The Everything 118th Congress Thread

[Larry]

I wanna see a CBO report. (Or a Biden talking point.)
 

What percentage of our current national debt, are due to tax cuts made AFTER Reagan's tax cuts?  

Edited May 16, 2023 by Larry

[bearrock]

2 hours ago, Larry said:

I wanna see a CBO report. (Or a Biden talking point.)
 

What percentage of our current national debt, are due to tax cuts made AFTER Reagan's tax cuts?  

 

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsible-for-the-increasing-debt-ratio/

 

Quote

The nation’s fiscal pictured changed in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan enacted the largest tax cut in U.S. history, reducing revenues by the equivalent of $19 trillion over a decade in today’s terms. Although Congress raised taxes in many of the subsequent years of the Reagan administration to claw back close to half the revenue loss, the equivalent of $10 trillion of the president’s 1981 tax cut remained.

 

Quote

The George W. Bush administration, empowered by a trifecta in 2001, enacted sweeping tax cuts that will have cost more than $8 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2023

 

Quote

President Donald Trump’s signature tax bill, enacted when Republicans gained control of the White House and both houses of Congress in 2017, will have cost roughly $1.7 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2023.

 

Quote

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) has also introduced legislation to make permanent President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, at a cost of roughly $2.6 trillion over the next decade.

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

She’s a peach.

 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[Larry]

2 hours ago, EmirOfShmo said:

 

 

And I bet a dozen police officers stood right there, witnessed that crime, and did nothing.  

 

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[Larry]

Just now, EmirOfShmo said:

 

 

The Hillary Campaign paid for the Steele dossier!  

 

 

[China]

Legislation to Mandate AM in Cars Is Introduced in Congress

 

There is some good news for AM for a change today. Bills have been introduced in both houses that would protect the presence of free AM radio in cars. The bills are being pushed by prominent members of both political parties and have backing from the chairwoman of the FCC.

 

The “AM for Every Vehicle Act” would direct federal regulators to require automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in their new vehicles at no additional charge. The National Association of Broadcasters welcomed the move, which is also backed by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.

 

Senators Ed Markey, a Democrat, and Ted Cruz, a Republican, are the headliners, but the sponsors also include Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Deb Fischer, Ben Ray Luján and J.D. Vance, as well as Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Bruce Westerman, Tom Kean Jr., Rob Menendez and Maria Gluesenkamp Perez.

 

The act would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a rule requiring automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in their vehicles without a separate or additional payment, fee or surcharge. It says AM should be clearly visible on the vehicle’s dashboard; and until the new standard would take effect, cars lacking AM radio receivers would have to be labeled as such for buyers.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[Larry]

But it's an unreasonable government interference in the free market, for the government to encourage electric.  Or better gas milage.  Them's socialism, there.  

[China]

Conspiracy theorists to address US House subcommittee, watchdog warns

 

Witnesses set to testify to Congress about the “weaponisation” of the US government on Thursday have links to far-right groups and a history of supporting conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccines and the January 6 insurrection, a congressional watchdog has warned.

 

In February, Republicans in the House of Representatives created a panel on what they say is the politicisation of the FBI and justice department against conservatives. Critics saw it as an attempt to entangle Joe Biden in spurious investigations ahead of next year’s election.

 

On Thursday the judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, an ally of former US president Donald Trump, will hold its latest hearing on Capitol Hill. Research by the Congressional Integrity Project, a group that monitors the Republican investigations, suggests that its witnesses will come armed with political grudges.

 

Among them is Stephen Friend, a former FBI special agent who claims to be an FBI “whistleblower” despite failing to receive federal whistleblower protections.

 

Last September, the project notes, Friend was suspended from the FBI after filing an official complaint alleging that the “politicised” bureau was using “overzealous” January 6 investigations to “harass conservative Americans”. He had already been declared absent without leave for refusing to participate in Swat raids against insurrection suspects.

 

The project adds: “Friend has a record of collaborating with Trump’s closest allies. He received payments and legal counsel, and even received a job, from a Maga group affiliated with former senior Trump administration official Russ Vought. Kash Patel sent Friend $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022, and gave Friend a job at a far-right thinktank.

 

“Friend has been celebrated in rightwing circles, especially among Maga pundits, and is poised to release a book with an introduction and foreword by two rightwing figures.”

 

Friend is also a regular contributor to an exposé-style blog run by “an early and prominent promoter” of the QAnon conspiracy theory and has suggested that Covid-19 vaccines were ineffective, with public health restrictions designed to engineer “societal changes”.

 

Witness Garret O’Boyle is a former FBI special agent who last year filed a complaint alleging that the FBI was exaggerating the threat of domestic terrorism. Soon after, he alleged that the FBI suspended him, claiming, “The FBI retaliated against me for being a whistleblower.”

 

O’Boyle is a prolific Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theorist, and once compared Covid-19 vaccine mandates to the Nazi regime. He signed on to a major federal lawsuit against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal employees and once referred to a subset of vaccinated individuals involved in an FBI investigation as “blind sheep”.

 

The project says O’Boyle has supported and publicly engaged with an “early and prominent” QAnon influencer known as Tracy Diaz, who has been banned from Patreon, Facebook and Twitter and is labeled as an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

 

O’Boyle is an election denier who has liked tweets claiming “two blatantly stolen elections”. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Looks like the circus is preparing for its next act

[EmirOfShmo]

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

[Larry]

33 minutes ago, EmirOfShmo said:

 

 

 

 

[China]

 

[China]

Ron Johnson insists he won't pocket $8.4 million from donors. But thanks to Ted Cruz, he could legally do exactly that.

 

• Sen. Ron Johnson has retroactively declared that his campaign owes him $8.4 million.
• He could now raise money from donors and give it directly to himself — but he insists he won't do it.
• That's due to a Supreme Court case won last year by Ted Cruz, who defended Johnson repaying himself.

 

Last May, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas successfully convinced the Supreme Court to strike down a federal campaign finance law that proponents argued was intended to prevent corruption.

 

Specifically, the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act placed a $250,000 cap on the amount of money that candidates could raise after their election to repay personal loans they had made to their campaign. 

 

Any additional money was considered to be a campaign contribution, not eligible to be repaid.

 

Supporters of that limit argued that it prevented candidates from soliciting donations to ultimately repay themselves. Without it, candidates could raise money with the full knowledge that it would end up in their own bank accounts.

 

But Cruz told Insider at the Capitol on Tuesday that the law discouraged self-funding candidates from running.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[Fan since a Fetus]

On 5/18/2023 at 1:46 PM, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

 

.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Fan since a Fetus

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

FBI revokes security clearances from Jim Jordan’s latest witnesses

 

As part of his crusade over government “weaponization,” Rep. Jim Jordan hasn’t had the best of luck. It was just a couple of months ago, for example, when the Ohio Republican pointed to FBI “whistleblowers” who weren’t actually whistleblowers, and who’d given behind-the-scenes testimony that was literally unbelievable.

 

This week, the far-right congressman’s troubles got noticeably worse. The New York Times reported overnight:

 

Quote

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has revoked the security clearances of three agents who either took part in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or later expressed views about it that placed into question their “allegiance to the United States,” the bureau said on Wednesday in a letter to congressional investigators.

 

And what, pray tell, does this have to do with Jordan? As it turns out, the House Judiciary Committee’s panel on government “weaponization” is holding a hearing this morning, and members are hearing from two FBI agents: Marcus Allen and Stephen Friend.

 

Allen and Friend are two of the agents whose security clearances were revoked in response to alleged misconduct.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by China

[LadySkinsFan]

And Kash Patel is giving at least one of them money. What's their problem, can't get a job flipping burgers like they recommend for everyone else?!

[Fan since a Fetus]

Sounds like they needed to pull themselves up by the bootstraps but decided welfare was the better option.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

9 hours ago, China said:

Legislation to Mandate AM in Cars Is Introduced in Congress

 

There is some good news for AM for a change today. Bills have been introduced in both houses that would protect the presence of free AM radio in cars. The bills are being pushed by prominent members of both political parties and have backing from the chairwoman of the FCC.

 

The “AM for Every Vehicle Act” would direct federal regulators to require automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in their new vehicles at no additional charge. The National Association of Broadcasters welcomed the move, which is also backed by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.

 

Senators Ed Markey, a Democrat, and Ted Cruz, a Republican, are the headliners, but the sponsors also include Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Deb Fischer, Ben Ray Luján and J.D. Vance, as well as Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Bruce Westerman, Tom Kean Jr., Rob Menendez and Maria Gluesenkamp Perez.

 

The act would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue a rule requiring automakers to maintain AM broadcast radio in their vehicles without a separate or additional payment, fee or surcharge. It says AM should be clearly visible on the vehicle’s dashboard; and until the new standard would take effect, cars lacking AM radio receivers would have to be labeled as such for buyers.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

They shoulda done this with the cassette tape…. 

[skinsmarydu]

11 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

They shoulda done this with the cassette tape…. 

My sports talk radio station is FM.  

[Fergasun]

ZOMG... found the funniest thing.  Deepfakes FTW.  Spoiler tags due to maybe NSFW?

 

 

I was trying to embed just the video Tweet... 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Fergasun
Broken link at first... think Infixed it...

[Captain Wiggles]

Is that Jeff Jarrett? 🤠

 

 

[China]

More wasting of time and money by Congress and the GOP "investigation" party.

 

Ted Cruz Launches Senate Probe Into Bud Light's Ad With Dylan Mulvaney

 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this week opened a Senate investigation into his allegations that Anheuser-Busch markets Bud Light to underage consumers in its ad featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

 

In a letter to Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, Cruz and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also asked the beer industry trade group Beer Institute, which Whitworth chairs, to conduct its own investigation. Or the company could say it’s sorry for any infraction and publicly disassociate from Mulvaney to avoid further inquiry, the senators wrote, making their actions appear more like a publicity stunt.

 

“We would urge you, in your capacity at Anheuser-Busch, to avoid a lengthy investigation by the Beer Institute by instead having Anheuser-Busch publicly sever its relationship with Dylan Mulvaney, publicly apologize to the American people for marketing alcoholic beverages to minors, and direct Dylan Mulvaney to remove any Anheuser-Busch content from his social media platforms.” (The letter repeatedly misgenders Mulvaney, who uses she-they pronouns.)

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

I hope the lawyers at Anheuser-Busch find a creative way to tell Cruz to go **** himself.