Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Shiff, Nadler, Pelosi President Donald Trump likely will survive his impeachment in the Democrat ruled U.S. House for the simple reason that impeachment – really, removal from office – always occurs in two steps; an impeachment hearing in the House, and a trial in the Senate. The House returns a bill of impeachment to the Senate where the offender is tried and, if the Senate affirms the impeachment charges, the target is removed from office. No one expects the Senate to toss Trump to the wolves, not even sainted anti-Trumpers such as U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal, whose Trump vendetta began long ago when Trump attempted to wrest the Empire State building from his father-in-law, New York real estate tycoon Peter Malkin.

Demography, it is said, is destiny. If so, the most current report from the U.S. Census should serve as a splash of cold water in the face of Connecticut legislators. Marriage in Connecticut during the period surveyed, 2010-2014, has taken a massive hit. Experts say that young adults usually delay marriage because of the burdens of college debt, the high cost of rental housing and anemic salary growth. The high cost of rentals is a measure, in part, of the scarcity of rental housing; through budget mismanagement and a disinclination on the part of the dominant Democrats in the General Assembly to attack spending, Connecticut is still resting somnolently in the lap of a recession that disappeared years ago in the rest of the country; and UConn has just announced plans to boost tuition by thirty one percent.