Tag Archives: House of Representatives

Herb Stein, Meet Mick Mulvaney

Monday, 23 October 2017 08:48

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, October 23, 2017:

English: Official portrait of US Rep. Mick Mul...

Mick Mulvaney

University of Virginia professor Herbert Stein, the father of Ben Stein of Ferris Bueller fame, was known as a pragmatic conservative. But he is best known for his cryptic expression, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”

Mick Mulvaney’s hopeful outlook hasn’t yet been tarnished by his experience in Washington. Serving as a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina prior to accepting the position of President Trump’s Director of Office of Management and Budget, Mulvaney really thinks, based on his public statements, that things really can go on forever. All that is needed is a little tweaking: “We need to grow our economy again and get our fiscal house in order. We can do that through smart spending restraint, tax reform, and cutting red tape.”

A closer look at the size of that fiscal deficit, however, reveals Mr. Mulvaney’s naiveté: on Thursday the Treasury Department announced that the deficit for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 was

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Trump Halts Chinese Deal to “Protect National Security”

Friday, 15 September 2017 06:00

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, September 14, 2017:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced on Wednesday that the proposed purchase of Lattice Semiconductor — the world’s second-largest manufacturer of simple and complex programmable logic devices — by China-backed Canyon Bridge Capital Partners was blocked by President Trump:

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Florida Judge Rules that the Legislature Cannot Modify a Law it Passed Earlier

Thursday, 06 July 2017 05:12

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, July 5, 2017:

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One of the essential doctrines involved in limiting government is the separation of powers. By putting governmental powers into separate hands, the founders hoped that each would constrain the other and thus protect liberty. Article I of the federal Constitution states that “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Article III states that “The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”

Florida’s constitution is very similar:

The judicial power shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts of appeal, circuit courts, and county courts. No other courts may be established by the state, any political subdivision, or any municipality.

When it comes to practices and procedures, however, it’s different:

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Triggerman in Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s Death Finally Arrested

Saturday, 15 April 2017 06:04

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, April 13, 2017:

English: Official portrait of United States At...

Eric Holder, the man behind the operation, who denied it all.

On the evening of December 14, 2010, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and other BORTAC (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) agents were patrolling Peck Canyon in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, about 11 miles north of the Mexico border. They ran into five members of a “rip crew” — low-level drug cartel operatives looking for drug smugglers to rob — and attempted to arrest them. When Terry and the others fired non-lethal beanbag rounds, the rip crew responded with automatic fire from AK-47 rifles. In the resulting firefight, Terry was killed. The suspected triggerman, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, was arrested on Wednesday on a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua.

His arrest was the result of a coordinated effort by the DEA, U.S. Marshalls, and BORTAC. This ends the search for the fifth and final member of that rip crew. The other four are serving long prison sentences for their part in the incident.

Terry’s death, it will be remembered,

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ObamaCare is Imploding All by Itself

Tuesday, 28 March 2017 05:37

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, March 27, 2017:

The best person to ask about ObamaCare is not the patient, but the doctor. He’s the one carrying the burden: trying to help his patients with one hand while trying to manage the requirements of the state with the other. One who knows is Jeffery Barke, M.D., a 54-year-old family practice physician in Newport Beach, California. He not only predicted the collapse of ObamaCare (ACA) but wrote that it was planned that way:

As ObamaCare’s troubles mount, I’ve heard my patients and my peers in healthcare ask: How could the law’s authors not have seen this coming?

For my part, I think a different question needs to be asked: What if they did? What if ObamaCare was purposely designed to fail?

Every day, it seems like there are a dozen new headlines about the crisis facing ObamaCare. Premiums are rising faster than ever. Meanwhile, health insurance companies are abandoning the law’s exchanges left and right, unable to compete in the top-down, regulation-driven environment created by the law. Less than three years into its implementation, the law has never looked so precarious.

He saw firsthand that ObamaCare never did what it was supposed to do:

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Xavier Becerra, Radical Pick for California AG, Likely a Shoo-in

Tuesday, 10 January 2017 07:02

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, January 9, 2017:

English: Official Congressional portrait of Co...

Congressman Xavier Becerra.

On Tuesday California’s Senate begins confirmation hearings on Governor Jerry Brown’s nominee for the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra. Given his radical background, his long history of associating with communist and progressive groups, and his far-left voting record including opposition to rights enshrined in the Second Amendment, Becerra ought to be a slam-dunk.

First voted into office as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, Becerra has welcomed the support of far-left groups such as the

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Connecticut Democrat Pushes Electoral College to Vote for Hillary

Wednesday, 14 December 2016 07:16

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, December 12, 2016:

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Representative James Himes (D-Conn.), tweeted on Sunday night that Donald Trump is “completely unhinged” and that the Electoral College “must do what it was designed for”: vote for Hillary.

The following day CNN’s New Day interviewed the Connecticut congressman and asked him about his tweet. He responded: “What finally pushed me over the edge was when the president-elect of the United States criticized the CIA and the intelligence community.” He urged the Electoral College, which meets on Monday, December 19, to vote for Clinton, even though such a vote would result in “an awful lot of litigation.”

And then the congressman unburdened himself of his understanding as to why the Founders provided for an Electoral College in Article II of the Constitution and pushed for its subsequent modification by the 12th Amendment, which was ratified on June 15, 1804:

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Hillary Wins Popular Vote; Trump Will Be the Next President

Wednesday, 09 November 2016 17:05

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, November 9, 2016:

James Madison, Hamilton's major collaborator, ...

James Madison, Hamilton’s major collaborator, later President of the United States and “Father of the Constitution”

Following one of the most contentious presidential elections in recent memory, Hillary Clinton won more popular votes than Donald Trump in the nationwide election — while losing to Trump in the Electoral College vote. As of Wednesday morning (when this is being written), incomplete returns showed Clinton leading Trump by 165,292 popular votes — 59,344,158 to 59,178,867. But since the Constitution still reigns, members of the Electoral College are expected to meet next month and elect Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution states:

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Progressive Democrats Shut Down House Over Gun Control Demands

Friday, 24 June 2016 04:23

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, June 23, 2016:

English: Official Congressional portrait of Co...

Official Congressional portrait of Congressman John Lewis.

Seeing an opportunity that couldn’t be wasted, Representative John Lewis (D-Ga.) led a Progressive sit-in that brought to a halt the proceedings of the House of Representatives this week.

Lewis, a longtime radical revolutionary with Communist Party affiliations, led the sit-in, blaming it on Republicans’ unwillingness to bring to the floor a vote on expanding background checks and adding suspected terrorists to a “no fly/no-buy” watchlist. The sit-in began at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and, at its peak, numbered nearly 170 House Democrats (along with several Democrat senators) before it petered out around 3 a.m. today (Thursday).

Some called it grandstanding while others called it

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Stock Market is Predicting a Republican President

Thursday, 11 February 2016 06:41

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Mark Hulbert’s study of correlations between the stock market and presidential elections and Jeff Hirsch’s Stock Trader’s Almanac are making a powerful case that, come November, it will be a Republican occupying the White House for the next four years.

The Hulbert Financial Digest is so highly regarded that

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Article I Project Aims to Restore Balance Between Congress, White House

Friday, 05 February 2016 16:31

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, February 5, 2016:

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Following the three-day National Lawyers Convention in Washington in November sponsored by the Federalist Society, the Article I Project was announced. Designed to restore the balance of powers provided for by the Founders in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, the project was picked up quickly by Representatives Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

The project is necessary, according to the Federalist Society, because

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“Audacious Executive Actions” Coming, Promises Obama’s Chief of Staff

Thursday, 14 January 2016 06:35

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, January 13, 2016:

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Missing from the president’s State of the Union message last night was any reiteration of his promise to “go it alone” if Congress wouldn’t pass legislation friendly to his radical agenda. Some thought that in so doing he might be acknowledging his impotence during his last year in office.

On Wednesday Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, disabused any suggestion that he was backing away from imposing unilateral executive action. Speaking to reporters, McDonough imperially announced:

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Utah Congressman has Drunk Washington’s Kool-Aid

Friday, 02 October 2015 05:23

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, September 30, 2015:

It has been said that someone with a reputation as an early riser can sleep ’til noon with impunity. So it appears to be with Jason Chaffetz, first elected to the House of Representatives from Utah’s 3^rd congressional district in 2008. In the 111^th Congress, he scored 92 out of 100 in the John Birch Society’s Freedom Index, which rates congressmen based on their adherence to the constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements. In other words, the FI is a shortcut to seeing just how closely any congressman comes to keeping his oath of office.

In the 112^th Congress, Chaffetz slipped to

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Putting the Shuck on the Rubes: Today’s Letter from John Boehner

Saturday, 26 September 2015 04:39

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, September 25, 2015:

English: U.S. President Barack Obama meets wit...

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Speaker of the House John Boehner

The very day that John Boehner announced his resignation as Speaker of the House and his intention to vacate his seat, his fund-raising letter arrived in the mail. It positively dripped with sincerity:

This past January I was sworn in as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and I reaffirmed my promise to continue leading our Republican House Majority in listening to you and following your will.

Whatever problems there might be in Washington, they’re all the Democrats’ fault:

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Tracking Freedom’s Decline in America

Thursday, 17 September 2015 13:05

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, September 17, 2015:

A recent spate of reports, analyses, and indexes continue to confirm the decline of personal and economic freedom in the United States. The Fifth Annual report from the Fraser Institute, “The Human Freedom Index” published last month shows the U.S. falling from 17th place worldwide to 20th in the areas of personal, civil, and economic freedom.

Ian Vasquez, one of the report’s authors, wrote:

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Int’l Tests Show U.S. Students Poor in Math, Civics, Literacy

Wednesday, 13 May 2015 04:18

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The recent flurry of test results on how American students are faring in school has resulted in much commentary decrying their dismal performance compared to their international peers.

The PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) study recently released by the National Center for Education Statistics compared the performance of 15-year-old students among 65 countries, including all 34 member countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and confirmed what was already widely known: U.S. students are nowhere near the top in math, science, or literacy. Twenty-nine educational systems turn out better students than does the United States in mathematics, while students in 22 systems were more capable in science than were U.S. students. In reading literacy 19 educational systems turned out more skilled students than the U.S. public school system.

Eighth-graders participating in the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test given under the auspices of the Department of Education showed no significant improvement over their dismal performance recorded four years ago. Just 18 percent of them scored at or above the Proficient level in U.S. history, while 27 percent scored Proficient in geography, and 23 percent reached or exceeded that level in civics.

The latest from Pew Research — “What the Public Knows” — showed that

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ATF Drops Proposed Ammo Ban; Agency’s Very Existence Threatened

Thursday, 12 March 2015 04:52

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, March 11, 2015:

The groundswell of public and congressional opposition against the ATF’s proposed ban on 5.56 M855 rifle ammunition was so swift and strong that the agency announced on Tuesday that it was backing down. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was not only bombarded with more than 80,000 negative responses to its latest anti-Second Amendment maneuver, but it also was blasted in Congress, where 238 House members and 52 senators signed letters opposing the ammo ban. Not only that, but legislation has been introduced to abolish the agency.

One of those signing the letter of opposition in the House — the one circulated by Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) — was none other than the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative John Culberson (R-Texas). Culberson is a Tea Party favorite and no friend of the ATF, and his committee has jurisdiction over funding for the ATF.

Goodlatte was pleased that the ATF backed down:

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Boehner Retaliates, Strips Opponents of Committee Responsibilities

Thursday, 08 January 2015 05:51

This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, January 7, 2015:

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In the days running up to the opening of the 114th Congress, speculation was rampant that House Speaker John Boehner’s bid for a third term as speaker was in jeopardy. So much so that Boehner launched a full-court press including meetings with those opposed to his reelection and phone calls to dissidents right up to the last minute before the vote.

In the end, a combination of bad weather, a funeral, and a popular Florida Republican’s reluctance to oppose the speaker until the day before the vote spelled victory for Boehner.

Under House rules, only a majority of those present — not a majority of the total House membership — is needed to elect the speaker. With many Democrats attending the funeral service of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, and bad weather delaying flights into Washington, those present numbered just 401 out of House membership of 434 (New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm resigned last week after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion). In the end, Boehner secured his position for another two years with 216 votes.

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Cassidy Replaces Landrieu; GOP Gains Nine Senate Seats

Tuesday, 09 December 2014 06:51

This article first appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, December 8, 2014:

The Louisiana runoff election on Saturday for U.S. Senate was closer than many polls indicated, with Congressman Bill Cassidy defeating three-term incumbent Senator Mary Landrieu by 56 percent to 44 percent. Coupled with Republican victories in two Louisiana House districts, Republicans will have 54 votes in the new Senate (out of 100) and 246 votes in the new House of Representatives (out of 435). Remarkably, Democrats will be without a single governor or U.S. senator across nine Old South states, from the Carolinas to Texas.

Louisianans didn’t so much vote for Cassidy as they voted to get rid of Landrieu, once considered one of the Democrat Party’s strongest incumbents. She has been a staunch supporter of most of Obama’s policies, including

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West Virginia a Microcosm of the National Republican Sweep

Saturday, 08 November 2014 07:07

English: Official Congressional portrait of Co...

English: Official Congressional portrait of Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This article first appeared at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, November 7, 2014:

For the first time since the policies of Republican President Herbert Hoover so enraged West Virginia voters that the state shifted to the Democrats, newly enraged voters there have tossed the Democrats out in favor of the Republicans. While the shift was seismic when it comes to party labels, in political ideology, not so much, but an improvement nonetheless.

The first observation from West Virginia, when viewed as a microcosm of the national election on Tuesday, is the power of an enraged electorate in determining political outcomes.

Before the election, Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives trailed Democrats by six seats. After the election, Republicans now hold a 30-seat majority, a monumental shift of 36 seats.

In the state Senate, the shift was just as remarkable.

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