Tag: Republican Senators

Trump lures GOP senators on impeachment with cold cash

The president is tapping his vast donor network to buck up lawmakers whose support he badly needs — but who also need him.

President Donald Trump is rewarding senators who have his back on impeachment — and sending a message to those who don’t to get on board.

Trump is tapping his vast fundraising network for a handful of loyal senators facing tough reelection bids in 2020. Each of them has signed onto a Republican-backed resolution condemning the inquiry as “unprecedented and undemocratic.”

Conspicuously absent from the group is Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a politically vulnerable Republican who’s refused to support the resolution and avoided taking a stance on impeachment. With his new push, Trump is exerting leverage over a group he badly needs in his corner with an impeachment trial likely coming soon to the Senate — but that also needs him.

Republican Senators Demand Another Tax Break For The Wealthy

More than 20 Republican senators are demanding yet another massive tax break for wealthy Americans.

In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the lawmakers begged the administration to tie capital gains to inflation. The senators, led by Ted Cruz (R-TX), claimed the move would benefit the economy, but a 2018 analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found it would mostly benefit the wealthy.

Such a policy would cost the government about $100 billion to $200 billion in revenue over ten years, placing it on the backs of American taxpayers. Additionally, 86 percent of the benefits would flow only to the top 1 percent of households, according to the analysis.

View the complete July 31 by Mike Stankiewicz on the National Memo website here.

With Bill Barr’s fake Mueller report, the GOP is pulling out the playbook of lies it used to sell us on invading Iraq

It’s starting to look like the fix is in. For two years, special counsel Robert Mueller investigated the Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election, and the possibility that Donald Trump’s campaign somehow colluded with this conspiracy. Now there’s a report, but whether we’ll actually get to see it is unclear, as the Republicans are rapidly working in formation to keep the actual contents of the report from public view.

The strategy they’re using will feel awfully familiar to those of us who lived through the George W. Bush administration’s conspiracy to bamboozle the American public into accepting a war with Iraq: Distort the existing evidence. Lie whenever necessary. Exaggerate any evidence, no matter how iffy, that supports the desired conclusion. Stifle any contradictory evidence as much as possible. And manipulate a gullible media into amplifying the spin instead of reporting the truth.

The Mueller report is weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, all over again. Republicans are using the same playbook to protect Trump that they used to hype the Iraq war, and the strategy seems, yet again, to be working.

View the complete March 26 article by Amanda Marcotte from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

We are former senators. The Senate has long stood in defense of democracy — and must again.

Dear Senate colleagues,

As former members of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans, it is our shared view that we are entering a dangerous period, and we feel an obligation to speak up about serious challenges to the rule of law, the Constitution, our governing institutions and our national security.

We are on the eve of the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and the House’s commencement of investigations of the president and his administration. The likely convergence of these two events will occur at a time when simmering regional conflicts and global power confrontations continue to threaten our security, economy and geopolitical stability.

It is a time, like other critical junctures in our history, when our nation must engage at every level with strategic precision and the hand of both the president and the Senate.

View the complete December 10 commentary by Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), Max Cleland (D-Ga.), William Cohen (R-Maine), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Al D’Amato (R-N.Y.), John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), David Durenberger (R-Minn.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Wyche Fowler (D-Ga.), Bob Graham(D-Fla.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Gary Hart (D-Colo.), Bennett Johnston (D-La.), Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), David Pryor (D-Ark.), Don Riegle (D-Mich.), Chuck Robb (D-Va.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), John W. Warner (R-Va.), Lowell Weicker (I-Conn.), Tim Wirth(D-Colo.) on The Washington Post website here.