It's a preview of the GOP's 2020 messaging.

1/29/2019 3:03:03 PM

McConnell is going to allow a vote on green new deal. I think he thinks people who vote for it can have it used against them, but I think the gop is really understanding how much the general public supports bold solutions to climate change.

2/12/2019 9:22:14 PM

Good job Turtle.

Supporting this fake national emergency just made it that much easier to claim climate change, gun violence and healthcare are national emergencies in 2021!

2/14/2019 3:20:46 PM

This deal all hinges on Ann Coulter's take on twitter later

2/14/2019 3:45:46 PM

So are we at the point now where a President just declares a national emergency when he doesn't get exactly what he wants?

2/14/2019 3:53:14 PM

The best part is when the very serious beltway media takes Rubio and Cruz as good faith actors when they rail about the president in 2021 doing the same thing. Maybe they can even bring in Paul Ryan to criticize the increased deficit at that point.

2/14/2019 4:00:40 PM

We need their current comments juxtaposed with their previous comments referring to Barack Obama as a tyrant for his executive order on DACA.

2/14/2019 4:15:26 PM

^^^ It's almost like folks should have been listening to little-L libertarians screaming at the top of their lungs about the creep of executive power over the last 20 years.

2/14/2019 4:30:43 PM

^ A million times this.

2/15/2019 9:22:08 AM

This isn't creep, this is abuse.

Until we have a constitution that only has a legislative branch and judiciary, it's the duty of the congress to hold the president accountable for abuse.

The constitution isn't self-executing, it's meant to be a will of the people. The core problem is the people don't have the will anymore to strive for functioning government institutions.

It's not that previous presidents didn't know they could abuse many, many laws, they just didn't out of good faith and belief in democracy. The 2 solutions are an extremely stringent and onerous set of laws defining how government operations, or voters and legislators who can grit their teeth and act on principles of democracy.

2/15/2019 1:53:41 PM

Quote :

"It's not that previous presidents didn't know they could abuse many, many laws, they just didn't out of good faith and belief in democracy."

We still have active national emergencies for the purpose of sanctioning persons tied to conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and Iran. If you think defending our southern border is an abuse of power, then how do you justify the others?

2/15/2019 2:12:51 PM

I don't think "defending the southern border" is their problem. They believe the southern border doesn't need defense, and this is nothing more than an ego trip for Trump.

And I tend to agree.

2/15/2019 2:25:33 PM

“Defending an area of the southern border that is a massive desert with a huge pointless wall”

2/15/2019 3:19:13 PM

^^^
How is wasting billions of dollars on trump’s pet project “defending the southern border”? I didn’t realize there were real people who thinks trump’s plainly stupid idea could actually serve to impact immigration.

In the grand scheme of things the government wasting 8 billions of dollars to essentially do nothing isn’t the worst abuse of power, but it definitely is setting the precedent for presidents to just declare emergencies when they don’t get the funding they want.

Let alone the damage done to wherever he’s taking money from.

2/15/2019 8:36:31 PM

Quote :

"Trump intends to draw $3.6 billion from military construction funds and $2.5 billion from a military drug interdiction program to help build 234 miles of new barriers along the border."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/national-security/trump-looks-to-raid-pentagon-budget-for-wall-money-using-emergency-powers/2019/02/15/cd0fcdb8-3149-11e9-ac6c-14eea99d5e24_story.html


Looll taking money from actual programs to stop drugs to fund a pointless wall

You’re seriously brain damaged if you think this is about “border security”.

2/15/2019 10:21:16 PM

Quote :

"We still have active national emergencies for the purpose of sanctioning persons tied to conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and Iran. If you think defending our southern border is an abuse of power, then how do you justify the others?"

So all of the other "national emergencies" are problematic, of course, but what makes this one different is that it is explicitly being done to circumvent Congress. For all of their faults, the various other national emergencies had at least the tacit blessing of the legislature. This time, the House of Representatives has already firmly said, "No," and the emergency is being used to do an end-run around them. That's what makes it an abuse of power.

Of course, to take your question literally, I don't justify the others; it's clear that "national emergencies" have been used with reckless abandon for far too long, and I would love to see Congress establish some sane parameters for what qualifies. You know, if Putin decides the time is ripe and lands "little green men" all over Alaska or something, fine, let the President take the reins. But nothing has ever happened in Zimbabwe that qualifies as a national emergency for the United States.

2/15/2019 10:39:31 PM

Interestingly, if any of the lawsuits actually make it past the standing determination phase, the only way this could get struck down would be for the Supreme Court to declare the statute giving the President this power to be unConstitutional. It's definitely an end-around Congress, but it's one they explicitly gave.

I guess they are now seeing why they never should have given that power up in the first place.

2/15/2019 11:27:00 PM

I learned that congress is supposed to be voting to reup these national emergencies every 6months and apparently in decades, they haven't done a single vote... wtf...

2/16/2019 12:35:26 AM

I imagine Congress hasn't voted on them because it's pointless. Originally, Congress could reject an emergency declaration with a simple majority vote. It was challenged in the SC, who determined that Congress' rejection could be vetoed by the President.

With that, you see the problem. If Congress can't muster a 2/3rds vote to reject or end an emergency which the President supports, then there is little point to do so. I imagine that most of the active "emergencies" aren't being acted upon, so ending it is a waste of time.

2/16/2019 2:25:29 PM

I don't understand why Obama left the national emergency declaration against Iran in place after all he did to try to work out a deal with them while in office. That declaration has been in place for almost 40 years now. It makes the rest of the declarations seem almost trivial.

2/17/2019 6:32:09 PM

I can only assume that Matt Gaetz was already expecting to go to jail before he tweeted this; otherwise, I'm not sure why he would have thought that this was a good idea.

https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1100503846386835456

2/26/2019 6:34:32 PM

Probably because he has no sense:

https://www.gq.com/story/matt-gaetz-trumpiest-congressman-in-washington

2/26/2019 9:32:54 PM

Watching bits of the hearing, it’s always striking to me how dumb these people are.

They didn’t seem to grasp the evidence boxes were returned or the disclosure form asked about contact with gov agencies, or that Cohen was lying to protect trump, and he’s going to jail for lying to protect trump.

It’s fascinating too AOC consistently asks the most insightful questions yet gets painted by the right as being like Sarah Palin.

2/27/2019 8:16:25 PM

There's only two narrative modes for women of the left. The unattractive power-harpie or the beautiful idiot.

2/28/2019 8:53:12 AM

^I'm sorry you feel that way about women. You might need to consider changing your perspective.

^^AOC has brought her reputation on herself. In fact, if she was a R, she would be lampooned on all the liberal nightly shows every night.

2/28/2019 10:27:41 AM

And there it is!

2/28/2019 10:31:31 AM

^^ Genuinely impressed how you fell into that trap with complete lack of any self-awareness. Kudos.

2/28/2019 10:33:02 AM

CPAC has always been a shit show but my God, the entire GOP has turned into a Trump cult. It’s insane. And embarrassing.

2/28/2019 10:53:00 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19ZmP5f_-fs

https://s3.amazonaws.com/acu-web/CPAC-2019-Agenda-Website-2.27.pdf

I'm disappointed that I missed Charlie Kirk and Sebastian Gorka.

2/28/2019 11:09:22 AM

Is it ok to say anyone who trafficked in birtherism was guilty of playing to racist supporters and narratives? I don’t want to make any congressmen cry.

Also, if any female or POC acted the way Meadows and Jordan did yesterday they would have been savaged as too emotional for Congress.

2/28/2019 11:33:00 AM

Quote :

"^I'm sorry you feel that way about women. You might need to consider changing your perspective. ^^AOC has brought her reputation on herself. In fact, if she was a R, she would be lampooned on all the liberal nightly shows every night."

:italian chef kiss:

2/28/2019 11:41:57 AM

Quote :

"Scott Walker, at CPAC, says that people are taking already-born babies home from the hospital and aborting them there. I did not know that was a thing."

http://twitter.com/alexnazaryan/status/1101119212842598402

2/28/2019 11:47:44 AM

That's all over social media too, people talking about democrats voted for bills that would allow people to kill babies after they were born. I haven't been following that whole issue, so I wasn't sure what exactly they were referring too, assumed it was some right-wing talking point.

2/28/2019 11:50:23 AM

Quote :

"The Democrat appearing in CPAC videos and speeches the most, by far: @AOC. More than any 2020 Dem. An Oliver North-narrated NRA video just ended with the footage of her dancing outside her office, with the color drained to make it look more ominous."

http://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1101128828808806401

lol

2/28/2019 1:09:09 PM

she's living that rent-free life

2/28/2019 1:11:23 PM

Sounds about right for the largest incel convention in the world.

2/28/2019 1:17:34 PM

Former Maine governor Paul Lepage said the popular vote mandate would wipe out the kill of white people.

He served from 2011-2019 but go ahead and tell me how Trump is new and an outlier in the GOP

3/1/2019 2:45:24 PM

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjqpzw/this-giant-conservative-convention-used-to-hate-trump-now-its-a-maga-rally4

3/1/2019 3:09:58 PM

don't worry, as soon as trump is gone CPAC and others will claim he was a democrat

3/1/2019 3:16:58 PM

West Virginia living true to type.

3/2/2019 7:24:51 PM

I assume you're referring to this?

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/02/699699805/sign-linking-muslim-congresswoman-ilhan-omar-to-9-11-sparks-outrage-in-west-virg

3/4/2019 12:55:53 PM

good thing they just compared a muslim to terrorists and didn't do something horrible like criticizing the influence of the pro-israel lobby otherwise people might have gotten really mad

3/4/2019 1:15:40 PM

^^ yup

3/4/2019 1:18:44 PM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-federal-deficit-ballooned-at-start-of-new-fiscal-year-up-77-percent-from-a-year-before/2019/03/05/ff8d31f6-3f75-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html

Quote :

"The federal budget deficit ballooned rapidly in the first four months of the fiscal year amid falling tax revenue and higher spending, the Treasury Department said Tuesday... The deficit grew 77 percent in the first four months of fiscal 2019 compared with the same period one year before, Treasury said. The total deficit for the four-month period was $310 billion, Treasury said, up from $176 billion for the same period one year earlier."

Quote :

"Tax revenue for October 2018 through January 2019 fell $19 billion, or 2 percent, Treasury said. It noted a major reduction in corporate tax payments over the first four months of the fiscal year, falling close to 25 percent, or $17 billion... Spending, meanwhile, increased 9 percent over the same period. The biggest increases were for defense military programs, which saw a 12 percent increase, and Medicare, which saw a 16 percent increase. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the deficit this year will reach close to $900 billion, because the government spends so much more money than it brings in through revenue."

3/6/2019 11:25:39 AM

Trade deficit blew up too:

Quote :

"America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world rose to its highest level in history last year as the United States imported more goods than ever, including a record amount from China, ballooning the deficit to $891.3 billion"

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/us/politics/us-trade-deficit.html

3/6/2019 4:31:02 PM

Lmao

Quote :

"House Democrats have been under pressure for a week on anti-semitism but House Republicans have bailed them out. No 3 house r Liz Cheney, Lee zeldin and Louie Gohmert vote no. Jeff Duncan present. An embarrassing moment for house gop."

Lol that quote is out of date, 23 gop reps voted no, and Steve King voted present
https://twitter.com/pdmcleod/status/1103789392278310913?s=19

[Edited on March 7, 2019 at 6:03 PM. Reason : E]

3/7/2019 5:59:19 PM

Will Megan McCain cry tears of joy that it passed, or tears of sadness that it passed tomorrow on the view?

3/7/2019 8:22:41 PM

she’s retweeting Ben Shapiro now

so glad to have her as a #NeverTrump ally

3/7/2019 10:36:33 PM

Also retweeting open white supremacists. I’m sure she didn’t know that was the case but Omar got media raked for similar.

This whole shitshow is being covered like it’s a good faith debate by the right. Horserace political coverage is flat out garbage.

3/8/2019 7:25:38 AM

https://www.wral.com/house-approves-sweeping-ethics-election-overhaul-package/18243993/

Quote :

"he Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved legislation aimed at reducing the role of big money in politics, ensuring fair elections and strengthening ethics standards. But it stands little chance in the Republican-run Senate, where the GOP leader has pledged it will not come up for a vote, and the White House issued a veto threat. The House measure would make it easier to register and vote, and would tighten election security and require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns. Election Day would become a holiday for federal workers, and a public financing system for congressional campaigns would be set up. The legislation approved 234-193 would bar voter roll purges such as those seen in Georgia, Ohio and elsewhere, and restore voting rights for ex-prisoners. It was a straight party-line vote, with all Democrats voting "yes" and all Republicans voting "no." Republicans called the bill a Democratic power grab that amounts to a federal takeover of elections. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the proposal was dead on arrival in that chamber.... .. ..."

3/8/2019 12:40:15 PM