done. Paul dan, is there any any substance to the request by
schumer saying, hes saying theres a coverup, youre not turning over all the documents of Staff Secretary but i remember when kagan was come nateed, we insist on getting documents from elena kagan and barack obama said, no, why because thats too important to Executive Deliberation in the Executive Branch over, you cant have insight into that have kind of discussion because youll never be able to have open discussion again. They didnt turn over documents, something similar here for republicans in. Theres something similar, that sounds like The High RoadWhats Going On is definitely the low road. Lets try to be clear about Whats Going On, this is about basically two members of the u. S. Senate, senator Susan Collins of maine and senator Lisa Murkowski of alaska. The democrats are looking
somehow in those documents millions and millions of documents for a smoking gun to hit Brett Kavanaugh with. They have not come up with a gun so far and i dont think Susan Collins or his a murkowski are going on a wild goose chase on behalf of nothing and if nothing is produced the republicans and should fight back against producing that many documents, you know, having forced Mitch Mcconnell to blow up the Nuclear Option so that you only need a majority of votes in the senate, the democrats are going to remain on the losing side of this battle over Brett Kavanaugh. Paul the thing that that makess works so far for kavanaugh is kavanaughs credentials. Yeah, 12 years of judicial opinions, 11 cases where Supreme Court backed him. Paul that makes hard to attack him. You have to go somewhere else, you have to attack his character, his wifes record
chevy chase, whatever theyre looking for. And, you know, the American Public says basically make the republicans are going win, dan is exactly right, this is a Fishing Expedition. If you look at the letter that grassley sent to schumer its scathing and accusing the democrats of bad faith, you guys are asking for the documents and so many of you come out youre opposed before the documents, this is not goodfaith effort, effort like mary said to delay it and past elections so that the democrats running in tough trump states dont have to take a stand. Paul mary, do you think he will be confirmed by october 1st . I do not but i do think he will be confirmed before the before the end of the lame duck. Paul not before the election. Sorry, before the election. Paul i think he gets confirmed before the election. When we come back local newspapers quickly going
extinct, could your tax dollars be used to prop up local journalists . videogame dance music burke abstract accident. Seen it. Covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum
anywhere you travel in the country. We have grandkids out of state. They love our long visits. Not sure about their parents, though. Call unitedhealthcare and ask for your free decision guide today. Administrate it, you can apply for grants, News Room Nonprofit Media Group and they would in theory do local reporting. Paul could you be a vlogger . You could. I think its kind of funny that its university administrating this given that have terrible record on free speech on campus. None of them have green rating for the foundation of individual rights and education, in addition we have seen Kick Student Columnist for using the term illegal immigrant, we have reporter that you shouldnt use the term step up, people might not be able to step, thats the mentality going into this. Paul so what youre saying as opposed to determining who gets the grant, the idea is that the politicians will say, see, this
is independent commission, what youre saying the commission itself will have people with agenda. Progressive bias. Paul even if it was conservative bias, would you really want a bunch of professors to determining what the conservative where the money should go . In addition to that, i mean just skeptical that journalists can really push accountability for government when the government is paying their paycheck. Paul you know, bill, you live in new jersey and get some of your taxpayer money back. [laughter] its not enough to have a terrible economy and a terrible tax rate, we need our own little profits as well. The reality is that this isnt about empowering news, theres definitely problems with papers dropping but theres other ways to get news, theres access all of the time to the Town Councils and so forth on tv. This is about fueling an agenda
you look at the free press, the group thats behind this, Social Justice warriors, they hate the corporate media, their ideal is npr and so forth, its kind of like giving acorn or whatever its name is today paul political activists. Theyre saying they are going to create new apps, but read it closely, its pretty clear what this is. Paul tan, dan, let me ask you, we have been in this for a long time, i worked in paper in michigan and the other bought and theres problems in Community Holding politicians accountable because if you dont have that local reporting you dont have people making sure that the City Council Isnt Corrupt and so on. We know that places like trenton, corrupt, albany, corrupt, we can pick any number of state capitals. California. Paul if you dont have enough
people watching, how do you maintain any honesty in democratic government . I think its a legitimate question, paul, theres something mysteriously powerful of front page of newspaper, a newspaper stays on Corruption Story and im not sure the web would fill that gap easily. Having said that, Whats Going On is a long complicated story, i should say people talk about how Digital Advertising and the web have taken advertising from print publications, look, paul, a lot of the bigcity newspapers were moving left long time before the web and, they were abandoning or moving away from readership, subscribers declined and now we are at a point because of the rise of Digital Advertising and the web where it is a real possibility some of the biggest cities in the country will have not a daily newspaper to cover the local political class, that is a problem, public journalism isnt the answer. Paul what is the answer . Do you guys are any solutions, any possible new possible Business Models that could emerge, what about nonprofits in some of the financing journalists . What do you think . Im a fan of the nonprofit model than the state sponsored model. Theres a lot of transparency about where the money is coming from and the political agenda behind it. The worstcase scenario is having a University Act as gate keeper for state funds for journalists that are to be accountable. Paul you get a Bradley Foundation financing some some local reporters to be able to to hold people accountable, what about Business Model coming back where people could actually make some money again because, you know, lets face it, if you make money as a journalist, more independence. Youre not depending on others. On a grant. Yeah, look, the entire industry is working that out, right, as i
said there are alternatives now. Theres the Community Access tv where you can watch these things. I dont feel that im ignorant of Whats Going On in my town. Now, we do have a town paper. But i see these other things also different groups promote their own issues on facebook and so forth. So if theres a hot issue, a lot of people do know about it. This is, again, the idea that youre going to fund people to hold yourself accountable is just crazy. Paul all right, we have to take one more break, when we come back hits and misses of the week. Motorcycle revving Motorcycle RevvingMotorcycle Revving no matter who rides point, there are over 10,000 allstate agents riding sweep. And just like tyrone taylor, they know what it takes to help keep you protected. Are you in good hands . New zealand is changing the sign. I can see this spreading to other countries but i want u. S. Feminists to look at this in a different way. I actually think is pretty flattering to women that there is a danger within a work sign. A miss to the ivy league. This week seven other ivy league is joined harvard defending against a lawsuit by asianamerican students saying that harvard emphasis on diversity, the way they interpret it means less qualified black, latino and white are admitted over more qualified Asian Americans. The one thing i agree they say that if the suit is successful, it will be a change in college admission. I say a father of three Asian Americans i hope so. Dan . And mr. Google after news emerged they would return to china with a Search Engine that will abide by the Chinese Government s very severe censorship rules per this the same google which last month said it would not share his knowledge about Artificial Intelligence with the u. S