Tag Archives: Congress

Through the Ceiling: Where the GOP will Succeed

30 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

They can’t or won’t repeal, replace, tune-up, or modify ObamaCare. They won’t cut taxes. They won’t maintain even the semblance of a coherent legislature.

But rest assured they will raise the debt ceiling. No idea what the guy in the story from Goldman (the one still working there and not in the administration) is fretting about. It’s a done deal.

In a letter to lawmakers Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the federal borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, needed to be raised by Sept. 29 or the government risked running out of money to pay its bills.

The Treasury Department has been employing cash-conservation measures since March, when borrowing hit the formal ceiling of nearly $20 trillion. Those measures are expected to run out in early to mid-October. When they do, the government won’t have money to pay interest on debt, write Social Security checks or make millions of other routine payments, unless it can tap credit markets for borrowing to raise additional cash. Missing payments could send financial markets in a tailspin.

It’s canon now; raise it and then raise it again. There’s no pretense anymore about fiscal responsibility. No more “this is the last time,” or “this one and then never again,” or “doing it now and then we’ll pare down the spending…” Blah, blah, blah. Up, up, up it goes.

The question is “how high?” And I have no idea. If they only through in another $Trillion or two, then they’ll be back again with this next year. Why not double it? Triple? Why not just leave it open-ended or infinite?

Raising-Debt-Ceiling

Four Winds / Newsday.

Advertisements

Two Takes on the D.C. Madhouse

29 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

I watch the practical politics a lot less, here, than I do for FP (the people gotta know, so I have to know). One thing I’ve noticed this year is that President Trump has probably the worst relationship I’ve ever seen – not with the Democrats – but with his own party and his own administration. It’s possible no one has seen anything like it before…

The Dems would love to sideline, impeach, or pretend Trump out of existence because Russia. (Seriously, someone please thump the record player.) But they’re out of power, out of ideas, and seemingly out of touch. And it doesn’t matter.The GOP is doing all the lifting for the uni-party this time around.

Take, for instance, the new Russia sanctions: Paul Craig Roberts did:

What is the Congress up to with their stupid bill that imposes more sanctions and removes the power of President Trump to rescind the sanctions that President Obama imposed?

Congress is doing two things. One is that Congress is serving their campaign contributors in the military/security complex by being tougher with Russia, thus keeping the orchestrated threat alive so that Americans denied health care don’t start looking at the massive military/security budget as a place to find money for health care.

The other is to put President Trump in a box. If Trump vetos this encroachment on presidential power, Congress and the presstitute media will present the veto as absolute proof that Trump is a Russian agent and is protecting Russia with his veto. If Trump does not veto the bill, Trump will have thrown in his hand and accepted that he cannot reduce the dangerous tensions with Russia.

In other words, the bill is lose-lose for Trump. Yet Republicans are supporting the bill, thus undermining their president.

He updated his position, the veto option becoming ultimately impossible:

The fig leaf Congress chose for its violation of diplomatic protocols and international law is the disproven allegation of Russian interference in behalf of Trump in the US presidential election. An organization of former US intelligence officers recently announced that forensic investigation has been made of the alleged Russian computer hacking, and the conclusion is that there was no hack; there was an internal leak, and the leak was copied onto a device and Russian “fingerprints” were added. There is no forensic evidence whatsoever that shows any indication of Russian hacking.

It is all made up, and everyone alleging Russian hacking knows it. There is no difference between the allegation of Russian hacking and Hitler’s allegation in 1939 that “last night Polish forces crossed our frontier,” Hitler’s fig leaf for his invasion of Poland.

That Congress uses a blatantly transparent lie to justify its violation of international law and intentionally worsens US relations with both Russia and the EU proves how determined Washington is to intensify conflict with Russia. Expect more false allegations, more demonization, more threats.

Pat Buchanan explains, through shades of Nixon, the in-house attempts to further sideline or eliminate Trump via Director Mueller’s witch-hunt:

Hence, where are we? Despite zero evidence of Trump or his aides colluding in the hacking, a counterintelligence investigation is evolving into a criminal investigation. Mueller is now hiring veteran investigators and prosecutors specializing in white-collar crime.

This is not a witch hunt. It is an Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn, where the most colorful eggs are likely to be the tax returns and the financial records of Trump, who built a real estate empire in a town where winners brag about how they gutted the losers.

Every enemy of Trump is going to be dropping the dime on him to Mueller. Moreover, there is no history of special counsels being appointed and applauded by the press, who went home without taking scalps.

Trump understands this. Reports of his frustration and rage suggest that he knows he has been maneuvered, partly by his own mistakes, into a kill box from which there may be no bloodless exit.

What Trump needs is a leader at Justice who will confine the Mueller investigation to the Russian hacking, and keep Mueller’s men from roaming until they hit prosecutorial pay dirt.

Consider now Trump’s narrowing options.

…

Others, Vox Day included, are confident Trump will manage his way out, steaming ahead with his America First agenda. I hope they’re right. The internal shake-up is already in motion.

 

Death Panel: The Spectacle of Obama-TrumpCare Continues to Disappoint – Everyone and in the Most Ridiculous Ways

16 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

I suppose “fund it so we can kill it” ranks up there with “pass it so we can find out what’s in it.” It’s no cause to hunt them down on the diamond, but the current GOP crop has to be the most ridiculous bunch of idiot losers in legislative history. Has anyone any idea where the ObamaCare repeal/replace/repeal and replace/amend/screw up is possibly going? It seems the GOP doesn’t:

Top congressional Republicans have delivered a surprising plea to the Trump administration: Don’t sabotage the Affordable Care Act while we try to repeal it.

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander on Thursday became the second GOP committee chairmen in as many weeks to urge the administration to continue payments of subsidies to insurance companies that are considered crucial to stabilizing the individual market and preventing sharp premium increases.

Under President Trump’s direction, the administration has refused to guarantee that it will pay the subsidies, which are known as “cost-sharing reduction payments” and help insurers keep down deductibles for low-income customers while still making a profit. The decision has infuriated Democrats and insurers alike, and several companies have cited the uncertainty caused by the administration as the reason for exiting Obamacare exchanges in certain states and counties.

In an unusual alliance, Republicans in Congress are now joining the effort to pressure Trump to make the payments even after they sued the Obama administration over their legality three years ago. “These payments will help to avoid the real possibility that millions of Americans will literally have zero options for insurance in the individual market in 2018,” Alexander told Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, at a hearing on Thursday. “We have a collapsing individual market as a result of the Affordable Care Act, and as part of a transition from a collapsing market to a stable market in which Americans have more choices of insurance at a lower-cost, I believe Republicans will need to temporarily support some things we don’t want to do in the long term, and I would hope Democrats would do that as well.”

You, our man, do what we sued the other guy to stop a few years ago. In the meanwhile, we’ll busy ourselves doing nothing.

These fools could have: 1) fixed the current system; 2) replaced it with … anything, or; 3) just plain repealed it. They could have done this already. The same crowd rammed a full and complete repeal through Congress a few years back when Obama was in the White House. Naturally, he vetoed the Bill. They could do the exact same thing now, with Trump ithcing to sign off on it. A Bill to do that is ready right now and has been in the House hopper since January. Instead they dally and posture in the most pitiful manner possible.

And people vote for this?! Some pay money to support this?

Obama and Co. gave America a failed policy from the start. Just about everyone with an IQ north of room temperature knew that. They still know it. The Democrats, the media, and the medical/insurance scam industry are already starting to shift the blame for the systemic failures of the doomed-from-the-start law to the GOP and even Trump. Congressional Republicans are moving Heaven and Earth to help justify the shift.

Again, the healthcare options are, in order of best to worst:

  1. Free market system (never again in the USA);
  2. Universal coverage through private distribution (the Swiss system – also not likely);
  3. Universal socialist coverage (the Soviet system – possible and better than:);
  4. Continuing to prop up the ObamaCare tax and obscure system (where we are);
  5. The let’s drag our feet while everything goes to hell, start a repeal and yank it, again and again, Republican approach – prop up what we once sued to stop; let it all fall apart; get people good and shooting angry; stop the mandates but keep the taxes; etc., etc., etc.; and
  6. Outlaw healthcare and put everyone on arsenic…

It’s amazing, given the comparison, that numbers 3 and 6 actually seem somewhat attractive.

obamacare-cartoon-july-15-3

The Daily Hatch.

Please, please remember this come November of 2018 and 2020.

On the Congressional Baseball Shooting

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Shots fired first thing in the morning. The news rehashed all day long. If you just emerged from under a rock, in a cave, on a desert island – go back! But first know what everyone else does: James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Illinois, opened fire with a rifle this morning at a baseball field just outside D.C. His targets were Congressional Republicans practicing for the annual GOP/DNC charity game.

Five people were wounded, including LA Congressman Steve Scalise. All are expected to recover. Fortunately, only the lunatic shooter was killed, dropped by Capitol Police at the scene.

hodgkinson

James T. Hodgkinson, crazy man (deceased).

James Hodgkinson was a deranged leftist, Bernie Sanders fanboy, and homicidal sociopath. Even CNN is covering that angle which means it must be universally understood and accepted. Enough with it.

Several things:

I have no use whatever for Republicans and Democrats. I’m glad they’ve found solidarity today. Great. “An attack on one of us … blah, blah, blah.”  In truth they almost always have solidarity in their quest to wreck the country.

The baseball game is a perfect metaphor. On the ball field, Team GOP squares off against Team DNC. They oppose each other in play on the field but the overall goal is shared: raise money for charity. If that were their entire purpose I would applaud wholeheartedly. It isn’t.

In Congress, Team GOP squares off against Team DNC. They oppose each other with idiotic grandstanding and faux ideologies but the goal is shared: raise power for their Big Club masters. More power and money for them, less of everything for you.

I’m not saying take a rifle and shoot them. I am not saying that.

The whole lot of them aren’t worth a bullet, let alone the 50 fired off this morning.

But they have, with much and great assistance, utterly wrecked and destroyed the country I grew up in. Maybe “utterly” isn’t the right word just yet. Parts linger here and there. But darned near everything is fractured, including the people.

Hodgkinson is a picture perfect example of that fracture. And there are many more where he came from. People on the left really, really hate Donald Trump, GOPers, God, and you. They make plays about assassinating Trump. They hold up a mockery of his bloody severed head. They punch people talking to journalists. They hit people with bike locks. Some, more than just one nut from Illinois, are willing to murder.

The right-wing can boast some similar ideologues, but this post isn’t about them. This is about the leftoids, the communists, the blue-hair, shrieking loonies who hate the above mentioned personas. They hate a lot of people and a lot of things. And I’m writing about the “normal” ones. Their ultra-violent criminal allies in the ghettos and their pets of the Jihad are bad enough. But the home team regulars may be the worst of all.

Yes, they are full of hate. However, lately and quietly they have seemingly gotten over one object of hate – guns. Early this morning, before the facts were clear, I think I only heard the once ubiquitous calls for gun control from two sources, two fringe sources at that. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, other Democrats, CNN, and the media have been strangely quiet about the whole “a gun did this” thing. It’s almost like they’re over it. And they might be.

Truthfully, most lefties never favored full gun control. Sure, they wanted to take your guns and mine. But they always had ways of carving out exceptions for themselves, their friends, and their security guards. Funny.

I started reading maybe back in December about the rise in liberal gun ownership. Just this time last year the same people were beating the same old, worn drum of disarmament. Remember Kersh Kuntzman almost exactly a year ago – he of the frightening AR-15 experience? My but things seem to have changed.

A year ago they were against guns. By December they had started buying them. At rallies and riots, here and there, this spring, they started toting them – in poor and uncomfortable form. Today they started using them – again, rather poorly. (Open baseball field? Clear day? AK at close range? Five wounded? Come on…). Tomorrow, however, cometh the next natural progressive step: shooting well. That’s coming about and up to speed pretty fast.

I’ve already heard some idiots making fun of the libs for being: soft, wimps, queers, etc. “They probably use little pink rifles.” Funny but more delusional than accurate.

These people are violence personified. They are the heirs of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pot, and all the other brutal leftist dictators of the 20th Century. Then, they collectively racked up a death toll of about 250 Million. That’s anything but soft or wimpy. “Dangerous” is more like it.

They may have taken a short break while they tried to take down the Second Amendment. And by “they,” I mean the ordinary liberals; their leaders never put down the sword (or the bombs). When the assault on the 2A failed and failed pretty miserably I guess they decided to get back to their more traditional ways.

This morning they stormed back in style. More of this is coming and not just against Congress.

So, what should we, the remnants of the Old America do? I’d suggest preparing for battle. One survivor of this morning’s attack credited a police officer with saving lives. As usual in these matters, things took a turn for the better as soon as a good guy with a gun showed up and started shooting back.

If the officer(s) hadn’t been there, this could have turned into a multiple homicide bloodbath. That’s the commonality with political assassination attempts, violent crimes, and terror strikes – they all rely on unarmed, soft targets.

It’s time we ended that part of the equation. Why wait for an officer who might not be there? Arm yourselves. Train yourselves. Carry everywhere. Shoot back. And win. Winning will be kind of important…

While this could have really been a stand-alone event, the insular work of a single nut case, something not likely to be repeated, it could also be something more and something much worse. Remember all the fracturing after a century of descent. The shots fired first thing this morning could well be the first shots of a new civil war.

Living Large: Global Obesity Epidemic

12 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

So, it’s not just the people of the U.S. Research finds that about one-third the world’s people are heavyweights.

Around 2.2 billion people – 30 per cent of the total global population – were found to be too fat.

The majority of these were ill as a result.

Levels of obesity have doubled in more than 70 countries since the 80s, according to the major study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the UK, a quarter of adults are obese – with a body mass index (BMI) over 30.

It compares to just one in 35 in the 70s.

And one million British kids are also dangerously fat, around eight per cent.

Millions are dying nowadays due to completely preventable causes.

nintchdbpict0002922459991

Supersized! Getty.

This bodes well for an author prepping a fitness and health book. Hopefully all 2 Billion have access to Amazon and $12.99.

Otherwise hope fades quickly. The article concludes, as most mainstream publications must, with a pleas for urgent government action. Why? Why? Why? Does it really take a government program to stop a cheeseburger? I don’t recall that from my personal story.

Anyway, governments and health management don’t really go together well, at least not in the U.S. The GOP just announced it was losing the war to reform ObamaCare – apparently to itself. Typical.

If you need to shed a few lbs. – and if you’re an American, you do – don’t wait on some nonexistent federal assistance that will never come. Do it yourself.

Holy Moly! The GOP Did Something

04 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

The AHCA passed the House, 217-213.

nimbus-image-1493928655991

Drudge.

You can check on your little congress-critter and its vote here: Roll Call 256.

The Senate may prove a more difficult playground. The Bill is far from perfect. Yet the amazing thing, today, was … could that have been leadership??? from the Republicans? This pre-existing condition calls for a drink.

Update from D.C.: ACA Vote TODAY

04 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

They should run it up for a vote today around 1 PM.

The U.S. House of Representatives was set on Thursday for a cliffhanger vote to repeal Obamacare, as Republican leaders worked to deliver President Donald Trump a win for one of his top legislative priorities.

House Republican leaders have expressed confidence the bill would pass and several party moderates who previously objected to it got behind it on Wednesday, giving the effort new momentum.

Still, the vote was expected to be close. Even if the measure passes the House, it faces daunting odds in the Senate where Republicans hold a narrower majority.

Developing…

Once More Unto the … Here They Go Again

04 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Republicans plan their – what, 80th?? – whack at repealing or replacing the ACA, with a House vote set for tomorrow.

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Thursday on a controversial Republican bill that would repeal and replace key parts of Obamacare, the GOP’s majority leader said Wednesday night.

“We’re going tomorrow, yes we are,” said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Asked he if had the votes to win passage of the bill, McCarthy told NBC News, “Yes we do.”

“We will pass this bill,” McCarthy said. “I feel great about the [vote] count.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said several days ago that he would not hold the vote without having those winning votes in hand.

No idea if this is the same plan floated a few months ago and aborted at the last second. Honestly I’m beginning to forget what the law is all about and who these “Republicans” are… We’ll see…

obamacare-repeal-vote-cartoon-sack

Sack / Star Tribune.

Of course, Speaker Ryan could pull the vote tonight depending on what his magic eight ball says.

That was a Pretty Good Kick, by Congressional Standards

01 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

Recently I’ve noted the Kongressional Kicking of the Kan along with the perpetual betrayal of conservative voters by the GOP.

The latest kick puts reality and the federal budget off until September.

President Donald Trump said he’ll sign a bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that largely tracks Democratic priorities and rejects most of his wish list, including funds for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We’re very happy with it,” the president said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg News. The plan would allocate some new funding for border security, though the funds couldn’t be used to build his promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The president said he will sign the bill if it remains “as we discussed.”

The compromise measure, announced early Monday morning, would keep the government open through the end of September. Under House procedures, a vote could be held as early as Wednesday. The plan drew howls of protest from conservatives.

Howl at the moon if it makes you feel better. But this is the way it is. The Republicans are the Atlanta Falcons of politics. The budget blueprint is blown to smithereens. The tax reforms may happen but they won’t look anything like what was announced. No wall. No spending cuts. No priorities met. War in Syria. War brewing with North Korea, Russia, and half the rest of the world. Healthcare reform may make a comeback – or it may not. ISIS is planning the next domestic attack on the West. Rest assured the debt ceiling will be raised in timely fashion. And then raised again. And again. Over and over, bloated half-measure “budgets” will sail through in order to avoid the dreaded “shutdown”.

More of the same. More of the same. More of the same. Not that it will make any difference but I will probably remind you of all this again just before the next election, the next election when you keep the cycle going.

Howl.

Kongress Kicks the Kan

30 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

Again. Because shutdown.

The US Congress has passed a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government running an extra week.

It will now go to the White House for the president’s signature, and will buy Congress time to reach a deal to fund the government until September.

It came just hours before a funding deadline expired, threatening a second government shutdown in four years.

Republicans were forced to make several concessions, the latest on funding for so-called Obamacare.

A government shutdown would close national parks and monuments, lay off federal employees and delay tax refund payments.

The last shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 17 days.

There was a time, long, long ago, when Congress used to appropriate money for an entire year at a time. Now it’s a chunk here, a chunk there, one week, three weeks, four months, your dollar. The word “incompetent” comes to mind.

The real reason the pols fear a shutdown is that, should one happen and go on too long, the people might realize just how little they needed or missed the government. They can’t have that. And they can’t act responsible. So they kick the can.

The only downside I see to a temporary shutdown is the closing of the Parks. And those, I can tell you from experience, are still accessible. No force field goes up around them. They’re just much, much quieter. Kind of nice.

It would be nice if Trump would veto this one-week measure. He could use it as a “teaching moment” for the idiots on the Hill, maybe for others. Go ahead and shut her down. That won’t happen though.

The can shall be kicked. Again. And then, again later. And again. A day may come when it will be harder to kick or the kicking won’t help. Not that the pols care. Or that most of you notice.

kicking-the-can

The Times Picayune.

A better approach might be for Congress to leave the can alone and kick the bucket.