US House Of Representatives

“Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure Legislation Passes The House of Representatives!

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Congratulations are due to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden, and the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives on successfully passing the “Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure legislation by a vote of 220-213, after a disgraceful eight and a half hour rampage speech by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and the refusal of any House Republicans to support legislation which makes life better for millions of Americans!

The legislation, once it gains approval of the US Senate with some modifications certain, will do the following:

Affordable Child Care
Child Tax Credits
Paid Family and Medical Leave
Universal PreKindergarten
Affordable Care Act Premium Tax Credits
Medicaid Home and Community Based Services
Raise State and Local Tax Deduction Cap
Medicare Hearing Benefits
Affordable Housing
Immigration Reform
Clean Energy and Climate Resilience
Climate Related Tax Breaks
Spending on Higher Education
A Corporate Minimum Tax on Large Corporations
A Tax Surcharge Targeting the Wealthiest Americans, over $25 million and over $10 million.

The New “McCarthyism”: Kevin McCarthy’s Ambitions To Be Speaker Require Being Subservient To Donald Trump!

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California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican Minority Leader, is desperate to become Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress (2023-2024).

This requires him being subservient to Donald Trump, and McCarthy will stop at nothing to promote himself, and in the process conduct himself as a charlatan, a man without common decency and any ethical principles!

McCarthy will do anything and everything to support Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, and the rest of the traitors and seditionists who were complicit in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, leading to the death of five people, and the physical and mental harm done to more than 140 US Capitol police!

McCarthy will lie incessantly through his teeth, displaying no sense of morality, and throws good people, such as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and a small band of other House Republicans, “under the bus”, so to speak!

He has just set a record for more than an eight and a half hours speech overnight on the floor of the House of Representatives, putting on a performance for the extremist right wingers in his caucus, and displaying every bit of poison and hate imaginable!

He calls for the defeat of the Build Back Better bill of President Joe Biden and the Democrats, which would improve the lives of millions of Americans!

There is only one conclusion about Kevin McCarthy!

That is, that Kevin McCarthy should be roundly condemned by all decent people as the leader of the new “McCarthyism”, possibly worse if successful in his quest than his namesake, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, seven decades ago!

Kevin McCarthy is willing to destroy anyone who stands in his way on his mission to become a demagogue, and if bad luck occurs, easily the worst, most dangerous Speaker of the House in 234 years of the history of the House of Representatives!

And finally, ironically, there are indications that the disgraced, twice impeached, two time popular vote loser of the Presidency, Donald Trump, is working to undermine McCarthy’s hope to be Speaker, and would wish Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who is even more unprincipled and dangerous, to become Speaker of the House in 2023!

Even if one is not “religious”, God Help Us! 🙁

Two Profiles In Courage: Liz Cheney And Adam Kinzinger Voting To Censure Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar!

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This author and blogger is not a fan of conservatism, and definitely not a fan of former Vice President Dick Cheney, or his daughter, Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

He is also not a big fan of Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, whose conservative views are not his idea of leadership.

But both of them, Cheney and Kinzinger, have shown they have principle and are true profiles in courage, who someday will have an historian write a book on their willingness to stand up to extremist Fascist rhetoric and the danger of Donald Trump!

Both are on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection, and both voted to impeach Trump after that event.

And both now have condemned Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, just about the most extreme member of the Republican Party, who put a anime cartoon on Twitter which portrayed the assassination of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a sword combat of Gosar with President Joe Biden.

This advocacy and portrayal of violence is not a laughing matter, and led to the censure of Gosar in the House of Representatives, with only Cheney and Kinzinger, of all Republicans, joining the Democratic majority to take such action, which has only occurred 23 previous times in the history of the lower chamber since 1789!

Gosar should be expelled from the House of Representatives, but that cannot happen unless there was a bipartisan vote of two thirds of the chamber, which will not happen.

But for Republicans to defend the advocacy of violence, and for Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to refuse to condemn Gosar’s action is an outrage that will cause much grief in the future, and particularly if the Republicans, due to gerrymandering, are able to regain control of the House of Representatives in the midterm Congressional Elections of 2022!

This whole situation reminds historians of the Congressional violence and advocacy of violence in the pre Civil War period, particularly in the decade of the 1850s!

Terrifying to think that Congress itself is becoming a battleground of extremism and violence, due to the extremism and danger of Donald Trump!

Right Wing Propaganda Attempts To Portray Joe Biden And Kamala Harris As Disasters, When Much Has Been Accomplished!

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Right Wing propaganda, whether the Republican Party, Fox News Channel, OANN, Newsmax, or various interest groups that promote domestic terrorism and white supremacy, is working incessantly to portray President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as disasters.

This is all designed to advance the cause of a Republican Congress and state government domination by partisan gerrymandering, as well as whitewash and avoiding responsibility for support of the “Big Lie” of Donald Trump and his criminal backers who incited the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on the US Capitol!

One would think that Donald Trump and Mike Pence accomplished so much in office that was positive for the American people and nation, when exactly the opposite is the truth!

Trump did great harm in so many areas of domestic and foreign policy, and the only “winner” was the extremely wealthy, who gained a massive tax cut which added greatly to the national debt, without improving the daily lives of the American people!

Mike Pence proved how much of a sycophant he was, a person supposedly “religious”, “devout”, “moral and ethical”, when he was simply a total hypocrite, with his promotion of hatred, division, and narrow mindedness. He had to be convinced by, of all people, former Vice President Dan Quayle, to follow the Constitution on January 6, 2021, and uphold the Electoral College vote that Joe Biden had won the Presidency.

Pence will go down in history as one of the absolutely worst, most disgraceful Vice Presidents in American history!

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has accomplished a great deal, including providing relief to the American economy through the American Rescue Plan, a total of $1.9 trillion in the spring of 2021. The Physical Infrastructure legislation, providing $1.2 trillion to rebuild roads, bridges, airports rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicle, is being signed into law today by President Biden.

Also, Biden has changed the harsh policy toward refugees promoted by Trump, and cracked down on the abuses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement toward innocent children.

Additionally, Biden returned America to the Paris Climate Accords, and reversed the action of Trump cutting down the Bears Ear National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and he restored protection of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Biden has taken strong action on vaccinations and masking, and brought about a commitment to combating the COVID 19 Pandemic, after Trump minimized the crisis and promoted false solutions. And Biden has not allowed renegade governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott to stop necessary action to protect the American people during this pandemic!

The “Build Back Better” Social Infrastructure legislation, held up by moderate Democrats, hopefully will be accomplished soon, as it should be, but with Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema or Arizona, and some in the House of Representatives causing problems, no certainty at this moment, but important for the future of both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the nation at large.

Biden withdrew US military forces from Afghanistan, an action that was promoted by Donald Trump, who wanted to remove them in May 2021, rather than the actual time frame of August 2021. It was a tough decision, but America had been in Afghanistan for 20 years, and most Americans knew it was time to leave.

The NATO nations and others have seen a massive change in American foreign policy by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, restoring our good relations with our allies.

Kamala Harris has been more in the background, but Vice Presidents historically have not been in the forefront so early in an administration, and if one looks back at Mike Pence, for instance, who recalls him playing a leading role in the first year of Donald Trump’s Presidency, or really ever?

This negative portrayal of Harris simply is the reaction of having a mixed race woman a heartbeat away from the Presidency, when she has excellent credentials, were she to have to assume the Presidency!

Attorney General Merrick Garland Starts Indictments Against January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrectionists!

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Finally, the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland have decided to start indictments against January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrectionists, with the first indictment being leveled against Trump advocate Stephen Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor.

All of the top people behind the conspiracy—including, among others, Mark Meadows, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Stephen Miller, Daniel Scavino, Jeffrey Clark, Bernard Kerik, Jason Miller, John Eastman, Nicholas Luna, John McEntee, and Kayleigh McEnany—will, in short order, face indictments if they refuse, as Bannon did, to ignore the January 6 House Committee subpoenas.

The survival of American democracy, and the need to insure that what happened on January 6, 2021, never happens again is urgent. This is particularly so, since, if the Republicans gain back the House of Representatives in 2022, and Kevin McCarthy becomes Speaker of the House, then the nation’s future is at stake, with authoritarian Fascism taking over with those who do not care about what is ethical, moral, or legitimate.

Republican Party: From Joseph McCarthy In The 1950s To Kevin McCarthy In 2021!

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The Republican Party has fallen from the time of such leaders as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and innumerable decent Republican Senators and Governors over the years!

But there has always been an ugly side to the Republican Party since World War II, characterized by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in the 1950s and now the disgraceful leadership of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California!

The first McCarthy set out to destroy the lives of Americans by labeling them “Reds” or “Pinkos”, and now the modern McCarthy, NOT a family member or relative, has set out to destroy any decency in the Republican Party by backing a criminal attempt of Donald Trump to come back to the Presidency, “by hook or by crook”, with emphasis on the latter, and by promoting the “Big Lie”!

Kevin McCarthy is willing to destroy any honest, decent Republican in his quest to be two heartbeats away from the Presidency, even though he personally condemned Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021 Insurrection at the US Capitol!

Joseph McCarthy was a horror and a villain in the 1950s, and now another McCarthy is a villain in the 2020s!

It is essential that Kevin McCarthy be required to testify in the House January 6 Committee investigation, and that his immoral, unethical behavior be called out, and that he should pay the price for undermining American democracy!

America survived the first McCarthy after nearly a five year nightmare, and America needs to survive the era of the modern demagogue, Kevin McCarthy!

Republicans Are Crazy, Voting Against Infrastructure, Attacking “Big Bird”, And Emphasizing “Masculinity”!

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The Republican Party is acting more crazy by the day, and are in the process, therefore, of self destruction!

For the vast majority of Republicans in Congress to vote against the Physical Infrastructure legislation that brings about needed roads, airports, bridges, rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicles is pure insanity, as their constituents want and need these projects, long overdue.

This is the first major overhaul since Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted the Interstate Highway system in the 1950s, and the earlier promotion of the transcontinental railroad system by Republican President Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s, both projects of common sense which advanced the American economy and way of life!

Also, to have lunatic, crazy Senator Ted Cruz, a traitor and seditionist on January 6, to attack “Big Bird” from Sesame Street for promoting vaccination of children 5-11, when Cruz himself has had the COVID 19 vaccinations, is totally an example of just how dangerous the Texas Senator is, and his suggestion that Texas might secede, and take with it, the space program, the oil industry, and military assets should lead to his immediate arrest and incarceration!

And Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, an original seditionist and traitor who demonstrated a pumped fist in support of the rioters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, has crazily suggested that American men need to assert their “Masculinity”, a sexist statement that will alienate millions of American women, as he suggests that women are being too assertive and independent in their attitudes of controlling their own destiny in American society. He says that “left wingers” are attacking manhood, and asserts that men are allowing video games and pornography to dominate their lives, rather than employment and controlling the women in their lives!

And Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, another traitor and seditionist, put an anime video on Twitter showing an attack on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and also on President Joe Biden. No reaction has come from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy!

Finally, The Physical Infrastructure Legislation Is Passed In The House Of Representatives With Bipartisan Vote!

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Finally, overnight, the House of Representatives passed the Physical Infrastructure bill that had passed the US Senate with a bipartisan vote of 69-30 in August.

And happily, there were 13 Republicans who supported the legislation in the House, making the legislation truly a bipartisan accomplishment, with a final vote of 228-206.

This is a major victory for Joe Biden and the Democrats, despite the tortuous delay of more than two months, and the $1.2 trillion of spending on roads, airports, bridges, rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicles will advance the American economy dramatically!

The nation desperately needed this legislation, and it will help the Democratic argument to keep them in the majority in the 2022 Midterm Congressional Elections a year from now!

However, with all of the excitement that this legislation engenders, it IS a fact that without the 13 Republicans, including a number who voted to impeach Donald Trump the second time, the legislation would NOT have passed, as 6 “Progressives” voted against it, including

Jamaal Bowman of New York
Cori Bush of Missouri
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan

The latter four have been called the “Squad”, and the first two have been considered to be additions to the group by the news media, and seemingly, have indicated they are glad to be part of the group.

Four of the 13 House Republicans who supported the legislation also supported impeachment of Donald Trump in January 2021:

Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (not running for reelection)
Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio (not running for reelection)
Fred Upton of Michigan
John Katko of New York

Even without the other nine Republicans, those four principled Republican House members who did the right thing on both impeachment and the infrastructure bill, basically saved the legislation, as with their votes alone, the legislation would have passed 219-215!

The present House of Representatives has 221 Democrats, and 213 Republicans, so there is a working majority of just three members, although the Democrats have eight more members than the Republicans.

Democrats Lost Because They Failed To Move Swiftly On Infrastructure Legislation

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It is not unusual for the party in the White House to lose in elections a year later, and particularly in the Virginia Gubernatorial race.

But the loss of Virginia to Republicans, and the extremely close vote in New Jersey, are a danger sign, a warning sign, to Democrats for the upcoming midterm 2022 elections, when the entire House of Representatives, one third of the US Senate, and 36 gubernatorial elections will take place a year from now.

Looking back, it was a mistake to hold the Physical Infrastructure bill hostage over the Social Infrastructure bill, as the Democrats could not show any actual accomplishment on their agenda.

The progressives can be blamed for this, sadly to say, but now it is urgent that action take place on both bills very soon, so that the Democrats have a record of what they are doing to improve the lives of the American people.

One must remember that Donald Trump and the Republicans took no action on infrastructure, and would not do so on social infrastructure.

So the Democrats need to be able to show they can produce results, and play hardball in the upcoming campaigns.

The nation’s future is at stake, so no time to be depressed, and instead time to move ahead aggressively!

Adam Kinzinger Not Running For Reelection, But Should Begin A Presidential Campaign For 2024

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This author and blogger is not in agreement with Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger on most issues, as he is a conservative in his views.

But Adam Kinzinger is an honorable man, with courage, guts, and principle, and has demonstrated it by the reality that he is one of a very small brand of Republicans in Congress who has voted to impeach Donald Trump, and has agreed to join the January 6, 2021 House Committee investigating the US Capitol Insurrection, and Donald Trump’s role in that tragedy!

His congressional district has been wiped out by reapportionment and gerrymandering in the Democratic dominated state of Illinois, but this should not stop him from running for President.

He has had 12 years in Congress by the time he retires, and has served in the US Airforce as a Lieutenant Colonel rank, and was engaged in both the Iraq War and Afghanistan War, so his credentials are top notch!

He is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, an important credential for anyone considering running for President.

Kinzinger needs to challenge Donald Trump or his lackeys, who bow to him, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, and innumerable others who kowtow to Donald Trump, and promote the “Big Lie”, that Trump won the Presidential Election of 2020.