Tag: U.S. Senate

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U.S. Senate

West Virginians Are Furious With Joe Manchin For Blocking Federal Aid They Need To Survive: Report

Ruth and James Jones of Charleston, West Virginia, are raising their two grandchildren, ages 10 and 17, and are struggling to get by.

James works part-time as a cook at Applebee’s and Ruth is on Social Security.

So it was a blessing to both of them when the child tax credit was put forth by the Biden administration and made part of the American Recovery Act, according to the Washington Post:

“Like thousands of other West Virginians, their financial burden has been eased since July by monthly federal payments, championed by the Biden administration, to support families with children. Now, however, those funds — which total $500 a month — could vanish if lawmakers agree to the demands of their own senator, Joe Manchin.”

James, who is now 64, has a message for his senator:

“We want Manchin to take a little bit more active role in protecting us as far as West Virginians. We’re not a bunch of deadbeats. We work for a living and we’re due.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHdlUm-_3os

That same anger mixed with pain is being played out across the state, with Beth Zarate, president and chief executive of Catholic Charities West Virginia, noting:

“For some of our clients, this is keeping them above water right now. West Virginia just has so many challenges. We struggle with jobs, we struggle with our people leaving our state for other jobs. So the Child Tax Credit has been huge.”

A month ago, Manchin said he couldn’t support extending the child tax credits for another year:

“There’s no work requirements whatsoever. There’s no education requirements whatsoever for better skillsets. Don’t you think, if we’re going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?”

The Child Tax Credit has been especially helpful in West Virginia, which remains one of the poorest states in the country. And the purpose of the program is to help lift children and their parents out of poverty, which polls show is supported by a the vast majority of Americans:

In West Virginia, 170,000 children became newly eligible under the tax credit expansion, which was included in Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed in March. The changes to the tax credit raised the maximum benefit from $2,000 to $3,600 per child per year and dramatically expanded the share of poor families receiving the credit. In July, the food insecurity rate in West Virginia households with children dropped from 11.6 percent to 8.4 percent, and in September a survey found 86 percent of West Virginians felt the payments had made a “huge difference.”

Despite those facts, Manchin continues to be an obstacle to helping alleviate the suffering of his own constituents, and that threatens the health and futures of hundreds of thousands of kids in West Virginia, which doesn’t seem to bother the senator in the least.

All of this has left many wondering who exactly Joe Manchin is working for: Them, or the lobbyists who are busily pumping money into his campaign to help get him re-elected to yet another term in 2025?

Categories
Congress Social Media The Biden Administration U.S. Senate

Rob Reiner Said What We’re All Thinking About Sen. Joe Manchin

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has become the proverbial skunk at the garden party, insisting that he wants drastic changes to the Democratic $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package.

In an op-ed that was published by the Wall Street Journal, Manchin wrote:

“The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future. Yet some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree.”

That led progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to slam Manchin on Twitter:

And now award-winning actor and director Rob Reiner is weighing in on Manchin’s comments, and what he has to say perfectly encapsulates exactly what millions of us think anytime we hear that the West Virginia senator is standing in the way of legislation that would help the country.

Here’s the tweet Reiner posted:

Yep. That pretty much says it all. Why in the hell is Joe Manchin suddenly the most powerful man in Washington? He wasn’t elected to that position. Joe Biden was.

But with the Senate evenly divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, Manchin has indeed become the spoiler, able to hold up anything he wants even when his “reasons” are complete bullshit.

Others also joined the discussion on social media:

https://twitter.com/dryaninmexico/status/1434182732045856768?s=20
 

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Donald Trump GOP U.S. Senate

‘Circus Poodle’ Lindsey Graham Mocked By Conservative Writer For His Loyalty To Trump

A couple of weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for President Joe Biden to be impeached, telling Newsmax:

“I think Joe Biden deserves to be impeached because he’s abandoned thousands of Afghans who fought with us and he’s going to abandon some American citizens because he capitulated to the Taliban to a 31 August deadline.”

Of course, this is the very same Lindsey Graham who refused to vote for the conviction and removal from office of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump on TWO separate occasions, so the senator’s thoughts on any serious issues are not exactly relevant or even welcome among anyone other than the far right-wing, tinfoil hat wearing rubes who tune into to Newsmax, OAN, and other fringe conservative media outlets.

Kathleen Parker is also a South Carolinian, and as she notes in an op-ed she penned for The Washington Post, Graham has become little more than a “circus poodle” who is willing to contort himself into any position necessary to remain in the Donald’s good graces:

“Is that you, Lindsey? The same man who staunchly defended Donald Trump through two deserved impeachments now wants to impeach a Democratic president. If bad or misinformed decisions in war times were impeachable offenses, we’d have to add a secretary of impeachment to the Cabinet.”

Graham’s current hypocrisy, Parker continues, is a mystery to nearly everyone who knows him:

“It gives me no pleasure to note Lindsey’s fall from gravitas. He represents my state. He once employed my son. I’ve praised him for courageously saying what no one else would.

“Then Trump became president of the United States, and the real Lindsey Graham was never seen again. Suddenly, he was Trump’s puppy (my puppy loves golf-cart rides, too). One day, Lindsey’s seated at the kid’s debate table saying Trump is an ‘idiot‘ on foreign policy, and to ‘make America great again’ we should ‘tell Donald Trump to go to hell.’

“The next thing you know, Lindsey and Trump are bromancing.”

The senator’s main goal in life, Parker concludes, is to remain relevant in a town where the players change with each election. And Graham the “circus poodle” can only be marginally relevant if he continues to kiss Trump’s butt on a regular basis:

“Lindsey was reelected in 2020 and doesn’t have to genuflect to the Trump base for another four to five years. But power is hard to let go. Flattery from a president, though I wouldn’t know, is likely addictive. He said as much to Leibovich: ‘I have never been called this much by a president in my life … He’s asked me to do some things, and I’ve asked him to do some things in return.’ About Trump, he added: ‘I personally like him. We play golf. He’s very nice to me.'”

Lindsey Graham was elected to represent the people of the Palmetto State. At the moment, however, he’s just an obsequious suck up to a man who is despised by a majority of the American electorate.

Maybe Lindsey should marry Trump (or at the very least agree to be his concubine) so he can constantly be in close proximity to what passes for power these days in the Republican Party.

 

Categories
Corruption GOP U.S. Senate

Ted Cruz Caught Using Taxpayer Money To Employ Family Members

Proving that he’s just as corrupt as almost every member of the GOP, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has been caught employing members of his family with taxpayer money in direct violation of federal law.

According to Business Insider:

“Cruz employed the daughter of his first cousin in his Senate office as a paid press assistant and gave his cousin’s son a coveted Senate internship. Cruz put his cousin on the payroll for his 2016 presidential campaign and later for his Senate campaign, records show.”

Federal law could not be more clear. U.S Code § 3110 states:

“A public official may not appoint, employ,
promote, advance, or advocate for appointment,
employment, promotion, or advancement, in or
to a civilian position in the agency in which he
is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction
or control any individual who is a relative of the
public official. An individual may not be appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in or
to a civilian position in an agency if such appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement has been advocated by a public official,
serving in or exercising jurisdiction or control
over the agency, who is a relative of the individual.
(c) An individual appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in violation of this section
is not entitled to pay, and money may not be
paid from the Treasury as pay to an individual
so appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced.”

When confronted with the information about his employment of relatives with taxpayer funds, members of his staff resorted to the ad hominem attack line used so often by failed, one-term former President Donald Trump, calling the article “fake news” and refusing further comment.

How do you suppose Cruz and his fellow Republicans in the Senate would act if say the son or daughter of President Joe Biden’s first cousin was suddenly given a plum job in the White House and drew a salary paid for with tax dollars? There’d likely be a hue and cry not heard since the days of the bogus Benghazi hearings, and it’s even safe to suggest that some extremists in the GOP (like Sen. Cruz) would recommend impeachment.

Ted Cruz is a liar, a fraud, and a man who gave aid and comfort to insurrectionists by refusing to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election even though he had no proof of any irregularities in the balloting.

 

Categories
Congress Crime Domestic Terrorism U.S. Senate WTF?!

Ted Cruz Claims The Biden Administration Is ‘Persecuting’ The Capitol Insurrectionists

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (R) doesn’t believe that everyone who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 deserves to be punished or charged with a crime because many of them are clearly being “persecuted” and the Biden administration is “targeting” them.

In an interview with HuffPost, Cruz had this to say about the fact that hundreds of Capitol insurrectionists are now facing serious legal jeopardy for their illegal actions:

“If an individual assaulted a police officer, they should spend a long, long time in jail.

If, on the other hand, the Biden administration is targeting and persecuting people for exercising political speech that is nonviolent and simply expressing their peaceful support for a political party different from that in power, that is not the purpose of our criminal justice system.”

And if a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump it’s ass every time it jumped, Ted.

“As it turns out, Cruz’s sentiments are now increasingly common among those who remain loyal to failed, one-term former President Donald Trump:

“Some allies of former President Donald Trump are upset that protesters who didn’t assault police officers are being charged with misdemeanor offenses, the same type of charges they’d face had they been arrested at any protest inside the Capitol. Demonstrations are banned within the Capitol complex, and even an errant laugh during a congressional hearing can get you led out of the room in flex cuffs.”

So if you stand up during a congressional hearing and speak out of turn, you can be carted off and charged, but if you riot and enter the Capitol, take a shit in the hallways, and rub your feces on the walls, that’s no biggie, according to Cruz and other Trump faithful who seem to think the rules apply to everyone but them.

What happened on Jan. 6 was a crime. Plain and simple. And it has to be treated as such. If it isn’t, we’re inviting it to happen again and be even rose the next time.