Tag Archives: Congress

Who Is Actually In Charge?

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On Monday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article asking the question, “Who Runs the Executive Branch?” During the past four years, that was a very appropriate question, but it is still an appropriate question.

The article reports:

Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is the executive branch. But over the years, Congress has tried to limit the power of the President by establishing a number of “independent” agencies–the SEC, the FDIC, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and so on. In many cases, Congress has purported to limit the President’s ability to fire employees of those “independent” agencies, even though they are part of the executive branch and nominally under his control.

Democrats like this arrangement, since the agencies are staffed overwhelmingly by Democrats. They have served to undermine every Republican president of the last generation. Until now, Republican Presidents have generally put up with the fact that they do not effectively control the executive branch, but President Trump has moved to assert his proper constitutional authority in several ways.

Most notably, in February he issued an executive order which we wrote about here. It asserted, in several ways, his authority over the “independent” agencies. He has also fired a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve for cause, and, more importantly, he has fired other executive branch officials without cause, as should be his prerogative under Article II.

This has given rise to the vitally important case of Slaughter v. Trump. Rebecca Slaughter was a Federal Trade Commissioner. President Trump fired her without asserting any “cause,” even though the Federal Trade Commission Act says that a Commissioner can be removed by the President only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The administration takes the position–correctly, I think–that this limitation on the President’s control of the executive branch is unconstitutional.

The article concludes:

What is being teed up here is, ultimately, an epic battle between Congress and the President. Democrats are on the side of Congress, mostly because Congress has, in turn, ceded power to the Administrative State, which is overwhelmingly Democratic but which, as Professor Philip Hamburger among others has persuasively argued, is essentially unconstitutional. Republicans are now mostly on the President’s side, because the current President is a Republican, and because they have seen how the Administrative State has become a permanent and unaccountable fourth branch of government.

Of all the battles to which the Trump administration has given rise, this one may, in the end, be the most important.

The decision on this matter will determine whether or not we go back to the Republic our Founding Fathers created–do the checks and balances put in place in our Constitution still apply?

Do We Have A Congress Or A Club?

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A club is a group of friends brought together by a single interest or purpose. Joining a club can be advantageous to its members–improving skills in a certain area such as sewing, gardening, or even investing. Generally speaking a club wants to grow, and a club will stand behind its members when necessary. The members of a club will also work to protect the club from anything that might negatively impact the power or prestige of the club.

The American Congress (according to the U.S. Constitution) is responsible for making laws and controlling the purse strings. It is elected by the people to represent the people. There are also committees in Congress to investigate various matters and make recommendations to the Justice Department when applicable.

Lately, Congressional investigations have become partisan shouting matches where activities that are illegal are exposed and ignored. It is as if the participants are participating in a play. They are willing to list offenses, but not willing to hold any of the “club members” accountable.

Where are the consequences for lying about the Russia Hoax? Where are the consequences for the January 6th Committee destroying evidence (oh, that’s right–they were pardoned by the autopen)? Where were the consequences for placing classified material on an unsecured server (actually that was the Justice Department)?

It is becoming obvious that President Biden was not running the country for the past four years. Who was? Does anyone care who was? If Congress investigates, will they put on a show–shouting and accusing each other of being partisan–or will there be consequences for the lie perpetuated on the American people for four years? Didn’t anyone notice the lack of cabinet meetings? Joe Biden held just nine full Cabinet meetings during his entire term. Who was at those meetings? The last meeting was run by Jill Biden. Did she even have the security clearances to be included?  Where was the 25th Amendment?

William F. Buckley, Jr., once said, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.” I feel that way about Congress.

Getting Rid Of The Department Of Education

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On Friday, Just the News reported that Ohio Republican Representative Michael Rulli will introduce legislation to allow President Trump to shutter the Department of Education through Congress. I can’t imagine that legislation going anywhere, but it’s a great idea.

The article reports:

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin taking steps to close the department. However, dismantling a federal agency requires an act of Congress.

Rulli told Fox News Digital Thursday that he would be introducing the legislation soon but didn’t specify when. 

He said his legislation would allow funding for resources for children with special needs, Title I programs and Pell Grants to come from other federal departments.

A website called Intellectual Takeout reported the following in 2019:

Federal “Highly Qualified Teacher” mandates. Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. Smaller learning communities. Improving Teacher Quality State Grants. Reading First. Early Reading First. The dozens of other federal programs authorized via No Child Left Behind. School Improvement Grants. Race to the Top. Common Core.

All of that has been just since 2000. Over those past two decades, while federal policymakers were busy enacting new federal laws, creating mandates for local school leaders, and increasing the Department of Education’s budget from $38 billion in 2000 (unadjusted for inflation) to roughly $70 billion today, the math and reading performance of American high school students remained completely flat. That is to say, stagnant.

The U.S. is now above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average in reading, but alas, not because U.S. reading performance has improved. Rather, other countries have seen declines in reading achievement, despite increases in education spending.

In mathematics, however, U.S. performance has steadily declined over the past two decades.

Those are the findings from the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA exams, released last week.

It seems that the formation of the Department of Education has not resulted in the success of American students.

The article at Intellectual Takeout concludes:

Federal government efforts to improve education have been dismal. Even if there were a constitutional basis for its involvement – which there isn’t – the federal government is simply ill-positioned to determine what education policies will best serve the diverse local communities across our vast nation.

The sooner we can acknowledge that improvements will not come from Washington, the sooner we’re likely to see students flourishing in learning environments that reflect their unique needs and desires.

It really is time to get rid of the Department of Education. They have not fulfilled their purpose, and they are simply a financial drain on the American taxpayer.

Equal Treatment Of Accused Offenders

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On Friday, The New York Post reported:

Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene called on Congress Thursday to release the names of current and former members on a secret list of lawmakers that have used taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims. 

“Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on X.

“Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he added. 

Massie’s suggestion was quickly endorsed by Greene (R-Ga.).

…“Taxpayers should have never had to pay for that. Along with all the other garbage they should not have to pay for,” she argued. 

Since 1997, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights has paid out more than $17 million in public money to settle nearly 300 cases of workplace disputes at the US Capitol – including claims related to sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation and pay disputes. 

The obscure office does not release the identities of those have reached settlements and does not break down how much of the money disbursed over the last 27 years is specifically related to sexual harassment claims. 

This is in response to making public the ethics committee report on Matt Gaetz. The report was filled with unproven allegations with evidence so flimsy that even the Merrick Garland politicized Department of Justice chose not to pursue the case.

The article concludes:

“Yes. Taxpayers deserve to know,” former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) tweeted in support of Massie.

The demands from Massie and Greene follow the release of a House Ethics Committee report into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). 

In the aftermath of the controversial release of the report, which came after Gaetz resigned from Congress, the Florida Republican floated the idea of briefly returning to Capitol Hill for the sole purpose of exposing those on the secret list.

“Someone suggested the following plan to me,” Gaetz wrote on X last week. “1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress 2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…) 3. Take the oath 4. File a privileged motion to expose every ‘me too’ settlement paid using public funds (even of former members) 5. Resign and start my @OANN program at 9pm EST on January 6, 2025.”

Politico reported last week that some GOP lawmakers are already passing around a draft resolution that would do just that. 

If you are willing to publish unfounded accusations against one Congress member, you should be willing to publish unfounded accusations against all Congress members.

FEMA Isn’t Really Broke

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FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) isn’t really out of money. According to a Real Clear Investigations article posted on Sunday, FEMA has billions of dollars leftover from previous disasters.

The article reports:

While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades.

An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.” 

Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier.

Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the DRF (Disaster Relief Fund).”

These “unliquidated obligations” reflect the complex federal budgeting processes. Safeguards are important so that FEMA funding doesn’t become a slush fund that the agency can spend however it chooses, budget experts said, but the inability to tap unspent appropriations from long-ago crises complicates the agency’s ability to respond to immediate disasters.

The article concludes:

Portnoy (Jeremy Portnoy of OpenTheBooks, a nonpartisan watchdog of government spending) first called attention to FEMA’s unspent funds in conversations with RealClearInvestigations on Sept. 8. He said it seems bizarre that federal officials would have a pot substantial enough to cover a projected shortfall while adding billions to the Disaster Relief Fund, but fail to draw on it.

“There is all that money just sitting there,” Portnoy said. “They’re saying they don’t have enough money but when you juxtapose it with the more than $8 billion, well, why not use that right now in Florida and other places?”

The “unliquidated obligations” have stayed on FEMA’s books because it “subjectively” extended the deadlines on some projects. The deadline for 2012’s Superstorm Sandy has been extended to 2026. 

“As a result, the potential risk for fraud, waste, and abuse increases the longer a program remains open,” a DHS report concluded.

Although DHS could probably reach into such unliquidated obligations to help restore order in areas devastated by Helene, experts note that bureaucracies are loath to resort to such tactics when budget negotiations are near, as they are when the fiscal year ends this month.

“The bridges that have been washed out, that’s not something FEMA will have to pay tomorrow,” Cavanaugh said. 

Please follow the link to the article for further details. This is outrageous. The bureaucracy grows and covers its tracks, and the taxpayers pay the price.

Taking Action Where It Is Needed

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On Saturday, The Gateway Pundit reported that Representative Nancy Mace has introduced a bill to terminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program (SSP). I don’t want people to be homeless, but we can’t afford to feed and house all of the refugees of the world at the expense of our own citizens.

The article reports:

Mace blasted the program as a colossal misuse of taxpayer dollars that prioritizes illegal immigrants over American disaster victims, and her bill proposes redirecting all unspent SSP funds to aid Americans struggling to recover from natural disasters like Hurricane Helene.

“It’s unacceptable for Americans to grapple with the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Helene while the federal government remains fixated on spending hundreds of millions on a program sheltering illegal immigrants instead of helping our own citizens,” said Representative Nancy Mace.

“Kamala Harris and Alejandro Mayorkas have turned FEMA into a migrant resettlement agency. It’s time to end this mess.”

This is a screenshot of part of the article:

On Sunday Hot Air posted an article that includes a video of two Hispanics explaining how they have been staying in a nice hotel since July with all of their needs being met without being required to work. That is not good for them, and that is not good for America. Someone coming here to work is very different from someone coming here simply to live in luxury at other people’s expense.

The article at The Gateway Pundit concludes:

For the second year in a row, FEMA has been forced to implement Immediate Needs Funding, which puts long-term recovery projects on hold due to a severe shortage of Disaster Relief Funds (DRF).

This shortage, however, has been self-inflicted. FEMA’s own spending choices, including over $1 billion used to house and assist illegal immigrants, have drained its resources while Americans suffer in the aftermath of devastating natural disasters.

Despite FEMA’s claims that their hands are tied, the reality is clear: the agency is choosing to divert critical funds away from disaster-stricken Americans to support the Biden administration’s open-border policies.

FEMA’s actions betray their mission and prioritize political agendas over the well-being of American citizens.

As Hurricane Helene victims continue to wait for meaningful aid, Congresswoman Mace’s bill offers a solution that puts Americans first. It’s time for FEMA and the Biden administration to stop the lies and start prioritizing the needs of their own citizens.

I hope this bill gets passed quickly. Unfortunately the hurricane season is not over.

Foreign Election Interference On Display

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A lot of powerful people have a lot invested in the Ukraine-Russian war. The military-industrial complex in America is selling weapons faster than they can make them. That is probably the most successful sector of the economy under President Biden. No wonder the President does not want the war to end. How much money is being laundered through Ukraine and kicked back to Zelensky, Biden and members of Congress?

In October 2023, Breitbart reported that America was blocking peace in Ukraine:

Schröder’s (Gerhard Schröder, who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005) criticism was not limited to the Biden administration, with the ex-chancellor saying that both French President Emmanuel Macron and his successor as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz need to do more to lobby for the cause of peace, saying that the war is “not just an American matter but above all a European matter.”

He argued that rather than trying to come up with solutions to end the war, Western leaders seem to be more interested in the question of how to supply Ukraine with more weapons, which the former German chancellor said has been to the “delight of the American and German arms industries.”

“Why can’t support for Ukraine be combined with an offer to talk to Russia?” Schröder questioned. “The arms deliveries are not a solution for eternity. But no one wants to talk. Everyone is sitting in trenches. How many more people have to die? It’s a bit like the Middle East. Who are the victims on one side and on the other? Poor people who lose their children. None of the people who matter are moving.”

On Monday, Townhall reported:

Greg Price shared a photo of Zelensky touring an ammunition factory, as well as a screenshot of part of an interview that the foreign leader did with The New Yorker. 

Zelensky and the interviewer were talking about Trump, and comments he’s made about the war in Ukraine, but then Vance also came up. “Apart from Trump’s own reluctance to talk about Ukrainian victory, he has chosen J. D. Vance as his Vice-Presidential candidate,” the interviewer said, which prompted Zelensky to claim Vance “is too radical.” He even cut the interviewer off to continue to take issue with Vance.

Beyond the screenshotted portion, Zelensky also went after to Vance for engaging in what he called “sloganeering.” 

“For us, these are dangerous signals, coming as they do from a potential Vice-President,” Zelensky said as part of his response to another question, “What does it mean for Ukraine that people with such ideas and slogans are rising to power?”

Zelensky was flying around the country at taxpayer expense into a swing state. This is foreign election interference. I wish we had some Republicans with spines.

Have We Considered Prayer?

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Author: Pastor Daimon – CCTA Chairman

Once upon a time, there was a group of men that gathered together in the “Newfoundland” for the purpose of forming a new nation as they were escaping a tyrannical King in their “mother land.” One of their most desired freedoms to gain was the “freedom of religion,” the freedom to assemble together as a community of people who deeply believed in the LORD God our Creator. With every gathering, there was an underlying, uniformed thought among each of our founding fathers, and that thought led to an automatic action in the way of prayer at the beginning of these gatherings and assemblies. This internal, intense urge to pray was so instinctive, it was as though there was a mandate place upon them by their very own hearts to petition our Heavenly Father to guide them, intervene in every discussion, and infuse them with the wisdom to carry forth the vision for this new settlement that began with “Thirteen Colonies” and eventually became the United States of America.

These brave pilgrims enlisted the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, through the practice of prayer to speak to their hearts and minds that the vision would be clear, that their purpose would be focused, and that they would obtain complete and total victory in gaining their freedom and maintaining this freedom to establish a more perfect union. While fighting in battles against the British, these soldiers had wives and families who carried the mantle of prayer as well. We call them “prayer warriors,” better known as “intercessors” in prayer. These first settlers lived a lifestyle of prayer so much so that it was as though the LORD God was a family member living amongst them. Well, He actually was due to the fact that faith in Jesus Christ makes God our father by the “new birth” and adoption of His Spirit. Therefore, “Abba” Father was always present with these faith believing settlers and they knew it. They knew that without Him and His input, they could do nothing. But with God, all things are possible, all things are possible to them that believe, and they could do all things through Christ who strengthens them.

This nation was founded with the principles of the Scripture in mind and prayer as the engine to build properly these principles into the dynamic documents that are found to be the most powerful of all to govern a nation. Through the use of prayer, they confidently made their requests known unto God, being certain that His ears were open to their prayers, and He would hear them, forgive their sins, and heal the land. Prayer is tightly linked to God’s Providence over a nation when that nation yields to Him in all reverence. Our United States of America Founding Fathers understood this and sprinkled the inclusion of prayer and worship throughout our founding documents. They understood that repentance and prayer were as essential to live as breathing is to sustaining life, and therefore made them an essential part of the opening activities of the day, every day, in the House of Congress; that every Congressional session was to open with prayer.

The question remains, “Have we considered prayer?” “If My people, who are called by My name, would humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways (repent), then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (nation)!” (II Chronicles 7:14)

Preventing Voter Fraud Before It Happens

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On Wednesday, The Federalist reported that Arizona has found 100,000 non- citizens on its voting rolls.

The article reports:

In Arizona, voters need to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in statewide elections. Those who do not provide proof are registered as “federal-only” voters, which allows them to cast a ballot only in federal elections. But the state says it discovered nearly 100,000 voters on the rolls who did not provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote but were nonetheless tagged as eligible to vote in both state and federal elections.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer flagged an “erroneous voter registration record” to Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs on Sept. 7. A green card holder who, as a noncitizen, is legally prohibited from voting, had ended up on the voter rolls as a full-ballot voter, according to VoteBeat.

Why are non-citizens being allowed to vote in federal elections?

According to ballotpedia:

…in 1996, the U.S. Congress passed a federal immigration enforcement bill called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA). Section 611 of IIRAIRA criminalized noncitizen voting in federal elections, but the law did not explicitly prohibit noncitizens from voting in state or local elections in accordance with state constitutions and local ordinances.

…In 2018, North Dakota became the first of several states to ban noncitizen voting by changing their constitutions. North Dakotans for Citizen Voting, the group that sponsored Measure 2, supported the ballot measure in posts on its website

The Federalist reports:

Hobbs says her team “identified and fixed an administrative error that originated in 2004, and affects longtime residents who received a driver’s license before 1996” but that “out of an abundance of caution, [the secretary of state’s office and the motor vehicle division] will be implementing an independent audit to ensure that MVD systems are functioning as necessary to support voter registration.”

One hundred thousand votes are enough to make a difference in an election. All states need to clean up their voter rolls.

Is Anyone In Washington Ever Held Accountable?

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On Monday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the Congressional investigation into the Biden family finances.

The article reports:

The GOP-led House committees who have been investigating the Biden family shook their fist at the sky on Monday, announcing in a 291-page report that the president engaged in impeachable conduct by helping to enrich his family with millions of dollars through various business schemes to trade on the family name – and then defrauded voters by lying to cover it up, Just the News reports.

The House Oversight, Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees said they believe the evidence from their nine-month investigation establishes that Biden abused his office and violated his oaths under the Constitution, according to the 291-page report reviewed by Just the News. 

Obviously this would have been infinitely more helpful even a few months ago when there was time for the GOP-controlled House to take action (particularly before the DOJ concluded that Biden is too senile to prosecute), but hey – better late than never.

The article concludes:

According to Just the News:

The committee cited evidence that Biden “actively participated” in an influence-peddling conspiracy by attending dinners with his family’s foreign associates and speaking to them over the phone. These interactions were documented by email evidence and testimony from several of Hunter Biden’s ex-business partners, including Devon Archer and Jason Galanis.

The committees also said evidence shows Hunter Biden used his father’s official position as vice president to “garner favorable outcomes in foreign business dealings and legal proceedings.”

Beyond Biden’s conduct as vice president, the report argued the Justice Department during his presidency deviated from normal practices in order to provide favorable treatment to Hunter Biden, throwing up roadblocks in the investigation and preventing attorneys from pursuing certain avenues of inquiry, as two IRS whistleblowers testified to the House Ways and Means Committee. -Just the News

The report also alleges that Biden engaged in a coverup by lying about he and his family’s conduct.

“President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift,” the committees wrote. “In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family.“

As JTN notes, the report is unlikely to result in a formal impeachment since Biden has stepped out of the 2024 race and is coasting towards January 2025 as the lamest of ducks.

I don’t think impeachment is reasonable at all–I think when you look at the timeline–the continuous breaking the law for years–many family members belong in jail.

I Hate To Discriminate On The Basis Of Age, But…

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On Sunday, Politico reported that New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell Jr.is back in the hospital after returning home briefly after a three-week stay in the hospital. Representative Pascrell is 87 years old. Why is he still in Congress?

Statista has a graph on its website showing the mean age of Congress. Here is the chart:

Mean age of Members of Congress in the United States from 2009 to 2023

According to usafacts.org , only 17.3 percent of America’s population is age 65 or older and 18.9 percent is ages 50 to 64. To be fully representative, the age of Congress needs to move down to somewhere between 50 and 60 to be truly representative.

Representative Pascrell will probably get re-elected and may be in attendance for at least some of the House of Representatives activities, but wouldn’t it be wise for the voters of New Jersey to find someone a bit younger?

 

Big Brother Is Watching ALL Of Us!

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On Wednesday, Racket News posted an article about the government surveillance of former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Congresswoman Gabbard left the Democrat party in late 2022.

The article reports:

Tuesday night, while self-styled Democratic nominee Kamala Harris pledged to defend “freedom, compassion, and the rule of law” to cheers in Philadelphia, Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard described being tracked by teams of government agents in a surveillance regime more reminiscent of East Germany than a free country. Whistleblowing Air Marshals told Uncover DC Gabbard was singled out as a terror threat under the so-called “Quiet Skies” program, and the former presidential candidate says she noticed.

“The whistleblowers’ account matches my experience,” says Gabbard. “Everything lines up to the day.”

This story began two weeks ago, when the former Hawaii congresswoman returned home after a short trip abroad. In airport after airport, she and her husband Abraham Williams encountered obstacles. First on a flight from Rome to Dallas, then a connecting flight to Austin, and later on different flights for both to cities like Nashville, Orlando, and Atlanta, their boarding passes were marked with the “SSSS” designation, which stands for “Secondary Security Screening Selection.” The “Quad-S” marker is often a sign the traveler has been put on a threat list, and Gabbard and Williams were forced into extensive “random” searches lasting as long as 45 minutes.

“It happened every time I boarded,” says Gabbard. The Iraq war veteran and current Army reservist tends to pack light, but no matter.

“I’ve got a couple of blazers in there, and they’re squeezing every inch of the entire collar, every inch of the sleeves, every inch of the edging of the blazers,” she says. “They’re squeezing or padding down underwear, bras, workout clothes, every inch of every piece of clothing.” Agents unzipped the lining inside the roller board of her suitcase, patting down every inch inside the liner. Gabbard was asked to take every piece of electronics out and turn each on, including her military phone and computer.

That was the other strange thing. “I use my military ID to get through security sometimes,” says Gabbard, who among other things traveled to her reservist base in Oklahoma during this period. Once, she was unable to get through security with military ID. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent saw the “SSSS” marker. “The TSA agent said, ‘Why are you Quad-S? You’re in the military,’” explains Gabbard. “And I said, ‘That’s exactly what I’m wondering.’

Please follow the link above to read the rest of the article. What has happened to her is chilling, particularly since she was a sitting Congresswoman and has a military ID. This could happen to any one of us who speaks out against the Biden administration.

Remove The Income Tax On Social Security? Horrors!

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President Trump has suggested that he would like to remove the income tax on Social Security income. Let’s look at the history of taxing Social Security income.

The first time Social Security benefits were subject to federal income taxes was after the passage of the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act, starting in 1984. That law made 50 percent of Social Security benefits taxable for recipients with incomes above $25,000 for an individual and $32,000 for married couples filing jointly. To provide some perspective, $30,000 in 1984 would be approximately $91,000 today. The people supporting the new tax claimed that it would only tax the rich (a claim that is always made when taxes are increased–a claim that was made in 1913 when the personal income tax was introduced).

In 1993, more taxes were placed on Social Security income. A second tier of taxation was introduced under the Clinton administration. Using the same formula as above — i.e., MAGI plus one-half of benefits — single filers and couples filing jointly with more than $34,000 and $44,000, respectively, will be subjected to this second tier. This new tier allows up to 85% of Social Security benefits to be taxed at the federal ordinary income tax rate. The $44,000 in 1993 would be equal to about $96,000 in today’s dollars. These rates have never been adjusted for inflation, so the tax originally intended for ‘the rich’ impacts the middle class. Unfortunately, that is the way it always works.

Now, let’s look at how taxing Social Security has impacted the federal deficit.

In the first year Social Security was taxed, the federal deficit actually went down. After that, Congress simply concluded that they had more money to spend and spent it. When the second taxation of Social Security happened, it coincided with Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America–a tax plan that actually did lower the deficit for a number of years.

Taxing or not taxing Social Security is really NOT the issue. Until the government learns to spend less, the deficits will grow. The problem with asking the government to spend less is that in Washington, control of money equals power. The more money you control, the more powerful you are. It’s the spending–not the income. The only difference not taxing Social Security will make is to give senior citizens more spending power, which might in the long run help the economy.

Is This Surprising To Anyone?

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On Saturday, The Daily Caller posted an article about some mega-donors to Democrat campaign coffers. If you ever doubted ‘follow the money,’ this might change your mind.

The article reports:

The U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer and its top executive have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democrats in recent years.

Stella Li, a top executive for BYD Americas, and the company itself have given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democratic candidates and organizations in California and beyond over the past decade, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of federal and state political spending records. Based in China, BYD is the biggest EV producer in the world, and Congress moved in January to ban the Pentagon from buying its batteries due to security risks, according to Bloomberg News.

Why are they giving money to Democrats rather than Republicans? That is something to think about.

The article continues:

For example, BYD and Li gave more than $40,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) between 2020 and 2023, according to the DCNF’s review of political spending records. The company and Li have also poured more than $30,000 into organizations boosting President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection effort to date.

The article concludes:

BYD is one of the biggest EV manufacturers in the world, though its Americas subsidiary focuses specifically on electric trucks, forklifts, and buses, according to its website. The company is reportedly examining options for penetrating the U.S. EV market by way of Mexico, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently-finalized tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles may end up benefiting BYD USA in the long-term, according to analysis by HEATMAP, a climate-focused publication.

The company has expanded its presence around the world in recent years under the “impetus” of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to a 2018 paper published in Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research. The BRI is a $1 trillion Chinese government effort to build infrastructure projects and accrue economic influence in other countries that is “widely recognized as an economic power play that could challenge U.S. influence geopolitically,” according to the Jamestown Foundation.

Additionally, BYD is touted in several articles posted to an official Chinese government website called “Belt and Road Portal.”

Moreover, Congress has specifically flagged the company in two separate National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA). The 2020 NDAA contained a provision that banned public funds going to boost China-linked transportation companies like and including BYD, according to The Washington Post, and the NDAA that passed in December 2023 prohibits the Pentagon from buying batteries made by BYD and five other Chinese companies starting in 2027, according to Bloomberg.

The offices of Newsom, Ma, de Leon, BYD USA, the DNC, the California Democratic Party, ActBlue, and the Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Anotovich could not be reached for comment, and Villaraigosa’s current employer did not respond to a request for comment on his behalf, nor did the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, on which Chau now sits.

Politicians need to start wearing patches on their jackets like race car drivers so that we know who is sponsoring them.

Exactly What Is The Republican Platform?

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The Republican Platform has been approved by the Republican Party. The Democrat Platform is 80 pages long, the Republican Platform is considerably shorter.

On article posted at Townhall on June 16th lists the 20 principles of the Republican platform:

1. Seal The Border, And Stop The Migrant Invasion

2. Carry Out The Largest Deportation Operation In American History

3. End Inflation, And Make America Affordable Again

4. Make America The Dominant Energy Producer In The World, By Far!

5. Stop Outsourcing, And Turn The United States Into A Manufacturing Superpower

6. Large Tax Cuts For Workers, And No Tax On Tips!

7. Defend Our Constitution, Our Bill Of Rights, And Our Fundamental Freedoms, Including Freedom Of Speech, Freedom Of Religion, And The Right To Keep And Bear Arms

8. Prevent World War Three, Restore Peace In Europe And In The Middle East, And Build A Great Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield Over Our Entire Country — All Made In America

9. End The Weaponization Of Government Against The American People

10. Stop The Migrant Crime Epidemic, Demolish The Foreign Drug Cartels, Crush Gang Violence, And Lock Up Violent Offenders

11. Rebuild Our Cities, Including Washington DC, Making Them Safe, Clean, And Beautiful Again.

12. Strengthen And Modernize Our Military, Making It, Without Question, The Strongest And Most Powerful In The World

13. Keep The U.S. Dollar As The World’s Reserve Currency

14. Fight For And Protect Social Security And Medicare With No Cuts, Including No Changes To The Retirement Age

15. Cancel The Electric Vehicle Mandate And Cut Costly And Burdensome Regulations

16. Cut Federal Funding For Any School Pushing Critical Race Theory, Radical Gender Ideology, And Other Inappropriate Racial, Sexual, Or Political Content On Our Children

17. Keep Men Out Of Women’s Sports

18. Deport Pro-Hamas Radicals And Make Our College Campuses Safe And Patriotic Again

19.  Secure Our Elections, Including Same Day Voting, Voter Identification, Paper Ballots, And Proof Of Citizenship

20. Unite Our Country By Bringing It To New and Record Levels of Success.”

That’s a pretty tall order, but remember, President Trump did a lot of those things during his first term–he sealed much of the border (despite foot dragging from Congress), he kept inflation down, he made America energy independent which deprived Russia and Iran of the money to make war and fund terrorism, and he supported law enforcement. I suspect he will be able to keep most of the promises in that platform.

Your Vote Will Determine Your Taxes

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On Monday, PJ Media posted an article detailing changes they want to make in America’s tax code if President Biden is re-elected.

The article reports:

“The main goal here is this can’t just be a debate about the 2017 tax cuts,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said, completely unshy about the threat. He told Bloomberg last week, “This is going to be Tax Armageddon.”

Prepare for the end of the world.

Federal income tax revenues jumped nearly $100 billion in the first year after Trump’s signature tax cuts went into effect and almost another $40 billion in 2019. The stupid and unnecessary COVID-19 lockdowns derailed that growth in 2020. Since then, revenues have continued to surge. Much of that “growth” was an illusion created by inflation, however, and the rest was due to increased taxes on energy and corporations which, of course, got passed on to consumers. 

Reminder: Corporations don’t pay taxes; they collect them.

But Democrats are just getting started. The tax man never merely cometh for “the rich.”

Washington has a spending problem, and Democrats aren’t shy about how to solve it: tax us poor bastards back to the Stone Age.

There are two issues at play here. 

The first is that Democrats have a desperate need to wipe out the Trump tax cuts because Orange Man Bad, although they hide it under the usual guise of “taxing the rich.” 

…The second issue is the Democrats’ longstanding desire to impose an unconstitutional wealth tax.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Wa.) chairs the Finance Committee and last Thursday “revived his pitch to tax the appreciation of assets for those with at least $100 million in income,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Wyden plans to run through the door on wealth taxes that the Supreme Court left open Thursday in its lamentable decision in Moore v. U.S.”

Please note that in the third paragraph I quoted, the article reported that tax revenues jumped after President Trump cut taxes, so why do the Democrats want to raise taxes? Because in Washington, the more money you control, the more powerful you are. Who cares about the American taxpayer or reducing the deficit when you can have power?

If the Democrats take Congress or the Presidency, we can expect at least a serous attempt at increased taxes. Remember the Laffer Curve.

Crime In America

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Recently Daniel Greenfield posted an article about crime in America. It wasn’t an article about the crime rate or an article about statistics–it was an article about who gets arrested and charged with a crime.

The article reports:

On Wednesday, three teens were arrested for riding e-scooters over an LGBTQ ‘Pride’ mural painted on a crosswalk in Spokane, Washington. One of the teens was charged with a first degree felony and bail was set at $15,000.

On Saturday, in another Washington thousands of miles away, Hamas supporters rioted near the White House. They threw bottles at a park ranger and vandalized national monuments with graffiti reading “Death to America”. Islamic terrorist supporters waved banners and held up signs in support of Hamas. One man in a Hamas headband brandished a bloody Biden mask.

Two Park Police officers were injured in the pro-Hamas violence, but not one arrest was made.

Not a single arrest for the assault on a federal employee (1-20 years in prison), the vandalism of national monuments (10 years in prison) or the support for a terrorist organization (20 years in prison). If only they had done some donuts on a ’Pride’ mural, they might be in jail now.

I wonder how the January 6th political prisoners feel about this.

The double standard is becoming so obvious that even low-information voters are becoming aware that we are dangerously close to a police state.

The article concludes:

Crimes in free countries primarily punish assaults on property and persons while in totalitarian states they primarily punish crimes against the state. Pro-crime policies effectively decriminalized drug offenses, shoplifting and even some violent assaults because punishing crimes against persons and property was seen as upholding a racist and capitalist system.

But the police were never going to be truly defunded and crime was never going to go away. Instead in the last 5 years, crime has come to be defined as a political and social offense, an act of hate, a threat to democracy and an insult to the values and views of the ruling elite.

America’s justice system is being replaced by kangaroo courts and a banana republic system that selectively arrests, prosecutes and convicts political opponents for opposing the regime.

Whether or not something is a crime does not depend on the law, but on the politics of it. There could hardly be a clearer example of it when the day before Hamas supporters staged their attack near the White House. Steve Bannon joined another Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, in being dispatched to prison for contempt of Congress.

Is contempt of Congress a crime? It depends who is in contempt and who is in Congress.

If we don’t change administrations in November, we will be a police state.

Where Are The High-Speed Internet Connections?

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On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article about one of the provisions in the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The Bill included $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of American.

The article reports:

“In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans. Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner wrote.

“Meanwhile, the Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program – a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans. Climate change mandates, tech biases, DEI requirements, favoring government-run networks + more,” he continued.

Carr is specifically slamming the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which allocated $42.45 billion to support broadband infrastructure and adoption.

The program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill had no conservative victories and had many leftist carveouts, as Breitbart News detailed.

The article concludes:

Carr continued, saying that the BEAD program fails to close the “digital divide,” or the gap between with those with high-speed internet and those without.

“The Biden Administration is barreling towards a broadband blunder. Congress has appropriated enough money to end the digital divide, but the Biden Administration is squandering the moment by putting partisan political goals above smart policy,” the FCC commissioner explained. “It is doing so through rate regulation, through union, technology, and DEI preferences, and through a thumb on the scale for government run networks. All of this threatens to leave rural communities behind.”

You would think that at some point the Republicans in Congress would learn that the bills that the Democrats want bi-partisan support on are never what they appear to be. This was another spending boondoggle that the Republicans stupidly endorsed. We need new Republicans who won’t be fooled (or bribed) by the Democrats.

The End Of The Petrodollar

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On Friday, MSN posted an article from India Today about the end of the petrodollar. Since 1974, oil has been traded in petrodollars.

The article explains:

What are petrodollars?

Petrodollars are not a currency but US dollars exchanged for crude oil exports.

The term “petrodollars” refers to the US dollars earned by oil-exporting countries through the sale of oil.

The concept emerged in the early 1970s and has played a significant role in global economics and geopolitics.

History behind petrodollars

Initially, the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 established the US dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency, pegged to gold. This facilitated international trade and economic stability post-World War II.

However, in 1971, US President Richard Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility to gold, leading to floating exchange rates and increased currency volatility.

In the following year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo in response to US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, causing oil prices to skyrocket.

The US struck a deal with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries to stabilise the situation, where oil would be traded exclusively in US dollars.

The move to petrodollars was supposed to stabilize the world’s currency. It was also a boon to America because it provided some stability for the American dollar. Petrodollars were also part of what sustained the value of the American dollar despite ridiculous overspending by Congress. Obviously, the overspending by Congress continues. My fear is that we will become like many formerly prosperous countries with citizens needing to take wheelbarrows of money to the supermarket to buy groceries.

This is not being heavily reported, and I suspect that is because most Americans will have no idea what it means and the news may start an unnecessary panic.

Here We Go Again

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Remember the housing bubble that collapsed in 2007? There were a lot of reasons for that collapse–Congress was not innocent, the government encouraging sub-prime mortgages, putting quotas on mortgage companies telling them who they could loan money to (regardless of income qualifications), etc. Well, the government is in the process of laying the groundwork for a similar crisis.

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article by Stephen Moore about some current government actions that will have results similar to the housing bubble collapse of 2007.

The article reports:

Here we go again. The latest scheme by the Biden administration is to encourage families to borrow more money by using the equity in their home as collateral. Home equity loans are often very risky. If prices fall, home equity can become negative. There is nearly $18 trillion in home equity, and it’s one of the largest sources of savings and ownership for American families.

Now the Biden administration wants to encourage Americans to borrow even more at a time when credit card and auto debts are at an all-time high. If homes fall in value, families could slip underwater and default — just like during the subprime crisis.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, the other “likely losers” from this scam “would be taxpayers.” The evidence is indisputable from 2008 that the mortgages that ended in default were low-down-payment and low-equity loans.

Why in the world would President Joe Biden want to go down this dangerous road again?

In 2009, I shared the following information (here and here):

The bank is East Bridgewater Savings Bank which has no delinquent loans or foreclosures on its books.  The bank didn’t even need to set aside in money in 2008 for anticipated loan losses.   From late 2003 through mid-2008, East Bridgewater Savings made an average of 28 cents in loans for every dollar in deposit — a sharp contrast to the 90 percent average loan-to-deposit ratio among similar banks.

The FDIC recently criticized this bank for not lending enough, slapping it with a “needs to improve” rating under the Community Reinvestment Act, the Boston Business Journal reported.

According to the article:

“East Bridgewater Savings ended 2008 with $135 million in assets, deposits of $84 million, $87,000 in profit, and a Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 31.6 percent — more than three times higher than many community banks in Massachusetts, the Journal reported.”

It seems to me that this sort of behavior on the part of the bank should be praised–not criticized.  It used to be good business to lend money only to people who were likely to pay it back!

The average consumer has more common sense that the economic ‘experts’ in the government!

Law vs the Lawless

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The implications of the recent travesty of justice apparent in the so-called trial and conviction of President Trump go directly to the foundations of America. It not only shows that the Democrats will use anything they can to stay in power and destroy their opposition; but, importantly, they do not believe in the founding principles necessary for a republic.

Laws are written as statements asserting specific actions that are prohibited. For example, there is a law forbidding car theft. There are also laws about the voting process and how elections should be managed. However, and here is the importance of what is now occurring with the Biden regime, people must support the spirit of the law if a republic is to survive. People must believe that theft is wrong. People must believe that interfering in elections is wrong. The Biden regime is demonstrating that they do not believe in the principles essential to the existence of America as we have had the privilege of knowing it. They do not believe in the essential principle that the people should run the country through their right to vote. As a consequence, they feel free to do whatever they can to violate the voting process. For them it Is not “Let the people decide at the ballot box,” but rather, “We the Elite” will control and run the country as we see fit. This is a tyranny that if not stopped will destroy our Republic. They are the lawless ones, since they do not believe in the principles and ideals that are the basis of our laws. Some of the most obvious examples are Biden forgiving student loans after the Supreme Court ruled he did not have that authority, ignoring immigration laws and encouraging the massive flood of illegals, and issuing federal mandates and executive orders that are the prerogative of congress. It is like trying to control a robber who believes stealing is his right.

Abraham Lincoln once said that the danger to our country will not come from abroad but rather from within. “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” It must be clear to any rational, clear thinking person that we are at the point that Lincoln warned us about. This is all in the Marxist playbook of how to destroy free countries and turn them into Marxist hell holes.

The question before us now is what do we do about it? The recent, dramatic increase in donations to President Trump and the Republican Party just after the unprecedented scam trial shows that people are finally realizing what is at stake in this coming election. We must not only throw the Marxist Democrats out of office, but we must take back our country and reinvigorate a love for America and its founding principles. No more half measures, no more compromising, but fighting to win and win BIG! Therein is our pathway to save America

Economic Growth Has Significantly Slowed

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On Thursday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the revised downward economic growth in the first quarter of 2024. America is not doing well economically.

The article reports:

The U.S. economy grew less than previously thought in the first quarter of 2024 amid a slowdown in consumer spending, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced Thursday.

Gross domestic product was revised down in the first quarter from 1.6% to 1.3% year-over-year in a sign that the economy is not as strong as initial estimates indicated, according to a release from the BEA. Economists originally expected growth in the first quarter to be around 2.2%, more in line with the above trend growth seen in the third and fourth quarters of 2023, which were 4.9% and 3.4%, respectively.

The revision was due to new information that shows that consumer spending, private inventory investment, and federal government spending were lower than initial estimates, while state and local government spending, nonresidential and residential fixed investment, and exports were slightly greater than original tallies, according to the BEA.

Current-dollar GDP was also revised down to 4.3% from 4.8%, and real gross domestic income totaled just 1.5% in an initial estimate from the BEA.

Consumer spending is down because consumers are being forced to spend more on necessities and less on extras.

The article concludes:

In an attempt to bring inflation back down to around 2%, the Fed has placed its federal funds rate in a range of 5.25% and 5.50%, a 23-year high, which has put pressure on consumers and businesses to slow spending. The hike in the federal funds rate has increased the cost of credit across the board, making it more expensive to take out debt, such as through credit cards.

The cumulative amount of debt held by Americans totaled $17.69 trillion in the first quarter, with $1.12 trillion of that being on credit cards. The share of people who were behind 90 days or more on their credit card payments in the quarter jumped to 10.7%, outdoing the pandemic high of 10% in the first quarter of 2021.

Job growth has also slowed as of late, with the U.S. adding just 175,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in April, far lower than the 242,000 that were expected, while the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 3.9%. In April, there were fewer gains in government jobs than in previous months, contributing largely to the slowdown, with March adding 303,000 new jobs.

This problem was government-caused and can be government-solved. Cut taxes and cut spending–that is the solution if Congress ever has the integrity to do it.

The Basic Goals Have Been Met

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On May 14th, Newsmax posted an article about the true purpose of the trial of President Trump that is currently taking place in New York City.

The article notes the three purposes:

“The purpose of this trial is three-fold,” Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said on “National Report.” “No. 1, to convict him down and dirty before the election, although it will get reversed after the election. No. 2, to have a gag order on him, and No. 3, to keep them locked up in the courtroom, so he can’t campaign, and those goals may very well be accomplished.

“This is election interference at its most obvious, and every American, no matter whether you’re for Trump or against them … I voted for [President Joe] Biden … whatever your political affiliation is … I’m a Democrat … you should be equally concerned about how this legal system is being weaponized and abused for partisan purposes.”

It is becoming obvious that if President Biden remains as the Democrat candidate in 2024, he is going to have a problem being re-elected. His approval ratings are very low, and any public event he holds has an attendance problem–no one wants to come. There is definitely an enthusiasm gap. It’s going to take an awful lot of computer manipulations and mail-in ballots to steal the upcoming election, and the only way the Democrats can win it is to steal it. I don’t think the American people would believe a President Biden victory.

There is also the question of the precedents being set. Do we really want to live in a country where a political party freely uses the justice system to go after its opponents? This is an awkward question because if the Republicans take Congress and the White House, there are going to have to be some people held accountable for the weaponization of the justice system. I hope that there are some Republicans who care enough about equal justice to hold people accountable. Based on the lack of outrage over the unconstitutional treatment of the January 6th political prisoners, I am not sure Republicans are any more concerned about our Constitution than Democrats.

You Can Release Your Hold On Your Gas Stove–At Least Temporarily

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On Tuesday, Just the News reported that the House of Representatives has passed the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act. The act will at least temporarily keep the government away from our gas stoves.

The article reports:

The bill, which was introduced by Arizona Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko, “modifies the process by which the Department of Energy (DOE) amends, revokes, or implements energy conservation standards for certain consumer products (other than automobiles), such as household appliances,” according to an official summary of the legislation.

The legislation was introduced after the Biden Administration’s Energy Department proposed a rule that would have led to a ban on the sale of about half of the gas stoves currently on the market.

“My constituents in the north and northwest valley of Maricopa County, Arizona, do not want this government interference in their homes and lives,” Lesko told reporters on Tuesday, per Fox News. “I know that millions of Americans around the country feel the same way.”

The Department of Energy has no business making laws–that is supposed to be done by Congress. If a Congressman (or woman) finds it too burdensome to create laws, they should resign.

The article concludes:

No government bureaucrat should ever scheme to take away Americans’ appliances in the name of a radical environmental agenda,” Lesko added.

The House previously passed Lesko’s “Save Our Gas Stoves Act ” last year, which attempted to block the DOE from implementing a proposed efficiency standard for gas cooking products, but it never received a vote in the Democrat-led Senate. 

We could probably end 90 percent of the regulations passed by unelected bureaucrats and still live happily ever after.

Sometimes Congress’ Priorities Are Amazing

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On Monday, Zero Hedge reported the following:

While Congress failed to pass a border security bill over the weekend amid a flurry of billions in international aid to Ukraine and Israel, they did set aside $3.5 billion for “Migration and Refugee Assistance” for the State Department to “address humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations and communities.”

While written in an absurdly broad brushstroke that’s going to be open to interpretation, X user ‘Oilfield Rando‘ suggests that the funds will be used “to pay the NGOs coordinating the illegal invasion at our southern border, and providing all the freebies once they’re in.”

The article includes the following screenshot from Twitter:

It really is time for a new Congress.