Americans are waiting with many questions about what and how Congress will act regarding legislation — what Congress is designed to do. That comes as control of the House of Representatives crosses the aisle to the Democrat Party in January 2019. Though the GOP picked up several Senate seats that increased their Senate majority, all “fiscal” matters — matters driven by government funding — must come from the House.
Yes, it is true that for the first two years of the Trump presidency Republicans controlled both houses. But because of rules put in place — rules passed by each house of Congress that are NOT Constitutional mandate –, restrictions regarding even taking up measures for floor debate and what can and cannot be done in the House and Senate lie entirely at the feet of members of Congress. Why?
Congressional Identity Politics
Americans look on as Congress continually defeats completion of legislation for extremely important matters. examples: each year the Constitution requires Congress to prepare, pass, and the President to sign into law a fiscal budget. And each fiscal year the budget that controls government spending expires the same time. Yet each year, Congress waits until the last minute, delaying even a vote on a budget bill, passing temporary spending resolutions, due exclusively to partisan wrangling that seldom has anything substantive to do with the overall budget. Most often those delays are direct results of the current “legislative hotspot item of the week.” The repair of illegal immigration, funding healthcare, and building a southern border wall are the latest hot spots that have delayed a new budget. Of course, stop-gap resolutions for temporary spending have to be put in place to prevent a government shutdown. But even the threat of a shutdown is turned into a political football everytime one is rumored: either Democrats or Republicans hold out wanting this legislation or that legislation included or excluded, and it’s always “the other Party’s fault.”
In the past, members of Congress were really concerned about how Americans felt about Congress and the job they do. Their approval ratings among the public were important. But in past years Americans watch as Congress demonstrates, again and again, their lack of concern for the will of Americans in legislation. Their approval ratings as a result of their lack of concern for the will of Americans hover around just 10%. And they don’t care.
With that in mind, and with Democrats reclaiming control of the financial mothership in Congress — the House of Representatives — don’t you think Congress would want to get back to work and diligently move legislation for Americans and government operations forward? One would think that. And one would be wrong.
What legislative matters do you think Congress should be concentrating on? Let’s name a few: Further tax relief for the middle class; meaningful comprehensive immigration reform; sealing both U.S. borders to stop the rampant influx of illegals from the north and south; revision of healthcare financing and regulation to make it affordable for all Americans without tampering with healthcare’s effectiveness; taking control of runaway U.S. government federal deficit spending. There certainly are others. But I feel almost all Americans would be tickled if Congress would make at least honest efforts on these during the next two years. But it won’t happen. Even with a fresh start with a new House of Representatives, NOTHING substantive will be accomplished in the next Congress — nothing but passing a budget after several spending resolutions are passed at the last minute. The cycle of Congressional lunacy just rolls over — again, and again, and again, and again.
Did you notice as I did the lack of party platform promotion in the 2018 midterm campaigns by either Party? There were none. All the campaigning were against those running on the other side. Voters heard very little from either Democrats or Republicans about any ideas to fix any of the broken government process mentioned in the last paragraph. In fact, the election conversation was driven primarily by just one thing: Donald Trump. And seldom did you hear at campaign rallies or in television, radio, or print ads “new” ideas from either Party’s candidates. They each simply drew a line in the sand: either for or against President Trump.
Hardly anyone spoke about the amazing accomplishments in the nation on his watch in just his first two short years. (I won’t list them here, but we all know about most) Regardless of the claims made by his predecessor for initiating all of those successes, most Americans are smart enough to look at their payroll deposits and see deposits for corporate bonuses, pay increases, and more net pay because of the reduced federal income tax deductions. They see their 401K values have risen rather than leaking away as under the last President. Americans also saw their neighbors who had previously struggled to find work get not just jobs, but jobs in sectors that not only had completely stopped hiring were moving operations to foreign countries. Americans know Obama promised exactly opposite, telling Americans that manufacturing would never come back to the U.S.
It happened because Donald Trump changed the way people at the top in Washington think. Let’s call it “Trump Change.”
But, wait: not EVERYONE in Washington changed — or wanted “Trump Change.” Enter members of the Deep State — inhabitants of the Swamp. They didn’t want “Trump Change.” They still don’t.
With new House control by Democrats, one would think Democrat Party leadership would be excited about looking ahead at new ways to build on existing successes and find new ways to initiate new ones. But that’s not happening. Want to know what Democrat Party upcoming House leadership and committee leaders are planning?
- Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said that President Trump might “face the real prospect of jail time” after prosecutors indicated last week that he directed illegal payments during his 2016 presidential campaign. “There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him. That he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Schiff’s premise has NO basis in fact, rather relies totally on information contained in Robert Mueller’s memo released Friday, December 9th. Specifically, Schiff’s comments were based on allegations contained in that memo stating Cohen lied to Mueller and his investigators. According to the memo, Cohen admitted that he had lied to Congress about when he stopped pursuing a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — which was June 2016 instead of January 2016, and about other statements he had made. It said he also offered new information to the special counsel’s office. The memo said Cohen admitted he lied to Congress to “minimize links between the Moscow Project” and Trump, and to “give a false impression” that the Moscow Project had ended before the Iowa caucus and the first presidential primaries, in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations being conducted by Congress and the special counsel’s office.
Cohen also said he had lied to Congress about a 2015 radio interview, in which he suggested that Trump meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New York City during his visit for the United Nations General Assembly. Cohen had told Congress that his comments were not discussed within the campaign, but later said that he had “conferred” with Trump about contacting the Russian government to gauge interest in such a meeting.
Congressman Schiff disclosed that Democrats are in talks with counsel for former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to “bring him back” for further testimony, less than two weeks after Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2017. Schiff suggested Cohen will return voluntarily. If Schiff becomes the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee when Democrats retake the House in January, as expected, he would have the power to subpoena Cohen to testify and provide documents — but Cohen would retain the option of pleading his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
- Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, revealed Friday, December 7th that he will end the Republican-led probe into decisions made by the FBI and Department of Justice during the 2016 presidential election. “Yes, [I will end it] because it is a waste of time to start with,” Nadler told reporters after momentarily stepping outside the closed-door hearing of fired FBI Director James Comey. He branded the probe a political stunt designed to divert attention from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the election. “The entire purpose of this investigation is to be a diversion of the real investigation, which is Mueller. There is no evidence of bias at the FBI and this other nonsense they are talking about,” the Democrat claimed.
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), promised the following legislation to be taken up if she retakes the gavel as Speaker of the House: a package for campaign finance reform as Dems’ first bill of the 116th Congress; Democrats will pursue reducing drug prices, something the Trump Administration is doing successfully already. Then, they will make an effort to work with Republicans on a bill on background checks for gun purchases, as well as address protecting “Dreamers.” That refers to young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. “I don’t see any of us voting for wall funding,” referring to President Donald Trump’s plan for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. In addition, Pelosi said she would like Democrats to make sure there is integrity in the U.S. voting system.
- And then there’s Maxine Waters (D-CA). Throughout the campaign and since she speaks about nothing but impeachment. I am not for sure, but I believer her ardent supporters from her California district would rather she work with all those in D.C. to reduce illegal immigration that has resulted in lost jobs for those voters and others, further reduce taxes and help find ways to fix healthcare finance, stemming the flood of ever-increasing federal spending that is driving our national debt far beyond any hope of repayment, and the constant logjam in Congress due exclusively to partisanship from both sides of the aisle. Yet, Ms. Waters still chants in rallies and meetings, “Impeach 45, Impeach 45!”
Summary
There’s very little any non-elected American can do to right this ship. At best we can continue to communicate with our elected federal officials and encourage them to take care of the enforcement of existing laws, pass new laws to fix bad laws, to cut runaway spending, close our borders to illegals, and take care of American citizens before spending billions on illegals who invade our country.
Regarding the likes of Schiff and Nadler and Pelosi and others who hail from the Democrat Party far left, they still hold the belief that their political false narrative has captured the minds of most Americans. I laugh every time I hear Nadler or Schiff or Pelosi or Waters in interviews spouting their talking points. Remember this: Schiff is the one that on numerous occasions has stated he “factually” knows and has evidence that proves that President Trump colluded with Russia to help get him elected in 2016. Nadler knows that everything he said that I quoted above about the current House investigation into Department of Justice and FBI wrongdoing and even illegal actions during the 2016 election is not only legitimate, but it is also necessary to simply hold government officials accountable for partisanship that has led to unbelievable illegal activities that put Watergate to shame!
Schiff, Pelosi, Nadler, and even Waters are oblivious to this one fact that cannot be forgotten or ignored: all Americans are not drinking from the trough of Political Elitism from which Democrat Party leadership live by. Americans understand things in D.C. are not right. And most Americans — even proven in polling results — want the process in D.C. fixed and those responsible for wrongdoing to be held accountable.
In all of this, don’t be dismayed: the Sheriff that took charge in 2016 is far from working alone in his so-far successful quest to clean out the Swamp. Schiff and Company want to intimidate the Sheriff into believing he has no hope and that they’re “gonna’ get him!” He doesn’t care. He came to D.C. a very successful entrepreneur. He’ll leave D.C. the same.
And Americans will still be in control of the United States of America!
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