Pence: 2017 the Best Year for Conservatives in 'More Than a Generation'
Vice President Mike Pence spoke with conservative commentator Dana Loesch on “The Dana Show” Monday. The conversation included a wide range of subjects, mostly pertaining to the Trump administration’s first year in office.
Pence had a lot of praise for the White House’s accomplishments thus far, adding that 2017 was the best year for conservative Americans in over a generation.
“I mean the administration has gotten a lot of stuff done. We have a historic tax reform, a repeal of the individual mandate. We’re also seeing regulations just sliced and diced. That’s a lot that has happened,” Loesch began, asking Pence what his team hopes to accomplish this year.
The vice president indicated that the 2018 agenda is being executed now and went on to tick off the many wins the GOP earned the previous year.
“Well, that’s what the President gathered leaders of Congress at Camp David this weekend to discuss, Dana. Because for all the progress that we’ve made — some nearly 2 million new jobs, an economy that’s already growing by more than 3 percent, after spending the last eight years growing at less than 2 percent,” he answered, indicating that 2017 was just the beginning.
Camp David, long a retreat for American presidents, was not utilized much in the beginning of Trump’s White House tenure — the president preferring his own Mar-a-largo resort. But since visiting the grounds for the first time last summer, the Republican president has lavished praise for Camp David.
GOP leaders met with the president over the weekend at Camp David to discuss the 2018 midterms and other legislative priorities for this year while they still maintain complete control of the Congress, according to Politico.
“But you’re absolutely right to say it was an extraordinary year. I think from the conservative perspective, we accomplished more thanks to President Trump’s leadership than has been accomplished in more than a generation,” Pence continued.
“The best is yet to come. We believe that America is roaring back because of the policies and the leadership of President Trump and our great supporters in the Congress.”
To his credit, the vice president listed specific examples of conservative achievements over the past year, many of them pertaining to the judicial branch of government.
President Trump delivered his first big win with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. The newest member of the Supreme Court filled the vacancy of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died during President Obama’s tenure, but was able to be succeeded by Trump’s pick after the GOP-controlled Senate effectively blocked Obama’s nominee.
The president’s judicial accomplishments extend well beyond the Supreme Court.
Trump set a record in 2017 for the most circuit court picks confirmed in a president’s first year in office, according to Axios. The record was broken December of last year when the Senate confirmed Trump’s 12th federal appeals court nominee.
The GOP went on to earn their biggest win to date when the president signed into law GOP-led tax reform, which included major cuts for the majority of American taxpayers and the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code since the Reagan administration. The enactment of tax cuts triggered a landslide of company announcements of employee raises, bonuses and added investments.
The reform also included a repeal of the health care mandate included in Obamacare, a major blow to Obama-era law. Since its enactment, GOP leaders for years promised a repeal of Obamacare, but their efforts for a long time proved fruitless. With GOP tax reform, Republicans finally scored a major breakthrough.
Loesch asked Pence about the major divide between the dire predictions of Republican tax cuts made by many in the mainstream media versus what actually happened when the cuts were enacted.
“Well, I think the reality is that great, strong voices, like yours, all across America — conservative commentators on the airwaves of radio and television have, while outnumbered, served to create a tremendous counterweight,” he explained.
“And I said to a friend the other day that many in the liberal, national media remind me of what Groucho Marx used to say, which was, he used to say, ‘Who you going to believe, me or your own eyes?’
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