Category: Congress

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Congress Donald Trump GOP WTF?!

GOP Congressman: Upcoming Spending Bills May Include Provisions For US Takeover Of Canada

Well, it’s now official: The Republican Party under the sway of Donald Trump has completely jumped the shark and is now operating via remote-control madness mixed with idiocy.

Proof of that was provided by Congressman Rep. Kevin Hurn (R-OK) during an appearance on CNBC this morning.

Speaking with host Andrew Ross Sorkin, Hurn was asked, “Congressman, do you have any realistic expectation that maybe something that would be added to this bill would include either buying Greenland or perhaps buying the Panama Canal or, I don’t know about buying Canada, maybe merging with Canada?” 

Hurn replied, “Well, I don’t — not sure yet. We’re all going down to Mar-a-Lago over the next three or four days to share different opinions, thoughts on some of the things that have been discussed.”

“I want to look at this and see what the opportunities are as recently in Panama,” he added. “The [president-elect] knows this, and he wants to make sure that we don’t get encircled, whether it be Greenland in Canada or the Panama Canal, and make sure that we have national security.”

“So one of the things we have the most important role to do in Congress is to protect this great nation,” the congressman said.

Sorkin noted that Canadian officials had countered Trump’s ridiculous talk about taking over their country by suggesting they might want to purchase Alaska and Minnesota.

“Well good luck on Canada buying anything out of America,” Hurn responded. “You know President Trump will push as we all know he’s a businessman.”

“He will set the boundaries and have everybody think twice before they do something that might be radical as that was suggested by the folks in Canada.” 

It has been said many times before but needs to be repeated: Today’s Republican Party is a cult, and they’re only too happy to drive this country off a cliff if Trump tells them to.

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Congress GOP Healthcare

Mike Johnson: Republicans Have No ‘Intention’ Of Cutting Medicare, ‘But…’

Throughout the 2024 election season, Donald Trump and his Republican allies repeatedly promised they would protect and secure both Medicare and Social Security and not make a single cut to either program.

That, however, was then, and now that the GOP has won control of both the White House and Congress, it’s clear that they have every intention of taking a meat cleaver to social programs so they can give another round of tax cuts to rich douchebags like Elon Musk.

How do we know that Republicans are going to cut the two programs? All you have to do is listen to what Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said at a press conference today.

CNN correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson what the GOP had planned for the two entitlement programs.

“Look, the president has made very clear, Social Security and Medicare have to be preserved,” Johnson replied. “And we are not, no one is coming in with the intention of cutting benefits in any way or anything.”

Johnson quickly added, “But we have to look at all spending and look at it very deliberately while maintaining those commitments. The Republican Party is not going to cut benefits, okay? We’ve made that very clear over and over and over.”

“We do know, however, at the same time, there are many, many areas of fraud, waste and abuse.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Republican doublespeak, here’s what Johnson actually meant: We promised not to cut Medicare, but we lie about everything and we lied about that, too. Cuts are coming. You can count on it.

So don’t be the least bit surprised when the first GOP budget after Trump’s inauguration features cuts to food stamps, programs for seniors, and enormous tax cuts for the richest Americans, including greedy South African douchebags like Elon Musk, who personally bankrolled Trump’s victory to the tune of at least a quarter of a billion dollars.

Bend over, America! Republicans are about to screw all of us while saying it’s for our own good.

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Congress Donald Trump Elections

Could Today’s Certification Of The 2024 Election Hit A Roadblock?

Later today, the U.S. Congress will meet in a joint session to certify the results of the 2024 election, a process that was once considered little more than a formality before Republicans tried to stop certification in 2020 and thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and attacked the police who were attempting to prevent the intrusion.

While security has been beefed up for this year’s certification, questions remain about whether or not some Democrats may protest Trump being named the 47th president of the United States since he played a major role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, which makes him ineligible to hold that office under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

However, based on what two key Democrats said Sunday, that seems unlikely.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) predicted that today’s certification will be free of violence and go off without any hitches.

“It is a very unnerving moment. I do not believe we will have a repeat of that,” Clyburn told MSNBC host Jen Psaki.

“We will have a vice president presiding on tomorrow who believes in the peaceful transition of the office, and she will preside over her own defeat,” Clyburn added. “I hope the American people will take time out to watch this tomorrow and hopefully have their faith in this great country renewed.”

During an appearance on “Meet the Press, Schiff noted, “If [Trump] goes forward with pardoning vast numbers of people involved in that violence, he will begin his new administration the way he ended his last administration, and that is by celebrating violence against our democracy,” Schiff said. “I think it would be a terrible start – send a terrible message about our democracy, about lawlessness, about people who attacked police officers. Exactly the wrong message and the wrong way to start out an administration.”

“The concern that I have, which is what I conveyed, is the precedent that it would set that you have an outgoing president giving a broad group of pardons to members of his party or others because I think the precedent could be abused,” Schiff continued. “Now, people have rightly pointed out, Donald Trump may abuse that precedent regardless. But the idea that each administration hereafter gives broad pardons to people who have worked in the administration or aligned with the administration, I don’t think that’s a road we want to go down.”

Democrats respect the Constitution and the electoral process. Too bad their counterparts in the GOP don’t.

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Congress Donald Trump Elections GOP

Nervous Republicans Fear Internal Fighting Will Delay Trump’s 2024 Election Certification Beyond Inauguration Day

Next week, Congress is set to convene and certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, officially making Donald Trump the 47th president of the United States.

But there’s a very real chance the House of Representatives will be busy trying to determine who will be the next speaker of the House, which could take weeks and indefinitely delay election certification, a scenario that would humiliate Trump and leave the GOP in total disarray.

According to CNN, Republicans are terrified about what could be on the horizon.

But this time, there’s a huge shadow over the race: Congress has never before tried to certify a presidential election without a House speaker in place. Even senior Republicans say it’s unclear what would happen if there is no speaker on January 6 — when Congress is scheduled to certify Trump’s win — and they’re not eager not to find out.

“To oppose Johnson now weakens the GOP and strengthens Hakeem Jeffries. It also puts at risk the Electoral College Certification scheduled for 6 Jan. These guys serve as a ‘fifth column’ for the Dems,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told CNN.

Here’s the conundrum facing Republicans: They can’t conduct official business in the House if they don’t have a speaker, which would leave them with two options that have never been tried before: Electing a temporary speaker or doing without one completely.

“Some Republicans are privately discussing ways to push the procedural limits so that Congress could certify Trump’s win without a leader. One person described an “emergency break glass option” that would involve allowing the House to vote to go into a special session. But that would be a tough sell for many institutionalist Republicans.”

Another possibility is to move up the date of Trump’s certification, making sure it takes place sometime before he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20. But what if that fails, too? In that case, it would likely trigger a constitutional crisis that the country has never experienced before.

Would Biden remain as president? The country has to have a president, right?

January is going to be an interesting month. And it could well end with Trump still waiting to be officially named as head of state. That’s certain to enrage him and make Republicans look incompetent.

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Congress Donald Trump Elections

Here’s How Democrats Can Legally Refuse To Certify Trump’s 2024 Victory

If Democrats in Congress want to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20 of next year, there’s a way they can block his taking office, but they’ll have to act now and invoke a section of the Constitution that was added shortly after the Civil War in 1868 and has never been used before.

That, according to former Ivy League law review editors Evan Davis and David Schulte, is a viable option, and they lay out the process in a fascinating article published by The Hill.

The Insurrection Clause of the U.S. Constitution states, “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

As Davis and Schulte explain, that one clause would delay Trump from becoming president until the matter could make its way through the federal courts, which could take months.

“Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel,” they note, citing Trump’s second impeachment trial and the bipartisan House January 6 Committee.

Even though the Supreme Court has ruled on efforts to disqualify Trump for insurrection, all they decided was the proper venue hadn’t been chosen to keep a candidate off the presidential ticket. Federal legislation was necessary, the justices explained.

Federal legislation now exists in the form of the Electoral Count Act, which was updated in 2022. The updated Electoral Count Act says electors cannot be counted if one or more of them was not “regularly given,” which leads the authors to explain, “A vote for a candidate disqualified by the Constitution is plainly in accordance with the normal use of words ‘not regularly given.’ Disqualification for engaging in insurrection is no different from disqualification based on other constitutional requirements such as age, citizenship from birth and 14 years residency in the United States.”

Granted, Congressional Republicans will never agree to go along with their Democratic colleagues and disqualify Trump, but that doesn’t mean Democrats should refuse to issue a challenge.

“Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed. No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution.”