Democrats gave up on growth, when security comes last and other commentary

Liberal: Democrats Gave Up on Growth

“Democrats once understood the importance of economic growth,” laments the Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira. But 21st-century Dems forget “the benefits of growth for the working class”; they instead “prize goals like fighting climate change, reducing inequality” and “advocating for immigrants and identity groups.” Sorry: You can’t “build support” among working-class voters “without centering the goal of economic growth.” Now Democrats have turned “downright negative” on AI — general purpose tech whose “effects on productivity growth could be game-changing and era-defining.” They want new AI data centers to “provide and pay for their own power” — or to ban them completely. Fearmongering may win short-term, but it’s “woefully inadequate as an approach” to tech that can “make the country and its workers richer.”

Europe watch: When Security Comes Last

“Politics is the art of the possible and all that, but it still feels uncomfortable to use the safety of a country’s Jews as a bargaining chip in a fight over the correct number of prison beds,” snarks Commentary’s Seth Mandel. Such is a “current debate in Belgium.” Antisemitic violence prompted officials to call for soldiers to support police in protecting Jews. But Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden and her party demand another problem be fixed that first. “I’m sure Verlinden’s concern for prison overcrowding is legitimate,” but “counterterrorism isn’t the sort of thing one can just horse-trade away.” Such games expose how Europeans can be “startlingly callous and dismissive about the security picture.”

Libertarian: Just Kill the Jones Act

To “mitigate the short-term disruptions to the oil market,” President Trump issued a 60-day waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, “an openly protectionist piece of legislation” mandating that “any cargo shipped from one American port to another must be carried by” US-flagged vessels, notes Reason’s Eric Boehm. These “restrictions on shipping only inflate prices and limit trade” and impose inefficiencies such as routing shipments through foreign ports simply to skirt the rule. But “temporarily waiving the enforcement of a bad law” only “underlines the law’s failures.” Each waiver of this law in various crises makes “the logic for keeping it in place seem more strained.” The entire issue “once again” shows the “foolishness of protectionism.”

Conservative: DHS Shutdown Will Cost Dems

Videos of “members of Congress being escorted by officials to the front of security lines in order to board a flight” mean big trouble for the Democrats in Congress who are now “making life miserable for millions of ordinary Americans by refusing to fund Homeland Security,” thunders Liz Peek at The Hill. Dems gripe is with ICE, but its funding has already “been approved by Congress,” so “shutting down Homeland Security is pointless.” Plus, incoming Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin has “agreed to further soften the immigration enforcement tactics used by ICE.” “Do Democrats really want to amend ICE’s practices, or simply to batter the White House on its immigration policies?” Their stunt leaves TSA workers “without pay” so that “millions of travelers are being inconvenienced.” “Let us hope voters punish them this fall.”

DC beat: DOGE Is in Stealth Mode

The Department of Government Efficiency, famously “tasked with downsizing bloated federal agencies and rooting out fraud,” has now “all but vanished from the political conversation” after such “notable early successes” as “dismantling USAID” and uncovering a “scheme by Biden officials to hide $20 billion in environmental grants” deposited “at a financial institution outside the government.” But Mark Hemingway reports at the American Mind that the work still goes on. Sam Corcos, a former DOGE employee now at the Treasury Department, says “we’re actually able to do more now than we were before, but it’s just not as in your face.” Ex-DOGE workers have moved to “more established” agencies, Hemingway cheers, and are uncovering fraud like millions of stolen Social Security numbers and billions in Medicaid fraud.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board