What purpose does the United States Congress serve? It seems that they only serve themselves
heaping helpings of government funded goodies while the states they represent
lie in squalor. Both sides of the isle
in congress extoll the glories of low taxes but low taxes hurt the American
people while providing members of congress lavish lifestyles.
Every four years the two parties get together and agree on a
president to be elected that will continue with the status quo. That ended in 2016 when Donald Trump burst on
to the political scene as a populist running on the Republican ticket. Trump had kicked aside the GOP choices of the
Deep State and ran a campaign against the Deep State and the status quo and won.
Raising of the debt ceiling hurts regular American people
while preserving the profits of Wall Street and protecting them from
taxation. The GOP’s plan was to hold the
debt ceiling hostage in order to turn the Hurricane recovery funds into a long-term
Disaster Capitalist boom. By passing an
18-month debt ceiling deal, the GOP would be able to safely cruise through the
2018 mid-term election unscathed for their lack of legislative action. But then, Hurricane Donald hit. From National Sentinel:
Excerpt:
White House: Yeah, Trump doesn’t care what feckless GOP leaders think
about his ‘deal’ with Dems
After some early stumbles, Trump is
proving himself a worthy adversary in Washington
(National Sentinel) Politics
Unusual: The White House on Friday said that President Donald J. Trump isn’t concerned about butthurt Republicans
over his “deal” with Democrats to secure funds for hurricane relief and to
extend the debt ceiling for another three months.
“The biggest message is we are a lot less focused on what makes
Congress happy and [instead on] what
makes Americans better and stronger,” said White House press secretary
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as the Washington Times reported. “He’s going to continue working with whoever is interested in moving
the ball forward to help the American people.”
Sanders added that the president’s deal-making abilities are large
part of why Americans elected him.
“The president’s focus was doing what is best for the American people.
And that’s why he’s the president,” she said. “People wanted somebody to be a
leader. They wanted someone who was going to step up and take action, and
that’s exactly what the president did.”
Several Republicans — some of the
same ones who refuse to get over the
fact that he kicked establishment GOP ass last year and, thus, have been
working to undermine him and his agenda — were taken aback by the deal.
They shouldn’t have been, considering the president has been warning
them for months he would work with Democrats if his own party continued to
treat him like a red-headed step-child. And as if to emphasize the point, 90 Republicans voted against the $15.25
billion aid package including four from Texas.
None of this is to suggest that
Democrats will have their way with Trump moving forward, either. After some early stumbles, Trump is proving himself a worthy
adversary in Washington. That’s going to really work out well for we the
people.
The Trump White House not only doesn’t care what feckless
GOP leaders think about his ‘deal’ with Dems he’s further putting the GOP on
notice, work for the American people or get out of the way. From The Hill:
Excerpt:
THE MEMO: Trump puts the GOP on
notice
President Trump’s shock deal with the two top Democrats in Congress was
a shot across the bows of his own party — and the after-effects are
reverberating. Some insiders forecast
that Trump is headed for a definitive break with Republican leadership, seeking
to forge a new political identity after a divisive first stretch in office…
The deal, struck in a White House
meeting and passed by Congress, funds
the government and raises the debt ceiling for three months, exactly the
terms sought by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Trump backed them… over the wishes of his own party, and his
own Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin…
One aide to a conservative House
Republican, who asked for anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, lamented
that the GOP as a whole “did not have a
game plan” to deal with the debt ceiling…
Said Democratic strategist Tad
Devine… “I think he wants to get back to
using the power of the presidency to his advantage, and it doesn’t matter to him if it’s to the Republican Party’s advantage or
not…
Trump had an uneasy relationship with the GOP establishment during
his campaign. After he won, he watched
Congressional Republicans fail ignominiously to repeal and replace the
Affordable Act — also known as ObamaCare — despite having promised voters they
would do just that since the law’s inception in 2010…
Still, there is wariness from virtually every quarter about trying to predict
Trump’s next moves…
Trump “is himself like a hurricane,” said Tyler. “There is this
enormous cone of uncertainty… Brad
Blakeman, a GOP strategist who served on President George W. Bush’s White House
staff, said Trump was motivated above
all by a need to expedite aid in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
At the least, however, the most
unpredictable president of recent decades has scrambled the political deck of
cards once again... Devine, the
Democratic strategist, argued that Trump
might ultimately be considering running for reelection outside of the
traditional two-party system, gambling that his base would be big enough to
prevail in a three- or four-candidate race. For now, Devine said, it looks as if Trump is trying his own brand of the
“triangulation” practiced by then-President Clinton in the 1990s.
Interesting concept, Trump running for reelection outside
the traditional two-party system. The
two parties have become useless with each individual having to please his or
her financial backers against the interests of the American people. It is no secret that the GOP party elite
despise President Trump. From PatrickBuchanan:
Excerpt:
Trump Dumps the Do-Nothing Congress
Donald Trump is president today
because he was seen as a doer not a talker. Among the most common compliments
paid him in 2016 was, “At least he gets
things done!”
And it was exasperation with a dithering GOP Congress, which had
failed to enact his or its own agenda, that caused Trump to pull the job of
raising the debt ceiling away from Republican contractors Ryan & McConnell,
and give it to Pelosi & Schumer…
Returning to D.C. after five weeks vacation, with zero legislation
enacted, Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were facing
a deadline to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government. Failure to do so would crash the markets,
imperil the U.S. bond rating, and make
America look like a deadbeat republic…
Yet, every year, it seems, Congress goes up to the precipice of
national default before authorizing the borrowing to pay the bills Congress
itself has run up…
Will he give up on free-trade
Republicans to work with Democrats to
protect U.S. jobs and businesses from predator traders like China? Will he cut a deal with Hill Democrats on
which infrastructure projects should be funded first? Will he seek out
compromise with Democrats on whose taxes should be cut and whose retained?
We could be looking at a seismic shift in national politics, with
Trump looking to centrist and bipartisan coalitions to achieve as much of his
agenda as he can... The Congress of the United States, whose
powers were delineated in the late 18th century, may simply not be an institution suited to the 21st.
A century ago, Congress ceded to the Federal Reserve its right “to coin money
(and) regulate the value thereof.” It
has yielded to the third branch, the Supreme
Court, the power to invent new rights, as in Roe v. Wade. Its power to “regulate commerce with
foreign nations” has been assumed by an
executive branch that negotiates the trade treaties, leaving Congress to
say yea or nay.
Congress alone has the power to
declare war. But recent wars have been
launched by presidents over Congressional objection, some without
consultation… Result: In a recent
survey, 72 percent of Americans expressed high confidence in the military; 12
percent said the same of Congress.
The American people are sick to death of the congress that
was elected by billionaires’ money to serve those billionaires. We know we have no say over who is elected to
our government. Sure we are given a
roster by the two parties of candidates who profess their loyalty to their
financial backers. If congress wanted to
immediately fund aid for the victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Katia
they could. But they don’t want to.
If President Trump is considering starting a new party for
his reelection in 2020 he might look to forward thinkers like Senator Rand Paul. From The Daily Caller:
Excerpt:
Senate Tables Amendment Calling For Harvey Aid To Be Taken From Foreign
Aid Fund
The Senate voted to table an amendment aimed at paying for Hurricane
Harvey relief using cuts to foreign aid
in an 87-10 vote Thursday.
The “America First” amendment — introduced by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of
Kentucky — would have offset the House-passed $7.85 billion aid package
while providing an additional $2.5 billion to be used for Harvey recovery
efforts or preparation for Hurricane Irma.
Paul’s office noted that the United States Agency for International
Development’s (USAID) latest information shows that roughly $20 billion in
unobligated foreign aid is currently available, which the senator
believes would be better spent on domestic emergencies.
“There have been people who argued
that our $20 trillion debt is the number one threat to our national security.
So what I am asking is: Why don’t we pay for this?” Paul said on the floor
ahead of the vote. “Why don’t we simply
take some money that we were going to spend someone else for something not
as valuable in another country and why don’t we spend it here?”
The Senate is slated to take up the lower chamber’s Harvey relief legislation, where it will
attach a continuing resolution to keep the government funded and language on a raising the debt ceiling
to the bill before sending it back to the House.
Yes, that’s our congress.
Money for all their myriad of special interests but nothing for
America. Senator Paul says “the United
States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) latest information shows
that roughly $20 billion in unobligated foreign aid is currently available,
which the senator believes would be better spent on domestic emergencies.”
So USAID has $20 billion just gathering dust and congress
won’t allow those funds to be used for Hurricane relief in America. So where does USAID spend the money congress
generously slathers them with? While
this article is from 2014 it gives a really good picture of what congress wants
to spend that $20 billion on compared to relief here at home. From Pando:
Excerpt:
The murderous history of USAID, the US Government agency behind Cuba's
fake Twitter clone
“In a number of countries,
including Venezuela and Bolivia, USAID
is acting more as an agency involved in covert action, like the CIA, than
as an aid or development agency…”
Last week, we learned from the
Associated Press that USAID (United States Agency for International
Development) — the government agency
which manages billions in overseas “humanitarian” aid programs — plotted to
overthrow Cuba’s communist regime…
What really seems to be weirding
people out here is the shock realization
that USAID — the nice, humanitarian, democracy-promoting arm of American
idealism — also engages in sleazy
regime-change and subversion…
now’s a good time to refresh our memories about USAID’s dark past.
Former New York Times correspondent
A. J. Langguth wrote that the “the two
primary functions” of the USAID police training program were to allow the CIA
to “plant men with local police in sensitive places around the world,” and
to bring to the United States “prime candidates for enrollment as CIA employees...”
Dan Mitrione wasn’t a CIA man
himself. Mitrione was a small-town cop and a family man from Richmond, Indiana,
who joined the FBI, and was sent to Brazil in the early 1960s under USAID’s
Office of Public Safety to train the fledging democratic government’s police
force. A few years later, in 1964, a
US-backed coup overthrew Brazil’s democratically-elected president Joao
Goulart, and installed a right-wing military dictatorship…
By the end of the 1960s… USAID had trained over 100,000 of Brazil’s
police in the dark arts of rule-by-terror; another 600 Brazilian police were
brought to the US for special USAID training in explosives and interrogation
techniques…
I don’t want to get into the weeds too much with USAID but
you get the point. In addition to the
three-quarters of a trillion dollar annual budget for the Pentagon, secret
unaccountable funds are funneled through USAID and the Overseas Contingency
Operations to overthrow elected governments across the globe. Congress, when faced with horrific natural or
unnatural disasters in America refuse to touch any of the trillions in funds
for war and terrorizing resource rich, cash poor countries to help their own
country.
When our military is sent to fight these corporate wars for
profits, they return home, broke, injured, ill and many times homeless and
hopeless. But once they have served
their usefulness to world hegemony, congress discards them like toy
soldiers. From Veterans Today:
Excerpt:
NEO: The Unseen Victims of America’s War Machine
In 1938, disabled veterans were an inconvenience. They still are,
except at election time when each new candidate promises to address the
wrongdoing of their predecessor and, of course, in the end, nothing whatsoever changes.
The Trumbo novel, fiction, is
almost identical to the scandal at the massive Walter Reed complex where
members of congress receive their medical care. The rundown and rat infested buildings at Walter Reed, during the Bush
43 administration, were used to store disabled military, until the
Washington Post found out about it anyway.
In a facility where there are luxury suites for members of congress
to receive the most expensive medical care in the world, free of charge, paid
for by American taxpayers, disabled
combat veterans lived in filth, in many cases medical treatment
withheld until they agreed to sign away their rights to disability pension
benefits…
When illegal weapons are used,
nuclear, biological or chemical, the
military veterans who become victims are forced to die from the disease of
official denial and anyone who thinks nuclear, biological and chemical
arsenals aren’t deployed against targets in the Middle East is a fool…
There are two basic business units for what is now called the
Department of Veterans Affairs. One unit denies claims, loses paperwork and
has built the largest “Skinner Box” in history to force the sick and disabled
to simply “go away...”
The other is “medical mistreatment…”
Care is rationed with waiting lists for
things like expensive dental work or knee replacement surgery taking more than a decade.
What is really being hidden is the cost of America’s wars.
You see, the new professional
military that Nixon gave the US after Vietnam is a “garrison army,” not a combat army…
When, because of physical or
psychological conditions which will invariably result from multiple deployments
manifest, these soldiers are more often
forced out – charged with an offense of some kind, or disallowed from continuing service and receiving a retirement pension.
This places those who qualify – and
not all qualify – in a medical system
designed to make dying seem attractive. Certainly
Israel provides far better medical care to al Qaeda and ISIS fighters than
America does to her own troops.
The American people are sick of the “America last” congress
and stand behind Donald Trump. When
Hurricane Donald trumped the GOP the media and the Deep State tried desperately
to put lipstick on the pig. From TheTrumpet @ Hillary is 44:
Excerpt:
On Wednesday, Paul Ryan, King of the Ant-Trump RINO GOP Establishment, denounced the idea of a three month
extension on the debt ceiling as “ridiculous and disgraceful.” Paul Ryan and the GOP establishment made
all sorts of grand promises early in 2017 of how they would get ObamaCare
repeal done and all sorts of other President Trump promises passed – by August!
It would all be done we were told early this year…
The problems are that their agenda is not the Trump Agenda… President Trump knows he is dealing with
treacherous establishment liars and users. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell along
with the rest of the GOP establishment
lie to the voters to get elected and they thought they could do the same to
President Trump. But President Trump understands what kind of treacherous
creatures he is dealing with:
Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, the GOP establishment thought they could
passively aggressive beat President Trump in the art of the deal. Then
President Trump schlonged them all, as we predicted in our article below.
President Trump made a better deal
with cryin’ Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelousy. It was right out of the Bill
Clinton triangulation playbook. President
Trump schlonged the GOP establishment. President Trump used cryin’ Chuck
and Pelousy to schlong Paul Ryno and the GOP establishment. Big Media and the
schlonged tried to claim that President Trump was used by the Obama Dimocrats.
To the contrary, President Trump let
everyone know he will get his way one way or the other…
President Trump wants to get
things done. Paul Ryno and in the Ditch
Mitch lied to President Trump about how hard they would work to get the Trump
Agenda passed as they pretended their agenda was the Trump Agenda. Paul
Ryno, in the Ditch Mitch, and the rest of the GOP congress instead of working
hard went on vacation. Weeks of vacation.
They got nothing done for
President Trump as they had promised weekly since the beginning of the year.
Paul Ryno and in the Ditch Mitch did in fact get a lot done – they blocked President Trump at every
turn. So they rewarded themselves with many weeks of vacation.
Paul Ryno and in the Ditch Mitch thought they could keep on getting
nothing done and then at the last moment
go to President Trump and once again tell
him “this is the best we can do so you better sign it” as they present
garbage bills for the President’s signature…
But instead President Trump
schlonged them all.
With the three month extension of
the debt limit and the passage of hurricane relief aid President Trump has placed congress in the position
of getting work done or missing their Christmas vacation…
If these treacherous manipulators
want to go on vacation they will have to do what President Trump wants. They now know that President Trump will not
stand like a doofus as they get nothing done on the Trump Agenda.
Ahh, when it comes to the art of the deal, nobody does it
better than Trump. Hurricane Donald kicked
the lazy billionaire funded congress aside and passed a short term financing bill
for the hurricanes ravaging America.
That is just a start, with fires devastating the Pacific Northwest there
is much to be done and it’s going to take hundreds of billions of dollars.
Trump has sent a message loud and clear, he will work with
whomever it takes to pass the agenda of the American people. That agenda is to “Make America Great Again”
at all costs. Hurricane Donald’s message
“get to work and get things done or I will.”
Nobody does it better that’s why Trump is president.
By Patricia Baeten
