Brooks and Capehart from February 26, 2021

 

Putting the People First, the House Democrats Pass the American Rescue Plan

Photo from 6ABC

In a 219 to 212 vote, House Democrats again did the work of governing and putting people first by passing the American Rescue Plan.

This legislation, the latest in a string of bills over the last year to combat the medical and socioeconomic effects of the Coronavirus, will if passed by the Senate:

• Fund COVID 19 vaccine production and distribution.
• Provide $1400 in cash payments to qualifying individuals.
• Extend and expand pandemic-related unemployment insurance.
• Infuse monies to schools and child care facilities to safely reopen.
• Give states and local governments appropriations to cover budget shortfalls and forestall cuts in vital services like law enforcement, firefighters, and teachers.
• Fund small business assistance.
• Combat food insecurity by giving needed families access to free groceries.
• Provide housing and rental assistance for qualifying families.
• Increase Obamacare health care subsidies for qualifying families.
• Reduce child poverty by expanding the Child Tax and Earned Income Tax Credits.
• Give tax credits to businesses that offer paid family leave.

A $15.00 an hour increase to the minimum wage was also included in the $1.9 trillion plan but the Senate Parliamentarian ruled on Thursday (February 25, 2021) that provision would need to come out of the legislation per Senate budget reconciliation rules.

How did the members of the former Party of Lincoln vote on the American Rescue Plan?

Like they did whenever a Democrat is in the White House who puts forth a plan to help the American People.

They, despite the overwhelming support of the American People including economists,  Republican Mayors, and Governors, all voted against it.

They, unlike their Senate counterparts, did not put forth their own alternative COVID 19 relief plan, proving their incapability to govern.

This time, Democrats should not let Republicans get off the hook. They should immediately go on the political offensive and  target all Republicans that voted against this bill with ads that say prospective Republican incumbents voted:

• Against giving you $1400.
• Against giving you a living wage.
• Against giving you a COVID 19 Vaccine.
• To let you go hungry.
• Against you keeping your house.

The American Rescue Plan now goes to the Senate where it will, according to reporting from the Washington Post, likely be amended by Moderate Democrats to become less expensive and more targeted with regards to where the aid will go.

Senators, according to reporting by CBS News, may also try a creative approach to increasing the minimum wage that meets the Senate Parliamentarian guidelines by inserting a tax penalty to large corporations like Walmart or Amazon that do not pay all their workers at least $15.00 an hour and tax credits to small businesses that do.

When the Senate passes its version of the American Rescue Plan, it will go back to the House of Representatives for a final vote.

Hopefully, the final legislation will be on President Biden's desk before unemployment insurance runs out for millions of Americans in Mid March.

The American Rescue Plan is a first step toward steering the country in the right direction again after four years of plutocratic Trumpists and Republicans catering to the one percent.

Infrastructure spending, voting rights, immigration reform, and other social justice legislation should quickly follow so Democrats can tell the voters America, in spite of Republican obstructionism, is moving forward again.

 

Quisling Putrid Scum Republicans in Arizona and Washington DC Show Their True Colors Again This Week

 For the people of Arizona and the United States, this has been another week where the Quisling Putrid Scum members of the Republican Party in both the Grand Canyon State and Washington D.C. showed their true colors.

Not that they really have been hiding them.

Here are some of the latest examples of vile behavior from the Trump Zone-Fox Island-Disinfowar end of the political spectrum.

In Arizona

Kelli Ward: The Arizona Queen election denier of the Presidential Election of 2020 still has not consented to an audit of her January 23 reelection to head the State Republican Party.  Advocates wanting the audit have given Ward and her team until March 1 to agree or face court action to compel her to conduct the audit. It appears the election denier is the real election thief. Get out the popcorn again for the latest episode in the Arizona Republican Civil War.

Mark Finchem: It appears Legislative District (LD) 11 Mr. Finchem told a fib about being a legislative fellow at the University of Arizona. That was news to the University whose spokespeople relayed, according to reporting by AZ Central that  Finchem "does not now and has never held a fellowship at the law school."

Earlier in the week, an advocacy group filed a complaint against Mr. Finchem for not reporting a $6,000 payment he received from the Trump Reelection Campaign.

No wonder Finchem loves Trump. They share the same talent for dishonesty.

Republican Members of the State Legislature that are out to make it harder for you to vote:  Earlier last week, the Government and Elections Committee passed several bills designed to make it more difficult to register to vote, get an early ballot, and receive accurate information to make a decision on what to cast a ballot for. As this writer has stated several times, beware of the people that want to suppress your ability to vote. They are not here to help you and are not true public servants.

Republican Members of the State Legislature that cruelly want Mothers to carry Fetuses to Term that have been shown to have genetic defects.

Republicans on the State Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote, passed a cruel measure on February 24, 2021, that would force mothers to carry fetuses to term that have been shown to have genetic defects.

Again, this legislation, possibly designed as a test case to go before the United States Supreme Court, is cruel. No one should deny a mother the right to terminate a pregnancy if doctors tell her the fetus/unborn child she is carrying has genetic defects that would lead to a shortened life, great suffering, or both. Who are these legislators that think they can play God with a mother and sick child?

Washington D.C.

Liz Cheney: Only three Republican Representatives voted for the 2021 Equality Act that provides protection for members of the LGBTQ Community. Cheney, whose sister is a Lesbian, was not one of them. She is brave enough to speak out against Trump but weak to stick up for her sister. Not exactly a profile in courage in this case.

Majorie Taylor Greene: The resident Q'Anon nut job of the House of Representative set a new low (yes it is possible) by putting a banner on her outside office wall that said "There are two genders: Male and Female. Trust the science" after Representative Marie Newman, a parent of a transgender child had put a transgender pride flag outside her office to mock Greene's opposition to the Equality Act.

Ron Johnson: Another week, another outlandish claim by Wisconsin's mentally challenged Senator. This time, at the Senate Committee hearing investigating why Capitol Security did not adequately meet the challenge of the Trumpist Domestic Terrorist attackers at the Nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021, Mr. Johnson put forth an outlandish claim, championed by the fringe right, that the attackers were provoked by law enforcement or were leftists masquerading as Trumpists. The people of Wisconsin can find a better Senator that is grounded in reality in 2022.

Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell: Both House and Senate Minority Leaders have voiced opposition to the composition and scope of January 6, 2021, Commission. McConnell's main issue is his worry that the Commission would focus too much on how the Trumpist Domestic Terrorists were recruited and incited to attack the Capitol.

Duh.

Mitch McConnell: He makes the list twice. Weeks after saying Trump was guilty of inciting the Domestic Terrorist attack on the Nation's Capitol (but still voting to acquit him at the record second impeachment trial,) McConnell inexplicably told Fox News that he would support Donald Trump if he won the 2024 Presidential Nomination.

Enemy of the People-Obstructionist in Chief-Moscow Mitch has no soul.

Rand Paul: How did he get a medical degree? At a confirmation hearing for Dr. Rachel Levine, the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Executive Branch post (Assistant Health Secretary,) Dr. (yes, it is hard to believe) Paul decided this was the right time to question her about hormone therapy for minors.

To their credit, Senators Patty Murray (the Chairperson of the Committee overseeing the Levine Nomination) and Tammy Baldwin condemned Paul for his moronic, inaccurate, and disrespectful approach.

Steve Scalise: The number two Republican in the House of Representatives could not bring himself to admit to Jonathan Karl of ABC News that Joe Biden did not steal the election from Donald Trump. He hemmed and hawed in the exchange, still clinging to baseless charges of voter fraud and state courts overextending themselves on allowing early ballots.

It may be progress that he admitted the electors confirmed Biden's election.

Republican Senators that are giving Biden/Harris Nominees like Neera Tanden, Deb Haaland, Xavier Becerra, and others a hard time for no good reason. 

Some Republican Senators who have nothing better to do but be no governing obstructionist hypocrites have attempted to put up roadblocks to several Biden/Harris nominees for reasons that should have forced them to vote against virtually all of the Trump/Pence Nominees. They need to cut the crap and confirm all of the deserving Biden/Harris Nominees.

Republican House Members who voted against the Equality Act and the American Rescue Plan.

By the end of today, the great majority of the Republican House Caucus will vote against the American People by casting their ballots opposing the Equality Act (which passed yesterday) and the American Rescue Plan (which will be decided today (February 26, 2021.)

How can the American People vote for people that do not believe in:

• Protecting members of the LGBTQ Community from harassment?
• Helping the American People combat the COVID 19 Pandemic and make ends meet through this public health emergency. How can Republicans vote against funds for vaccine distribution, unemployment insurance, cash payments to people in need,  reducing child poverty, and reopening schools? That is what most of them will be doing today.

Look at the former Party of Lincoln. It is not a pleasant sight. Their members are mostly individuals who are:

• Anti-American People.
• Anti Democracy.
• Anti Republic.
• Anti Constitution.
• Anti Reality.
• Anti Education.
• Anti Equality.

The Lincoln Project captured this perfectly in one of their latest ads called "The New Republican Party."

This New Republican Party is a show that should close on its first night. The Quisling Putrid Scum Actors in this horror movie do not need to be rewarded with reelection. Stop them at the ballot box in 2022, 2024, and beyond.

 

Republican Senators and Waffling Democrats need to Cut the Crap and Confirm all of Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris's Nominees.

 

Photo From Yahoo News/Reuters

In 1947, legendary Republican Senator and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Arthur Vandenburg, according to David McCullough's renowned work Truman, sped the confirmation of George C. Marshall as Secretary of State in one day.

This action occurred at a time when Cold War Tensions were rising between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Where are Republicans like Vandenberg today that will work diligently for the good of the country to advance the confirmation process for Democratic Presidents?

They do not exist.

As many writers in various media outlets (like Jennifer Rubin and  Greg Sargent of the Washington Post) across the country have recounted, Republicans in the United States Senate, many of whom, complain that President Joe Biden is not being bipartisan, have engaged in what they do best these past few decades: obstruction and delay.

Remember, over the last month, Republicans stonewalled confirmation hearings of Biden/Harris Administration Nominees by:

• Not doing their part in the Presidential Transition.
• Dragging their feet on a power-sharing agreement with Democrats.
• Not allowing any confirmation votes during the Trump Impeachment Trial.
• Not scheduling a hearing for some nominees before the trial like Merrick Garland for Attorney General.
• Forcing cloture votes on qualified nominees like now Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Pending Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

What are the reasons for Republicans doing this during a pandemic and great socioeconomic distress? Policy differences are not one and do not be fooled when Republicans say so. It is a combination of Hypocrisy, Racism, Sexism, and an inability to govern.

Just look, as many have pointed out at Neera Tanden, the Biden/Harris Nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget.

As I wrote when she was first nominated, Republican whining about her tweets, given what they put up with Donald Trump and his cult followers spewed for the last four years, was mind-boggling.

To say she is not qualified or lacks the temperament for the job, as Susan Collins has said, for the position is equally absurd. As Jennifer Rubin pointed out in her piece titled, "Republicans’ appalling confirmation record is symptomatic of their entire approach to politics," Trump's first appointment to head the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney:

"He(Mulvaney) gleefully championed the 2013 federal government shutdown (“good policy” he called it). Other than the late John McCain, not a single Republican (Collins included) opposed him. He was sufficiently bipartisan, but Tanden is not? Are we supposed to believe that senators who ignored a president who was banned from Twitter for four years was “offended” by Tanden or “concerned” about partisanship? Please."

Tanden deserves to be confirmed. It is wrong that Republicans and Democrats Joe Manchin and possibly Kyrsten Sinema are being hypocrites and holding her tweets against her.

Republicans have also gone after Interior Nominee New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland because of her support for the Green New Deal and other asinine reasons. Apparently, Republican Senators like John Barrasso are sensitive to her (but not Trump's) tweets too. What a man.  Fortunately, it appears her confirmation will proceed after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said he would vote to confirm her. 

Finally, Republicans have expressed vocal and written opposition to Health and Human Services Nominee (and former Representative and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra,) saying he is not qualified for that position.

With that logic, why did Republicans support Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development or Betsy DeVos for Education in the Trump/Pence Administration?

None of the nominee's Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have put forth to help administer the Executive Branch are out of the mainstream.

There are no embarrassments like Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo, Keith Cuccinelli, or Scott Pruitt among the Biden/Harris picks.

They are well-qualified and experienced technocrats and in some cases former legislators, who deserve the opportunity to serve their country during this time of crisis.

Republican Senators and waffling Democratic caucus members (like Sinema, Manchin, and Sanders,) need to cut the crap and let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have all their nominees.

 

Hopefully the next 95 Months of the Biden/Harris Administration Will be Like the First

 One month down. Ninety-Five to go. Hopefully, the remaining seven years and eleven months of the Biden/Harris Administration (should all go well) will be as productive, competent, human, and Presidential as the first thirty days.

In the first month of their Administration, the Biden/Harris team has restored decency and honor to the White House and, after four years, steered the ship of state in a forward direction.

Gone are the endless maniacal and lying tweets of Mr. Biden's predecessor.

Gone is the chaos from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that enveloped the country.

Gone from the White House is the incompetence and criminal behavior that:

• Brought on half a million deaths from the Coronavirus.
• Destroyed the nation's economy.
• Damaged the United States' reputation around the world.
• The attempt to destroy the Republic and American Democracy.

The Biden/Harris Administration has taken steps, mostly through Executive Orders and Legislative Proposals to:

• Successfully combat the Coronavirus and vaccinate the American People.
• Rebuild the Economy.
• Reduce inequality.
• Reform the immigration system.
• Positively reengage with the world.
• Restore Democracy in this country.
• Restore a government that stresses facts and reality.
• Use the Executive Branch to advance goals to help the American People, not selfish benefits for themselves.

They have created an Administration whose team (once all are confirmed) is the most diverse in United States History.

That is not to say there have not been errors. No Administration is ever perfect.

They have created confusion on when it is best to reopen schools during this stage of the COVID 19 Pandemic.

They did not immediately fire a White House staffer after it was confirmed he unjustifiably berated a female journalist. That person did resign after he was suspended without pay.

Finally, while Mr. Biden does occasionally stray from strictly adhering to the facts, he is not on pace to tie or go ahead of Donald I lied over 30,000 times while being President Trump.

Fact Checkers will have to spend time examining other public servant's comments now instead of solely concentrating on the Executive Branch of the United States Government.

Despite these occasional errors, The Biden/Harris team has started governing on a solid foundation.

Hopefully, this will continue as they endeavor to pass their major legislative proposals on COVID relief, infrastructure, clean energy/sustainability, immigration reform, expanding voting rights/access, and other social justice measures.

The country and the American People desperately need it these next 95 months.

 

 

Merrick Garland is Coming for the Coup Plotters

 Judge Merrick Garland was masterful today at his confirmation hearing to become the next Attorney General of the United States.

He was moving when discussing with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker his reasons for accepting the nomination from President Joe Biden to become the next Attorney General, invoking his family's history of fleeing Anti Semitism in Europe and emigrating to the United States.

Judge Garland said:

"I feel an obligation to the country to pay back and this is the highest best use of my own set of skills to pay back and so I want very much to be the kind of Attorney General that you're saying I could become. I'll do my best to try and be that kind of Attorney General. "

Unlike his immediate confirmed predecessor to the position, Bill Barr, Garland declared his Justice Department would be independent of the Administration, saying:

"I am not the president's lawyer. I am the United States' lawyer."

What is galling is that it was Republican enablers of Donald Trump like Quisling Ted Fly Away to Cancun Cruz that had the nerve to ask that question.

Perhaps the most telling exchange of the hearing with regards to the immediate direction of the Justice Department if Judge Garland is confirmed is the below exchange between Rhode Island Senator Sheldon White House and the Attorney General Nominee with regards to the investigation of the events leading up to, during, and after the Trumpist Domestic Terrorist Attack on the Nations Capitol on January 6. 2021.

Senator Whitehouse asked Judge Garland:

"With regards to January 6, I'd like to make sure you're willing to look upstream from the actual occupants who assaulted the building in the same way that in a drug case you would look upstream from the street dealers to try to find the kingpins and that you will not rule out investigation of funders, organizers, ringleaders, or aiders and abettors who were not present in the capitol on January 6."

Judge Garland replied:

"...We begin with the people on the ground (the rioters) and we work our way up to those...who are involved and further involved and we will pursue these leads wherever they take us."

With that reply, Judge Garland gave a sophisticated version of the renowned quote from Rambo II when the lead character played by Sylvester Stallone tells the lead American operative that betrayed him.

"I'm coming to get you."

To all the coup plotters that helped ignite the spark that led to the January 6 Trumpist Domestic Terrorist Attacks,  Attorney General Merrick Garland and his Justice Department are coming for you.

That includes Arizonans election deniers and alleged coup plotter Quislings like Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Mark Finchem, and Anthony Kern.

That includes fellow Trumpist enablers like Rudy Giuliani, Mo Brooks, and Donald Trump Jr.

That includes twice impeached, Donald Trump.

The tradition of judicial independence is coming back to the Justice Department.

Trumpists beware because your days of trampling on the Constitution, law and order, reality,  are coming to an end.

There is a new Attorney General coming and he represents the people of the United States, not the former Aspiring Duce-Chief Executive Demagogue now residing at Mara Largo.

 

 

SNL Cold Open from 2/20/21