Tag: Congress

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Congress Gun Crime

Democrats Have A Way To Impose A 1000% Tax On AR-15s – And They Don’t Need A Single GOP Vote

With it becoming clearer by the day that Republicans in Congress have absolutely no intention of passing any sort of sensible gun control legislation this year, Democrats are trying to find creative ways to keep weapons of mass murder out of the hands of young people at the very least.

And Business Insider reports one House Democrat has a bill that could help slow the sale of semiautomatic rifles in the United States by imposing a 1000% tax whenever one is purchased:

The recent violence is prompting one House Democrat to draft a measure aimed at severely restricting access to the AR-15-style weapons used by different gunmen in the carnage. Rep. Donald Beyer of Virginia, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means panel, wants to impose a 1,000% excise tax on assault weapons.

“What it’s intended to do is provide another creative pathway to actually make some sensible gun control happen,” Beyer told Insider. “We think that a 1,000% fee on assault weapons is just the kind of restrictive measure that creates enough fiscal impact to qualify for reconciliation.”

What would such a tax do to the price of an AR-15 or similar weapon? According to NBC News, such a rifle currently lists for $500 to $2,000, depending on where it’s purchased. A 1000% tax would add anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 to the final price of such a gun. How many people have that sort of money to spend on a rifle of any kind, especially if the buyer is a young person?

But the real beauty of Beyer’s bill is that since it’s a tax issue, it could be included in budget legislation that only requires a simple majority of 51 votes in the Senate to pass:

That outcome prompted Beyer to eye reconciliation, the legislative tactic allowing proposed laws to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold known as the filibuster and pass with a simple majority. Democrats employed the maneuver in 2021 to approve both the stimulus law and the House-approved Build Back Better bill over united GOP resistance.

One expert says his measure likely qualifies for inclusion in a smaller spending bill containing pieces of President Joe Biden’s climate and tax agenda. Democrats hope to revive it by summer’s end.

Zach Moller, director of the economic program at the center-left Third Way think tank, said the AR-15 tax would indeed qualify for the reconciliation exemption:

“Taxes get more deference in budget reconciliation than other policies from a parliamentarian point of view.”

Additionally, if Republicans do manage to retake Congress in the midterm elections, it’d be almost impossible for them to repeal the new AR-15 tax because President Joe Biden could veto any such legislation, and overriding a presidential veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, which is nearly impossible.

For his part, Beyer says the 1000% rate is open to debate, but needs to be high enough to keep the guns out of the hands of young adults:

“There’s nothing magical about that thousand percent number. It’s severe enough to actually inhibit and restrict sales. But also successful enough that it’s not seen as an absolute ban.”

Expect Republican whining to begin in 3, 2, 1…

 

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Congress GOP

Former Employees Call Lauren Boebert A ‘Monster’ And A Failure As A Business Owner

Before she became one of the most controversial and useless members of Congress ever elected, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) owned a restaurant named Shooters located in Rifle, Colorado, where the servers have long been encouraged to openly carry firearms in imitation of their employer, who does the same and absolutely loves to pose for photos with a holstered gun on her jeans.

Boebert has created a sort of self-made mythology around herself, suggesting that she rose from nothing and started a successful establishment, realizing the American Dream and determined to make sure others can do the same.

But based on what former Shooters employees told Abigail Weinberg of Mother Jones, the restaurant is a financial disaster and their former boss is almost impossible to work with or for, which seems to presage the lack of legislative accomplishments for Boebert over the last two years in office.

According to the report, Shooters sounds less like a business than someone trying to play make-believe and pretend she’s successful when the opposite is true:

“Multiple employees say that they were paid in cash, either out of the register or from Boebert’s husband’s wallet, without any taxes deducted. While many workers were struggling to make ends meet, they say Boebert spent exorbitant sums on breast implants, private schooling for her sons, and a new Cadillac Escalade. They describe her as alternately absent, showing up only when news crews were at the restaurant.”

Speaking of news crews, once the media spotlight made Boebert a household name in Colorado, that’s when Bad Lauren reared her ugly head, a former waitress noted:

“The second the restaurant blew up, her head blew up, and it became something entirely different. And I got to meet a new version of her that is a monster.”

And while Boebert pretended to be a believer in gun safety to counter her rabid devotion to the Second Amendment, she was anything but diligent about obeying both the written and unwritten tenets of responsible gun ownership:

Boebert insisted in her television appearances that gun safety was paramount, telling CNN, “There’s no accidents that are gonna happen…There’s no reason a waitress is ever allowed to unholster.” Most workers describe Boebert as consistently safe with guns. Still, one worker says safety was “not how it was perceived on TV.” Another claims that Boebert pointed a loaded gun at him when he said that he would have voted for Obama for a third term. “She would tell it like a joke,” he tells me. “She thought it was hilarious.”

To this day, Shooters barely manages to stay afloat, and Boebert admits in her congressional disclosures that the restaurant lost $143,000 in 2019 and $226,000 in 2020. How’s that for the American Dream come true? Sounds more like a nightmare.

Shooters is such a failure that Boebert reportedly can only pay salaries when her husband gets his paycheck from work he does in the oil and gas business:

Employees tell me they believed that Boebert’s husband, who works as a consultant in the oil and gas industry, was keeping the company afloat. “There were times when we were waiting for him to get his check, so that way she could get us our check,” one former employee says. According to Boyington, “He’s the one who paid the rent, all the bills, everything.”

The bottom line is that Lauren Boebert is a failure at everything she’s ever attempted other than convincing the voters of her district that she’d be a success when all she’s ever been is a massive failure and con woman. No wonder she’s such a huge fan of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump.

 

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Congress GOP

Lauren Boebert’s ‘Free Speech’ Rant On The House Floor Gets A Brutal Clapback From Jamie Raskin

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) decided it was time once again to draw attention to the fact that she’s an airheaded buffoon who barely has enough sense to get in out of the rain.

So the Colorado congresswoman went to the House floor and began ranting about how conservatives are being censored on media platforms and her dislike of the creation of a disinformation governance board at the Department of Homeland Security.

When she had finished, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) immediately let her know that he wants her to talk as often and as much as possible, and he explained why:

“Unlike some of our colleagues on the other side, we’re not interested in censoring other people’s speech. We want the whole world to see how the gentlelady from Colorado speaks, in public, as a member of Congress. We want everyone to look at that.”

Others on social media then joined the mockery of Boebert:

https://twitter.com/DeborahRedmon20/status/1524220042040295424?s=20&t=WV76QWeGkbHSJl1PXivpFQ

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Congress GOP Viral Video

WATCH Jamie Raskin Put Marjorie Taylor Greene On Full Blast For Being A ‘Cheerleader’ For Putin

Why is it that so many Republicans seem incapable of calling out Russian President/mass murderer Vladimir Putin for being a brutal and evil dictator whose military has committed numerous war crimes during their invasion of Ukraine?

It began with failed, one-term former President Donald Trump, who absolutely refused to say anything negative about Putin, leading some to suggest that the Russian leader had some sort of kompromat (i.e. damaging information) on the Donald.

Now, however, it seems that everywhere you look members of the GOP are making excuses for Putin and Russia, with Rand Paul even suggesting during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that talk of NATO expansion led to Russia invading Ukraine.

Also guilty of being a Putin apologist is Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who said this in March:

“If we truly care about suffering and death on our television screens, we cannot fund more of it by sending money and weaponry to fight a war they cannot possibly win! The only effect of more arms and more money from America will be to prolong the war!”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has clearly had enough, and he lit into Greene today during a floor debate on expanding President Joe Biden’s authority to arm Ukraine:

“All of these efforts to distract us from the issue at hand are meant to cover up the very clear pro-Russia and pro-Putin faction at the heart of their side of the aisle.

“Last month, in March of this year, the very distinguished gentlelady from Georgia on a radio show called The Voice of Rural America, and she followed Donald Trump’s sickening appeasement of Vladimir Putin and blamed Ukraine for the situation.”

But Congressman Raskin was far from finished, adding:

“She said, ‘You see, Ukraine just kept poking the bear, and poking the bear, which is Russia, and Russia invaded. There’s no win for Ukraine here. Russia is successful in this invasion.’

“We have members of Congress who are cheerleaders for Vladimir Putin and are voices of nothing but defeatism, fatalism, and pessimism for democracy in Europe, so they try to distract us with a lot of phony rhetoric about other issues.”

It needed to be said, and Jamie Raskin said it perfectly.

Categories
Congress Justice Department Russia Uncategorized

Russia Caught Red-Handed Trying To Bribe A Member Of Congress

Three Russian citizens have been indicted for “conspiring to use an agent of Russia in the United States without prior notice to the Attorney General, conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and conspiring to commit visa fraud,” according to the Justice Department.

One member of the U.S. Congress was targeted in the scheme, according to the DOJ, but will not be named at this time.

The charges are against three men: Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Babakov, 59; Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev, 52; and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, 58.

A Russian legislator, Aleksandr Babakov, and two of his staffers were also implicated in the indictment.

A press release posted on the DOJ’s web site spells out exactly how the scheme took place:

“The defendants contacted members of the U.S. Congress from 2012 into 2017 to seek meetings and to offer free travel to at least one Congressmember on behalf of Babakov, as well as other foreign officials aligned and associated with Babakov. For example, in 2012, at the direction of the defendants, CC-1 sought to secure a meeting for Babakov with multiple members of Congress, including by offering an ‘all expenses paid’ trip to a particular Congressmember to meet with European politicians and receive ‘an award.’

“Also in March 2017, the defendants contacted at least one member of the U.S. Congress to offer free travel to a Babakov-affiliated conference in Yalta, part of Russia-controlled Crimea, as a service to benefit the purported ‘Prime Minister of Crimea,’ Sergey Aksyonov. Aksyonov was organizing and attending the conference, and had been sanctioned by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a Specially Designated National (SDN) since 2014 based on his role in actions and policies threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine.”

Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, remarked:

“This FBI investigation highlights the lengths the Russian government will go to undermine our rule of law.”