While People are Suffering Because of His Policies, Trump Profits off Their Misery and Sets up an "Insurrectionist-Cop Killer Slush Fund"

While people are suffering because of Trump and MAGA Republicans' cuts to the Affordable Care Act, SNAP-Food Assistance, Pell Grants, and Rural Health Care Facilities, the Mad King and his loyalists in Congress think it is a good idea to spend working and middle-class taxpayers' money on a Gilded Age White House Ballroom.

In a social media post, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly reported how parents could not afford to put gas in the car to take their daughter on a 300-mile round-trip to get cancer treatment.

https://twitter.com/SenMarkKelly/status/2056793860097868038

Is this the America you want to live in?

While people are dealing with higher gas and food costs, thanks mainly to Trump's war of choice in Iran, the man who bankrupted a casino is engaging in war profiteering, buying and selling stocks timed to the whims written in his "Truth" Social posts.

While people, including law enforcement, were assaulted on January 6, protecting the country from the Domestic Terrorist Attack that Trump provoked with his Big Lie about the 2020 election results, his handpicked Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, who was once Trump's defense attorney, approved a deal with the I.R.S. with Trump's current personal lawyers on setting up a slush fund of $1.776 billion to pay off those same January 6 criminal animals if they proceed with their outrageous and heinous claims that they were victims of an overzealous Biden/Harris Justice Department.

Trump also secured a deal where the Internal Revenue Service could no longer audit him or his family.

Talk about stacking the deck.

How unconstitutional.

How criminal.

How much lower can these vile people go, especially when using the numerical figure of 1776 to try and make an historical/emotional tie in with America's War for Independence.

Make no mistake.

The filth that attacked the Nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021 were not patriots fighting for freedom and a noble cause.

They were stupid and vile criminal domestic terrorists who caused the death of innocent people while doing the bidding of the person who wants to be America's Fascist Duce.

And Trump is no messianic savior.

He is nothing more than a traitor and a charlatan who has spent his adult life conning and swindling people, bankrupting various businesses, including a casino, and taking the country to the economic and international brink...twice.

Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego introduced an amendment on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to block Trump from using his "Insurrectionist Slush Fund," offering:

"I offer this amendment for one simple reason. Taxpayer dollars should never be used to enrich a sitting president, his family, or his political allies. This week, President Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, but only after the creation of a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded compensation fund.

Let's just let that sink in. The President of the United States sued his own government, and then negotiated an arrangement with his own Department of Justice to create a nearly $2 billion fund to compensate himself, his family, and his allies. According to reports, that fund could be used to compensate individuals involved in the events of January 6th.

Many of those individuals assaulted Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line to defend this institution and everyone in it, including many of us in this room. This guy, this guy, and this guy, and this guy are going to potentially get payouts from the federal government for assaulting these police officers. So much for backing the blue.

Taxpayer dollars should not support those people that attack these officers. This is not justice. It is profound abuse of public funds.

Right now, Americans are struggling with high prices and economic uncertainty. Federal dollars should be used to lower costs and serve the American people, and not create a slush fund for the President's political allies or to reward those who assaulted law enforcement. My amendment is straightforward.

It prohibits the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to pay out settlements for lawsuits brought by the President or his immediate family or allies. It also prohibits creating a fund to provide payments to the President, his family, or the traitors who attack the Capitol. No President, Republican, or Democrat should be able to use the federal treasury as a personal checkbook, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP0P0v6KUXc&t=12s

All the Republicans on the Committee voted against the Gallego Amendment.

What that vote, all of those Republicans told the American People that their loyalty is with the convicted and impeached Trump and the domestic terrorists that attacked the Capitol, and many of them on January 6, 2021, and not them.

Other members of Arizona's Democratic Congressional Coalition reacted strongly against Trump's corrupt shell game in favor of domestic insurrectionists.

Representative Adelita Grijalva posted:

"Let me get this straight: • Trump sued the IRS for $10 BILLION after his tax returns leaked. • Then he put his friend and former personal attorney, Todd Blanche in charge of the Justice Department. • Now there’s a $1.8 BILLION taxpayer-funded slush fund that could funnel YOUR money to Trump allies and even January 6 rioters. Corruption at its finest!"

Representative Greg Stanton wrote on social media:

"This is corruption in broad daylight, and we can never allow it to be normalized."

Senator Mark Kelly also conveyed:

"Trump is using taxpayer money to pay off his friends and allies. This is corruption and theft in broad daylight."

Again, is Trump's America the one you want to live in, where he profits off your misery while his Republican allies say or do nothing and stand with the domestic terrorists-insurrectionists and set up a fund to pay the cop-killers who stormed the Nation's Capitol?

This should not be a tough decision come voting time this November. 

Editorial Cartoons for the Week

 

Representative Stanton and New Democrat House Coalition Unveils The American Promise Agenda

Lower Costs, Less Chaos, Real Solutions

That is the slogan for the new American Promise Agenda released by the New Democrat House Coalition earlier this week.

Among the members of this coalition is Arizona House Congressional District Four Representative Greg Stanton.

Earlier in the month, another Arizona Representative, Yassamin Ansari, participated in the unveiling of the House Democratic Progressive Caucus's New Affordability Agenda.

A pragmatic progressive agenda, the major features include proposals for:

• Ending Trump's Tariffs.
• Extending the Affordable Care Act Tax Credits.
• Restore health care access to the 12 million people who have lost Medicare and Medicaid.
• Lower prescription drug prices.
• Protect reproductive freedom.
• Delivering a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program.
• Reward businesses that provide paid apprenticeships.
• Strengthen labor unions.
• Invest in family farms, expand rural housing and broadband.
• Comprehensive Immigration Reform with Border Security, Dreamer Protection, and Path to Citizenship for eligible individuals.
• Build four million new homes in ten years.
• An innovation agenda that rivals and surpasses China.
• Promote AI Technology with appropriate guardrails.
• Invest in STEM and Innovation degree fields.
• Protect the Voting Rights Act.
• Ban insider trading, prediction market schemes, and crypto scams by Members of Congress and senior officials.
• Securing a code of ethics for the United States Supreme Court.

Please click here to read the whole New Democrat House American's Promise Plan and the proposed pieces of legislation already on file to accomplish it.

Earlier today, Stanton and other New Democrat House members released a short video highlighting what the American's Promise Program is about.

https://twitter.com/NewDemCoalition/status/2055384765377757518

Please see the transcript of the video below:

"New Dems just released our American Promise. What is your promise to the American People?"

Representative Marilyn Strickland: "The federal government is going to make a massive investment in housing and build the housing that we need for people at every age and every stage of their lives.

Representative Salud Carbajal: "My promise to the American people is to continue working hard to bring down essential costs of living like child care, groceries, health care."

Representative Greg Stanton: "Finally, pass comprehensive immigration reform. And we need to actually have people gain more confidence in our government and stamp out the corruption that we're seeing."

Representative Greg Landsman: "My promise is to focus entirely on the two most important things for most people, which is financial well-being and public safety."

Representative Brad Schneider: "The new UDEMS American Promise is about making life better for the American people, securing their future, and providing prosperity and hope for the next generation."

Commenting when the American Promise Agenda came out, Representative Stanton posted on social media:

"New Dems believe the government can do big things again, make our economy work for working people, and restore faith in government. That’s our American Promise."

"People are exhausted by all the chaos, the corruption, and the costs that just keep climbing.

Today, the @NewDemCoalition released our American Promise: a real plan to take on the issues Americans face and put the country on the right track."

Matter of State Strategies Vice President and former Arizona Democratic Party Communications Director Matt Grodsky said of the American Promise Plan to Blog for Arizona:

"This is good branding and focused communication that will resonate with the audience Democrats need."

Also, commenting on the American Promise Plan, Democratic consultant Dr. Rachel Bitecofer wrote to Blog for Arizona:

"I think the New Deal Democrats package is a genuinely smart step in the right direction, especially because it finally recognizes something Democrats have been slow to internalize: politics is about ownership and contrast. You can’t just say “tariffs are bad.” You have to say “Trump’s tariffs.” Voters need to know who caused the problem and who’s offering relief.

For years, Democrats have struggled with economic branding while Republicans successfully claimed the mantle of the “working-class party,” even as their policies overwhelmingly benefit wealthy interests. That creates an opening for Democrats to reclaim economic populism in a direct, understandable way.

Repealing Trump’s tariffs is exactly the kind of clear, kitchen-table economic message Democrats should be running on. Prices matter. Affordability matters. And if Republicans are going to wreck their own economic brand through higher costs and billionaire-first policies, Democrats should absolutely seize the opportunity to define themselves as the party fighting for ordinary people’s economic security.

At the end of the day, Democrats need voters to understand who’s actually looking out for them economically — and unless you’re a billionaire, it sure as hell isn’t today’s Republican Party."

Third Way's Executive Vice President for Policy, Jim Kessler, provided the following statement on the New Democrat House Plan:

"The New Democrats’ American Promise Agenda is equal parts bold and pragmatic. There is no magical thinking or make-pretend policy slogans masking as real ideas. If voters thought this is what all Democrats stood for, Democrats would win majorities in the House and Senate for decades. Moreover, if the entire agenda were passed as one big, beautiful bill, the economic pessimism gripping the nation would be gone. Costs would come down, wages would rise, middle-class wealth would increase, opportunity would flourish in more places, and Americans would feel safe and secure where they live, work, and play. The New Dems always do the hard work of getting the policy right even if it doesn’t create viral moments on social media. I wish more elected representatives shared their love of doing the serious work."

Both progressive wings of the Democratic Party have put forth their agendas for moving the country forward and lifting people up.

Like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in 2020, both these wings need to come together and forge a common progressive agenda that the whole party can run on in 2026. 

These Three Remarks from Mad King Trump May Be the Democratic Midterm Campaign Ads for the Year

When he is not dozing off on television in the Oval Office or heading up a crime family scamming the American taxpayer, or destroying the nation with his brain-dead economic and foreign policies, Mad King Donald Trump gives the press a lot to write about and broadcast with his words.

Earlier today, as he left the White House on his way to China, where the person who screwed the nation's clean energy programs to Beijing's benefit will probably continue selling the country down the river as long as his family and loyalists benefit, Mr. Trump made three remarks to White House reporters that should make wonderful Democratic Midterm Campaign Ads for the year.

When asked about the racial gerrymandering going on against Black-represented districts in Southern States following the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court, the White Nationalist in Chief said:

"I think it's been a wonderful process..."

https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/2054276807881343208

The nation's most prolific serial liar then seranded his big lies about Democrats cheating and rigging elections.

Democrats wanting to drive up voter turnout among citizens who value Democracy and condemn racial gerrymandering would do well to create ads that show the person who was endorsed by former Klan wizard David Duke and who still thinks the Central Park Five are guilty, saying, "I think it's been a wonderful process."

Another remark that should repel all decent Americans is Mr. Male Chauvinist Pig and found liable for sexual assault, continuing his vitriolic attacks on female reporters.

https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/2054293510371635242

Real men would not tolerate this abuse of women and should vote against those who do not call out the 34 time convicted and twice impeached Trump for his inappropriate comments.

A third comment that should generate a Democratic Midterm Campaign ad is the below response to a reporter who asked, "To what extent are Americans' financial situation motivating you to make a deal" with Iran to end the war he started with fellow Neo-Fascist Benjamin Netanyahu.

The man who bankrupted a casino, has a history of stiffing vendors, and signed legislation that took away health care and food assistance from the nation's most vulnerable, replied:

"Not even a little bit...I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."

https://twitter.com/BulwarkOnline/status/2054268020613054905

Some of Arizona's Congressional Democrats did not have to wait for a political ad to react to this gaffe gift from the Stable Genius.

Representative Yassamin Ansari, who spent the day exposing how Trump and his Department of Injustice loyalists are putting pedophile offenders and accessories over the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, posted:

"Says the President of the United States. A tragedy, truly."

Senator Ruben Gallego wrote: "We can tell."

He also posted:

https://twitter.com/HouseForeign/status/2054295431916421438

The ads really do write themselves.

Editorial Cartoons for the Week