Tag Archives: U. S. House of Representatives

While Everyday Americans Are Struggling With Inflation…

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On Sunday, The New York Post posted an article about the United States House of Representatives giving itself a pay raise.

The article reports:

Washington, DC, needs an emergency supply of snazzy sandwich boards announcing, “Will Legislate for Food.”

A hunger crisis on Capitol Hill gave congressional leaders no choice but to trample the Constitution.

Thanks to a backroom deal, House members can now claim automatic reimbursement of $258 a night for lodging expenses and $79 a day for meals in DC — even if they don’t spend a dime.

But though House members can pocket up to $34,000 a year in additional tax dollars, it’s not a pay raise because politicians are entitled to use false labels for everything they do.

The timing of this move is important:

After Republicans captured the House majority in November, the Democrat-controlled House Administration Committee rushed through a provision in December to boost members’ pay. 

The Constitution’s 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, though, prohibits any law “varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives” from taking effect “until an election of representatives shall have intervened.”

The new windfall was labeled “reimbursements” and took effect thanks to a tweak in the Members’ Congressional Handbook.

There was no debate or vote on the House floor; neither the Senate nor the president had a say in the matter.

Former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) denounced the “clandestine secrecy” of the process.

In a press conference Friday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), House Democratic leader, denied any pay raise occurred: It was just “reimbursement.”

Jeffries used the word “bipartisan” five times in one minute to sanctify the new measure.

The article also notes:

The new benefit system “does not require the submission of receipts to reduce burdens and address the potential security risks,” ruled the House’s chief administrative officer.

Congress last year bankrolled hiring 87,000 new IRS agents and employees to audit Americans’ 1040 forms and shake more money out of their bank accounts.

The new benefits are tax-free, so House members can pocket the pre-tax equivalent of $50,000 in extra income based solely on unverified claims.

The House report bewailed that “the personal benefits of winning a seat in Congress have . . . decreased.”

But that was because Congress’ reckless deficit spending helped wreck the value of the dollar, which has fallen 40% since the last pay raise Congress gave itself in 2009.

The report claimed permitting reimbursement would “modernize” the pay system.

If the Republicans in the House are really serious about cutting spending, this would be a wonderful place to start!

Taking Steps To Restore Fiscal Sanity

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On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article detailing the steps that the new Republican House of Representatives should take to restore fiscal sanity to America.

The article reports:

The 118th Congress has been in session for three months, and the new House majority is already moving ahead on legislation that would reduce regulations, begin to restore energy independence, and prevent some of the worst policies that were enacted in the last Congress from taking effect. House committees have been holding oversight hearings to increase accountability and transparency, both of which have been severely lacking over the past two years. Members should use this momentum to spring into action and do even more to protect taxpayers.

The top priority for the 118th Congress should be to cut wasteful government spending and stop new spending, which happens to be the best way to fight inflation. The last Congress pushed through a record-breaking amount of spending, from the COVID-19 “relief” bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, all of which added up to more than $5 trillion. This massive spending spree is the reason the United States is suffering from the highest inflation rates it has seen in 40 years and staring down an impending recession.

Congress can stop unnecessary government spending by rejecting the new taxes and pet projects that litter President Joe Biden’s $6.8 trillion fiscal 2024 budget . The budget includes many unnecessary, liberal policies that the president has used to advance political objectives. It would also violate the president’s campaign pledge not to raise taxes on those making under $400,000.

The article concludes:

Congress must also push back against the restrictive policies and rules being pushed by the Federal Trade Commission. FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan has used her post at the agency to stall or prevent nearly every possible merger, including an attempt to block Meta’s acquisition of Within, which was struck down by a federal court in California. Khan is also trying to prevent Microsoft from acquiring video game producer Activision, setting privacy rules for the entire country, and banning all noncompete clauses. As Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz wrote , “The FTC has become one of the biggest obstacles to competition and consumer welfare.”

The 118th Congress has made progress during its first three months. But members must spring into action and enact policies that would make the federal government more effective and accountable rather than more wasteful and intrusive.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. There is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel–a small light, but a light.

President Trump Is Definitely Seen As A Threat To The Washington Establishment

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Eric Swalwell is not a shining example of a Congressman. Sleeping with a Chinese spy did not get him removed from the House Intelligence Committee. He’s so deep in the swamp, he’s on a first-name basis with the alligators. Now he has sponsored a bill that he hopes will pass to make sure the swamp stays intact and avoids any future dismantling by President Trump.

On Wednesday, The Political Insider reported the following:

California lawmaker Eric Swalwell is co-sponsoring a bill that would ban Donald Trump and several allies of the former President from entering the United States Capitol.

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 17th by Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA). The sole co-sponsor of the legislation is Swalwell (D-CA).

The resolution seeks to prohibit “President Donald Trump and certain other individuals who attempted to undermine and overturn the 2020 presidential election from entering the United States Capitol.”

It reads as if it were written by a CNN intern, and includes the requisite lie that the January 6th riot at the Capitol “claimed the lives of five law enforcement officers.”

It didn’t. No police officers died that day, nor did any die as a direct cause of the actions that took place that day. Democrats, however, want you to think they did. It’s all part of making January 6th the newest National Myth.

The bill seeks to enlist the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police in preventing Trump and his colleagues from ever setting foot in the Capitol.

How in the world is this bill even constitutional? This is simply another indication of how frightened the swamp is of a Trump presidency. If Trump were elected in 2024, he would be a lame duck to begin with. He would not have to consider his political future in his decisions. He would be free to do whatever was needed without concern for re-election. That would be a good thing. I personally would like to see him elected because I feel that he would do a good job and that he was cheated in the last election. There are a lot of things just now coming to light about voting irregularities in the 2020 election, and most of them are in places that made the difference in the Electoral College. We can’t do a do-over of that election, but I believe we can make things right by electing Trump in 2024. The swamp is terrified of that possibility.

Do They Get Their Jobs Back Now?

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On Thursday, The Washington Times reported that the Senate voted Wednesday to end the vaccine mandate on health workers at places that receive federal funding. There is serious doubt as to whether the measure will actually get through the House of Representatives (which is controlled by the Democrats), although that may depend on whether or not the Democrats are reading the polls.

The article reports:

The Supreme Court struck down a broader mandate that required large companies to regularly test workers who refuse to get vaccinated. However, the justices upheld the health-worker mandate.

Republicans say the mandate is bad policy because it could lead to staffing shortages at hospitals and punish workers who served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle for two years and choose to remain unvaccinated.

The GOP is betting that forcing Democrats to defend COVID-19 mandates will help Republicans retake the House and the Senate in November’s elections.

One of the really sad aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic is that both political parties attempted to use to crisis for political gain. There was a time when both parties totally ignored the science. Now we are beginning to see that lives could have been saved if we had pursued early treatment as hard as we pursued a vaccine. We know now that early treatment works. We can’t say the same about the vaccines.

Americans are done with mask and vaccine mandates. I was recently told by a pulmonary specialist that when the masks come off we can expect an uptick in pneumonia cases–not because the masks were protecting us, but because wearing a mask interferes with your natural immunity system. After mask wearing, your immune system is not as strong as it would be without a mask, so you are more prone to illness. That’s not good news for the elderly who have been told to keep wearing their masks. Consider not wearing a mask to be like sending a child out to play in the dirt. The germs the child comes in contact with in playing in the dirt strengthen the child’s immune system. Walking around bare-faced exposes your immune system to germs and strengthens it. Also, the fibers in the mask are not close enough to each other to block virus germs. The masks were to make us feel better and to control us. Medically they were not helpful.

Da*n The Consumer And Full Speed Ahead

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On Sunday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the impact of some of the Biden administration’s regulations on American consumers.

The article reports:

At a time when the Biden administration is panicking in an attempt to keep energy prices down, the House has slapped a “fee” on methane that is being called a “stealth tax” on natural gas and everyone who uses it.

The House bill results in an “escalating tax on methane emissions by oil and gas producers,” a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal points out. The tax will hit $1,500 per ton by 2025 and the fee is supposed to be a contribution to recent promises made in Glasgow to curb methane emissions.

The cost of the fee will obviously get passed along to the consumer, which will then result in even higher energy prices than consumers are already struggling with. 180 million  Americans use natural gas to hear their homes, the report says.

The article concludes:

The WSJ op-ed board calls it a “regressive tax” and says that “Department of Energy notes the average energy burden for low-income families is three times higher than for more affluent households”.

The methane tax “exposes the contradiction at the heart of Democratic climate policy” and clearly violates President Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 per year, the op-ed argues.

The op-ed concludes by arguing that once the methane tax is in place, it’ll be easy to raise over time. Combined with new methane regulations, it’ll continue to raise costs and introduce inefficiencies for producers.

The methane tax is “targeted, punitive and can be linked to higher consumer energy bills,” the op-ed concludes.

We are headed into a cold, dark winter brought to you by the Biden administration’s misguided energy policies.