Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan harbor incredible promise for America once they forge an effective partnership.
They represent the change agents that voters demand in 2016.
Only they are capable and positioned to reverse the past eight years of decline and deliver so much more prosperity and security. They must work together because the country needs their leadership.
The U.S. cannot survive another four years of the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton regime.
Obamacare became the disaster that its detractors always said that it would become. The 2009 trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill accomplished nothing other than contributing to the astronomical $19 trillion in debt.
Tax increases and massive regulatory burdens crushed small businesses and entrepreneurship.
Not once during Obama’s tenure did the country achieve an annual 3 percent rate of economic growth. Wages are stagnant. Many Americans continue to feel — justifiably so — that they are left behind.
The Democratic Party remains at odds with itself over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Obama wholeheartedly supports the trade pact. Presidential candidate Clinton opposes it, while Secretary of State Clinton forcefully championed it.
ISIS and other Islamist groups are exploiting the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Africa to export their savagery to Europe and North America. ISIS announced that it intends to infiltrate the hundreds of thousands of refugees by using them as a cover.
It is impossible to fully vet migrants from failed states such as Syria because no records exist to confirm their identities and backgrounds. Yet the administration is on track to meet its goal of accepting 10,000 Syrians by the end of September, and it extended to them asylum status through 2018.
Voters know that Obama and Clinton have not delivered for them. It is now the responsibility of Trump and Ryan to demonstrate that they can.
The successful New York businessman captured the imagination of those who believe that the system is rigged. He speaks for them in a manner in which the last two GOP candidates could not and did not.
Ryan is a serious, detailed wonk who defends and operates under core Republican principles. Arguably no single figure overseeing the federal government appreciates public policy and the legislative process as much as he does.
Trump only recently entered the world of politics while Ryan lived it his entire professional career. Trump must recognize the differences between running a business and running a government, and he could learn a lot from Ryan in this area.
The two of them are committed to simplifying the tax code, paying off the national debt, balancing the budget and reeling in unnecessary and counterproductive regulations that cripple economic success.
In his speech to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, Trump pitched an individual income tax plan with three brackets of 12, 25, and 33 percent. They are the same rates that House Republicans propose.
Trump empathizes with workers who feel betrayed by so-called “free trade” deals that are anything but free, or fair. The North American Free Trade Agreement, the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement and all the others were complex documents that picked winners and losers.
Workers lost their jobs, or their friends lost their jobs, because of them.
Trump supports trade, but with more equity for the U.S. Ryan has always committed himself to free markets. They will need to resolve their differences but they may not be as far apart as some would make it seem.
The same holds true for immigration. Outdated immigration laws demand refinement and modernization, and border security demands enhancement. Trump is characterized as wanting to halt all foreign travel into the U.S., while Ryan is described as favoring unrestricted open borders.
Neither characterization is accurate. Both intend to fix a broken immigration process that allows unvetted migrants from jihadist states and other dangerous characters into the country. They both want to fortify a southern border that is currently nothing more than a line in the sand.
Ryan and House Republicans need Trump because he brings to the GOP a constituency that no longer trusts beltway politicians to do the right thing. Ryan also needs to grasp that he will not get anything done — even with a majority — without an ally in the White House.
Disagreements will happen. They are healthy. The separation of powers remains core to a strong democracy.
Now that Ryan decisively won his primary race on Tuesday, he and Trump need to develop a solid working relationship to transform Washington and restore the nation to greatness. Only they have the opportunity to offer a change agenda to the American people.
The sooner they realize it the better off the republic will become.
Pete Hoekstra is the Shillman senior fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism. He represented Michigan for 18 years in Congress, including time as chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. He is the author of "Architects of Disaster: The Destruction of Libya." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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