Let’s hope for a trade: Partisan bickering, out; dealing with reality, in

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As Donald Trump starts his second presidency, there is hope for him and for Congress to tone down the partisan bickering in favor of dealing with reality on two important subjects — immigration and fiscal challenges. This may be wishful thinking after decades of failure (or disregard) under multiple presidents, but there is opportunity on each for major accomplishment for which Trump and members of Congress of both parties could take credit.

On immigration, the realities are that we have a broken system; that people’s interest in migrating will increase because of climate change and dysfunctional governments around the world; that we need immigrants already here, including millions here illegally, especially in the agricultural, food processing and construction industries; that the need will increase because of our declining birth rate; that immigrants are exploited before they arrive by human traffickers and after they get here by employers, which is unfair to American citizens as well as the immigrants; and that immigrants have been and should continue to be valuable contributors to our economic strength in jobs ranging from the menial to the highly skilled to important leadership.

The New York Times Editorial Board recently offered “A big idea to solve America’s immigration mess,” proposing three big, sensible shifts in federal policy. One is to “make every reasonable effort to prevent people from living and working illegally in the United States,” including securing the borders, overhauling the “shambolic asylum system so that decisions are made at the border” and “hold employers accountable for the legal status of their workers.” The second is to “legislate an orderly expansion of legal immigration, including a role for the federal government in directing people to the places that would benefit from population growth and in underwriting the transition costs.” The third is to “deal humanely with the estimated population of 11 million illegal immigrants who already live here,” including a path to citizenship for “most immigrants who have made their lives in this country.” Making these shifts could avoid the problems likely to arise from an effort focused largely on mass deportations.

The fiscal challenges are perhaps even more daunting, because nobody likes to pay taxes, so politicians like to avoid increasing and love cutting them, resulting in tacit bipartisan agreement to ignore the problems, reinforced by the U.S. dollar’s global strength. The problems include the well-documented looming shortfalls in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and the threat to our economy and world economic leadership posed by deficit spending taking the national debt ever-higher as a percentage of GDP and the interest cost of servicing it to an ever-higher share of tax revenues. The deficit spending problem is particularly knotty due to widespread mistaken belief that income tax cuts more than pay for themselves through increased economic activity and/or that Americans are overtaxed, which comparisons to other countries rebut. This is now front and center due to President Trump’s intention to extend the expiring income tax cuts that were enacted in 2017 at his behest and exempt additional income from tax.

Trump’s idea to look for places to cut spending through the Department of Government Efficiency is sound, and DOGE should examine our outrageously expensive health care system. But DOGE alone is not enough. Trump and Congress should establish a bipartisan fiscal commission, as recommended by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and others, to suggest solutions to the fiscal challenges posed by the current condition of our national debt, tax system and the IRS. If the bipartisan fiscal commission’s recommendations are substantially enacted, the debt ceiling should be repealed, eliminating a performative political dance that has gotten very old.

The last major immigration changes, Social Security repair and tax reform occurred in separate enactments roughly 40 years ago. They didn’t hurt, and may have helped, how history has viewed President Ronald Reagan. President Trump’s desire to Make America Great Again could lead to equally consequential and positive outcomes in the same policy areas if he and Congress decide to deal with reality.

John James is a lawyer and a former Minnesota commissioner of revenue.