“The federal government is basically an insurance company with an army” — old economics zinger
Rep. Mark Amodei has a target on his back. In a good way.
The longtime northern Nevada Republican congresscritter is potentially one of five or so GOP lawmakers who can save the republic and perhaps the global economy.
Mark and his Carson High classmate Dean Heller were good public servants back when they did time in the Nevada Legislature. Alas and alack, both had to drink the Kool-Aid and become moonhowlers when they reached DC.
Fealty to the controllers is necessary for longevity and influence on the banks of the Potomac. It’s gotten to the point that blood oaths are now required and soon, your firstborn. (Perhaps today’s GOP can get some pointers on baby-sacrifices from that mythological Washington pizza joint where Hillary and her followers swear allegiance to Satan hisself.)
Newbie House Speaker Kevin McCarthyism has violated the first rule of Chicago-style politics: Never sign nuttin’.
They actually put their plan to destroy America in writing.
According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman in the fake news New York Times via fake news CNN, “a screenshot of a slide presented to a closed-door Republican meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 10)…calls for balancing the budget within 10 years, which is mathematically impossible without deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. (It further) calls for reforms to ‘mandatory spending’ — which is budget speak for those same programs. And the final point calls for refusing to raise the debt limit unless these demands are met.”
Zounds.
The United States is due to run out of money this Thursday. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin told Congress last week that she could only keep the country afloat until June without further congressional action. If the US defaults on its debt, welcome to worldwide Great Depression II.
I see only two ways out of this Republican werewolfian horror movie. Biden must use the National Security Act to declare a national emergency and co-opt the moonhowler majority. Would Clarence and the Supremes go for it? You never know. If the government is out of money, supreme court justices don’t get paid.
The other gambit avoids a constitutional crisis and financial meltdown:
Amodei and a few others like Rep. Eli Crane, R-Arizona, must move for removal of the speaker. Under the new rules McCarthy allowed to win his job, it only takes one to move for a no-confidence vote and replace the gavel-wielder who controls what issues come up for a vote.
Crane was the only Republican to vote against McCarthy’s ascension.
“I might wind up in the broom closet,” he quipped.
The Fab Five can oust McCarthy and elect Democrat Hakeem Jeffies, D-NY, or a GOP-Democratic coalition choice. And save the nation and the world.
And Social Security. And Medicare. And Medicaid. And all those wondrous federal funds currently being dispensed by newbie Gov. Jose Lumbago, R-Clark County Jail.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END. As I noted last week, former Republican White House official and author Kevin Phillips predicted in 2000 that the restoration of the Bush family dynasty would result in the end of the Republican Party. He based his analysis on what happened after restorations in England and France.
When Dubya got re-elected after Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., committed suicide, Bush the Lesser considered it his mandate to privatize Social Security, the last big pot of federal money that Wall Street does not control. It was quickly slapped down.
Most Republican voters favor liberal social programs. I chuckled at one hillbilly woman who showed up at a 2010 Tea Party demonstration against Obamacare with a sign that read “Keep Government’s Hands Off My Medicare.”
That ship had already sailed. The US government became the biggest user of medical services the year before when it surpassed the 50 percent mark according to the Nevada State Medical Association.
HISTORICAL REALITY CHECK: The Boston Tea Party was a protest against a tax cut.
GIVE RITCHIE A CALL. After a sojourn at St. Mary’s hospital, Nevada union stalwart Ritchie Haber currently resides at Alta Care. The Brooklyn native and longtime New York union transit operator is ailing and could use a friendly call or card from friends.
Ritchie and his union brothers in the local Industrial Workers of the World showed up on a freezing day when no one else would to protest non-union work at the heavily taxpayer subsidized downtown Reno movie theaters. They marched from UNR to the riverfront and generated a ton of media on a morning fit neither man nor beast. I”m serious. I was the only other union member there and I was covering it for the news in my car.
Ritchie drove for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority for 27 years before moving to Nevada 21 years ago.
“My mama was a socialist,” he proudly notes. If he can, he’ll show up to picket the downtown Reno bus station if striking Virginia drivers demonstrate here.
Write Ritchie care of Alta, 555 Hamill, Reno 89511 or call (775) You can e him via jpom222@yahoo.com or call (775) 828-5600.
He’s in room 604 but go thru the switchboard during office hours as the voicemail hell system is not dependable.
SPEAKING OF STRIKES. The last union supporter at Sparks City Hall was the late councilman and Regional Transportation Commission member John Mayer over 20 years ago.
I have thus been pleasantly surprised that Sparks Mayor and current RTC Chair Ed Lawson has become the best worker advocate since John Mayer.
Hizzoner not only favors ending expensive subcontracting of management to for-profit foreign companies but also told ThisIsReno.com last week that he supports the right of workers to picket.
The Teamsters Union’s current contract allows workers to honor picket lines if current contractor Keolis-19 is struck anywhere in the U.S.
That’s happening now in Virginia.
Stay tuned. And Ritchie, keep your picket sign handy.
THE TERMINATOR is still out there. Get vaxxed, dammit! Two of my senior citizen neighbors who, unlike me, don’t avoid rooms containing people, got hit with the plague for the second time. Gregariousness has its price. Although the wife got a stay in the most expensive hotel in town, they both survived. Get vaxxed, dammit!
Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us