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Republican Congress Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory As Infighting Cripples Majority Party

Just six months ago, it looked like the Republican Party was about to go on a legislative blitzkrieg, instead Congress has settled into loser mode.

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Just six months ago, it looked like the Republican Party was about to go on a legislative blitzkrieg, shredding law after law passed by the Obama administration.

Los·erˈlo͞ozər/ noun noun: loser; plural noun: losers. a person or thing that loses or has lost something, especially a game or contest.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Republicans in Washington should be hanging their heads in shame. They control the Congress, control the Senate, control the White House, and just appointed an ultra-Conservative judge to the Supreme Court. Yet, somehow, Republicans are unable to pass any meaningful, large-scale legislation like tax reform, Obamacare repeal, or even funding for the Border Wall. Donald Trump’s amazing victory handed the GOP the ‘keys to the kingdom’, and they are blowing it. Badly. Congress cannot blame this on Trump, he did his part. Congress is not doing theirs. Not even close. #MakeCongressWorkAgain

ObamaCare would be vaporized and replaced with a nickel rattling inside an empty Mountain Dew can. Dodd-Frank was sure to be tossed aside for a transparent giveaway to Wall Street. And Republicans would pass their regressive tax reform, their perplexing border-adjustment tax, and so much more. The GOP hadn’t held total power in American politics since 2006, and the party had become much more conservative in the interim. And instead of George W. Bush, a man who recognized at least some theoretical limits on free market fundamentalism, the new Congress would work with a sub-literate tabula rasa named Donald Trump, a man who could probably be persuaded to inject himself with experimental medication if an important-seeming person whispered “do it” in his ear.

But a funny thing happened on the way to libertarian utopia. Indeed, it turns out that the GOP-controlled Congress can’t seem to pass any meaningful laws at all. Either they have forgotten how, or the divisions in their own increasingly radicalized caucus are proving too difficult to surmount. Whatever the explanation, thus far these GOP legislators are on track to be the least productive group since at least the Civil War.

Now, okay, technically the Ryan-McConnell 115th Congress is so far actually a bit more active than recent Congresses, if you measure by the 43 laws that President Trump has adorned with his garish signature. Obama was at 40 at this point in 2009. George W. Bush had signed even fewer midway through 2001. But sheer number is not the best way to think about how much is being achieved. As The Washington Post‘s Philip Bump pointed out, a majority of the bills signed by Trump thus far have been one page long, meaning many are just symbolic or ceremonial.

Some of this very brief legislation has also been passed under the Congressional Review Act, a previously obscure statute that allows Congress to nullify recently enacted federal regulations. The CRA had been used just once before Trump took office, and yet 14 of the 43 bills signed into law by the president have been CRAs. Most of them roll back Obama-era protections against various kinds of transparent evildoing, like preventing coal mining within 100 feet of streams. They’re not meaningless, but the Voting Rights Act they are not.

So what’s the holdup on important bills getting to Trump’s desk? Both Obama and Bush had passed extraordinarily consequential legislation by this point in their first terms. The Bush tax cuts were signed in June 2001, and the massive stimulus that some economists credit with preventing another Great Depression was inked by Obama in February 2009. This Congress has not yet forwarded any legislation to the president that will significantly alter the trajectory of our politics or economics. Feel free to review the whole list yourself here and argue differently, unless you think the “U.S. Wants To Compete For a World Expo Act” (H.R. 534) is going to be the subject of debate by future historians.

One major problem for the GOP’s lack of progress is polarization — just not the kind you’re thinking of.

Over the past few years, journalists have given significant attention to the data maintained by political scientists at the University of California Los Angeles, which tracks the ideological makeup of individual members of Congress over time. The most important finding they’ve uncovered is that over the past 30 years, congressional Republicans have become substantially more ideologically extreme, while congressional Democrats have moved marginally to the left but are not much different as a group than they were in 1980, a process known as “asymmetric polarization.” For most of the post-war period, there were Democrats who were more conservative than the most liberal Republican, and vice versa. The last time this happened in the Senate was in the 108th Congress, when soon-to-be-ex-Democrat Zell Miller sat to the right of several liberal Republicans, including Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and future party-switching Republicans Lincoln Chafee and Arlen Specter.

The slow decline of this ideological overlap has led inexorably to gridlock and dysfunction when one party controls the presidency and the other leads at least one chamber of Congress. There is is simply less to talk about. It’s not like disagreeing about whether to get a Border Collie or a Boston Terrier; it’s like if you want a dog and only a dog and nothing but a dog and your partner despises animals of all kinds.

But you would think that this sorting would make for more coherent ideological blocs more capable of making policy when one party controls Congress and the presidency, as Republicans do now. That was surely what Republican voters expected when they woke up triumphant on Nov. 9 last year. But the divide within the Republican Party is proving to be as problematic as polarization between the parties. The ideological distance between the Senate’s most liberal member (Maine’s Susan Collins) and the most hard-right senator (Utah’s Mike Lee) is the same as the chasm between a middle-of-the-pack Democrat like Maryland’s Ben Cardin and a conservative like Iowa’s Joni Ernst.

If you want to understand how much harder it is going to be for Republicans to get anything done than it was for the Democrats in 2009-2011, your best bet is to look at this intra-Republican distance. When Democrats were toiling away on what was to become the Affordable Care Act, the total distance between the most left-wing elected Democratic senator (Bernie Sanders) and the most right-wing (Nebraska’s Ben Nelson) was barely half the size of the canyon between Susan Collins and Mike Lee. Think about that for a second.

And it’s not like Collins is alone. She’s part of a cluster of three GOP senators, along with Lisa Murkowski and Shelly Moore Capito, who are much more liberal than the rest of the caucus. (By the way, it is not a coincidence that the GOP’s three most reasonable senators are women). Moreover, Mike Lee is part of a bloc of five far-right radicals — along with Jeff Flake, Rand Paul, Ben Sasse, and Ted Cruz — who are all substantially more conservative than anyone in the Senate during Barack Obama’s first two years in office. In a sane political system, there is a zero percent chance that Mike Lee and Susan Collins would be members of the same political party.

To make matters worse, Republicans control only 52 seats in the Senate and as of yet seem unwilling to nuke the legislative filibuster (something they could do at any time by changing the rules of the Senate). Republicans no longer have conservative Democrats to lean on to get to 60 votes when their own most liberal members are beyond reach, because GOP behavior during the Obama years taught Democrats the electoral value of party unity. That means that even some very conservative pieces of legislation that have already passed the House, including the Financial CHOICE Act (H.R. 10), which guts Dodd-Frank, stand very little chance of becoming law. House leaders, including Speaker Ryan, either aren’t particularly interested in crafting bills that could actually get through the Senate or they have given up trying to forge the necessary compromises.

Or they are delusional.

The result, regardless, is that this Congress is going to be historically unproductive.

How can I be so sure of this? One measure of what Congress is likely to do the rest of the year is to look at bills that have already passed the House but are awaiting action in the Senate. There are 238 of them. Amazingly, GovTrack gives only 13 a better than 50 percent chance of actually arriving on President Trump’s desk in their current form. If that holds up, Trump will have signed just 56 laws by the beginning of the 2018 congressional session. If this tortoise-like pace continues, he will preside over the least productive Congress since Millard Fillmore signed just 74 bills sent to him by the brink-of-war 32nd Congress between 1851 and 1853.

Maybe that will change. But if it doesn’t, the Republican Party’s problems are far bigger than Trump — and will probably get worse before they get better. source

 


 

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In Washington Today, The Pro-Palestinian Members of Our Own US Congress And Senate Booed And Boycotted Speech By Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

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The mood was tense. Benjamin Netanyahu entered the chamber to roaring applause from Republicans but Democrats looked like they’d like to kill him.

The American system of government in Washington DC has been so throughly saturated with Socialists, Communists, Marxists and Leftists of every variety that it’s becoming harder and harder to remember what we used to be and what we used to stand for. You have all these legally-elected anarchists going on and on about “our democracy” when our Founding Fathers never created a democracy, they built a Constitutional Republic. The “democracy’ you hear so much about is is nothing more than talking points from the people’s workers party.

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” 2 Peter 2:10 (KJB)

Earlier today, tens of thousands of presumably American citizens, many of them representing the United Auto Workers, tore down American flags while brandishing Palestinian ones, demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu not be allowed to address Congress. Our pretend president did not attend, our DEI vice president did not attend, and the Democrats that did, like war criminal Rashida Tlaib, sat in silent protest of the visiting Jewish prime minister. Don’t bother looking for the America you once knew, she is gone and in her place sits Jezebel. NTEB has always stood with the Jewish people, we have always stood with the nation of Israel, and Lord willing, always will. Am Yisrael Chai.

Netanyahu calls out Democratic critics and protesters in speech to Congress, lays out Hamas threats

FROM USA TODAY: As he stepped down the aisle shaking hands with lawmakers, he walked by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has called for new elections to replace Netanyahu. Schumer is the highest ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. A number of guests to Netanyahu’s speech wore bright yellow shirts under jackets that read “Seal the deal NOW” in reference to a cease-fire deal in Gaza that would see Israeli hostages released. Periodically throughout the speech, they stood up to reveal their shirts until they were removed from the chamber and arrested.

And as Netanyahu spoke, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian American in Congress and one of Israel’s most vocal critics, held up a sign that read “WAR CRIMINAL” on one side and “GUILTY OF GENOCIDE” on the other. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., who was seated next to Tlaib, moved away from her when she started to display the signs. At one point, conservative hardliner, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., moved to sit next to Tlaib and had a whispered conversation with her. It’s not clear what the two spoke about.

Several prominent Democrats announced ahead of the speech that they wouldn’t be in attendance. While the chamber appeared to be full during his address, several GOP lawmakers were scattered throughout the Democratic side of the aisle. Roughly half of all congressional Democrats were not in attendance.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., instead met with Israeli citizens whose families were victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The Israel-Hamas War began last October, when Hamas militants killed more than 1,000 Israelis and captured around 250 hostages. Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign that has bombarded cities, forced more than 85% of the population in Gaza to be displaced and caused starvation among hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 ranking Senate Democrat, called Israel’s conduct in Gaza a “brutal strategy beyond any acceptable level of self-defense.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Senate President Pro Tempore, skipped the speech and handed off the job of presiding over the event to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.

Highlighting the sensitivity of Netanyahu’s address, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent a letter to lawmakers warning there will be a “zero-tolerance policy” for any disturbances during the speech. If any of their guests interrupt the proceedings, the letter says they will be removed from the House chamber and “subject to arrest.”

The chairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Intelligence Committee and Armed Services Committee, all Democrats, sent their own letter to Biden ahead of the speech urging the president and negotiators to quickly secure a ceasefire deal that would end the war and release the hostages. READ MORE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a joint address to Congress as the war between the Jewish state and Hamas rages on.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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Congress

Rep. Rashida Tlaib Incites Insurrection Against The US Government With Massive Pro-Hamas Protestors Who Stormed The Cannon House Rotunda In ‘J6’ Style

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Pro-Palestinian protestors led by Muslim Rep Rashida Tlaib are taking over the U.S. Capitol as hundreds demand a ceasefire between Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Israel.

Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib stoked the flames of hate today at what became a bona fide insurrection against the United States government where they declared their love for Hamas in Gaza, and their unyielding hatred for the nation of Israel. What happened today is not one bit different from what happened on January 6th, but you wanna bet that none of these anti-government combatants will see any jail time at all? The rules are very different for Democrats and Progressives than for Conservatives.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Proverbs 29:2 (KJB)

Rashida Tlaib deserves to be immediately relieved of her duty as a serving United States member of Congress, as do the rest of their anti-Israel, pro-Hamas ‘Squad’. It is sad to watch America being dismantled piece by piece, and it’s tragic that no one is lifting a finger to stop it. Republicans can’t even get it together to elect a new Speaker of the House, much less solve any of these vexing problems. I love the America our Founding Fathers created, I even love the America I grew up in. But whatever this thing is that has replaced it, this thing we call ‘America’ but isn’t, I don’t care for one, tiny bit.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters invade the Capitol: More than 100 demonstrators led by Rashida Tlaib are arrested after demanding Israeli ceasefire by staging a sit-down in a rotunda in the Congress complex

FROM THE UK DAILY MAIL: The demonstration comes a day after a bombing of a hospital in Gaza killed at least 500 Palestinians. The protestors, dressed in black shirts that read ‘JEWS SAY CEASEFIRE NOW’  and ‘NOT IN OUR NAME’ took over the large rotunda in the Cannon House Office Building.

The demonstrators held posters with messages like ‘LET GAZA LIVE’ and ‘MOURN THE DEAD, AND FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING.’

Capitol Police made 100 arrests as the group got louder and more disruptive with chants and singing. They cut off public access to the Capitol complex as swarms of angry Palestinian advocates flooded the Cannon building.

Capitol Police said of the mass arrests: ‘We warned the protestors to stop demonstrating and when they did not comply we began arresting them.’

Rep. Randy Weber posted on X a video of a sign he had hanging outside his office that said ‘I stand with Israel’ that had been torn down by protesters.  Some Democrats have claimed that Israel committed a war crime by intentionally targeting a hospital – a claim the Israeli Defense Force has avidly denied. The Defense Department said they believed it was ‘highly improbable’ Israeli forces were behind the explosion that killed hundreds of people at the Gaza hospital.

The blast threw Biden’s trip to the Middle East into chaos: a scheduled meeting in Jordanian capital Amman with the king of Jordan and the presidents of Egypt and Palestine was canceled in the fallout of the deadly air strike.

Progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib claimed that Israeli leaders have lied before about their actions after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured his government was not behind the bombing of the Palestinian hospital.

She spoke to the group in a tearful address before they headed into the Capitol. ‘A lot of people are not gonna forget this! It’s not a threat — it isn’t!’

‘We just continue to watch people think it’s okay to bomb a hospital with children. You know what’s so hard sometimes is watching those videos and the people telling the kids don’t cry,’ Tlaib said as she choked up in front of the crowd. READ MORE

U.S. Capitol Police say demonstrations are not allowed inside Congressional buildings and are working to clear the crowd as individuals chant “ceasefire” around the building.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

Please continue to pray for us, and for wisdom for me especially, as we continue taking steps to print the NTEB branded King James Bible for our free Bible and Bibles Behind Bars program. It is exciting and intimidating at the same time. If the Lord has prospered your financially, we ask you to donate to help us continue to send out free Bibles at this level, and even higher than we are at the moment. It takes a lot of prayer, and a lot of resources to do all this. Praise the Lord we are doing it, all of us together, labouring in the Lord’s harvest field. TO THE FIGHT!!!

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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Congress

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Today Gave The Green Light To The Start Of An Impeachment Inquiry Into ‘Abuse Of Power’ By Pretend President Joe Biden

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden for ‘abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption.’

The question is did Joe Biden, as vice president of the United States, sell his influence in exchange for favors and large cash payments which were then disbursed to various members of the Biden family including Hunter Biden? In theory, this is the essence of the information on the infamous Hunter Biden laptop. There is certainly something there, the question is how much can be proven by the Republicans who are not known for their ability to plan and execute any type of political strategy.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Proverbs 29:2 (KJB)

If the GOP is unable to pull this off, it will actually work to strengthen Biden’s position and standing, not weaken it. But if Biden is successfully impeached, do the Democrats take that as a win because now they can dump Biden who has become a liability? However all this plays out, it’s already been decided behind the scenes, as has the 2024 president election.

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Kevin McCarthy Officially Opens Impeachment Inquiry into Joe Biden for ‘Abuse of Power, Obstruction, and Corruption’

FROM BREITBART NEWS: Speaking in the U.S. Capitol Building, McCarthy opened the inquiry by stating that House Republicans uncovered “serious and credible allegations” against President Biden. McCarthy said House investigators found that Joe Biden lied about his involvement in the family business and that bank records show many payments were directed to Biden family members through shell companies. He also noted an FBI informant file that alleged Joe Biden was bribed by a Ukrainian energy executive.  

“Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” he said. “These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. They warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”

“That’s why today, I am directing our house committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” he continued. “This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public. It’s exactly what we want to know: the answers.”

The impeachment inquiry is intended to uncover additional information about Joe Biden’s involvement in the Biden family business.

The impeachment inquiry could lead to a full House vote on articles of impeachment. If approved by 218 votes in the House, the articles would be conveyed to the Senate, where the higher chamber would be forced to hear the evidence during a Senate trial.

Polling supports the need for an impeachment inquiry. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business deals with China and Ukraine, according to a recent CNN survey. Only 38 percent say he was not involved, and just one percent say he was involved and did nothing wrong.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced an investigation into Joe Biden in November. The following months proved to justify Comer’s probe. Bank records in May showed the Biden business received at least $10 million from business schemes in Romania and China. Comer revealed in August the Biden family business received over $20 million from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan while Joe Biden was vice president.

In total, nine Biden family members received payments from the family foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren. READ MORE

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

Please continue to pray for us, and for wisdom for me especially, as we continue taking steps to print the NTEB branded King James Bible for our free Bible and Bibles Behind Bars program. It is exciting and intimidating at the same time. If the Lord has prospered your financially, we ask you to donate to help us continue to send out free Bibles at this level, and even higher than we are at the moment. It takes a lot of prayer, and a lot of resources to do all this. Praise the Lord we are doing it, all of us together, labouring in the Lord’s harvest field. TO THE FIGHT!!!

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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