•The Hustings joins the Senate and House of Representatives in taking Thanksgiving recess. The Senate returns Monday, November 29, the House returns Tuesday, November 30 and The Hustings returns Wednesday, December 1. Happy Thanksgiving.
Build Back Better Passes House, 220-213 – Since when does the House filibuster? They call it the “Magic Minute” and House leaders may use it to speak for as long as they want. Then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, used it to delay a vote on a Trump administration immigration bill in 2018.
Current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s, R-CA, Magic Minute came to eight hours, 32 minutes, by the time he finished at 4:46 a.m. EST Friday, The Hill reports, on his getting a COVID-19 booster, inflation, the Gettysburg Address, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, President Washington crossing the Delaware, and U.S. policy toward China.
This was McCarthy’s Magic Minute to try and delay President Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill. On that, the minority leader said this: “You are spending so much money. Never before!”
McCarthy’s warning on the level of spending surely will echo on the Senate floor when that chamber takes up the bill next month, or more likely, next year.
Keep in mind the $1.75-trillion BBB covers 10 years of spending. Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office turned in its report scoring the BBB, with the estimate it will add $367 billion to the federal budget deficit over those next 10 years. HR 3576’s Democratic proponents argue the CBO score does not count an additional $207 billion in revenue it has estimated the BBB would bring in by providing more money for IRS enforcement, according to The Hill’s report.
The math v. McCarthy:
•BBB deficit spending minus the estimated increase in tax revenues from the added IRS enforcement comes to $160 billion over 10 years, or an average of $16 billion per year, per the CBO report.
•The CBO projected the contentious Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, which averages out to $190 billion per year.
•Senators have proposed nearly 1,000 amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which reached the Senate floor Thursday (Politico). One of these is by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a lead proponent of BBB, who wants to slash 10% from military spending. The White House has requested $715 billion – that’s for 2022 – but the Senate Armed Services Committee has requested $740 billion, or $25 billion more. For one year.
Republicans can legitimately protest a big social safety net spending bill coming during the pandemic and 6.2% annual inflation. They cannot legitimately claim it is anywhere near the biggest spending bill, ever.
The House passed HR 5376 just before 10 a.m. Friday, by 220-213 vote. Rep. Jared Golden, D-ME, was the only congress member to vote against his party on the bill, which now proceeds to the Senate.
“This bill is monumental,” Speaker Pelosi said in a press conference after the vote. “It’s historic, it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done.”
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Navarro Subpoenaed by House COVID Committee -- Peter Navarro, failed politician (he ran for office in San Diego five times and secured victory zero times) and economist of dubious repute (he is a big proponent of tariffs, which even Adam Smith knew didn’t work out well for those on the receiving end), the man who served in the Trump administration as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy (a position created for him that ceased to exist post-Trump presidency, which gives you an indication of its value: Do created positions in government ever go away unless they are completely dubious?), has been issued a subpoena by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, according to Politico.
Note: When Politico contacted Navarro regarding the congressional investigation, he responded, “I will be delivering a case of my new book In Trump Time to members of the committee which explains why this is indeed a witch hunt.”
What do we see here?
•The completely mercenary approach of people who were in the Trump administration (“my new book”). One of Navarro’s roles was to secure medical supplies and drugs. Apparently, there were contracts let to companies without open bidding to, Politico reports, “companies with close ties to the administration.” Remember the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)? That was in Navarro’s remit.
•The continued nonsensical claims (“witch hunt”). Navarro, when leading efforts to respond to the pandemic, a man with no background in science, no background in medicine, pushed hydroxychloroquine. Even though the FDA had revoked emergency use authorization for the drug, Navarro still promoted it.
All the best people.
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Keep Your Kids Away from the Computer Screen for This – In the scrum following QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley’s sentencing to 41 months in federal prison for obstructing an official proceeding by participating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, one reporter asked the defendant’s attorney what he considered “appropriate accountability” for ex-President Trump Mediaite reports.
“If you’re asking my opinion, my opinion is meaningless,”
Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, replied. “I will say that I would probably be far more effective over a beer with former President Trump, even if he didn’t have a beer, because I understand he doesn’t drink beer, but I’d have a beer. And I’d tell him, ‘you know what? You’ve got a few fucking things to do. Including clearing this fucking mess up and taking care of a lot of the jackasses that you fucked up because of January 6.” (Note that Chansley pleaded guilty to his charges.) Watkins continued, “In the meantime, I might talk to him about some other things that I agree with him on. But my opinion doesn’t mean shit.”
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash