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Musk acting fast as Trump’s Macbeth

“If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly.” — William Shakespeare, “Macbeth” “Quickly” is the key word for Macbeth as he muses before the bloody murder of King Duncan of Scotland. He must do the deed with his dagger by night, while the court sleeps. Act now or not at all. “Quickly” is the passcode for Elon Muck — or Musk — as he acts as henchman for the man who would be king, President Donald Trump. The federal government is under a ruthless siege like thunder, lightning and rain — so swiftly that it’s hard to arrest or even ...

Moving the mountains

As your lone state government reporter here in Charleston, I have to cover both the House of Delegates and state Senate at the same time. Sometimes this means going to one chamber or the other. Sometimes that means having two computers open when two different committees are meeting at the same time. This also means I must prioritize the bills and resolutions I write about. I very rarely write about bills and resolutions that are not taken up by committees in the House and Senate. I joke that I’m the tyrannosaurus rex from Jurassic Park: I respond to movement. Because I do not have ...

Unserious new Republican budget plan

Serious problems should be met with serious solutions. We have serious problems, namely a fast-growing debt and a need to extend some tax cuts in an unforgiving environment where interest rates are high and inflation is rising again. Unfortunately, despite a new mandate, House Republicans have yet to rise to the occasion. Their latest budget blueprint shows that fiscal responsibility vanishes the moment real choices arise. As a reminder, government debt stands at 100% of GDP. It will grow to 117% by 2034 if the tax cuts are allowed to expire as scheduled this year. It was 76.5% when ...

European elites

If you follow these things closely, you may have seen a clip of the chairman of the Munich Security Conference breaking down in tears, unable to speak any further while reflecting on Vice President JD Vance’s speech there. This breakdown is remarkable because the chairman, Christoph Heusgen, is not a minor apparatchik but a sophisticated and knowledgeable official who was former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s national security adviser from 2005 to 2017. He had a front-row seat to Merkel’s epochal decisions —to shut down nuclear plants in 2011, admit 1 million Muslim male ...

Working for W.Va.

The recent imbroglio between Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Senator Jim Justice highlights the problems of West Virginia. Instead of offering a forward vision, Morrisey focused on the shortcomings of his predecessor. Not since Joe Manchin denigrated fellow Democrat Bob Wise’s record for declaring “help is on the way” in 2004 has an incoming governor criticized a member of his own party. The vision offered by Morrisey was ideologically conservative and devoid of ideas for moving the state forward. Morrisey claimed that the state was $400 million in debt, a figure that Justice decried ...

W.Va. on my mind as committee chairman

After the American people made their voices heard in November, President Trump is now back in the White House with a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress. In this new Congress, my role has expanded. For the first time, I will serve as the senior-senator from West Virginia, the Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and importantly, the Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The Environment and Public Works Committee, or the EPW Committee as it is typically called, is tasked with developing policies to address the infrastructure, ...