Debt ceilings & runaway spending

 

Betsy McCaughey often updates her readers on healthcare matters.  Yesterday, at Townhall, she analyzed the consequences of Congress members who want to keep raising the debt ceiling.  Her premise:

"If America wants to spend like Europe, it must tax like Europe -- and that means large payroll and value-added taxes on the middle class," says [Manhattan Institute economist Brian] Riedl.

Ms. McCaughey concludes:

Over the last 25 years, Congress has hammered out eight laws to control spending. All eight were tied to debt ceiling hikes.

At stake in this current debt ceiling struggle is preserving what sets the United States apart from Europe.

In the United States, working people get to keep most of what they earn and decide how to spend it.

Don't let the Washington pols treat your paycheck as if it belongs to them.

The full column is here.  This might be one issue that might get better results in any upcoming vote --  with a call to your House representative; click here. 

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The Clown Show Continues

 

And the Babylon Bee is on it:

Republicans Gather In Congress To Vote On

Who Will Fail The Voters This Time

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Republicans in Congress are gathering to vote for their preferred politician who will let the voters down over the next two years.

"This is an honorable tradition, where we come together as team players to choose the one man who will most effectively preserve our power while doing the opposite of everything we promised our voters and spending trillions of dollars," said Rep. Dan Crenshaw. "Anyone who opposes our pick is anti-American!"

At publishing time, Republicans had considered just electing a Democrat Speaker of the House since there isn't much difference anyway.

Source link for the “report” is here.

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Congress: a Confederacy of Traitors

   

Sad to wrap up the Christmas weekend with more bad news from Washington.  You will already be aware that Congress just passed another 4,000+ page Omnibus spending bill that does nothing for conservative Americans. Actually, it’s worse than nothing, as so much of your tax dollars will be funding progressive projects and agendas that will make your blood boil. 

So it is no surprise that Julie Kelly is beyond disgusted with Congress.  She’s furious at both (D) and (R) members of the Uniparty.  She closes her recent American Greatness column with outrage:

. . . No group of politicians has licked the boots of President Zelenskyy more than Republican senators. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is among Zelenskyy’s biggest supporters, insisting this week that “providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans. That’s how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.”

And there you have it. One of the most powerful—albeit most unpopular—leaders in Washington thinks lining Zelenskyy’s army-green pockets with more U.S. tax dollars is a greater need than tackling any number of ongoing crises roiling the country right now.

In a last bit of symbolism Wednesday night, Zelenskyy exited the House chambers carrying the case holding the folded American flag. A two-bit actor and international con man walked out with billions of American dollars and a cherished token of America’s sacrifice and in the real fight for freedom, justice, and security.

And the fiends in the hall systematically destroying that legacy for the people they are elected to represent cheered again.

Traitors.

She’s right.  Read her column here.   

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SOTU: Must Miss Television UPDATED WITH LINKS

 

White House Occupant Biden’s “State of the Union” speech
is this evening, March 1 at 9pm ET.

UPDATE:  As of 8:55pm, Vodkapundit has not yet posted a drunk-blogging link.  If he decides to not drunk-blog Biden’s first SOTU address, it would be understandable. 

The link is up!! Stephen Green’s [Mr. Vodkapundit] watches, so you don’t have to.  It is less painful to access the proceedings via live DrunkBlogging at PJ Media here.   If you really want to tune in to the broadcast online, Conservative Treehouse has the link here.

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SOTU: Must Miss Television

 

White House Occupant Biden’s “State of the Union” speech
is tomorrow, March 1 at 9pm ET.

Stephen Green’s [Mr. Vodkapundit] usually watches, so you don’t have to.  It will be less painful to access the proceedings via live DrunkBlogging at PJ Media.   If you really want to tune in to the broadcast online, Treehouse will have the link.

Note: Direct links will be added in tomorrow's blog.

Let’s Go Brandon!

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Ivermectin, livestock, and Congress

So you thought ivermectin was just for livestock;  humans need to avoid it.  Yup, that’s what the FDA told us (tweet via Daily Kos)  :

You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.

And now we learn from Sundance at Conservative Treehouse: 

According to Dr Pierre Kory, MD, MPA, and verified by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), 100 to 200 congressional reps and/or staff and families who contracted COVID-19 were treated with the Front Line Ivermectin protocol. 

. . .

Reader lizzie dw [October 10, 2021 9:29 am] comments:

On another note, here is a list of those exempted from being injected. (per an atty whose name I will not mention who is putting together a RICO suit)

• USPS workers
• all of Congress – House & Senate
• all Congressional staff
• 6000 White House employees
• 2500 Pfizer employees
• 1500 Moderna employees
• 120,000 Johnson Johnson employees
• 15,000 CDC employees
• 14,000 FDA employees
• 18 million Chinese students studying in the US of A
• 2 million illegal invaders
• 500,000 homeless persons

I have not checked each claimed exemption in this comment, although we KNOW the illegal invaders are not being vaxxed or even screened.  But if ANY subset of the population is exempt from getting the [mis-named] “vaccine,” then that gives the game away.  

And now Sundance reports that the Australian state of New South Wales has re-opened – BUT as an apartheid state.  Papers please!   See here.  Coming soon to a neighborhood near you. 

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Not the State of the Union Address

 

They are not calling it the State of the Union address.  The by-invitation-only event is being referred to as the “Presidential Address to the Joint Session of Congress.”  It starts this evening, Weds. Apr-28 at 9pm.  The TV Guide lists it as concluding at 11pm.  Will our President make it through the full two hours?

No matter.  You don’t have to watch it, because Vodkapundit will be live DrunkBlogging the address;  click here.   

UPDATE at 8:48pm:  Direct link is now up; click here.

(Mr. Vodkapundit already gave us the heads up from yesterday’s Insanity Wrap blog:

Insanity Wrap will return in our VodkaPundit guise on Wednesday evening right here at PJ Media for a much-requested drunkblog of Presidentish Biden’s much-delayed State of the Union address.)

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Guns and Walls

 

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Business as Usual

From PowerLine’s “The Week in Pictures” [and memes]:

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Your Weekend Must Read: AG Bill Barr on the Executive branch

Quite a few blogs are linking to AG William Barr’s recent speech at the Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture at the Federalist Society, and with good reason.  It is excellent for his insights into the present political landscape, and also in tracing the provisions in our founding documents as influenced by earlier European history. A short extract:

I wanted to choose a topic for this afternoon’s lecture that had an originalist angle. It will likely come as little surprise to this group that I have chosen to speak about the Constitution’s approach to executive power.

I deeply admire the American Presidency as a political and constitutional institution. I believe it is, one of the great, and remarkable innovations in our Constitution, and has been one of the most successful features of the Constitution in protecting the liberties of the American people. More than any other branch, it has fulfilled the expectations of the Framers.

Unfortunately, over the past several decades, we have seen steady encroachment on Presidential authority by the other branches of government. This process I think has substantially weakened the functioning of the Executive Branch, to the detriment of the Nation. This evening, I would like to expand a bit on these themes.

. . .

Let me turn now to what I believe has been the prime source of the erosion of separation-of-power principles generally, and Executive Branch authority specifically. I am speaking of the Judicial Branch.

In recent years the Judiciary has been steadily encroaching on Executive responsibilities in a way that has substantially undercut the functioning of the Presidency. The Courts have done this in essentially two ways: First, the Judiciary has appointed itself the ultimate arbiter of separation of powers disputes between Congress and Executive, thus preempting the political process, which the Framers conceived as the primary check on interbranch rivalry. Second, the Judiciary has usurped Presidential authority for itself, either (a) by, under the rubric of “review,” substituting its judgment for the Executive’s in areas committed to the President’s discretion, or (b) by assuming direct control over realms of decision-making that heretofore have been considered at the core of Presidential power.

Read the full speech here. I hope Mr. Barr’s words are followed soon by indictments.

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Mueller's "circus of embarrassments"

By now, everyone has seen the headlines or watched the anchors reporting on Robert Mueller's hearing before Congress. So just in case you've been busy at work or otherwise occupied, here is the link to Vodkapundit's (Stephen Green) Drunkblogging on the main event. Click here. 

Mr. Green leads off:

If former special counsel Robert Mueller trying to avoid saying much of anything while being questioned by some of the most duplicitous people in the world is your idea of Must-See TV, then you're probably already tuned into MSNBC. And may the Lord have mercy on your brain.

On the other hand, if you'd rather just follow along online with a coffee or (better yet) a Bloody Mary, then you've come to the right place.

House antics to follow shortly. Bloody Mary recipe to follow almost immediately.

Welcome to a very special midweek early morning drunkblog.*

*Open bar, professional drinker. Try this at home.

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Another Uniparty budget deal

image credit: foxnews.com

More bad news from the Uniparty's budget deal; this update via Ace of Spades:

'Indistinguishable from Democrats': Daniel Horowitz tells Mark Levin
what's behind Republicans' debt-exploding budget deal

Horowitz explained that the current spending levels are the result of the budget deals that congressional Republicans cut during the last session of Congress, “and now they’re looking for a repeat performance” in the current spending debate. They appear ready to hand Speaker Nancy Pelosi a debt-exploding deal that suspends the debt limit, busts spending caps, and “give away the president’s leverage on the border.”

[Ace comments:] Read the article...it's the usual gang of craven and shortsighted politicians who simply don't care about the future financial health of the country. Government spending has become so ridiculous that I wonder whether they are still trying to buy votes! How many voters actually pull the lever for the incumbent because he voted for some pork? Spending is out of control on all fronts, so how do people recognize directed spending vs. the background abomination that is the federal budget?

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Google: the greatest threat to the next election

Dr. Robert Epstein testified on July 16 before Congress on the dangerous control Google exerts over searches, surveillance, and behavioral manipulation. The full PDF text is here (h/t Pamela Geller). He explains what Google does, how it does it, discloses Google’s and his methodologies, and proposes a solution. It is pretty frightening, and I am bookmarking it in wild anticipation of Congressional action ASAP – so the 2020 election is not utterly corrupted. Here’s an opening extract:

I am here today for three reasons: to explain why Google presents a serious threat to democracy and human autonomy, to explain how passive monitoring systems can protect us both now and in the future from companies like Google, and to tell you how Congress can immediately end Google’s worldwide monopoly on search. My plan for ending that monopoly  was  published  just  yesterday (Monday, July 15, 2019) by Bloomberg Businessweek (Epstein, 2019d). I am attaching a copy of my article to my testimony and respectfully request that it be entered into the Congressional Record.

I have been a research psychologist for nearly 40 years and have also served in various editorial positions at Psychology Today magazine and Scientific American MIND. I received my Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1981 and have since published 15 books and more than 300 scientific and mainstream articles on artificial intelligence and other topics. Since 2012, some of my research and writings have focused on Google LLC, specifically on the company’s power to suppress content  – the censorship problem, if you will – as well as on the massive surveillance the company conducts, and also on the company’s unprecedented ability to manipulate the thoughts and behavior of more than 2.5 billion people worldwide. Data I’ve collected since 2016 show that Google displays content to the American public that is biased in favor on one political party (Epstein & Williams, 2019), a party I happen to like, but that’s irrelevant. No private company should have either the right or the power to manipulate large populations without their knowledge. . . .

His entire testimony is here, or you can watch it on video at Pamela Geller’s website here.

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Project Veritas is fighting back

Ben Garrison cartoon via Project Veritas

Project Veritas Sends Google Letters to Congress:

Project Veritas sent a letter to several Members of Congress informing them about Project Veritas’ investigation of Google that raises some concerns regarding Google’s possible improper intervention in Federal elections which may violate laws like the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).

The letter is a follow up to Project Veritas’ latest investigative report which includes undercover video of Google officials, leaked internal Google documents and emails, and statements provided by a Google insider.

We sent versions of the letter to several members of Congress.

The full report with text of the letter is here.

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The next two years: Surber's forecast

A.F. Branco cartoon credit: firearmlicense.org

The midterm election did not go as well as many of us had hoped. And looking forward, I found Don Surber’s take pretty realistic:

These Democrats don't care [e.g., about “infrastructure.]. . . .

All they care about is power. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Imagine now what happens when you give power to the already corrupted.

. . .

This is not a parlor game among good sports. Democrats selected Pelosi, Nadler, Schiff, and Waters as leaders because they are ruthless. They do not seek compromise. They do not want to work with President Trump or any Republican.

Under Obama, when they controlled Congress, they refused to work with Republicans on health care or the stimulus. They did not seek compromise.

. . .

The next two years will be rough. I hope the president appreciates the seriousness of the danger the House poses to the Republic.

Tea Party grandmas did not take over the House.

Bloodthirsty socialists did.

Surber's full blogpost is here.

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Impeachment in the news

Impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson 

Image credit: TheNation.com

The word “impeachment” is being bandied about everywhere, both from the media and members of Congress screaming for President Trump’s head, and from the House judiciary panel and conservatives preparing articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for “stonewalling their requests for documents”. So here is a link to a web page that provides an overview of the impeachment process, whether of the President or of a federal official. This overview concludes:

Historically, Congress has issued Articles of Impeachment for acts in three general categories:

·         Exceeding the constitutional bounds of the powers of the office.

·         Behavior grossly incompatible with the proper function and purpose of the office.

·         Employing the power of the office for an improper purpose or for personal gain.

The impeachment process is political, rather than criminal in nature. Congress has no power to impose criminal penalties on impeached officials. But criminal courts may try and punish officials if they have committed crimes.

The rest of the overview is here. 

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More useless legislation

image credit: taxpolitix.com

One of the core Tea Party values is limited government, but Congress knows better. Don Surber's blog "House passes phony school safety bill" is spot on:

Two things tell you a piece of legislation is worthless.

First, it has a cute and clever acronym for its title. Second, it passes with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Wednesday, the House passed the STOP School Violence Act, 407-10.

. . .

STOP stands for (drumroll) Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act of 2018.

The bill will prevent no violence. But it feels good. It will spend $200 million or so on "training to prevent student violence against others and self, including training for local law enforcement officers, school personnel, and students," ABC News reported.

The bill is another federal solution to a local problem. A federal program helped cause the Parkland high school shooting, as Obama paid the school and the sheriff not to suspend or arrest belligerent students.

But that is what Congress does: it spends money we do not have on things we do not need.

We need less federal aid, and more local control of the schools.

Yup. Surber’s blog is here.

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About the 2-year budget compromise

image credit: foxbusiness.com

About the 2-year budget compromise now signed by President Trump

From Guy Benson’s “Analysis: Let's Face It, Neither of These Awful Parties is Actually Serious About Fiscal Responsibility” at Townhall:

The biggest problem with the compromise is that abandons all pretense of fiscal restraint, and virtually guarantees more harmful and irresponsible can-kicking.  The GOP-led Congress has agreed to a two-year plan that will add $1.5 trillion to deficits over a decade, establishing a higher baseline from which "cuts" will be opposed, and on which additional spending will be built.  And Republicans have done so while surrendering a powerful mechanism (reconciliation) that allows them to pass budget policies without requiring the help of tax-and-spend Democrats (as they did on tax reform). 

Benson’s full article is here. Charles Hurt at Breitbart didn’t think much of it either:

Any time you hear Washington talk about bipartisan agreement, America, grab your wallet and run!

Once again, lawmakers in Washington have finally cut through all the thorny brambles of partisanship and discovered (yet again! yippie!) something they can all agree upon: spending scads and scads more of other people’s money that we don’t even have!

Support for military expenditures was a key talking point for Congress critters like Sean Duffy, who voted "yes." 

It’s still out-of-control spending. And back to Benson:

Here's what bothers me: Republicans didn't even really try.  They could have attempted a full-court press explaining the need for increased military funding, while arguing that in an era of $4 trillion in annual federal spending (up from less than $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2000, just for some perspective), breaking caps on domestic spending is unnecessary.  Or they could have demanded that in exchange for some heightened domestic spending for discrete priorities, Democrats would have to agree to some modest and mathematically-essential entitlement reforms. 

Instead, we got this [via The Washington Examiner]:

In 2017, for the first time in the post-Tea Party era, Republicans finally gained unified control of government. They spent months blundering on healthcare, and ultimately reneged on their eight-year promise to repeal Obamacare. They have now agreed on a deal with Democrats that would blow up the spending caps that were a legacy of the Tea Party movement — to the tune of $300 billion over the next two years...The agreement would boost military spending by $165 billion above the 2011 caps and nonmilitary spending by $131 billion; it boosts emergency disaster relief spending by $90 billion (remember when the Tea Party Republicans believed emergency spending needed to be offset?); provides $6 billion in more money to fight opioid addiction; has $20 billion in infrastructure funding; it provides more funding for community health centers; and it repeals the Independent Payment Advisory Board, one of Obamacare’s cost-containment initiatives, without any significant alternative ideas to curb Medicare spending. Now, let’s get one thing clear. It's possible to rein in long-term debt while keeping taxes relatively low and military spending relatively high, but only if those policies are met with a dramatic strategy to restrain entitlements and other non-defense spending. But that’s not what Republicans are doing.

I had hoped for better. Reminder to self: the GOPe are members in good standing of the Uniparty.

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Action Alert: Amnesty Again

image credit: americanmexorist.wordpress.com

RE: H-2B visas for 2018 and DACA amnesty

NumbersUSA sent this Alert out today:

NumbersUSA has learned that Congressional Leaders may include an H-2B visa increase in the year-end spending bill. The H-2B visa is the low-skilled guest worker program used to fill seasonal or temporary jobs in landscaping, food service, hospitality, and more. This program adds extra job competition for low-skilled American workers and adversely affects the wages for these jobs.

In past year's spending bills, Congress has exempted returning workers from the H-2B program, having the potential impact of quadrupling the number of these guest worker visas issued each year. For FY2017, Congress didn't exempt returning workers, but gave the Department of Homeland Security authority to issue visas beyond the annual cap. DHS ultimately increased the number of visas available by 15,000.

This new threat adds to the continuing threat of a DACA amnesty being part of the spending bill. Despite rhetoric from leaders of both Parties, Congress could still include this amnesty in the must-pass bill.

The ALERT:

Please call your U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators and tell them to oppose a DACA amnesty and an H-2B visa increase in the must-pass, year-end spending bill.

Sen. Sherrod Brown  ~  (202) 224-2315

Sen. Rob Portman  ~  (202) 224-3353

Rep. Marcia Fudge  ~  (202) 225-7032

If Marcia Fudge is not your Representative, call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 255-3121 to reach your Rep.

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Is Pastor Darrell Scott running for Congress?

L to R: Steve Loomis, Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Assoc.; Pastor Darrell Scott, New Spirit Revival Center; and Ralph King, Cleveland Tea Party / Main Street Patriot.

Photo taken at The Spirit of America Rally in Cleveland last March by CTP's roving photographer, Pat J Dooley.

Headline from cleveland.com:

Pro-Trump pastor Darrell Scott may challenge

U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce in 2018 Republican primary

Cleveland.com's report is here.

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