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cksmart-world · 2 months ago

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SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

December 10, 2024

AND THE “UTAHN OF THE YEAR” IS …

OK Wilson, here we go again. Like years past, The Salt Lake Tribune will again select the “Utahn of the Year.” It's quite an honor when you consider some of the past honorees: The Salt Lake City International Airport won in 2023. See Wilson, you don't have to be a person to be Person of the Year. In 2021 the honor went to The Great Salt Lake. No smirking, Wilson. In 2007, there were two recipients: the Trolley Square shooting rampage and the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster. Confused? Well, the staff here at Smart Bomb can't find a common thread but that's not unusual. Other winners include the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, who died in Congress but nobody noticed. Elizabeth Smart got the nod in 2009 for getting kidnapped, sexually abused and surviving looking just great. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was Utahn of the Year in 2000 for telling the state legislature to muck off — although he used a word different than “muck.” In 2002, the honor went to LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinkley for hosting the Winter Games and successfully lighting the Olympic torch with a flaming arrow shot from across Rice-Eccles Stadium. This year after much deliberation the staff here at Smart Bomb is nominating Gov. Spencer Cox for kissing Trump's ass over the graves of fallen soldiers at the hallowed Arlington National Cemetery. You go, Spencer!

THE DEPARTMENT OF SLASH & BURN

LET'S REALLY FIX AMERICA

Republicans soon will be in total control of the federal government. With Donald J. Trump in the White House and both the Senate and House dominated by the GOP... well stuff is going to get fixed and good. This, of course, doesn't include Elon Musk and that Swamy guy who will be in charge of the unofficial Department of Slash & Burn. The president-elect appointed the private sector duo to be something akin to Batman and Robin fighting wasteful spending, government overreach and stuff like Social Security and Medicare that wastes a lot of good money on old people. After five decades of hard work convincing the American people that government sucks, the GOP and Team Trump have the political capital to do away with all suckful bureaucracies. Like who needs the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management. There are some 3 million non-military federal employees. Why not just cut about half of them. Simple enough. Then those paper-pushers will have to get real jobs. Musk shrank Twitter's workforce by 80 percent and said upcoming cuts to the federal workforce "will send shockwaves through the system." Cool. Of course when hurricanes and floods and pandemics wipe out a community it will take a little longer to save people, but you can't have everything.

GREATEST AIR ON EARTH — NOT EXACTLY

In case you haven't noticed Salt Lake City is a boom town. High rise buildings are sprouting up like mushrooms in a cow pasture and big-money developers are planning big projects here, there and everywhere. The population, no doubt, is going to grow and grow. But how will they get around in the crush of traffic. All the building and additional cars are going to make our bad air even worse. But nobody wants to do anything about. So Wilson, how bad is our air:

The air in Salt Lake City is so bad that Republicans are blaming Democrats for it.

The air in Salt Lake City is so bad that migrating birds are coming down with bronchitis.

The air is so bad that the faithful might think the Angel Moroni has flown the coop.

The air is so bad that Mayor Erin Mendenhall wants to repurpose the Bangerter pumps on Great Salt Lake to blow the smog to Wendover.

The air is so bad that The Salt Lake Tribune could name it “Utahn of the Year.”

The air is so bad that the Utah Travel Council is working on a slogan to minimize negative economic impacts — The Greatest Air On Earth. Right.

Post script — That'll do it for another crazy week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of Taylor Swift so you don't have to. Hey Wilson, did you know that Taylor Swift is a one-woman economic engine? Her 152-concert “Eras Tour” across 52 countries grossed $2.2 billion — yes, billion with a “b.” According to CNN, concertgoers spent an average $1,300 on travel, hotels, food and merchandise. Worldwide, Swifties spent a total of between $5 billion and $10 billion on such items. “These events have had a major revitalizing effect on local tourism industries and downtowns still struggling from the effects of the pandemic,” the California Center for Jobs & the Economy reported. Speaking of superstars, Lindsey Vonn, the fearless downhill ski racer of an era gone by has clicked into her bindings at age 40 and returned to the World Cup circuit. When Vonn retired 6 years ago, she had 82 World Cup race victories, which stood as the record for a woman. She also had 10 surgeries — most following nasty high-speed crashes. American Mikaela Shiffrin surpassed Vonn last year and now has 99 wins. Vonn's victories were high-speed races; she has 43 downhill wins and 28 super G first places, compared to Shiffrins 4 Downhills and 5 Super Gs. Most of Shiffrin's first place finishes came in Slalom — 62. Shiffrin is 29. Go girl.

Well gee Wilson, maybe we should go out with a little something to hype The Tribune's “Utahn of the Year” thing. Hopefully it will be a human being this year and if it can't be Spencer Cox, maybe it will be Post Malone. But the smart money is on Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith who has promised to remake downtown Salt Lake City in his own image. So wake up the band, Wilson and take us outa here:

I am a Utah Person, sir, and I live across the green, Our gang it is the jolliest that you have ever seen. Our students are the finest and each one's a shining star, Our yell, you'll hear it ringing through the mountains near and far!

Who am I, sir, A Utah Person am I! A Utah Person, sir, Will be 'til I die. Ki-yi! We're up to snuff, we never bluff, we're game for any fuss. No rival band of college fans dare meet us in The Muss. So fill your lungs and sing it out and shout it to the sky, We'll fight for dear old crimson for a Utah Person am I! Ki-yi!

And when we prom the avenue, All lined up in a row, and arm in arm, And step in time as down the street we go. No matter if a freshman green, or in a senior's gown, the people all admit we are the warmest gang in town. We may not live forever on this jolly good sphere, But while we do we'll live a life of merriment and cheer, And when our college days are o'er and night is drawing nigh, With parting breath we'll sing that song: "A Utah Person Am I."

(Utah Man — the University of Utah fight song — modified by the Smart Bomb staff)

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wherelibertydwells · 5 years ago

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Cosko posted the home addresses and phone numbers of GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- as well as then-Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah -- on Wikipedia.

Cosko, prosecutors said, became angry about the senators' support for Kavanaugh. Cosko intended to intimidate the senators and their families, according to court records.

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investmart007 · 7 years ago

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Trump pauses looming metal tariffs for close US allies

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/trump-pauses-looming-metal-tariffs-close-us-allies/102124/

Trump pauses looming metal tariffs for close US allies

WASHINGTON/March 22, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) —The European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Canada and Mexico will get initial exemptions from looming steel and aluminum tariffs from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump authorized the exemptions late Thursday night.

Trump is planning to impose tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum — trade penalties aimed at China for flooding the world with cheap steel and aluminum.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the Senate Finance Committee that the exempted countries are involved in various stages of trade talks with the U.S., and that Trump decided “to pause” the tariffs for them.

The U.S. is in consultations with Canada and Mexico in an effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump moved on a separate trade front earlier Thursday, paving the way for tariffs on China as punishment for what he said is the theft of American technology. He told reporters that the threat of the steel and aluminum tariffs was already having an impact.

“Many countries are calling to negotiate better trade deals because they don’t want to have to pay the steel and aluminum tariffs,” Trump said.

Lighthizer identified the countries initially exempted from the steel and aluminum tariffs in response to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who said lawmakers wanted more consultation from the administration on trade.

“There are countries with whom we’re negotiating, and then the question becomes the obvious one that you think, as a matter of business, how does this work?” Lighthizer said. “So what he has decided to do is to pause the imposition of the tariffs with respect to those countries.”

Before Lighthizer’s congressional testimony, Germany’s economy minister, Peter Altmaier, said he had found officials in Washington “open to our arguments” during a recent visit with the EU trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom.

Altmaier told Germany’s parliament “it is a question of fundamental significance: whether we all stand for open and fair world markets in the future.”

Trump campaigned on promises to bring down America’s trade deficit, which stood at $566 billion last year, by rewriting trade agreements and cracking down on what he called abusive commercial practices by U.S. trading partners. But Trump was slow to turn rhetoric to action. In January, he imposed tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines. Then he announced the steel and aluminum tariffs, saying reliance on imported metals jeopardizes U.S. national security.

Lighthizer said the nation’s trade deficit indicates that the global rules on trade sometimes make it hard for U.S. companies to export.

The administration “is seeking to build a better, fairer system of global markets that will lead to higher living standards for all Americans,” Lighthizer said.

GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the committee chairman, said he was “deeply disappointed in the decision to impose global tariffs to address a problem caused by China.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he was troubled to hear that South Korea would be initially exempted from the steel and aluminum tariffs.

“I was not expecting that,” Brown said. “Korea has unfairly dumped steel and other products in our country.”

___

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

By KEVIN FREKING, By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (A.S)

___

#GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah #North American Free Trade Agreement #The European Union #Trump pauses looming #US allies

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a-wandering-fool · 6 years ago

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Via Daily Caller:

Justice Brett Kavanaugh has hired a black law clerk for his new chambers at the U.S. Supreme Court, matching Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s record of African-American clerkship hiring during her tenure on the nation’s highest judicial tribunal.

With his first clerkship hires, Kavanaugh also set a gender composition record, an apparent attempt to buck the high court’s hiring patterns, which tend to favor white, male graduates of elite law schools.

Since joining the high court in 1993, Ginsburg has hired over 100 law clerks, just one of whom is black.

Ginsburg’s hiring practices have been criticized for decades. During her 1993 confirmation hearings, GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah asked Ginsburg if a court might reasonably conclude that a small business in a majority black city that hired 57 white employees and zero black employees over a period of years was discriminatory. Ginsburg dodged, before Hatch pointed out that was in fact her own record of clerkship hiring in her 13 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Keep reading…

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inothernews · 7 years ago

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The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday to protect special counsel Robert Mueller. In a 14-7 vote, the panel approved the bipartisan proposal that deeply divided Republicans on the committee. With every committee Democrat backing the legislation, only one Republican was needed to secure passage. In the end, four Republicans voted for the bill: Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.). Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch (Utah), Mike Lee (Utah), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Ben Sasse (Neb.), John Kennedy (La.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) opposed it. The vote marks the first time Congress has advanced legislation to formally protect Mueller from being fired by President Trump, who has railed against him in public and reportedly talked in private of dismissing him. The bill, sponsored by Tillis and Graham (R-S.C.) with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.), would codify Department of Justice regulations that say only a senior Department of Justice official can fire Mueller or another special counsel. It would give a special counsel an "expedited review" of their firing. If a court determines that it wasn't for "good cause," the special counsel would be reinstated. The committee also added new reporting requirements into the bill, including notification when a special counsel is appointed or removed and requiring a report be given to Congress after an investigation wraps up; that report would detail the investigation's findings and prosecution decisions.

The Hill, “Senate Panel Approves Bill to Protect Special Counsel.”

Mitch McConnell, that spineless coward, has already promised this bill won’t reach the Senate floor... let’s see what’s next and just how stupid the GOP is.

#senate #republicans #gop #trump #donald trump #robert mueller #news #russia

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quakerjoe · 6 years ago

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In early 2016, after Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested then-President Barack Obama nominate Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. The Democratic president took the advice and sent Garland – to borrow McConnell’s phrasing, a “qualified, experienced, and mainstream nominee” – to the Senate for consideration.

Hatch, Graham, McConnel, and their Republican brethren refused to give the compromise nominee so much as a hearing. GOP senators not only held open the Supreme Court vacancy for a year, several Republicans said that if voters elected another Democratic president, they were prepared to leave that vacancy open until 2021, at the earliest.

There were “no boundaries” to the GOP’s tactics.

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democracyin-news · 3 years ago

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Lawmakers pay tribute to late GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, 88, of Utah

Democratic and Republican lawmakers paid tribute on Saturday for former Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who passed away at age 88 in Salt Lake City surrounded by family, according to a release from the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation. Hatch served for 42 years in the Senate, making him also the longest-serving Utah senator in history. He represented his state through the administrations of four…

View On WordPress

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dewitty1 · 3 years ago

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Former Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch Dead At 88

Former GOP Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch has died at the age of 88.

Hatch, the longest-serving senator in Utah history and the longest serving Republican senator, was also the former President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. He represented the state from 1977 to 2019.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, attends a news conference with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 4, 2018. A longtime senator known for working across party lines, Hatch died Saturday, April 23, 2022, at age 88. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

#Orrin Hatch #April 23 2022 #Usa Politics #tw death #tw celebrity death #Senator Orrin Hatch #Utah

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theliberaltony · 6 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Republicans don’t have a lot of exposure in the Senate this year — but they’re doing what they can to help Democrats make the most of it. The GOP entered this election cycle with only eight of their own seats up for grabs. Republican incumbents retired in three of those seats, however, and while Democrats don’t really stand a chance in Utah — where Mitt Romney will almost certainly succeed Orrin Hatch — the races to replace Sen. Jeff Flake in Arizona and Sen. Bob Corker in Tennessee are highly competitive.

In addition, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran’s early retirement this spring triggered a special election that will add to the Nov. 6 docket and which also gives Democrats a plausible chance at a pickup. Just how plausible? Read on. We’re covering each of these races — along with the Minnesota special election, the lone Democratic retirement of the cycle following Sen. Al Franken’s resignation — in today’s installment of POLLS vs. FUNDAMENTALS, the extremely dorky series of articles in which I evaluate the conflicting perspectives that polls and non-polling factors (“fundamentals”) provide on the Senate this year. In contrast to races featuring Democratic incumbents, where including fundamentals in our forecast generally helped Democrats, it helps Republicans in states such Mississippi and Tennessee:

A big gap between polls and fundamentals

Forecasted margin of victory or defeat in open-seat races and races with appointed incumbents

Republican’s forecasted margin of victory or defeat Race Incumbent Fundamentals Adjusted Polls Arizona — -1.4 -3.8 Minnesota special Smith (D) -15.8 -8.2 Mississippi special Hyde-Smith (R) +13.1 +5.9* Tennessee — +13.8 -1.1 Utah — +26.8 +32.5

Mississippi will hold a special election on Nov. 6, with candidates from all parties listed on the same ballot. If no candidate gets a majority of the votes, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held on Nov. 27. In the table, Hyde-Smith’s 5.9-point advantage reflects her lead over Democrat Mike Espy in polls of their prospective runoff. Another Republican candidate, Chris McDaniel, trails Espy by 17.6 points in runoff polling. In polls of the nonpartisan blanket primary scheduled for Nov. 6, Republicans lead Democrats in aggregate by 20.1 points in our polling average.

But let’s start in Arizona, which is a more straightforward case (and first in alphabetical order). In contrast to the relatively complex fundamentals calculation that our model makes for races featuring incumbents, the one for open-seat races is more straightforward: It accounts for only state partisanship, the generic congressional ballot, candidate experience, fundraising and a variable indicating whether or not a candidate is undergoing a scandal. In Arizona, Democratic nominee Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally are both current U.S. representatives, meaning that the experience variable is a tie. And neither is caught up in a scandal. So the questions are who’s raised more money and whether the blue lean of the generic ballot is enough to offset the red lean of Arizona.

And the answer is … an open-seat race in Arizona ought to be pretty damned close in a political climate like this one. Hillary Clinton lost Arizona by only 4 percentage points in 2016, but the state has been more Republican-leaning than that in the past, and it’s been more Republican in statewide races than in federal ones. (Our partisanship variable accounts for state legislature results as well as presidential voting.) Sinema has a slight lead in fundraising, however, so the fundamentals calculation tips the race ever-so-slightly toward her, projecting her to win by nearly 2 percentage points. Sinema currently leads by slightly more than that, 4 percentage points, in the polling average. Nonetheless, this is a good example of how races tend to gravitate toward the fundamentals: Sinema’s polling lead had averaged 7 or 8 points before McSally won a contentious GOP primary last month.

FiveThirtyEight treats races featuring appointed incumbents (as opposed to elected incumbents) as tantamount to open-seat races, both because some of the variables we use to evaluate incumbents aren’t available in the case of appointees and because appointed incumbents don’t have a very good track record at winning re-election. As a case in point, the Minnesota and Mississippi special elections still have the potential to create headaches for Democrats and Republicans, respectively, as the appointed incumbents in those states (Sen. Tina Smith in Minnesota and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi) aren’t performing especially well in polls.

Even so, it’s probably too ambitious to think that Republicans will win the Minnesota special election given that elected Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar is poised to win by a landslide margin in Minnesota’s other senate race; so-called double-barrel senate elections (in which both of a state’s senate seats are on the ballot in the same year) are almost always won by the same party. But whereas the fundamentals calculation projects Smith to win by 15 points — she’s raised more money and has held the higher elected office1 — Housley has held Smith’s margin to the high single digits in most polls. It could be that the Housley name has a little extra currency in hockey-obsessed Minnesota (Housley’s husband, Phil Housley, is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the current coach of the Buffalo Sabers). Still, Smith has about a 9 in 10 chance of winning — odds that Democrats ought to be reasonably happy with as compared to the unpredictable race that might have resulted if Franken had remained on the ballot.

The Mississippi special election is the most complicated race on the November ballot — and one of the hardest to forecast. If you take the polls there more at face value, it looks like an underrated opportunity for Democrats; based on fundamentals, however, it’s more of a long shot.

Here’s how it works. On Nov. 6, Mississippi will hold a nonpartisan blanket primary featuring multiple candidates from each party. If no one receives a majority of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff on Nov. 27. (Basically, this is the same thing that Louisiana does with its congressional races every year.) There are three major candidates in the race: Hyde-Smith, the appointed Republican incumbent; Chris McDaniel, the controversial tea party-backed Republican who nearly defeated Cochran in the GOP primary four years ago; and Mike Espy, an African-American Democrat who served as a U.S. representative in the 1980s and 1990s and then as Bill Clinton’s first Secretary of Agriculture. (There’s also a second Democrat, Tobey Bartee, but he has only about 2 percent of the vote in polls.)

Polls of the blanket primary show Espy and Hyde-Smith roughly tied for first with about 30 percent of the vote each, and McDaniel some ways behind in the high teens, with a substantial number of undecided voters. None of those numbers are too surprising; President Trump endorsed Hyde-Smith, although she was ahead of McDaniel even before the endorsement. So there’s likely to be a runoff and it’s likely to feature Espy against Hyde-Smith.

There’s also polling of potential runoff matchups, however, and in those polls, Espy does surprisingly well — at least as compared to how the fundamentals might expect him to do. On average, he trails Hyde-Smith by only about 6 percentage points in head-to-head polls and leads McDaniel in a potential runoff by about 18 points. So the Lite version of our model, which forecasts the runoff based on polls only, gives Espy a decent shot of beating Hyde-Smith (and assumes he’d crush McDaniel on the off-chance McDaniel made the runoff instead). The Classic and Deluxe versions, by contrast, which account for fundamentals, consider that Mississippi is a red state and that the two Republicans are likely to get significantly more votes combined than the two Democrats (Espy and Bartee) on Nov. 6, which is historically a good predictor of runoff results. Thus, they see Espy as a fairly heavy underdog against Hyde-Smith, and also think he could have a tough time with McDaniel despite leading him in polls.

Every scenario in the special Senate election in Mississippi

Probability of occurring, based on 50,000 simulations as of Sept. 19, 2018

Scenario Lite Classic Deluxe Espy wins a majority on Nov. 6 5.4% 5.9% 6.2% Espy beats Hyde-Smith in runoff 17.4 8.9 9.3 Espy beats McDaniel in runoff 0.6 0.4 0.5 Hyde-Smith wins a majority on Nov. 6 2.7 2.1 1.8 Hyde-Smith beats Espy in runoff 71.8 80.5 80.4 Hyde-Smith beats McDaniel in runoff 1.5 1.4 1.2 McDaniel wins a majority on Nov. 6 <0.1 <0.1 <0.1 McDaniel beats Espy in runoff <0.1 0.3 0.3 McDaniel beats Hyde-Smith in runoff 0.5 0.4 0.3

Needless to say, all of this is pretty complicated. We’re doing the best we can to model these possibilities based on data from past races in Louisiana, as well as from California and Washington state, which use a somewhat similar top-two format, but it’s a case where there’s inherently a fair amount of uncertainty. The bet the fundamentals would place is simply that a runoff held three weeks after Election Day in a deep red state like Mississippi — one that could possibly determine control of the Senate — is highly likely to favor Republicans. But polls of the runoff are more equivocal.

In comparison to Mississippi, there’s nothing especially tricky about Tennessee — it’s just a case where polls and fundamentals have totally different perspectives on the race. Polls show roughly a toss-up there between Democrat Phil Bredesen, the former governor, and Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn. (If anything, Bredesen has just the slightest lead, as he tends to be doing better in the higher-quality surveys.) The fundamentals, by contrast, project a Republican win of 14 percentage points. Tennessee is very red, having voted for Trump by 26 points. Unlike some other Southern states, it’s also quite red in statewide elections; Republicans have a 28-5 advantage in the Tennessee Senate, for example. Blackburn has also slightly outraised Bredesen so far, making it among the only competitive Senate races where the GOP has the fundraising lead. The model does give Bredesen credit for being a former governor, but he has a lot going against him.

Rather than parse Tennessee itself any further, let’s instead see what’s happened in the past when polls and fundamentals clash. In the chart below, I’ve listed Senate races since 1990 where there was at least a 10-point gap between polls and fundamentals with 60 days to go in the campaign, based on backtested results from the FiveThirtyEight model. I’ve limited the analysis to races deemed to be competitive by the Cook Political Report where there was an adequate amount of polling. For example, the Indiana Senate race in 2016 meets all of those criteria; former Democrat Evan Bayh, a former governor and senator, was well ahead in polls, but the fundamentals calculation regarded Republican Todd Young as the favorite. (Young eventually won handily.)

What happens when polls and fundamentals clash?

Competitive U.S. Senate races since 1990 featuring at least a 10-point gap between polls and fundamentals with 60 days until the election.

Democratic Candidate’s Margin 60 Days Before Election State Year Polling Average Fund-amentals Actual Result Fundamentals more accurate than polls? Race moved in direction of fundamentals? IL 1990 +19.4 +7.1 +30.1 IL 1992 +34.2 +12.2 +10.2 ✓ ✓ CA 1994 +16.7 +0.9 +1.9 ✓ ✓ NJ 1994 +18.5 +5.2 +3.3 ✓ ✓ OH 1994 -17.9 -7.9 -14.2 ✓ SD 1996 -0.7 -13.7 +2.6 CA 1998 +0.6 +10.7 +10.0 ✓ ✓ IL 1998 -4.7 +10.2 -2.9 ✓ NY 2000 -0.0 +17.0 +12.3 ✓ ✓ TX 2002 -1.8 -16.5 -12.0 ✓ ✓ LA 2004 -20.0 +3.9 -21.7 NC 2004 +8.3 -9.1 -4.6 ✓ ✓ SD 2004 +3.2 +15.7 -1.2 MD 2006 +6.6 +21.3 +10.0 ✓ NJ 2006 -1.2 +19.9 +9.0 ✓ PA 2006 +8.1 -3.4 +17.4 TN 2006 -3.3 +12.4 -2.7 ✓ VA 2006 -1.4 -18.1 +0.4 WA 2006 +10.4 +24.1 +16.9 ✓ AK 2008 +2.5 -28.2 +1.2 ✓ VA 2008 +22.7 +5.7 +31.3 AR 2010 -27.8 +4.1 -21.0 ✓ NC 2010 -6.4 -17.1 -11.8 ✓ ✓ NV 2010 +1.8 +13.1 +5.7 ✓ CT 2012 -1.6 +23.0 +11.8 ✓ ✓ SD 2014 -13.7 -30.8 -20.9 ✓ GA 2016 -13.1 -24.3 -13.8 ✓ IN 2016 +9.9 -6.1 -9.7 ✓ ✓

Races are listed if: (i) They had at least a 10-point gap between polls and fundamentals with 60 days to go until the election; (ii) they were rated as competitive rather than “safe” by the Cook Political Report; (iii) they had an adequate amount of polling (equivalent to a cumulative polling weight of at least 2; and (iv) they did not feature a viable third-party candidate.

What happened in these races? Polls came closer to the final margin about two-thirds of the time (in 18 of 28 cases). So if you had to choose between polls and fundamentals, you’d pick polls. However, the race moved in the direction of the fundamentals three-quarters of the time (in 21 of 28 cases). That is, if the Republican was doing better according to the fundamentals analysis than according to the polls, the Republican tended to gain ground 75 percent of the time, and likewise for the Democrat.

So the best forecast comes from taking a blend of (mostly) polls and (some) fundamentals. Exactly how much our model weights each component depends on the amount of polling and the amount of time to Election Day. Essentially, the fundamentals calculation is treated as the equivalent of 1 or 2 recent, high-quality polls. So if there are 10 or 15 recent polls of a state, the fundamentals calculation has little influence. In states such as North Dakota where polling is fairly sparse, they can have more sway.

What that means for Tennessee is that any poll showing Bredesen tied or ahead — and perhaps even behind by 1-2 percentage points — is good news for Bredesen, because the model expects the race to revert toward Blackburn based on the fundamentals. With every new poll, it weights the fundamentals less and less. With that said, Bredesen isn’t out of the woods yet; that Indiana race took a long time to tip toward Young in 2016 before he surged ahead on Election Day.

Finally, we come to Utah, where there isn’t much suspense: Romney is a massive favorite according to both polls and fundamentals, and the only real question is whether he’ll be a reliable vote for Trump or a thorn in his side.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Nate Silver

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cksmart-world · 6 years ago

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By Christopher K. Smart

Tuesday Sept. 25, 2018

Orrin's Final Encore, Jason's Nifty Prize & Mia's Body Snatchers

Holy Haboob, Wilson, we're not in Kansas anymore. The horrific flooding in North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Florence is only paralleled by the ugly storm surge in the nation's capital that has members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grasping for floatation devices of any kind. The Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanagh has moved to the Bill Cosby sex assault channel where white, male Republicans, like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, are up to their chins in flotsam and denials.

Hatch May Get Swan Song a la “Long Dong Silver”

Oldsters may remember the 1991 Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas' lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. Memories were rekindled recently when allegations of sexual impropriety arose in the Kavanagh case. Twenty six years ago, Hatch defended Thomas by reading passages from The Exorcist that he said were similar to the allegations of Anita Hill, who testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her. “There appears to be an alien pubic hair in my gin,” the Utah senator read aloud. Hill had testified that Thomas asked her who put a pubic hair on his can of Coke. Even the staff here at Smart Bomb was grossed out when we discovered Hatch also reprised comments Thomas allegedly made to Hill regarding porn star Long Dong Silver.

Alas, Hatch's curtain call may not come to pass if committee Chairman Chuck Grassley gets a female lawyer to question Kavanagh accuser, Christine Blase Ford, rather than allow Orin and his colleagues the opportunity to further alienate female voters with condescending remarks like the one he made publicly regarding Ford: “She's mixed up.” Surely, Utah's senior senator would come up with something a bit more tangy and unsettling during cross examination. After all, we're talking about a five-member conservative majority on the Supreme Court that could overturn Roe V. Wade and other rulings that could make America great again — or not. And let's face it, Hatch, Grassley and the gang will face little political repercussions themselves. The GOP, however, may come away looking like, well, Hatch and Grassley. Eeegads.

Yikes, Here We Go Again

But the dung sandwich turned into a three-course meal when Deborah Ramirez emerged with a story containing images more grotesque than Ford's account of a high school party. She was 15, Ford said, when a 17-year-old drunken Kavanagh held her down, groped her and put his hand over her mouth. Ramirez account of a drunken party in their freshman year at Yale is more like TNT. She recalled that Kavanaugh put his naked and angry member in her face. Oh, baby, it's hard to un-ring that dong. Kavanaugh has denied both allegations. Nonetheless, the circus has now devolved to the point where it makes a weird and squeamish Fellini movie appear wholesome. The rapacious riptide in the Senate is now swirling with such velocity that it feels like we're all about to be flushed into one of those hog-waste reservoirs in North Carolina..

Jason Gets His Due — the prestigious Golden Wackadoodle award

It's not all bad news this week. There is a refreshing report that former Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz has been recognized for his new book, The Deep State. In a letter to The Salt Lake Tribune, legendary filmmaker Trent Harris — Rubin and Ed and The Beaver Trilogy — explains that Chaffetz's tome “exposes a diabolical secret plan by bureaucrats to undermine the Russians who won our election fair and square.” Representing The Tinfoil Hat Society, Harris said the organization proudly bestowed the Golden Wackadoodle on Chaffetz “for his service to Russia and Fox News and Tinfoil Heads Everywhere.” Lets hear it for patriotism. Go Jason.

Mormon Word of Wisdom: Pot is Cool

Here is something that even Wilson and the band can get behind: The Word of Wisdom that helps direct faithful members of the LDS Church to lead good, upright lives appears to bolster support for Proposition 2 on Utah's November ballot that would legalize medical marijuana. “All wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the use of man.” The verse from the gospels in The Doctrine & Covenants was published on billboards perhaps in an effort to help the ballot initiative succeed in the face of opposition by leaders of said church. The passage doesn't mention marijuana specifically. But the Word of Wisdom that warns against the use of coffee, tobacco and alcohol also is silent on Diet Coke, which is loaded with caffeine but remains a favorite of the faithful. Just as the Founding Fathers couldn't imagine AR-15s, Joseph Smith apparently didn't foretell the medicinal attributes of marijuana, say nothing of bud smoked inhaled from bongs.

Mia Steals Identities in New Body Snatchers Campaign

And finally from our “Who Dat?”-file: Octogenarians Bob and Marilyn Remington thought they had drunk the wrong tea when they saw themselves on TV in an ad for Republican Congresswoman Mia Love. When their heads stopped spinning, they realized their identities had been stolen by the congresswoman who is in a heated battle with Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams to retain her 4th District seat. As it turns out, the Remingtons appeared in an ad for McAdams two years ago when he was running for reelection to his mayor's post. According to Lee “Just the Facts, Mam” Davidson of The Salt Lake Tribune, in 2016 the couple appeared boarding the “Ben Bus” that he uses to tour the district and get out the vote. Love's ad seems to pirate that scene and then cuts to people inside being jostled around with voice overs: “It's a bumpy ride on the Ben Bus.” When confronted with the body-snatching allegation, Love's campaign chairman Dave Hansen told Davidson that it was nothing but political harassment from McAdams campaign. Right.

That's it for another rockus week here at Smart Bomb, where we dive deep into important stories to give our audience all the reason they need to say, well, screw it then. OK, Wilson, take us out with a little something from Roy and Dale: Happy trails to you, please until we meet again.. Happy trails to you, may you keep smilin' 'till the end. Happy trails to you...

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Which Republicans Voted Against The Tax Bill

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/which-republicans-voted-against-the-tax-bill/

Which Republicans Voted Against The Tax Bill

Here Are The 17 Republican Senators Who Voted To Advance The $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

Washington When the Senate voted Wednesday to open debate on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package, more than a dozen Republicans sided with Democrats to advance the legislation.

proposal,

Roy Blunt of Missouri

Richard Burr of North Carolina

Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia

Bill Cassidy of Louisiana

Kevin Cramer of North Dakota

Mike Crapo of Idaho

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Chuck Grassley of Iowa

John Hoeven of North Dakota

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

Thom Tillis of North Carolina

Todd Young of Indiana

Reminder: Zero Republicans Voted For The Middle Class Tax Cut Parents Are Calling A Blessing

July 14, 2021

No thanks to a single Republican, millions of middle-class families will start receiving a major tax cut tomorrow as part of the Child Tax Credit expanded in President Biden and Democrats’ American Rescue Plan. Monthly tax cuts of $250 or $300 per child will automatically hit bank accounts and will be used to pay bills, put food on the table, and alleviate stress for working and middle-class families across the country.

From Durham to Des Moines, here’s what parents are saying about Democrats’ new middle-class tax cuts:

“It’s a blessing. That’s all I can say. I just can’t put it in any other words. It’s a blessing. It’s really going to help,” said Edwina Barbee in North Carolina.

“This is really exciting and it will help our family a lot, and I’m really hopeful that it will help a lot of families,” Kayla Midthun said in Wisconsin.

“It’s really just an opportunity to take that burden off of us a little bit each month to help support our kids for the future,” Jason Burkhiser Reynolds said in Iowa.

Here’s a look at what else families had to say this week:

Here Are The 17 Republicans Who Sided With Dems And Voted For Debate On Infrastructure Bill

From NBC:

The 17 Republicans who joined all 50 Democrats were: Portman; McConnell; Roy Blunt, of Missouri; Richard Burr, of North Carolina; Shelly Moore Capito, of West Virginia; Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana; Susan Collins, of Maine; Kevin Cramer, of North Dakota; Mike Crapo, of Idaho; Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina; Chuck Grassley, of Iowa; John Hoeven, of North Dakota; Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska; James Risch, of Idaho; Mitt Romney, of Utah; Thom Tillis, of North Carolina; and Todd Young, of Indiana

Trump issued a warning about this infrastructure deal.

No Republican Voted In Favor Of Law Sending Extra Federal Child Tax Payments To Families

Other Voices

The federal child care tax credit payment checks going out to families this week are courtesy of the congressional Democrats, only. Every single Republican voted against you, the American families receiving your check. If you needed this check, bought goods or services with your check, remember who made it possible. Please tell everyone you know that every Republican who voted on this law voted against them, to deny them help. And while you are at it, if you are not already, register to vote. Your voice will be needed in 2021.

Christine M. Treu,

Solon

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

Senate Republicans Decided Bipartisanship Was In Their Interest This One Time

While infrastructure is proving to be an area where Senate Republicans are willing to break with Trump, it’s too early to say whether this is the start of a trend.

For one, some of the 18 Republican senators who voted to close debate on the infrastructure bill may still end up ultimately voting against it. But ultimately the votes are expected to be there for the bill’s passage, meaning that in this case Republican senators seem to have calculated that doing something for their constituents and demonstrating that the Senate isn’t totally broken is worth the tradeoff of handing Biden a major bipartisan win.

That doesn’t mean that it’ll be smooth sailing for Biden’s legislative agenda heading forward, however. McConnell, after all, said in May that “one hundred percent of my focus is standing up to this administration,” and with Republicans entrenched against any sort of voting rights legislation, it’s unclear what major policy areas if any could be ripe for bipartisan agreement after infrastructure.

The vast majority of Republicans are opposed to the legislation. House Republicans are as tightly bound to Mr. Trump as ever, with many continuing to support his election lies and conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol. And with the approach of the 2022 elections, members of his party will have less and less room to maneuver away from a figure whom their base still reveres.

December 14 2017: Rubio Says He Will Not Vote For Latest Version Of Tax Bill

On December 14, 2017, Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters that he would not vote for the tax bill unless the child tax credit was increased. “Right now it’s only $1,100. It needs to be higher than that,” Rubio said. “I understand that this is a process of give and take, especially when there’s only a couple of us fighting for it,” he told reporters. “Given all the other changes they’ve made in the tax code leading into it, I can’t in good conscience support it unless we are able to increase the refundable portion of it.”

Senate Democrats Said The Bill Hurts The Poor; Republicans Say Its A Mirage

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, called the joint committee analysis “astounding” and warned that middle-class taxpayers would get “clobbered” under the latest Republican plan.

“When you’re reaching for the cranberry sauce, Republicans are going be reaching for your pocketbooks to give handouts to multinational corporations,” Mr. Wyden said.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and the chairman of the Finance Committee, said that the appearance of a tax increase was a mirage that is the result of arcane scoring rules. Because people will no longer have to purchase health insurance, they may no longer receive tax credit subsidies for insurance that they do not purchase.

“Without those credits, they see an overall uptick in their tax liability,” Mr. Hatch said.

The debate then devolved into an argument over what really counts as an increase and the murkiness of government scorekeeping, which Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, called “ridiculous.”

Uninterested in letting go of numbers that supported his argument that the Republican tax plan is bad for the middle class, Mr. Wyden dismissed Mr. Toomey’s concerns.

“I’ve never heard a senator try to psychoanalyze a Joint Committee on Taxation table,” he said.

September 28 2018: House Passes Tax Package To Extend Individual Tax Cuts

On September 28, 2018, the House passed legislation that proposed making the individual and small business tax cuts in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent by a vote of 220-191. Under the law, the cuts were set to expire in 2025. The three-bill tax package, introduced by House GOP leadership as Tax Reform 2.0, also proposed making changes to taxes on retirement savings, education savings, and on start-up costs for new businesses. A breakdown of the bills appears below.

HR 6760—the Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018—proposed the following:

Making permanent the lower individual tax rates of 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35, and 37 percent;

Making permanent the standard deduction of $12,000 per individual and $24,000 for a married couple;

Making permanent the child tax credit of $2,000 per child;

Making permanent the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions; and

Making permanent the 20 percent rate deduction for pass-through businesses, among other things.

HR 6760 passed the House on September 28, 2018, by a vote of 220-191. Two hundred and seventeen Republicans and three Democrats—Reps. Conor Lamb , Jacky Rosen , and Kyrsten Sinema —voted for the bill. One hundred and eighty-one Democrats and 10 Republicans, all from New York, New Jersey, and California, voted against the bill “because they did not want to cement the 2017 tax law’s $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction,” according to The Hill.

Biden Says In First News Conference That He Was Hired To ‘solve Problems’

Micah Bock, a spokesperson for Cawthorn, said that Cawthorn “firmly believes that the American Rescue Plan does more harm than good” and that Cawthorn “uses his official Twitter account to post information relevant to his constituents in NC-11.”

“Oftentimes this means providing relevant federal information on proposals that the congressman does not support,” Bock said in a statement. “There are portions of the American Rescue Plan that benefit NC-11, however, bills are not passed in portions, they are passed entirely or not at all, and this bill does significantly more harm than good.”

Cawthorn’s posts followed similar tweets and statements from other elected Republicans, such as Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who drew attention weeks ago when he praised the part of the stimulus package that provided billions of dollars to restaurateurs.

“Independent restaurant operators have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief,” he tweeted. “This funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.”

Speaking to reporters later, Wicker said his praise wasn’t an inconsistent position. The funding was the result of an amendment to the legislation that he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., proposed.

“One good provision in a $1.9 trillion bill doesn’t mean I have to vote for the whole thing,” he said.

Huffpost: Republicans Have No Clear Message On Child Tax Credit Payments

From the Speaker’s Press Office:

From the people who brought you…

and…

…comes a new House Republican failure to explain why they unanimously voted to block a tax cut for middle class families.

The Child Tax Credit is incredibly popular, effective, and was opposed by every single House Republican. We wish them luck in explaining this one.

Key points from HuffPost look at the Republicans’ scramble to explain why they voted against President Biden and Congressional Democrats’ Child Tax Credit.

Republicans Have No Clear Message On Child Tax Credit Payments

As Democrats celebrate parents across the country receiving their first checks through the child tax credit, Republicans aren’t quite sure how to respond.

Several Senate Republicans told HuffPost they didn’t have strong feelings about the policy, which was a significant part of Democrats’ American Rescue Plan.

“I’m gonna surprise you ? I don’t really have an opinion on that right now,” Sen. John Cornyn said.

Last week, tens of millions of American households received payments of up to $300 per child, which they will continue to get each month through the end of the year. Democrats intend to expand the program in their next big legislative package, and they have been bragging about it in a series of press conferences.

Initial polling has shown the advance child tax credit is incredibly popular among Democrats and Independent voters, and even wins support amongst a strong contingent of Republican voters.

There Has Been Movement On Some Parts Of The Bill What Have Those Been

Some contentious parts of the bill have been negotiated, or struck by the Senate parliamentarian.

The Senate official ruled a federal minimum wage increase the House passed early Saturday morning cannot be included in the relief bill.

More:Democrats left scrambling on a $15 minimum wage now that it appears left out of COVID-19 stimulus bill

Two infrastructure projects derided by Senate Republicans were also dropped from the COVID-19 relief bill on Tuesday, following deliberations with a key Senate official, according to a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said the bill’s funding for an expansion of the BART, a subway system serving the San Francisco Bay Area, was struck from the bill because it was “part of a pilot project.” And $1.5 million in funding for a bridge between part of upstate New York and Canada was also scrapped.

More:San Francisco transit money, NY bridge scrapped from COVID-19 bill amid GOP complaints

Additionally, Senate Democrats reached a deal with Biden to limit the eligibility for $1,400 checks in his COVID-19 relief bill, phasing the payments out for Americans earning more than $80,000, according to two sources familiar with the deliberations not authorized to speak on the record.

The tweak is a goal of moderates who did not want the checks to go to wealthier Americans.

Contributing: Nicholas Wu, Ledge King, Christal Hayes, Joey Garrison, Jeanine Santucci

December 15 2017: Gop Expands Child Tax Credit; Earns Rubio’s Support

On December 15, 2017, the GOP expanded the refundable part of the child tax credit from $1,100 to $1,400 of the $2,000-per-child credit to earn the support of Sen. Marco Rubio , according to Rep. Kristi Noem , a member of the House-Senate negotiating committee. Sen. Mike Lee also lobbied for the expanded child tax credit . According to The Wall Street Journal, “Lawmakers offset the change by reversing a decision to allow the child tax credit for 17-year-olds. The final bill, like current law, would make it available only for children under age 17.”

After the announcement, Rubio said that he would support the tax bill. He wrote on Twitter, “For far too long, Washington has ignored and left behind the American working class. Increasing the refundability of the Child Tax Credit from 55% to 70% is a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker. But there is still much more to do in the months and years to come. The progress made on the Child Tax Credit would not have been possible without the support of @SenMikeLee, @SenatorTimScott, and @IvankaTrump.”

Paul Ryan: ‘don’t Forget This Is A Big Tax Cut For Families As Well’

A day earlier, speaking on the House floor moments before the vote, Ryan said the legislation will “help hard-working Americans who have been left behind for too long.”

“Today, we are giving the people their money back,” he said, adding that a typical family would get a $2,059 tax cut next year.

Democrats opposed bill as a boon to the wealthy while offering little for the middle class, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calling it “the worst bill to ever come to the floor of the House.”

There were a number of protesters in Congress on Tuesday, on both the House and Senate sides. Protesters interrupted the Senate’s final late night vote numerous times, at one point shouting, “Kill the bill. Don’t kill us.” One protester interrupted Ryan in the House when he was speaking.

The GOP bill lowers individual tax rates, including the top bracket to 37 percent from 39.6, while doubling the standard deduction and replacing personal exemptions with a $2,000 partly refundable child tax credit. It eliminates various deductions while limiting others on state and local taxes and mortgage interest. It also exempts larger inheritances from the estate tax, doubling the thresholds to $11 million for individuals and $22 million for married couples.

Congratulations to Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Brady, Steve Scalise, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!

— Donald J. Trump December 19, 2017

And Democrats Called The Bill A Horror Show And A Missed Opportunity

“This is a horror show today,” Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “This is a horror show debate. This is a horror show process. But it’s a disaster for the American people. The bill we are debating today will abandon millions of American families.”

“This is a historic moment, but most importantly it’s a missed opportunity,” said Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. “What we’re being asked to do here today is to raise taxes on 36 million middle-class Americans.”

Another Democrat, Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, began shouting from the lectern about the drawbacks of the bill.

“Republicans and President Trump are doling out tax breaks for companies to move overseas but will take away benefits to hire American veterans right here at home.”

“On behalf of hard working Americans throughout this country I say vote no on H.R. 1. Vote no on H.R. 1 percent.”

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said the package being voted on was not tax reform but “a tax scam.”

“With straight faces and with the speed of light — I have to give them credit — they raced this thing through in the dark of night. They’re trying to sell a bill of goods to the middle class that this is in their interest, that this is a middle income tax cut,” she said, adding that “Republicans are raising taxes on 36 million middle-class families.”

Republicans Pass Historic Tax Cuts Without A Single Democratic Vote

Axios

Vice President Mike Pence walks through the Capitol to the House Chamber to watch the passage of the Republican tax bill. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

For history … 12:47 a.m.: “WASHINGTON — Senate passes 1st major rewrite of US tax code in 31 years, setting stage for final House vote on Wednesday.”

Being there, per AP: “he Senate narrowly passed the legislation on a party-line 51-48 vote. Protesters interrupted with chants of ‘kill the bill, don’t kill us’ and Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly called for order. Upon passage, Republicans cheered, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin among them.”

Just before 2:30 p.m., the House had passed the bill 227-203. But three provisions “violated Senate rules, forcing the Senate to vote to strip them out. So the massive bill was hauled back across the Capitol for the House to vote again , and Republicans have a chance to celebrate again.”

Senate: “Voting yes were 0 Democrats and 51 Republicans. Voting no were 46 Democrats, 0 Republicans and 2 independents.”

House:“Voting yes were 0 Democrats and 227 Republicans. Voting no were 191 Democrats and 12 Republicans. … There are 3 vacancies.”

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise says House Appropriations Chair Rodney Frelinghuysen should retain his position even though he voted against the GOP tax overhaul.

These Are The 12 House Republicans Who Voted Against The Tax Bill

Congressional Republicans’ support for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was overwhelming—but not universal.

The tax reform bill easily passed the House of Representatives Tuesday, with 227 members of Congress voting for it and 203 voting against. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill late Tuesday before sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk.

The vote was almost entirely divided along party lines; no Democrats voted for the bill, and only twelve Republicans voted against it. Those Republicans are:

Rep. Dan Donovan, 11th District of New York

Rep. John Faso, 19th District of New York

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, 11th District of New Jersey

Rep. Darrell Issa, 49th District of California

Rep. Walter Jones, 3rd District of North Carolina

Rep. Peter King, 2nd District of New York

Rep. Leonard Lance, 7th District of New Jersey

Rep. Frank LoBiondo, 2nd District of New Jersey

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, 48th District of California

Rep. Chris Smith, 4th District of New Jersey

Rep. Elise Stefanik, 21st District of New York

Rep. Lee Zeldin, 1st District of New York

Donovan said in a statement that he was unable to support the bill because it capped the state and local tax deductions at $10,000. He said he had been fighting “tooth and nail” to protect the deduction, along with fellow GOP members of the New York congressional delegation, Faso, King, Stefanik and Zeldin.

September 12 2018: Rettig Confirmed By Senate As Irs Commissioner

On September 12, 2018, the Senate voted 64-33 to approve the nomination of Charles Rettig as Internal Revenue Service commissioner. All Republicans present voted with 15 Democrats to in favor of Rettig’s nomination. “Democrats had few objections to Mr. Rettig himself. They used the debate over his nomination to highlight concerns with the 2017 tax law and with an IRS decision to let some nonprofit groups involved in politics submit less information about their donors,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

December 19 2017: House Passes Conference Version Of Tax Bill

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Bill Passed on December 19, 2017

Proposed providing for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.

On December 19, 2017, the House passed the conference version of HR 1—the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—by a vote of 227-203. Two hundred and twenty-seven Republicans and no Democrats voted in favor of the bill. One hundred and ninety-one Democrats and 12 Republicans voted against the bill. Two Democrats—Mark Pocan and Joseph Kennedy —did not vote.

Following the vote, President Donald Trump tweeted, “Congratulations to Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Brady, Steve Scalise, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!”

House Speaker Paul Ryan said to reporters, “This is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress has passed in decades to help the American worker, to help grow the American economy. This is profound change, and this is change that is going to put our country on the right path.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “There are few things more disturbing than hearing the swell of cheers from the @HouseGOP as they raise taxes on 86 million middle class families.”

The following 12 Republicans voted against the bill.

Here Are The 12 House Republicans Who Voted Against Tax Cuts

4shares

The GOP tax reform bill known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” came one important step closer to becoming law on Tuesday when the bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 227 to 203.

No Democrats voted for the bill, of course. The party of big, centralized government isn’t for anyone keep more of their own money, other than perhaps illegal aliens and welfare recipients, and will never vote to cut anybody’s taxes.

But not all Republicans voted for the bill either. Here are the 12 Republicans — all from high tax states — who joined Democrats in voting against passage:

Dana Rohrabacher of California

Walter B. Jones of North Carolina

Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey

Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey

Leonard Lance of New Jersey

Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey

Lee Zeldin of New York

Peter King of New York

Dan Donovan of New York

John J. Faso of New York

Elise Stefanik of New York

For years, conservatively-managed states have been in essence subsidizing high tax states because taxpayers from those “blue” states have been able to deduct those high state taxes from their federal income tax returns.

That is not a problem for the federal government. It is a problem of those states and the voters who enable the thievery. Let them know turn to their respective state governments and demand that their taxes be slashed.

The GOP tax bill will now be voted on by the Senate tonight, where it is expected to pass by a razor-thin margin.

4shares

The 13 House Republicans Who Voted Against The Gop Tax Plan

&nbsp

The House vote on the GOP plan to overhaul the tax code Thursday was notable for the relatively few Republicans who voted against it.

Only 13 Republicans joined with Democrats in opposing the measure, which gave GOP leaders a comfortable margin to pass their bill. Republicans could afford 23 defections with all but two members voting on Thursday.

GOP lawmakers have long wanted to cut taxes, and they face substantial pressure to secure a major legislative win before next year’s midterm elections.

Of the Republicans who voted against the bill, all but Rep. Walter JonesWalter JonesHillary Clinton brings up ‘Freedom Fries’ to mock ‘cancel culture’Georgia officials open inquiry into Trump efforts to overturn election resultsSupreme Court declines to hear case challenging unlimited super PAC fundraisingMORE were from high-taxed states such as New York, New Jersey and California. These states would be particularly hard hit by the bill’s treatment of the state and local tax deduction.

The 13 GOP defectors were Jones and New York Reps. Dan Donovan, John FasoThomas Milller McClintockHillicon Valley: House advances six bills targeting Big Tech after overnight slugfest | Google to delay cookie phase out until 2023 | Appeals court rules against Baltimore Police Department aerial surveillance programCalifornia Democrats clash over tech antitrust fightTech antitrust bills create strange bedfellows in House markupMORE and Dana Rohrabacher.

writing

Infrastructure Bill Fails First Vote; Senate To Try Again

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other GOP senators speak to reporters ahead of a test vote scheduled by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on the bipartisan infrastructure deal senators brokered with President Joe Biden, in Washington, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. Republicans are prepared to block the vote over what they see as a rushed and misguided process.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans rejected an effort Wednesday to begin debate on the big infrastructure deal that a bipartisan group of senators brokered with President Joe Biden, but pressure was mounting as supporters insisted they just needed more time before another vote possibly next week.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had scheduled the procedural vote to nudge along negotiations that have dragged for weeks. But Republicans mounted a filibuster, saying the bipartisan group still had a few unresolved issues and needed to review the final details. They sought a delay until Monday.

“We have made significant progress and are close to a final agreement,” the bipartisan group of senators, 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats, said in a joint statement after the vote. The senators said they were optimistic they could finish up “in the coming days.”

At another point, Biden was asked by a union electrician if it was possible to bring Congress together to pass an infrastructure bill that would help the region replace the bridge.

“Big numbers are involved,” Romney said.

___

See How Every Member Of The House Voted On The Tax Plan

Every Democrat who voted opposed the bill, but so did 13 Republicans, many of whom represent districts in high-tax states that could be particularly hurt by the repeal of the state and local income tax deduction. See a list of the votes »

Representatives voted along party lines, with the exception of 13 Republicans, many of whom fought to keep the deduction for state and local taxes.

Republicans Promote Pandemic Relief They Voted Against

NEW YORK — Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said it pained her to vote against the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

But in the weeks that followed, the first-term Republican issued a news release celebrating more than $3.7 million from the package that went to community health centers in her district as one of her “achievements.” She said she prided herself on “bringing federal funding to the district and back into the pockets of taxpayers.”

Malliotakis is far from alone.

Every Republican in Congress voted against the sweeping pandemic relief bill that President Joe Biden three months ago. But since the early spring votes, Republicans from New York and Indiana to Texas and Washington state have promoted elements of the legislation they fought to defeat.

– GOP governor race: Who’s in first depends on who’s in second

The Republicans’ favorite provisions represent a tiny sliver of the massive law, which sent $1,400 checks to millions of Americans, extended unemployment benefits until September, increased the child tax credit, offered housing assistance for millions of low-income Americans and expanded health care coverage. Republicans tried to negotiate a smaller package, arguing that Biden’s plan was too expensive and not focused enough on the nation’s health and economic crises.

Politics

Wicker’s office noted that he voted against the full package, but led efforts to ensure the restaurant relief was included.

The politics of the Republican position are complicated.

$15 Trillion Tax Cut Passed By House In Mostly Party

Nov. 16, 2017

• The House passed its version of the $1.5 trillion tax bill by a vote of 227 to 205. Read more »

• Thirteen Republicans voted against the bill, and no Democrats voted for it.

• A new analysis from Congress’s bipartisan tax referee shows that under the Senate’s version of the bill, lower-income Americans would see their taxes go up in 2021.

• The analysis roiled the Senate Finance Committee, which is debating the bill ahead of a vote that could happen as soon as Thursday night.

• Before the House vote, President Trump visited Capitol Hill to rally the Republican lawmakers behind the legislation.

Trump: Tax Bill Passage ‘an Amazing Experience’

The Republican bill was initially approved on a 227-203 vote in the House Tuesday, with no Democrats supporting it. Twelve Republicans also voted against the measure.

With Vice President Mike Pence presiding and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on hand, the Senate then voted 51-48 in favor of the bill. Again, with no Democratic support.

“After eight straight years of slow growth and underperformance, America is ready to take off,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said following the vote.

The bill, the product of negotiations between Republicans in the House and Senate, achieves longtime Republican goals, including a permanent reduction in the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent that supporters argue will make American business more competitive overseas.

Many pass-through businesses also receive a more complicated 20 percent deduction, which became a subject of fierce debate after the final bill added a provision likely to benefit real estate companies like Trump’s.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., lauded the bill during an interview with NBC’s “Today” on Wednesday morning, reiterating the GOP’s claim that cutting the corporate tax rate would allow American companies to create new jobs with the savings and rejecting criticism that companies would merely pocket the savings.

“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of how much they benefit,” he said.

“This is a big tax cut for families as well,” he said.