January 21, 2020
Happy and healthy New Year, and welcome back to This Week in Washington.
This is our 3rd anniversary edition. Three years ago, we began This Week by reporting on the inauguration of Donald J. Trump. We have been pleased to report to the members of the Arizona Chamber almost every week on the successes and the problems… the noise and the news… in Washington, D.C. during President Trump’s first two years in office.
Our founders created a structure that divided equally the power of government between the Administration, Congress, and the Judiciary. Historians will look back and review the decisions of the Supreme Court, as well as actions (and sometimes the inaction) of a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. But there is no question that it has been – from inauguration day right up to today—President Trump’s Washington.
That is not a partisan statement. It is an honest one. President Trump has controlled or been a major part of the news and the noise for the past 3 years. How else to explain that last week, a) USMCA passed in the Senate; b) Phase One of the US-China Trade agreement was signed into law; and c) The House passed and sent Articles of Impeachment of the President to the Senate. Presidents – fairly or unfairly – get either credit or blame for the economy. The jobs report for December continued its wonderful run and the stock market continues to break records.
Everyone will look at the last three years in Washington from their own vantage point. But President Trump clearly has been the major driver of news and noise in Washington since his inauguration – and last week was no exception.
In this 3rd anniversary edition, I provide some perspective on how USMCA passed and who gets special awards for persistence and valor… what
was in the Phase One agreement with China… updates on the economy… and the process and key players in the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. Also, in this edition is my colleague Al Jackson’s monthly update on Defense and Defense Appropriations issues.
I want to thank my Total Spectrum colleagues—especially Dana Marston and Ramona Lessen—who have worked on this project every day since we
started. I also want to thank you—our AZ Chamber readers – for your interest in Washington and for reading This Week.
Tomorrow we’ll start working on our next issue. It’s going to be quite a year.