The Thread For New Republican Legislation

[Cheerful Charlie]

GOP plans for 2023. More tax cuts for the wealthy.

...
Their five part plan includes:
1. $3 trillion in tax cuts skewed to the wealthy – which would add to the deficit and make inflation worse
“GOP wants to push to extend Trump tax cuts… Republican lawmakers gear up to push 2017 tax law after midterm elections, despite potential impact on inflation.” Washington Post 10/17/22
Congressional Republicans are calling for extending expiring provisions of the Trump tax cuts and repealing Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions that require large, profitable corporations to pay taxes and stop wealthy people and corporations from cheating on their taxes. These tax policies would add about $3 trillion to deficits over 10 years, Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation estimates show.
....

Congressional Republicans’ Five-Part Plan to Increase Inflation and Costs for American Families | The White House

Congressional Republicans have laid out their mega MAGA trickle-down economic plan clearly. Their economic plan will raise costs and make inflation worse.

www.whitehouse.gov

 

[lpetrich]

H.Con.Res.9 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Denouncing the horrors of socialism. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Introduced by Rep. Salazar, Maria Elvira [R-FL-27] (Introduced 01/25/2023)

Denouncing the horrors of socialism.

Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships;

(then mentioning mass murders and other such sorts of nastiness in the Soviet Union, Communist China, Cambodia, Venezuela, ...)

...
Whereas the United States of America was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.

I'm surprised that they did not denounce military and police forces as instruments of tyranny, because those are what those awful governments used to implement their tyrannies.

Roll Call 106 | Bill Number: H. Con. Res. 9 -- Feb 02, 2023, 12:36 PM | 118th Congress, 1st Session
The vote on it:
Republicans: yes 219, non-voting 3
Democrats: yes 109, no 86, present 14, non-voting 3

All the more progressive Dems voted against it, as far as I can tell.

 

[lpetrich]

Hakeem Jeffries Rages at 'Fraudulent' Anti-Socialism Resolution

New York Democrat and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday brutally trashed a Republican resolution condemning the “horrors of socialism” brought by Cuban-American Florida Republican Rep. María Salazar as “fraudulent” and “cover” for extremism.

...
Jeffries, ahead of the vote, savaged the resolution as nothing more than “cover” for an “extreme MAGA agenda.” Jeffries listed various social programs as being targeted by the GOP, including in his list policies of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and of course, Joe Biden.

Hakeem Jeffries on Twitter: "We will not allow Social Security and Medicare to be sacrificed at the altar of Extreme MAGA Republicans." / Twitter

In a press conference, he stated

They’re bringing to the floor of the House of Representatives today a resolution on socialism, to condemn some dictators that we all condemn. But understand the goal of this phony, fake, and fraudulent resolution is just to somehow provide cover for extreme MAGA Republicans to try to undermine an agenda that is designed to lift up the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.

Why do we know this? Because going all the way back to the days of FDR, through Harry Truman, into President Kennedy, through President Johnson, all the way up until President Clinton and President Obama and President Biden. They’ve called things like Social Security, socialism. Medicare: socialism. Extreme MAGA Republicans have called public education socialism, Medicaid, socialism. The Affordable Care Act. Socialism. The American Rescue Plan. Socialism.

So the American people should not be fooled by anything that takes place on the floor today with respect to this so-called resolution on socialism.

But he ended up voting for it.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar on Twitter: "Very proud to see my & @SteveScalise’s resolution condemning socialism pass the People’s House.
328 members chose to stand up and condemn the ideology that slaughtered millions.
This is a triumph of individual liberty over the brutality of collectivist statism. (pic link)" / Twitter

So she's an anarchist?

 

[lpetrich]

New Democrat Coalition (NDC) on Twitter: "New Dems reject socialism — period.
It’s time for House Republicans to stop playing political games and join our Members as we work to grow an economy that works for all Americans. (pic link)" / Twitter
Source of screencap: New Dems Reject Socialism and Call on House Republican Leadership to Join Effort to Grow the Economy | New Democrat Coalition

Then
Summer Lee on Twitter: "They're going to call you socialists anyways " / Twitter

Then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@SummerForPA Yup" / Twitter

I agree. It's good that AOC is not afraid of Republican name-calling.

Someone in the response tweets noted President Harry Truman's noting Republicans using "socialism" as a dirty word. Here's a source: Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in New York | Harry S. Truman

The directive was drafted by Senator Taft at that famous breakfast in New York City a few weeks ago. Senator Taft left that meeting and told the press what the General stands for. Taft explained that the great issue in this campaign is "creeping socialism." Now that is the patented trademark of the special interest lobbies. Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.

Socialism is what they called public power.
Socialism is what they called social security.
Socialism is what they called farm price supports.
Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance.
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan "Down With Socialism" on the banner of his "great crusade," that is really not what he means at all.

What he really means is, "Down with Progress--down with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal," and "down with Harry Truman's fair Deal." That is what he means.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[lpetrich]

The 5 Main Factions Of The House GOP | FiveThirtyEight

• Moderate establishment - Reps. David Joyce of Ohio, Young Kim of California, Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
• Conservative establishment - Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California.
• Far-right establishment - Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.
• Tea party conservative - Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Byron Donalds of Florida, Chip Roy of Texas.
• Pro-Trump insurgent - Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

 

[scombrid]

He is worried that socialism necessitates a concentration of power but has no worry about the tiny number of huge multinational corporations that control most of our economy? And what happens when they capture or dismantle any regulatory apparatus?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

From the Daily Beast. Pence wants to privatize SS. Fox interview.

Former Vice President Mike Pence became the latest prominent Republican to propose sunsetting Social Security and Medicare on Thursday, telling Fox News that “we can replace the New Deal with a better deal.” With conservatives (falsely) insisting that President Joe Biden was lying when he said “some Republicans” want to get rid of social entitlement programs, Pence said it was time to talk “about reforming entitlements” during the current debt ceiling negotiations. “I think we can replace the New Deal programs with a better deal,” he declared.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

He is worried that socialism necessitates a concentration of power but has no worry about the tiny number of huge multinational corporations that control most of our economy? And what happens when they capture or dismantle any regulatory apparatus?

The problem with "Socialism" is that as usual with far right ideologues, everything they don 't like will be labelled "Socialim", even if it is in no way socialism. Medicaid, raising federal minimum wage? "Socialism! Socialism!". The GOP for decades called Social Security socialism since the beginning. It is just a scare word used to infuriate right winged morons.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Ronald Reagan, Medicarecare is socialism and will bring the U.S. a socialist dictatorship.

Ronald Reagan - Medicare Will Bring A Socialist Dictatorship

Ronald Reagan's 1961 recording for the American Medical Association's Operation Coffee Cup, which claimed the passage of pending Medicare legislation would s...

www.youtube.com

 

[lpetrich]

He is worried that socialism necessitates a concentration of power but has no worry about the tiny number of huge multinational corporations that control most of our economy? And what happens when they capture or dismantle any regulatory apparatus?

Right-wing politicians and activists may be paid to shut up about that by their oligarch financiers. I think that some right-wing activists acknowledge that dependence by hating on the likes of George Soros.

But it may also be ideological. Right-wingers find it hard to criticize oligarchs unless they believe that those oligarchs are Jews or globalists or wokesters or some other such kind of villains. I remember some right-wing politicians getting worked up over "woke capital". That difficulty likely comes about from their belief in the legitimacy of social hierarchy, especially existing ones. It takes a lot of effort to convince them that capitalist oligarchs are not legitimate rulers.

Here's something interesting:

• Conservatives Against Capitalism | Columbia University Press
• “Conservatives Against Capitalism” Looks at an Unlikely Marriage - "A new book charts how conservatives used to resist capitalism, but have completely given in. The politics of Donald Trump could loosen the bonds."
• Some Conservatives Have Been Against Capitalism for Centuries - The American Conservative - "They just haven’t been that effective."
• Conservatives Against Capitalism: From the Industrial Revolution to Globalization
• Conservative Critiques of Capitalism - American Affairs Journal

Peter Kolozi starts with slavery apologists who presented slavery as benevolent feudalism where slaveowners would take care of their slaves, as opposed to Northern industrialists and their employees. Never mind the moral ugliness, brutality, and hypocrisy - slaveowners grew cash crops like tobacco and cotton, thus acting just like the Northern industrialists that they professed to disdain.

Then an interesting one: Teddy Roosevelt, who believed that fighting wars was much more dignified and virtuous than doing business deals and playing the stock market and the like.

Then the Southern Agrarians of the early 20th cy. who romanticized small farmers and artisans and shopkeepers, as opposed to big businesses. Capitalism, yes, but small-scale capitalism.

After World War II, conservatives became full-scale capitalism groupies in response to the Soviet Union, though some of them had some misgivings about that.

Neoconservatives tried to revive a Teddy Roosevelt approach to international affairs, and they seemed to like how the 9/11 attacks gave Americans a sense of national purpose.

Paleoconservatives took aim at the more transnational forms of capitalism, like free-trade deals, preferring economic nationalism. Donald Trump is squarely in the paleocon tradition here.

From The American Conservative's review:

Kolozi’s first four chapters described a series of failures. Regardless of their validity, none of these critics changed the direction of America’s economic development; all successful efforts to rein in capitalism came from the left, not the right. The neoconservatives were the first group in Kolozi’s work that enjoyed any tangible victories in the political sphere.

So it's the Left that has been more successful at taming capitalism than the Right.

 

[Derec]

The problem with "Socialism" is that as usual with far right ideologues, everything they don 't like will be labelled "Socialim", even if it is in no way socialism.

Another problem with "socialism" is that as usual with far left ideologues, everything they like will be labeled "socialism", even if it it is no way socialism.
Public schools, roads, as well as ...

Medicaid, raising federal minimum wage? "Socialism! Socialism!".

Yupp.

The GOP for decades called Social Security socialism since the beginning. It is just a scare word used to infuriate right winged morons.

And lefty Dems like AOC have adopted the same misdefinition of the term.

In reality, socialism is an economic system where the means of production are, in the main, owned and controlled publicly (directly through government or through worker's self-management in some socialist systems). Just like capitalism has some public involvement without being socialist, so socialism can allow limited private small businesses - homesteads, cafes, bakeries, without being a capitalist system.
Socialism, even democratic socialism, is not social democracy - a capitalist system with strong safety net and strong regulation.

 

[lpetrich]

Derec, what do *you* consider socialism?

 

[lpetrich]

I like this response:
Sean Casten on Twitter: "Today, the @HouseGOP ..." / Twitter

Today, the @HouseGOP is bringing a bill to the floor to "denounce socialism in all it's forms". Let's unpack that: a bunch of people who have a taxpayer-funded job, many of whom have never worked a day in the private sector are denouncing socialism. Riiiiight. Brief thread:

1/ This bill is non-binding. It will serve no purpose but to let clowns appeal to idiots who depend on the social safety net but like to cosplay as Ayn Rand-readin', gun-totin' independent capitalist cowboys.

2/ The text itself is a doozy. Give it a read and ask yourself what possible good it does that we are chewing up finite time and 435 members salaries (not to mention all the staff) to do this. (link to a PDF of the bill itself)

3/ And for that reason, I will not be going to the floor for this vote. I have too much work that the voters expect me to do. And I have too much respect for them to pretend this is of value.

4/ But let's do have a larger conversation about socialism and capitalism in our society. Let's start with one of the wiser voices on that subject. I offer three quotes and ask who you think said them:

5/ "The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible in proportion to their respective abilities."

6/ "Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least 500 poor and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many."

7/ "Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property is in reality instituted for hte defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."

8/ Stay with me if you want to know who wrote that, but try to take them just as words first. Capitalism is an amazingly efficient way to allocate finite resources. But it cannot exist without competition, price transparency, and an absence of barriers to entry and exit.

9/ Where those conditions exist, it is amazing. Capitalism in the food industry gives us bakeries and grocery stores and restaurants and taco trucks. Socialism gives us bread lines. But it doesn't exist everywhere!

10/ If you get hit by a car, you are not going to price compare as you choose an ER. No one wants a for-profit police department, army or border agent. Universal K-12 education doesn't exist if it is only available on an ala carte basis to those who can afford to pay.

11/ The role of government is to not to reward anarchy, but to do the greatest good for the greatest number. Use markets and competition where appropriate, identify what other resources society needs and then devise an equitable means of taxation to fund same.

12/ To brand one half of what government does as capitalism and the other half as socialism is perhaps of some academic interest but to rely 100% on either is insane. And trust me: my taxpayer-funded colleagues know this!

13/ To paraphrase the great @willwilkinson, an economically optimal government that provides the greatest good to the greatest number uses capitalism to pay for socialism.

14/ IOW, create competitive markets to create wealth and innovation. Which in turn pays for the regulators who preserve those markets and the roads their trucks drive on, the security to ensure property rights, the social network to make sure Maslow's lower needs are met...

15/ That's the role of government. It's what we should be doing here! And instead, the @HouseGOP is wasting your time, and your tax dollars to tell a simplified, dumbed down, grossly inaccurate story intended only to sow division. They are acting like children today.

16/ And the author of all those quotes? Adam Smith. They are all directly taken from the Wealth of Nations. So if you're going to leave the House floor today and tell your voters that you are a proud capitalist... I'd encourage you to read the damn book first.

17/ Now to get back to work. /fin

H.Con.Res.9 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Denouncing the horrors of socialism. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Sean Casten was absent from the vote.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

If we're going to get rid of socialism that means all those fat government retirement plans and pensions are out the window too. Congress critters are actually going to have to produce something. Amirite?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

If we're going to get rid of socialism that means all those fat government retirement plans and pensions are out the window too. Congress critters are actually going to have to produce something. Amirite?

Suicide pills.

 

[crazyfingers]

SILENCED: Florida bill would severely limit criticism of government

Chilling developments down in Florida.

washingtonpress.com

Under Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature seeks to edit the Bill of Rights, taking away the right of the press to criticize the government.

A newly-proposed piece of legislation, Florida HB 991 submitted by Republican State Representative Alex Andrade would rip that freedom from citizens and the press, by reframing certain criticisms as defamation, particularly if they come from anonymous sources.

In fact, it deems an allegation malicious in the event that it comes from “an unverified anonymous report.”

...

Fordham University Adjunct Professor of Law Matthew Schafer says he’s never seen anything like this in ten years of practicing First Amendment law, and warns that if legislation like this is allowed to pass, the government will be able to use the threat of libel to control the public dialogue. (You’ll see some of his tweets about this bill below.)

Republican version of free speech and press.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

SILENCED: Florida bill would severely limit criticism of government

Chilling developments down in Florida.

washingtonpress.com

Under Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature seeks to edit the Bill of Rights, taking away the right of the press to criticize the government.

A newly-proposed piece of legislation, Florida HB 991 submitted by Republican State Representative Alex Andrade would rip that freedom from citizens and the press, by reframing certain criticisms as defamation, particularly if they come from anonymous sources.

In fact, it deems an allegation malicious in the event that it comes from “an unverified anonymous report.”

...

Fordham University Adjunct Professor of Law Matthew Schafer says he’s never seen anything like this in ten years of practicing First Amendment law, and warns that if legislation like this is allowed to pass, the government will be able to use the threat of libel to control the public dialogue. (You’ll see some of his tweets about this bill below.)

Republican version of free speech and press.

Gitlow v New York (1925) says Florida can go fuck itself with regards to freedom of the press revocation. Granted, Justice Thomas is probably itching to undo all sorts of 14th Amendment issues, but as the Constitutional Law stands, Florida isn't allowed to violate the 1st Amendment regarding speech and press according to SCOTUS's decision in 1925.

For present purposes we may and do assume that freedom of speech and of the press—which are protected by the First Amendment from abridgment by Congress—are among the fundamental personal rights and 'liberties' protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the States.

 

[crazyfingers]

SILENCED: Florida bill would severely limit criticism of government

Chilling developments down in Florida.

washingtonpress.com

Under Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature seeks to edit the Bill of Rights, taking away the right of the press to criticize the government.

A newly-proposed piece of legislation, Florida HB 991 submitted by Republican State Representative Alex Andrade would rip that freedom from citizens and the press, by reframing certain criticisms as defamation, particularly if they come from anonymous sources.

In fact, it deems an allegation malicious in the event that it comes from “an unverified anonymous report.”

...

Fordham University Adjunct Professor of Law Matthew Schafer says he’s never seen anything like this in ten years of practicing First Amendment law, and warns that if legislation like this is allowed to pass, the government will be able to use the threat of libel to control the public dialogue. (You’ll see some of his tweets about this bill below.)

Republican version of free speech and press.

Gitlow v New York (1925) says Florida can go fuck itself with regards to freedom of the press revocation. Granted, Justice Thomas is probably itching to undo all sorts of 14th Amendment issues, but as the Constitutional Law stands, Florida isn't allowed to violate the 1st Amendment regarding speech and press according to SCOTUS's decision in 1925.

For present purposes we may and do assume that freedom of speech and of the press—which are protected by the First Amendment from abridgment by Congress—are among the fundamental personal rights and 'liberties' protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the States.

I agree that it's unconstitutional. However I have no faith in the current supreme court not to throw out the 1st Amendment.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

If laws are written to automatically label certain criticisms as libellous and defamatory, that may well be a problem for right wingers who like to label Democrats as Socialists, Communists or pedophiles. Faux Noise would have muzzle their lie barking right winged on air talent.