Congress
March 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
A dozen House Republicans voted against a resolution to award Congressional Gold Medals, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, to the Capitol Police, the D.C. police, and the Smithsonian Institution in recognition of their defense of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. To understand the votes of these Republicans one needs to look at the loaded language the Democrats smuggled into the resolution being voted on. It states: On
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March 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that “momentum is stalling amid congressional efforts to swiftly investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.” Good. The Democrats want to use the riot for political purposes. They hope, with assistance from the always-obliging media, to present it as the tip of an insurrectionary iceberg spearheaded by hardcore Trump supporters. To this end, Nancy Pelosi favors a 9/11 style commission. She would like this
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March 7, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats’ nefarious and destructive $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” (alleged Coronavirus relief bill) passed the Senate yesterday. The gentleman from Madame Tussauds emerged briefly to explain what it was all about. Even with the help of a teleprompter, he struggled. Making ten minutes feel like forever, Biden’s remarks — posted here and elsewhere — promote the bill with a series of highly misleading representations of fact (e.g., “it will
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March 6, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Tucker Carlson opened his show last night with a reported editorial that FOX News has posted under the title “The mainstream media doomsday cult and the growth of the police state” (video below). It strikes me as some kind of a classic. Excerpt: Just how dangerous is QAnon? Here’s the answer: the District of Columbia National Guard announced Friday that all troops who took part in the mission to protect
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February 28, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Lefty “comedian” Bill Maher strikes again, with a largely sensible rant against cancel culture in his latest HBO show last Friday. With all of the usual warnings for his foul language, crude expressions, and attacks on the GOP (because “balance”), he does get off some great keepers, such as “Memo to social justice warriors: when what your doing sounds like an Onion headline—stop.” On top of this are the intimidating letters several
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February 6, 2021 — Scott Johnson
In her young career Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar has made her mark in a variety of ways. To take one, she was the first member of the Minnesota legislature to take office while married to her brother (her first of three legal, sort of, husbands). Moving on to Congress, to take another, she was the first member of the House of Representatives ever to have been married to
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January 23, 2021 — Scott Johnson
More or less without exception each one of the executive orders promulgated by the gentleman from Madame Tussauds on January 20 belies the principles of good government, though each one in its own distinctive way. Taking the rationale of any one of them to its logical conclusion, one can infer the others and the tyrannical dystopia they mean to hang around our necks. We’re on the road to find out.
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January 7, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Minutes before he undertook to preside at the joint session of Congress convened to tabulate the Electoral College results yesterday Vice President Pence released a three-page letter explaining his understanding of his “largely ceremonial” responsibilities. I have embedded a copy of the letter below. Speaking at the “Stop the Steal” rally yesterday, President Trump urged Pence to reject the Electoral College results. “Mike Pence,” he said, “I hope you get
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January 3, 2021 — Steven Hayward
As I write, the House of Representatives has started a quorum call to assemble the new Congress for 2021. As has been remarked, there is some unpredictability this year because of COVID and the slim margin of the Democratic House majority. It is not a certainty that Nancy Pelosi will be the next Speaker. Chad Pergram of Fox News has a terrific Twitter thread on the scene up right now,
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December 29, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I suggested that President Trump gained nothing by delaying the implementation of the relief in the stimulus bill passed by Congress. However, I did allow that, as a result of his criticism of the bill, it’s possible that Congress will up the stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000. In that case, of course, Trump will have gained something. On reflection (and this should have been obvious to me without
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December 28, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Nothing. The legislation he described as a disgrace has been signed into law in exactly the form Congress passed it. It does not include the $2,000 handouts Trump wanted. It includes all of the wasteful spending he decried. The president tried to save face with a “signing statement.” He declared, “the Senate will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts an
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December 26, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
To the surprise of no one, disputes have broken out about who should be given priority for vaccination against the Wuhan coronavirus. There are disputes within hospitals and among various types of health care workers. There is also a dispute about whether various public officials and politicians should jump ahead of health care workers who are at risk because of the work they do. In general, I believe priority should
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December 23, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has denounced the stimulus bill Congress passed this week in response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. The bill provides nearly $900 billion of “relief.” Most of the roughly $900 billion provides basic relief in the form of small-business aid ($325 billion), $600 checks for most Americans ($166 billion), and expanded unemployment benefits ($120 billion). Much of the remainder goes to things such as help for schools ($82 billion),
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December 23, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Congress passed a 5,600 page monstrosity of a spending bill yesterday doling out $2.3 trillion in total. Included in the $2.3 trillion is $900 billion in COVID-19 relief that gives $600 to most Americans struggling to cope with the epidemic. What’s $600 got to do with it? I don’t know. The relief bill also expands the Paycheck Protection Program for various businesses. I hope the alleged COVID-19 relief is as
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November 11, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Right now it appears that Republicans will have at least 210 seats in the House in the next Congress, and perhaps a many as 214 if the remaining races where the GOP candidate leads all break their way. That would leave Democrats with a slim 7-vote majority, and leave the GOP needing to gain only four seats to take control in the next election. Given that over ten House Democrats
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September 25, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Minnesota Second District congressional election has been called off until next year due to the death of Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Adam Weeks. (The delay is dictated by Minnesota law adopted following the death of Paul Wellstone in 2002.) Weeks died this week at the age of 38. Everyone involved in the race expresses his or her condolences. I learn from Jessie Van Berkel’s Star Tribune story that
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July 29, 2020 — Steven Hayward
We’ve been all over Attorney General Bill Barr’s adventures in congressional “oversight” this week, but as it happens I just received the summer issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, which is the academic journal of the Federalist Society. And the lead article in this issue is Barr’s Barbara Olson Memorial Lecture from last fall’s annual Federalist Society conference, which has the anodyne title, “The Role of the
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