Showing posts with label Republican Majority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republican Majority. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

If the @GOP can keep their party together for 6 more months, they will keep their House majority.





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Monday, July 10, 2017

If Congress/the Senate Had a Third of @POTUS work ethic, Healthcare would be already done, also Tax Reform and the Wall.



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Saturday, December 31, 2016

HuffPo political editor: Obama presided over "destruction" of Democratic party



"You look at the destruction of the Democratic Party under Barack Obama’s leadership and you have to wonder, what was the political — what were the electoral benefits that he gave to the party?” Stein asked on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.

“He leaves them in a much worse position,” Stein continued. “The states are decimated, they lost control of the House and Senate, the governorships are decimated.”

Republicans will control the presidency and both chambers of Congress after Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.


The GOP will also hold the governor’s office in 33 states starting in 2017, the most in 24 years. And Republicans control both chambers in 32 state legislatures, while Democrats have control of both chambers in only California, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon and Rhode Island....



It was the end of the big year with three zeroes. The first X-Men movie had broken box office records. You couldn’t set foot in a supermarket without listening to Brittney Spears caterwauling, “Oops, I Did It Again.” And Republicans and Democrats had total control of both chambers of legislatures in the same amount of states. That was the way it was back in the distant days of the year 2000.

In 2016, Republicans control both legislative chambers in 32 states. That’s up from 16 in 2000.

What happened to the big donkey? Among other things, the Democrats decided to sell their base and their soul to a very bad billionaire and they got a very bad deal for both....

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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The Washington Post estimates that Trump will inherit 103 vacancies, and the federal court system estimates 127 using a slightly different methodology that includes announced vacancies.



...The federal court system is already dominated by Democratic presidents' appointments. Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution estimated last month that Democratic appointees currently hold 51 percent of the 673 district court judgeships, with Republicans holding only 34 percent and the remainder being vacant. In the next four years, 216 district court judges (the majority of them Republican appointees) will be eligible to take retirement or senior status.

On the appeals court level, Trump will have an immediate opportunity to appoint 17 judges to vacancies among the 179 circuit court judgeships. Based on Wheeler's estimates, Democratic appointees currently comprise 51 percent of circuit court judges, with Republican appointees holding 40 percent and the vacancies accounting for the rest....

Many conservatives who reluctantly voted for Trump did so on the promise that he might turn the nation's courts in a more conservative direction. The current Supreme Court vacancy is just one part of that fight — given that the high court only hears so many cases, the overall composition of the lower courts is nearly as important. They will not have to wait too long to see whether Trump's word was good — or at least whether he will leave it to the conservatives in his administration to bring him the names for his appointments.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Reports of the GOP's death "were greatly exaggerated."

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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Congress just passed a 10-year #BalancedBudget without raising anyone's taxes.







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Friday, May 1, 2015

The new Republican Majority is Working

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Sunday, February 22, 2015

Rep. Janice Hahn (D, California-44) bails out of Congress.

◼ Janice Hahn will retire from Congress, and go work somewhere that doesn't have any Republicans running things.

...Anyway, we all missed this news from last week; and, her reasons for retiring? It is to laugh:
“The problem is, Washington is broken, it’s increasingly mired in political gridlock, and there’s virtually zero cooperation between the two parties. That’s not the kind of government I grew up with, and it’s precisely why I know I can do more for the Los Angeles region on the Board of Supervisors,” Hahn said in a statement announcing her decision.
Translation: Look, when I took this gig in 2011 when Jane Harman retired I was told that the Democrats were going to be taking back the House in 2012, or 2014 at the very latest. But that didn’t happen, now, did it? – And since Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)11% apparently plans to be mummified and entombed in the House Minority Leader’s office there’s precisely zero upward mobility in this job. The two Republicans on the Board of Supervisors are term-limited for 2016 anyway: a 4-1 Democratic-Republican split there sounds pretty danged ‘bipartisan’ to me.

…I am obviously going for of the gist there than, say, a literal translation. You see, the kind of government that Rep. Janice Hahn (D-CA)10% ‘grew up with’ was mostly like her tenure on the Los Angeles City Council, which is the sort of place where ‘bipartisan’ is defined as ‘well, we have a Republican around here somewhere.’ And if LA wants to keep electing Democrats in positions of authority, that’s LA’s privilege. But you will forgive me if I sardonically chuckle at the sight of a Democratic politician – one who has probably spent her whole political life comfortably as part of a political majority – taking her ball and going home because of ‘zero cooperation.’ Let me translate that, too: it means ‘Democrats resent not getting their own way.’
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Monday, February 16, 2015

"...They are more interested in putting the profits of the biggest corporations ahead of the rights and opportunities of middle-class workers.”

◼ How Republicans Are Taking a Big Stand Against Unions - DAILYSIGNAL.COM

Republican members of Congress have introduced a joint resolution of Congress to try to stop a new National Labor Relations Board rule from going into effect this April.

According to a joint statement released by congressional Republicans last week, the “ambush election” rule, finalized last December, would decrease the amount of time a labor union certification election is held from over a month to a mere 11 days.

...In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the “so-called ‘ambush’ rule” implemented by the Obama administration’s appointees on the NLRB.

“It’s designed with one purpose in mind — to fatten the wallets of powerful political bosses by threatening the rights of middle-class workers to make informed decisions of their own,” said McConnell.
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Saturday, January 31, 2015

For Republicans, a 2016 Tie Is a Win



◼ GOP virtually guaranteed to hold edge in event of deadlocked Electoral College - Sabato's Crystal Ball

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, elected to a third term earlier this month, often notes that the presidential cycle is harder for his party than midterms because the electorate is more diverse and Democratic. “For us to win a presidential election, we have to be just about perfect, and the Democrats have to be good,” he told Kyle Cheney of Politico....

While the Democrat needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency — a majority of the 538 available — the Republican only needs a 269-269 tie to win.

That’s because, in the event of a tie, the newly elected House will pick the president. Each state gets a single vote, so the party that controls a state’s House delegation will almost certainly cast its state’s vote for its candidate. (The Senate would select the vice president, and every senator gets a vote.)

Republicans dominate the states’ individual U.S. House delegations, and there’s no reason to suspect they will lose this advantage in 2016.

The GOP holds a majority of the House seats in 33 states, while Democrats only have a majority in 14....
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Friday, January 30, 2015

The Shameless Hackery of Harry Reid

◼ ...even Huffington Post correspondents are laughing at Democrats' preposterous faux umbrage. - Guy Benson/Townhall

The man's an established liar, a bizarre obsessive, a remorseless slanderer -- but you already knew that. He's also, unsurprisingly, an exquisite hack. Ever since voters demoted Prince Harry in November, his views on various Senate protocols and precedents have undergone a remarkable and dramatic evolution. He who grinningly nuked filibuster rules in 2013 has suddenly mustered strange new respect for the practice:



Reid's more egregious shamelessness comes in the form of his recent attacks on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he accuses of strong-arming the legislative process by limiting amendment votes on the Keystone Pipeline bill:



This is rich. Richer, in fact, than Reid himself has become during his tenure as a supposed "public servant." The minority leader hopes Americans will forget that until very recently, he held McConnell's title. For the full duration of calendar year 2014, Harry Reid permitted precisely 15 amendment votes* on all legislation taken up by the United States Senate. Total. Prior to Reid's tweet above, the new Republican-controlled Senate had already surpassed that number in one week, and had held 24 votes on amendments to the Keystone bill alone. Democrats (who've been praising the more functional system under McConnell) have taken to griping that the Republican majority is betraying its pledge to respect an "open amendment process" by trying to place some limits on endless offerings.... KEEP READING
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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Something unusual happened in Congress this week: Senators voted

◼ Keystone XL amendments had senators doing the unusual: voting ... a lot - Lisa Mascaro/LA Times via LA Times Facebook

Something unusual happened in Congress this week: Senators voted — not just once or twice, but more than 20 times, right up until midnight Thursday.

In contrast to the recent years of gridlock and paralysis, senators took vote after politically tough vote as they worked their way through amendments to a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

It was part of the so-called regular order that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to deliver after Republicans took control of the chamber earlier this month. The Kentucky Republican promised to restore a more open process that many senators hungered for after Democrats ran the place with a tight grip during the previous eight years.... KEEP READING
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Monday, January 19, 2015

GOP finds its secret weapon

◼ Republicans believe they have identified a potent weapon in their fight against President Obama’s regulatory agenda. - Tim Devaney/The Hill

GOP lawmakers plan to employ the seldom-used Congressional Review Act (CRA), which gives lawmakers the power to formally disapprove of major agency rules, as they seek to ratchet up their attacks on federal red tape.

"It hasn’t been possible to use this in a divided Congress,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told The Hill, "but now that it is, we certainly are interested in reviewing regulations to make sure they meet with congressional intent.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) began threatening to use the CRA to stop regulations last year, after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule aimed at cutting carbon emissions from new power plants.

“That’s why I, along with about 40 Republican co-sponsors ... intend to file a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to ensure a vote to stop this devastating rule,” he said at the time.

While Obama can and likely will veto any efforts to undo regulations through the CRA, the threats carry more weight now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (Okla.) and other Republicans are zeroing in on the EPA, believing they can use the Review Act against rules for new and existing power plants, water, ozone and coal ash.

“There is widespread agreement among Republicans and the business community that the EPA under the Obama administration is out of control and it’s taking things to the extreme,” a senior aide to Inhofe said. KEEP READING.
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Friday, January 16, 2015

Democrats have lost, Republicans have gained...


◼ GOP now controls 30 state legislatures - Allen West

...The midterm election cycles are where those who understand legislative process and policy rise to the top — and why in the last midterm cycle of 2014 the Democrats pulled out all the stops to monger fear, coerce, and intimidate their way into a victory. They failed, but the question is just how bad have the Democrats failed under President Obama in the crucial midterm elections in a comparative analysis?

As reported by the Washington Post, “Everyone knows by now that 2010 and 2014 were very good to the Republican Party. What they don’t understand (or understand well enough) is just how good. Yes, Republicans now control the Senate and have their largest majority in the House since World War II.”

“But it’s downballot (way downballot) where the depth of the Republican victories over the past three elections truly reveal themselves — and where the impact will be felt over the long term. In the past three elections, Republicans have gained 913 state legislative seats, according to calculations made by Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia. Here are Sabato’s figures in chart form — and with historical comparisons — via GOP lobbyist Bruce Mehlman.”

...Regardless of what happens in Washington DC, we the people still have power at the state level, which is why these midterm election results are so important.

◼ The demographic shriveling of the Democratic party continues. - Red State
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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Call her Ma'am. Senator Barbara Boxer Says She Won’t Seek Re-election in 2016

◼ Senator Barbara Boxer announced Thursday that she would not seek re-election as senator from California, ending a 30-year career in Congress and breaking a generational logjam in a state where the three top political officeholders are over 70 years old. - New York Times











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Can they muster the votes?

◼ Senators introduce bill to counter Obamacare's 40-hour week - Sean Higgins/Washington Examiner

The Affordable Care Act requires businesses that employ 50 or more full-time employees to provide them with healthcare. The law considers anyone who works an average of at least 30 hours a week to be full time. The provision was included to keep employers from circumventing the requirement by giving some employees less than the standard 40-hour work week.

The Senate bill's co-sponsors, Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the provision had resulted in an even more perverse incentive: to reduce employee hours to just 29 a week.

...The bill will put some Democrats in a difficult position, forcing them to choose between local and state businesses that say the Obamacare mandate is squeezing them and the White House, which does not want to see a part of President Obama's signature initiative undone.

The White House said Tuesday it would veto any such legislation. Spokesman Josh Earnest said, in reaction to the House version, that it would make it easier for businesses to avoid the 50-employee requirement. "This proposed change would actually do a lot of harm, not just to the Affordable Care Act but to a substantial number of workers across the country," Earnest said.

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Wednesday, January 7, 2015

The House Just Made It Harder for Politicians to Steal From Social Security Retirement Fund

◼ This Tuesday, House Republicans nearly unanimously adopted new rules for the 114th Congress (H. Res. 5) which set the stage for long overdue Social Security reforms to protect disabled Americans and seniors from indiscriminate benefit cuts. - Romina Boccia/Daily Signal

The new rule strengthens the integrity of Social Security’s separate trust funds (disability and retirement) by putting a procedural barrier in place to prevent lawmakers from raiding retirement funds to shore up the bleeding disability trust fund. Page 32 of H. Res. 5 adds a point of order against weakening either trust fund, unless the changes result in an overall improvement to Social Security’s combined trust funds.

This change sets the stage for comprehensive Social Security reform in the 114th Congress....KEEP READING
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