Congress
September 30, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Scott has noted that Sen. Joe Manchin has “named his price point” on the spendapalooza bill: $1.5 trillion. Scott is right that this is still very bad, but it requires the progressives to shrink their wish list by more than half—by a full $2 trillion. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the House Democratic caucus meetings and sub-meetings right now, because if there is no honor
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September 27, 2021 — Steven Hayward
This is likely the make-or-break week for President Biden’s progressive domestic agenda, and he’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter II with every passing day. The House is supposed to vote today on the $1 trillion “bi-partisan” infrastructure bill, but the “progressive” Democrats are still holding it hostage until they get their $5 trillion wish-list passed first. I’m not sure the complete bill is even written down fully yet,
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September 2, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Joe Manchin has thrown a monkey wrench into Democrats’ plan to pass, via reconciliation, a $3.5 trillion spending package on top of the trillion dollar (or so) bipartisan “infrastructure” bill. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed called “Why I Won’t Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion,” Manchin states: The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future. Yet some in Congress have
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July 28, 2021 — Scott Johnson
As the Biden administration secretly redistributes illegal aliens carrying the Covid virus around the United States, the CDC has issued a new set of “interim public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people.” The CDC has promulgated the recommendations in response to the big nothing of the Delta variant applicable to all those in K-12 schools and counties with high or substantial levels of viral transmission — regardless of vaccination status,
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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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