Monday, December 28, 2020

Trump opens Pandora's box

Today, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (322-87) to override Trump's veto of the Defense spending Bill, which has been passed by Congress and signed by the President for the last 59 years in a row without drama.

This time around Trump vetoed the defense spending bill because of the provision in the bill that would allow the military to change the names of U.S. military installations that are named after prominent Confederates. Trump, a racist until the end, would prevent our soldiers abroad from getting their well-earned raises and prevent Vietnam-era veterans from receiving additional benefits in order to fight for traitors that were part of the Confederacy. This is another move to placate or appease the extreme white nationalists that make up PART of the President's base.  

The South lost the war and it will not rise again Mr. Trump. The House overriding this veto will put substantial pressure on the Republicans in the Senate to either buck the President or not give our troops in the field and their families a raise for the coming year. All I can say to the Republican Party is that when you lie down with dogs, you gets fleas. They should override the veto easily, but it remains to be seen what they do. In order to override the veto, the Senate would need a 2/3's majority, which means many of the impotent and cowardly Republicans would need to break with the President for the first time in four years.

The House also passed, on a bi-partisan basis, the Cash Act today, 275-134, which would increase the direct payments to individuals for Covid Relief from $600 to $2,000. This puts additional political pressure on the Senate to either agree with the President's demand for higher payments or pretend to still care about the debt, which now stands at $27 trillion - the highest its ever been. 

Republicans, who during Obama's Presidency screamed nation debt at every turn, forgot about the debt and deficits during the Trump administration when they passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut which favored corporations and wealthiest Americans. They did not seem to mind running up the debt to reward their political donors, but now when the average American truly needs their help, they say, we don't have it.

Giving additional money back to the taxpayers in this country is a no brainer. Remember, it is our money that they are talking about "giving" back to us. I would rather that every American be given a larger stimulus so they could spend it as they see fit. When people got the first cash payments in April, the economy was able to maintain some steadiness because people were spending money. This kept people employed which means the government maintained revenue through state and federal income tax and sales taxes for the states and local governments. Yet they refuse to "give" us our money that we need. Maybe they are planning more corporate welfare next year. As a business owner, the best part of 2020 fiscally for most businesses was when people had money in their pockets, and that would be no different now.   


Since 2018, The House of Representatives, led by the Democratic Party, has been working and passing countless bills that would have helped the nation including the Covid Relief bill which was passed months ago, but Mitch McConnell and GOP Senators and House members, in their quest to lick the President's toes or coddle their donors, have refused to take up any of them, and have instead spent every waking moment confirming right-wing judges to the federal bench. 

For a long time, the GOP has claimed that Democrats wanted to not legislate but appoint activist judges who would circumvent Congress' role as the legislative body, and write law, but it has been proven that it is the Republicans who refuse to do the hard work of putting together bi-partisan legislation. It is in fact the GOP that wants to leave it to Federal Judges to rewrite law. 

The GOP proves on a daily basis that they are the party of hypocrisy. They project their own failures on the Democratic Party. When they say the Democrats refuse to acknowledge the debt, it is in fact they who hand out corporate welfare. When they claim that the left is trying to appoint an activist judiciary, it is in fact the GOP who is refusing to write legislation and hope the judges strike down things like the Affordable Care Act and Roe v. Wade.

We as a nation must be able to identify who is our congressional representative and who are Senators are and if they refuse to do the nation's business, vote them out!     

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