The president is politically weak and mentally weak.
This country is desperate for change, and even most Democrats are ready to abandon Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Democrats hold a one-vote lead in the Senate, but one member has just been indicted on federal explosives charges and another has severe dementia.
A third eliminated the dress code to ensure the majority leader was happy to attend, as he insists on wearing shorts and sweatshirts on the Senate floor.
Meanwhile, many urban areas are besieged by crime until Biden’s open borders policy allows millions of undocumented immigrants in need of food, shelter, and medical care to enter the country without screening. Tent cities were popping up.
The dystopian landscape from sea to shining sea should turn into glory days for House Republicans.
They have a slim five-vote majority but are holding the whip at a time when Democratic policies on the economy, inflation, crime and immigration are deeply unpopular.
But rather than seize the moment, House Republicans are circling the firing squad, determined to wrench defeat from the jaws of victory.
The inability to unite around the basic duty of passing a budget makes it look as if we are incapable of governing.
Some people don’t seem concerned about a potential government shutdown.
Their timing is terrible.
In addition to the administration’s repeated failures, there is clear evidence that the president participated in a scheme to expand his family’s influence.
So Biden is not only a liar, but also a compromised commander in chief. Because millions of dollars in payments came from rogue groups of America’s enemies, including China, Russia, and the corrupt Ukrainian oligarchy.
But the pending impeachment inquiry, like everything else, is now on the back burner against threats of shutdown.
One lawmaker called it a “clown show.”
Another calls it “dysfunctional” – and both are Republicans and are talking about their own party.
speaker’s dissatisfaction
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is also confused.
“It’s frustrating in the sense that I don’t understand why people are voting against taking this idea up and discussing it,” he said of the rejection of last week’s spending bill. “This is a whole new concept of people who just want to burn the whole place down. It’s not going to work.”
For Democrats, it’s a gift from God.
Their media handmaidens delight in changing the conversation from policy failures and Biden corruption to Republican dysfunction.
At last count, there were only five budget holds.
One, Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post expressing his displeasure with the impeachment effort.
After the Democratic-like report appeared, my New York Post colleague Steven Nelson revisited reports that Mr. Buck was looking for television appearances to leave Congress.
Mr. Buck confirmed his goals and told Mr. Nelson: “I’m interested in talking to people at CNN and other news organizations, I don’t want to call them left-wing, but left-of-center people, and I’m interested in having that opportunity.” Will work full-time? It would also be great to do it as a contributor. ”
Perhaps aware that Mr. Buck was entrenching himself as a critic of his own party (the only Republican favored by CNN), Mr. Buck once again called Mr. Nelson and asked him to talk to the right-wing Fox News. He also expressed interest in a position at Newsmax.
“I didn’t want to give the impression that I only talked to left-wing people at CNN. I talked to other people about this,” Buck said.
How generous of him!
Mr. Buck’s pitiful new career search aside, there is a solid argument for the holdout caucus.
Using continuing resolutions to temporarily fund the government usually turns them into huge omnibus spending bills that no one has time to read before they are passed.
This sloppy process has obscured any rational discussion of cuts and is largely responsible for large annual deficits and an unsustainable national debt that recently exceeded $33 trillion.
Democrats generally believe that more spending is better, so the burden of budget cuts falls on Republicans.
One result of this dynamic is that the most frugal House Republicans are often at odds with their leaders and colleagues over both the cuts and the process.
They forced John Boehner into retirement and were so bad that Paul Ryan resigned from Congress without serving two full terms as speaker.
McCarthy was in a historically tight spot from the start, needing 15 votes to take office in January.
The public humiliation ended only when Donald Trump made a phone call to persuade the resistance, stripping him of some of his powers in negotiations.
Do’s and don’ts
The comparison with Democrats is most instructive, as some of the same January vetoes are now causing Mr. McCarthy’s problems and Mr. Trump foolishly urging a shutdown.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi also won a four-vote majority during Mr. Biden’s first two years in office, but she didn’t have a fraction of the problems Mr. McCarthy and lawmakers had.
Even when far-left “brigades” of progressives had enough votes to defeat Pelosi’s policies, she repeatedly found a way to keep them in place.
Republican leaders should be very successful.
The good news is that some in the Republican Party are publicly speaking out against party traitors who don’t know when to surrender to the reckoning.
They include two disgruntled lawmakers from the Hudson Valley who were elected last year in districts won by Joe Biden in 2020.
Mark Molinaro and Mike Lawler ’24 are particularly vulnerable, threatening to work with Democrats if Republicans fail to pass a continuing resolution.
Lawler told NBC that his Republican colleagues have to face the facts.
“We need to recognize that in a divided government, where Democrats control the Senate and Democrats control the White House, we’re not going to get everything we want,” he said.
“And to throw a tantrum and stomp your foot, frankly, that’s not only wrong, it’s pathetic.”
that’s right.
The Associated Press has gone crazy…
The Associated Press took the angle too tearjerking, reporting from Mexico: “During the weeks it took for Yeson and Niko to migrate from Venezuela to the United States, they passed through dangerous jungles and over dead bodies. The two are inseparable, and Jason sells his cell phone and they have enough bus fare to continue their journey. Yesung is finally preparing to enter the United States, but he will probably have to leave Niko behind. ”
“Nico is a squirrel.”
wonderful awakening
Reader Joseph Donnelly sees the big picture, writing: “Let’s go on record as Americans smoked dope, binge-watched Netflix, binge-drank beer and nachos, mourned the death of a baby, and passionately encouraged their favorite sports teams to win. –Boomer rock icon, who gave away trophies to everyone in attendance, packed stadiums to see Taylor Swift, felt good about herself with gender change and Roe v. Wade’s Ace Attorney, and left us with thoughts and prayers. They were waiting for someone to do something, but their country was taken away.”
