Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
Here is a fine opinion article by David French about Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry-
Where Is the Evidence, Speaker McCarthy?
But as the Speaker’s fellow MAGA Republicans seem to believe: When you have theories, you don’t need evidence.
Republicans in Congress have a choice. They can choose to continue opposing the majority in everything or they can choose to exert their power as a minority. This is an important point so let me repeat it another way. Simply put, Republican power is a choice.
The Democrats have a small majority is the House of Representatives. They can pass bills with a party line vote, although a bipartisan votes is preferred. One reason is President Biden’s desire for bipartisanship. Another would be that it just looks better to the American people.
Continue reading “Republicans can choose power”
I’d like to point out an interesting article on why we should censure the President now. I believe President Trump’s behavior in office certainly make him worthy of impeachment. But for several reasons that may not happen as soon as many of us would like.
Karen Tumulty of the The Washington Post suggests censure is something that should be done immediately. It is worth reading and thinking about.
There is quite a bit of bad information out there about Congressional pensions and benefits. Several times I’ve corrected those who think Congressional retirees get a full salary for life after one term or less in Congress. Or a lavish free healthcare plan or some other benefit as detailed in the latest email.
So I decided it was time to make a post of it.
Continue reading “Myths about Congressional pensions and more”
Should we protect the Special Counsel from President Trump? Speaker Paul Ryan doesn’t think so.
But Speaker Ryan did not think the President was serious about revoking security clearances. I would think that now that President Trump has done so, we should no longer have great faith in the Speaker’s predictions.
Continue reading “Protect the Special Counsel”
I just ran across this article. It is a few days old but seems to capture the essence of the GOP congress: Move fast and don’t let facts get in the way.
The full title is The Republican tax bill is moving through Congress at light speed and the subtitle is
The GOP’s playbook: Move fast and don’t let facts get in the way. It was published in Vox a few days ago and is specifically about tax plans but does capture the general GOP approach in this Congress.
We have previously seen a similar approach fail on healthcare. My hope is that it fails again. i would like to see tax reform but I believe this is an important issue and deserves a full debate on the merits of various measures. Move slowly enough to consider the facts and possible consequences of your actions.
Both houses of Congress have their own tax plan. Each rushed through quickly with little of the input you would expect in major legislation.
The House version has already been passed. There will be a vote on the Senate version in the very near future. In my opinion, neither is good.
But here is one opinion on the Senate version. Of course, it could change before the vote but my guess is it will not be for the better.
Read it all, but here is just a small portion –
Surely, we will have other debates in the future with thoughtful arguments on every side. But not this time. The numbers are in and it’s clear: this tax bill helps the rich and hurts everybody else. Just ask the very people who wrote it.
The House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this month to overturn an Obama administration rule which would have the Social Security Administration send records of some beneficiaries with severe mental illness to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The bill may go to the Senate this week where it can be passed simple majority and soon thereafter sent to President Trump.
If you think this information should be available to the FBI during background check (or not), you may want to contact your Senator and President.
The House Republicans want to prevent the Defense Department from dealing with a national security threat (http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2016/06/republicans-trying-to-stop-pentagon-climate-plan-000149).
The Defense Department sees that climate change is a threat and wants to prepare for it (http://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/471521p.pdf). But many Republicans seem to think it a hoax and those in Congress are so sure of themselves that they think they should stop the military from preparing for this threat.
Continue reading “Republicans vs military”
It has been months, yet Congress fails to get serious. Our Congress fails again to seriously address the public heath emergency caused by the Zika virus.
President Obama requested $1.9 billion for Zika prevention about 6 months ago, but Congress has not been able to agree on a bill to fund this. Not much has changed since I wrote about this almost a month ago (see Zika, politics as usual) except that Congress has left on vacation without doing anything. Continue reading “Congress fails again”
I was thinking about climate change because it is much in the news these days. We have the Paris climate change agreement (21st United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP21)).
I ran across an interesting site. The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication is tracking changes in American public beliefs about climate change and the role of human activity in climate change. The data are looked at a number of ways. It is well-worth your time to look around the site. Continue reading “Paris climate change agreement”
About 6 weeks ago I wrote about a budget compromise which I hoped showed a new spirit of compromise in Congress and a maybe even a interest in governing.
I wrote too soon. I should have known better.
Congress failed to get the needed legislation to implement the budget deal. They passed the deadline and passed another continuing resolution. So I guess we can call the deal an almost compromise.
Cooperation in Congress, I hope. Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was recently elected the Speaker of the House. I hope this brings in a new era of cooperation between the 2 parties and among various groups in the House of Representatives. And perhaps when the Senate sees it, they will be inspired to do likewise.
This is a hope. I am not placing any bets on it.
I hope for cooperation because among the things Rep. Ryan had to say on assuming office was this: Continue reading “Cooperation in Congress”
I have been writing here about the unfairness of the Medicare part B premium increase for 2016.
H.R. 3696: Medicare Premium Fairness Act of 2015 has been introduced in the House but is still in committee as of today and S. 2148: Protecting Medicare Beneficiaries Act of 2015 has been introduced in the Senate but is still in committee as of today. Continue reading “Medicare Premium Fairness Act of 2015”
I recently reviewed a short book on fixing our dysfunctional congress. I thought it a book well worth your time and a few dollars.
But today I ran across a website by the author that explains the main thrust of the argument and it is free. The Public Check on Congress website is http://publiccheckoncongress.com/.
You might also want to see the facebook page.
I think we need to fix our dysfunctional Congress. There seem to be several groups with various ideas about how to do this. Look over this one. The Public Check on Congress project seems to get right to the heart of the matter by changing the incentives of the members of Congress.