One as he emerged from America’s first constitutional convention in 1787, dr, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman, well, Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy? Franklin famously replied, a republic, if you can keep it, yes, our Republic is a representative form of government that is ruled according to a constitution. Now, while actions are ultimately decided by a majority of representatives, our system has mechanisms that protect the rights of all including the minority. We also have three branches of government that we need to constantly remind ourselves of, especially the students today, the legislative, the executive and the judicial, and these serve as checks and balances so that one branch cannot absorb the power of the other co equal branches. We really need to remind ourselves that this system naturally produces tension, but it has endured, and next year, we will celebrate our nation’s 250th

birthday, our legislative process has been compared to the sausage factory. So it’s not pleasant to watch. It’s messy and it’s chaotic, but it ultimately produces results, and the Republic endures. The first month of the Trump administration has been very productive, but there has also been a lot of chaos. Things have been chaotic in Congress, especially in the House of Representatives, but the sausage factory is grinding forward. We’re in trouble, and they’re trying to fix us as a country. The Senate has passed a budget resolution, the first step in providing funds for the border security, funds for energy development, funds for national security, and they are proposing to offset these expenditures and to pass a second budget resolution to facilitate extensions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. We need those and enact even some new tax reductions that President Trump proposed during his campaign. It’s really getting sloppy. It’s getting really tense, but the house is pushing one big, beautiful bill to advance all these objectives and to achieve deficit reduction. Is what the people voted for, is what they’re trying to do. And ultimately, the House and the Senate will need to pass the same budget resolution or two budget resolutions, and it’s likely to be really messy getting into that result. Budget resolutions are like blueprints, so they are just the first step in the process. Don’t be moved by the mainstream media that’s trying to confuse everybody. There are going to be points of contention as the details of the final budget reconciliation bill emerges and it’s going to contain particular spending and deficit reduction measures as well as the details of new and continuing tax policies, we’ve got to get our house in order as Congress wrestles with their budget resolutions and budget reconciliation measures, they also need to continue annual appropriations by March 14 and address a debt ceiling that is looming on the horizon. Remember, we heard it going into Christmas. It’s looming, and now it’s time the congressional sausage factory isn’t something for the faint of heart, but it’s the product of our representative form of government, and it seems to work despite all of its flaws. As Dr Ben Franklin said, we have a republic if we can keep it.