ANALYSIS/OPINION:

There is the old adage that if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. This has always been because the swamp contains the nastiest reptilian creatures that will just as soon strike you in the back as look at you.

Glowing eyes and fangs and venom and jaws and stings — they come from all directions here in the swamp, where survival of the smarmiest reigns.

But there is another reason you should get a dog if you want an ally here. Dogs are so much smarter than any of the pea-brained creatures hanging from trees, lurking in corners and slithering around the hallways of Washington. For all the time these vermin spend scheming and conniving to trick, trap and kill each other, they really are remarkably stupid.

Take Republicans, for example. Here in the swamp, they are the “good” guys. Sure, they are often dishonest. But, mostly, they are just dumb and incompetent.

For seven years they promised to rescue innocent Americans from the disastrous Obamacare that made health care staggeringly expensive or simply unattainable for working people. Despite all the lies, patients lost their doctors, very little is affordable, and the best health care system the world has ever known is headed for ruinous collapse.

In revolt, voters gave Republicans every authority in elective government to correct this mess.

They flinched. Actually, Republicans didn’t so much flinch as they face-planted. Then got up and ran away like screaming children chased by a menacing clown trailed by a red balloon.

Luckily for hard-working Americans, the “Republican” in the White House isn’t your regular swamp-slithering Republican. He is as disgusted with all the creatures in Congress — on both sides of the aisle — as is the average American.

So last week he took a sledgehammer to some of the worst parts of Obamacare.

Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, cringe over any such action whose political consequences have not been thoroughly considered. Democrats accuse President Trump of sabotaging Obamacare by allowing it to face the slightest degree of competition.

All of this comes as Mr. Trump also presses for the most sweeping tax reforms in three decades. You can already hear the cries from lying Democrats about giveaways to corporations and the rich. Republicans watch nervously as they calculate how to achieve “tax reform” by doing the least possible to upset the disastrously rigged current tax system.

As always, Mr. Trump is wise to ignore all the political hand-wringing of his “fellow” Republicans. In fact, if he were to do anything to adjust course, he should go even bigger and bolder.

Instead of curtailing how much he takes a wrecking ball to the tax code, Mr. Trump should go nuclear.

Abolish the income tax! Fire every last goon at the IRS! Entirely eliminate the corporate tax!

Start from scratch with a system that encourages savings instead of rewarding debt.

Instead of paying people not to work, celebrate industry and achievement. The single most disgusting thing about the federal government is its contempt for work and the people who do it.

End the War on Work!

Sadly, if Mr. Trump wants any help in this, he’ll have to get himself a dog.

• Charles Hurt can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter via @charleshurt.

Sign up for Charles Hurt's Newsletter Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.