GOP U. S. House of Representatives decides to . . .

Not sure what they're smokin' over there at CNBC this afternoon: 

House speaker starts August recess early to avoid Jeffrey Epstein votes

 

... On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he was speaking with Maxwell’s defense lawyer to see if Maxwell “would be willing to speak with prosecutors” to see if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.” ...

... Blanche previously served as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump when the president was indicted in four separate cases after ending his first White House term in January 2017. ...

U. S. House GOP majority declines to 219-212 as Mark Green of TN-7 resigns, as expected

 Story.

Democrats are down three seats temporarily due to deaths. 

The GOP House bowed down and worshipped before the GOP Senate and voted for its reconciliation bill lock, stock, and barrel today at 2:30pm, including all the clowns of the House Freedom Caucus

The roll call vote is here.

The $36 trillion national debt will soar.

The interest payments on that debt were $639 billion fiscal year to date at the end of May, and they will soar, too.

The so-called fiscal conservatives of the House Freedom Caucus could have stopped this monstrosity, but they all backed down save for Massie and Fitzpatrick, and they aren't even members.

The entire House Freedom Caucus voted for it. 

 

 

Hakeem Jeffries has finished his speech in the US House, which took 8 hours and 44 minutes, a new record

 

GOP coward Senator Lisa Murkowski today hopes the US House will fix the reconciliation bill she just voted for, just like GOP coward Rep. Chip Roy hoped in May the US Senate would fix the reconciliation bill he just voted for

 You can't make this up!

Cowards hope someone else will do what must be done.

Heroes do it themselves.

Vote Nay for once!

 

 

The GOP will temporarily lose another seat in the US House for several months as Rep. Mark Green (TN-7) is expected to retire immediately after the Congress sends the reconciliation bill to Trump for his signature

 

House GOP votes for tax breaks for rich Democrats from Blue states like New York, New Jersey, and California lol

 

House Republican tax bill passes ‘SALT’ deduction cap of $40,000. Here’s who benefits 

 

... Enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, of 2017, there’s currently a $10,000 limit on the SALT deduction, and raising that cap has been a priority for certain House lawmakers in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California. Filers must itemize deductions to claim the tax break for SALT.

If the House provision is enacted, the SALT cap would rise to $40,000, up from $30,000 in the previous plan, and phases out over $500,000, according to revised language released by the House Rules Committee. The provision would go into effect in 2025. ...

“Any changes to lift the cap would primarily benefit higher earners,” Garrett Watson, director of policy analysis at the Tax Foundation, wrote in an analysis on Tuesday.

With an income phaseout over $400,000, the top 20% of taxpayers “would be the only group to meaningfully benefit,” Watson wrote. ...

Democrat US House math suffers another blow: Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11) succumbs to cancer at age 75

 CNBC reported here.

House Democrats will now have three vacancies and a caucus of 212 vs. 220 for the GOP. 

Representatives Turner (TX-18) and Grijalva (AZ-7) died in March.

Republicans finally advanced their budget out of committee late last night, but just barely

 

Evidently 43 US House GOP are not down for the shtruggle against Iran

 

The GOP runs the House but fails to get Trump's bill out of the budget committee, vote fails 16-21

 

GOP fiscal hawks sink key vote on Trump ‘big, beautiful bill’  

Budget Package Remains Bottled Up in House Committee, for Now

House Budget Committee rejects Trump agenda bill in major setback for GOP leaders

Trump is still pressing for tax increases on the rich to pay for all his gimmicks

 Trump urged US House Speaker Johnson to raise top tax rate, sources say

U.S. President Donald Trump privately urged House Speaker Mike Johnson during a phone call on Wednesday to raise the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans and close the carried interest loophole for Wall Street investors, two people familiar with the conversation said on Thursday. ... Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters last week that Trump had ruled out the idea. ...

Trump's word is meaningless: Mike Waltz goes from secure job as National Security Advisor to UN Ambassador in a matter of just a few days

Something Elise Stefanik also knows only too well lol.

 Trump national security advisor Mike Waltz leaving post after Signal scandal

... Trump earlier this week told The Atlantic that Waltz’s job was secure. ...

Asked if Hegseth would stay in the administration longer than Waltz, Trump replied, “Waltz is fine. I mean, he’s here. He just left this office. He’s fine. He was beat up also.” ...

 

 

 

 

The GOP US House was so proud of passing its budget framework at the end of February, too, but Trump just threw them under the bus for the Senate plan, which will put the country $50 trillion in debt by 2034

 ROFLMAO.

 

 

The New York Times shows FL-1 and FL-6 staying Republican with each GOP candidate garnering about 57% of the vote in tonight's special elections to replace Gaetz and Waltz

 US HOUSE:

GOP 220

DEM 213 (two vacancies due to deaths; seats expected to stay Democrat yielding 215) 

 

Some of what Dark Brandon said in 2022 is what some Democrats still want their leader to say today in 2025

 

... Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic. ... there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country. ... MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. ... They promote authoritarian leaders. ... They thrive on chaos. ... American democracy only works only if we choose to respect the rule of law and the institutions that were set up in this chamber behind me. ...

 

-- Joe Biden, 1 September 2022, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA

 

 

The voters' response to this in 2022 was to flip the Democrats' House 222 majority to a 222 Republican one.

 

In 2024, the Republican lead narrowed to 220-215. Special elections in Florida this week will either ratify that lead or narrow it some more.

 

 

 

Trump & Co. already know they're going to lose in the mid-terms

 

It's going to be a wait that seems like an eternity.

Reported here:

... The same person added that Trump sees little downside politically: 'No. 1, the president is not running for reelection. And No. 2, we're probably gonna lose the House in the midterms.' ...

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) was blunt in his warning: 'If tariffs did have an inflationary impact - or an impact on interest rates that caused inflation and the economy moved toward a recession - that would be a very bad thing… It would turn the Trump presidency from a four year term into a two year term, because we'd lose in the midterms.' ...

 

 

Andrew Sullivan today: The GOP Congress has long since become the equivalent of Putin’s Duma — a rubber-stamp body designed solely to support the executive branch

 Here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(shadow banned by Elon Musk)

Democrats united under Hakeem Jeffries in the US House are the only ones in American politics above water right now

 US House Democrats voted unanimously against the Republicans' continuing spending resolution under -4.2 underwater Republican Speaker Mike Johnson (except for Democrat Jared Golden [ME-2], a Blue Dog Democrat who under ranked choice voting in Maine wins by being the second choice of people who voted for someone else).

Senate Minority Leader Democrat Chucky Schumer (-19.6) led eight other Democrats in the US Senate to pass the continuing spending resolution. 

Republicans are jumping the shark. Opposing that is popular. 

Democrats, are you listening?

LOL Stefanik stays in the House even though Democrats are down two seats due to recent sudden deaths

Whipping the vote for Trump in the GOP-led House must be getting harder and harder given all the mayhem he's causing for Republican voters in Republican districts, who are losing their government jobs and are becoming afraid for their Social Security among other things.

Assuming Republicans keep FL-1 and FL-6, they'll be back to 220 since Stefanik isn't leaving for the UN, but apparently a temporary seven-vote majority is needed because for some legislation the GOP still doesn't have the votes.

 

 

 

 White House withdrawing Stefanik nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to UN 

... House Republicans had expressed concern that if Stefanik was confirmed, it would have made it tougher to get Trump’s agenda through the lower chamber because Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would have lost a vote in his conference and didn’t have a clear idea how long it would take New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to schedule a special election to fill the seat.