Whew! I believe this and The Great American Divide have been the two longest “coming soon” articles I’ve ever had on A Basket of Fish. Well, let’s begin to correct that now, shall we? And with the recent passage of the CHIPS Bill and the completely bogus Inflation Reduction Act, I couldn’t have chosen a better time to address this disaster which has been going on since President Ronald Regan— or perhaps longer.
Think I’m nuts? (Don’t answer that.) Take a look at the clip below from Ronald Regan’s State of the Union speech he gave on January 25, 1988. Kinda says it all.
As you can obviously tell, I edited the video but took nothing out of order or out of context. For all you youngsters out there and for those who have not seen his speech, you can watch it in it’s entirety here. I highly recommend it. While Regan never did get the line item veto he asked for (not shown in this clip,) it was a great speech. Now remember— this speech is thirty-five years old. I repeat, thirty-five years old. I add it to illustrate that this is nothing new and while this has been a tactic used by both Republicans and Democrats, it has evolved over the years to the degree that a majority party-line vote is enough to do as you please and to hell with the other side of the aisle. The truly laughable part of this is that if just one politician from the other side votes for their bill, it’s plastered all over the media as bi-partisan supported.
So, let’s take a moment and see how this Con takes shape.
The Sweet Spot
What’s the sweet spot? It’s when a political party controls The House, The Senate and The Presidency. Legislatively speaking, you just can’t get better than that especially if you’re a Democrat because for some reason Democrats have a way of sticking together much better than Republicans. Even when they know what they’re about to pass is not a good bill or good for the Country. Even if they know some will lose their seats because of their vote, they stay in lockstep with the Party. There are possible reasons for this but I’m doing my best here to stay on topic. The point is, if you have majorities in both Houses and the Presidency, it’s pretty much a sure thing you can pass virtually anything you like. Sure, there is that annoying filibuster we have to deal with occasionally but that’s fine, whatever doesn’t pass this time around we’ll try and fit back in on the next bill.
For the sake of this article, we’ll say that Congress and the Presidency are controlled by one Party as it is right now. So break out paper, warm up the computer and let’s create a bill. But wait just a second there Pilgrim, (he said doing his best John Wayne impersonation.) Do you actually believe our elected representatives write any legislation themselves? Of course not. More often than not, it’s corporate lawyers and lobbyists who write the bills with the politician claiming it as his own. Which brings us to the beginning of creating our bill.
Let’s get started. We’ve already received the reams of legislation sent from said corporate lawyers and lobbyists above for serious consideration as a thank you for their considerable campaign support and other perks we’ve gotten away with since the last bill. It’s payback time so we do our best to fit in whatever we feel might get missed by those on the other side of the aisle while doing our utmost to give them the least amount of time to read it before being forced to vote on it. Pelosi said it best regarding Obamacare. “You have to pass it to see what’s in it.” That being said— seeing as we have the majority in both houses and the Presidency, we really don’t give a rats ass what the other side of the aisle thinks as we don’t need their vote in order to pass it. Hence the term being in the political sweet spot.
A few million here for this cause, a few million there for that cause to keep the large private donors happy. This pork is the easiest to hide. A couple of pages each within a 1500 page bill with virtually no time to read it all before having to vote on it? Piece of cake. Need a million dollar grant to see how many snails out of a thousand make it across a busy highway without getting crushed? Give me a few minutes to see how much you’ve donated to my campaign and I’ll get back to you.
Now that we have all the little stuff out of the way, there are three sections of my bill left to deal with. (1) My Party’s political agenda, (2) Satisfying Corporate SuperPac supporters and (3) The Fix. While important, the most critical will be The Fix. We’ll get to that a little later on. But let’s address the first two.
1. The Agenda
People believe everything political is just between the left (Democrats) and the right (Republicans) but there’s one more faction we didn’t really hear too much about in the past. Perhaps back in the 60’s and early 70’s but those days are long gone. However, recently we’ve been hearing more and more about this group especially with the advent of Donald Trump. Who are they you ask? The Establishment. We have the Establishment Left and the Establishment Right with both their agendas being more similar than you could imagine. Who are The Establishment? They are the Chuck Schumer’s, the Mitt Romney’s, the Nancy Pelosi’s, the Liz Cheney’s, the Bush family, the Mitch McConnell’s just to name a few. Trust me, there are more.
They are permanent Washington (the enforcers,) the (fill in the blank)— industrial complexes, big finance (where big money, including dark money originates,) big tech (big money including the ability to manipulate social platforms) and the media who do their bidding by shaping a narrative. The last President who became a threat to the establishment was JFK and we all know what happened to him. The only one since was and still is Donald Trump and we’ve witnessed and are continuing to witness what he’s had to endure since his entrance into the political arena. There’s a lot more to say about this but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’ll save it for the Epilog. Suffice to say that 85 to 90% of any large bill of this nature is geared towards the establishment and their agenda. The rest are incidental crumbs (comparatively speaking) to pacify our elected officials own interests. In other words— a political cupie doll for voting as instructed. Cheap at the price.
2. Returning the Favor
A representative’s constituency. An interesting term when you give it some thought because who are we actually talking about here? Whether it’s the House or the Senate, are they the ones who vote for us— or the ones who give millions in order to convince voters to vote for us? Both of whom have their own agenda and idea of what’s right or wrong with this Country and how we— as their representatives should vote. A fine line indeed because the last thing we want to do is alienate either potentially causing one to withdraw their financial support or cause the other to vote for someone else, or not vote at all. Choosing what we’re going to put in this bill is like walking a political tightrope. The little things mentioned above are of no concern to the average voter for two primary reasons. (1) Most will never see all the pork until after the bill is passed because (2) the media will not mention it. Small potatoes. It’s the BIG things that get the media’s— and by extension, the public’s attention. Remember, if our bill passes or not, we’d still like to keep our seats in the next election. Then again, that all depends on a few factors which was eluded to earlier. More on this later as well.
So now is the time to break out the previously written legislation by teams of lawyers corporations have hired for just that reason which is to translate their desires into legalese then into legislation sent to us by special courier— then make a decision whether or not to add it to this bill or place in the growing stacks of other pre-written legislation to be fitted into some future bill. All depends on the political climate at the time and whether or not I can sell it to my colleagues in my Party. Seeing as this will be a party-line vote in regards to my bill, I should be fine unless it ruffles some feathers from others after hearing about it on the nightly news. If that’s the case— let the negotiations begin. And while that’s taking place, it’s time to piss off the other side even more by adding everything I can think of to move my Party’s agenda forward. Better do everything I can now because being in this sweet spot doesn’t happen that often…. or does it.
Interesting tidbit about Congress
Since 1901 and the 57th Congress until 2022 marking the end of the 117th Congress— a political party holding Congress and the Presidency has occurred thirty-five times for a total of seventy years out of 122 years. Out of those seventy years, Republicans had control for thirty years and Democrats had control for forty years. Personally— I was a little surprised by this fun fact. Don’t ask me why, I just was. Feel free to look up the particulars online. They’re out there. So you’d think the party-line vote would be an extremely common occurrence. While it has been recently, it was not the norm in the past. Interestingly enough, up until the early 1970’s, party-line voting in Congress was around 60%. Now it’s upwards to 90% or greater with little if any real deliberation beforehand. It’s like— why bother? You already know the outcome. Back to my bill.
OK— where are we at so far? Just a sec, have to find my calculator. (No, not that one, doesn’t go high enough.) Found it! Let’s see…. hmmm (carry the 120) Yes! Looks good so far. Only 318 billion to pacify the little fish, big fish, sharks and whales. I mean, my constituency. And I’ve only used up 847 pages. Damn! I’m getting pretty good at this. However, there is one last extremely important step of this bill which needs to be completed before the bill is presented to Congress and that is The Fix. Again, I pretty much already know my bill will be passed but, still have to worry about how the media will sell it to the public and potential backlash that might cost a few of my friends their seats in the next election. Fortunately, some are retiring, others have high paying jobs offered by their donors waiting for them should they be thrown out of office for voting with me. My seat is secure because I represent California. They’re all delusional morons so I’m fine just as long as I keep talking about how wonderful socialism is. So the next step is coming up with a name that will tug on the heartstrings of Americans and throw a few billion at it. In fact, seeing as I’ve only spent 318 billion, why not come up with two or three? I GOT IT! Here they are.
1. 20 Billion (over the next ten years) to help fight childhood cancer and other diseases affecting our children.
2. 18 Billion (over the next 10 years) in tax credits to all single parents and head of households making 60K or less per year with dependent children.
3. And last but by no means least— Free healthcare for all minors seventeen years of age or younger including all those residing in the US illegally. Pretty bold move, huh? Well, why not? Seeing as my Party will lose the majority in at least one house, (possibly both in the upcoming election,) might as well go for the gusto.
And what will be the name of this bill you ask? Seriously? It will be called the Save Our Children Act. Pretty clever… don’t you think? With all the shit in my bill, with this title— who would refuse to vote for it? Especially with all my friends in Big Tech and the Mainstream media ready to pounce on anyone who criticizes or comes out against it. Because if they do, they must hate children and want to see them rot with rampant disease should they not vote for my bill. This is the entire role of the fix. Small parts of bills which not only give primary talking points to legislators and media pundits but more importantly, distract from what’s really in a bill that would never be passed on it’s own merit.
Remember earlier when we talked about being in the sweet spot politically and there’s no better place to be? Well— now that I’ve thought about it, there is one step up from that. It’s one thing to have a majority in Congress but it’s quite another when you have an extremely narrow majority like the one we have today. It’s amazing the power just one or two legislators can have when just about every single one of their votes are required in order to pass a bill. Especially when you’re well aware you’ll get no votes from the other side. Even more-so when you know you’ll probably lose your seat over it with no Plan B to bail you out. So the price for your vote just went way up. Remember, they have to have a cushy job to go to once they’re kicked out of Congress so if this is going to be their last hurrah – they’re going to be well compensated for it in one way or another. And it’s not just my party. There might be a few on the other side who can be bought… ummm, I mean convinced to vote for my bill. Happens all the time, right? Especially for the ones not seeking re-election. Worth a try.
Three or four weeks later, after everyone on my side has put in their two cents worth with my acquiescing to their relatively unimpressive and inexpensive demands so they can return to their districts and tout that they at the very least achieved something for them— after removing a few things and adding in a lot more fees, regulations and hoops the public will now have to jump through while breaking out their wallets, I now have a bill which I can count on will barely pass. Good enough for me. But wait— there are still a couple of hold outs. Never fails, there are always a few on either side who will hold up everything until they get their way like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema did with the so-called Inflation bill. For her vote, the carried interest tax provision was removed to the glee of her most wealthy donors, many not even residing in Arizona. To convince Manchin to cave and back the bill, all it took was the clearing of all obstacles preventing the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. A difficult pill to swallow when so much of the bill was for climate change and the war on fossil fuels but if that’s what it takes, so be it and who knows, after everything is said and done and the time it will take to build this pipeline— perhaps something else will come up to prevent it’s completion.
Close call there at the end but it’s finished with all votes on board. Had to add an extra 332 pages for the fix and another 215 for the miscellaneous bullshit I added at the behest of the Establishment for their continued support which brings the bill to a very manageable 1403 pages. None of the others in my Party has read my finished bill and no one really cares to. Just as long as their one or two pages of pork carefully hidden within the hundreds of pages that will pass along with it. Will there be legal challenges to parts of it? Probably but that will take years. Not a concern of mine. Will there be uproar from the other side? Of course! Ask me if I care. Big tech and the news media have my back on this. What takes place after my bill is signed into law by the President (with the help from an aid to show him which end of the pen to use,) is again, no concern of mine. How will all this be paid for? Simple….. just— Wait just a minute! I may be portraying myself as a liberal democrat for this article but I’m sure as hell not going to give them any ideas. All I’ll say is that it’s all in my bill. And what’s the final cost? 483 billion (give or take) with the fix only costing 3.8 billion a year for ten years and as for the third part of the fix, let them figure it out after it passes. We just have to save our children. Right?
While this bill of mine is pure conjecture on my part, it does give one an eerie feeling of Déjà vu that they have seen bills similar to mine over the last 20 odd years and you would be correct. As you’ve seen with my bill, outside of the fix, you really have no idea what’s in it which is basically true with most large bills being passed by congress in recent history. Sadly, partisan bills passed primarily by the ones in the majority is becoming the new normal and the public doesn’t like it no matter who is in the majority which is why approval numbers for Congress as a whole have sunk to new lows. Last time I checked it was somewhere around 15% but you rarely hear a Senator or House representative comment on it. Like the crisis at the border, they go about their business as if nothing is wrong. Or if called out on it, it’s always the other guys fault or they make the tried and true statement that more work needs to be done (like they’ve been saying for the past 60 years). When it came to these mammoth bills, I truly believed we reached a boiling point with Obama and the democrats which was one of the reasons Trump was elected. The writing was on the wall. Trump turned on the floodlights and it wasn’t just federal spending. The American public was sick and tired of an ever growing government headed by Establishment Democrats and Republicans enforced by permanent Washington. And even then, during Trump’s first year in office— like Regan— was handed a behemoth bill which after signing it, like Regan— swore he’d never do it again. Now that Biden has been installed – it’s back to business as usual just as the Establishment wants it. Huge congressional bills where the American public seeing only what we’re allowed (or shown) by those who make these decisions.The difference being as we’ve seen with this last Inflation Reduction Bill is that said powers seem to be more in your face about it. Now they don’t seem to care whether the talking points about this bill was in fact reducing inflation. Even those on the liberal news have rebranded this bill as the Climate/Tax Bill. The arrogance is astonishing. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll tell you that the entire bill is online and available for anyone to read knowing that very few (if any) will actually read it. And even if they did— what good would it do? Don’t think for a second that politicians don’t know this.
As I said in my book Covid-19 The Convenient Virus from China, stolen elections have consequences. Had there not been a stolen election in 2020 and if Donald Trump had his second term in office I can say one thing for certain. The United States we see today would never have taken place. The differences would be incredible. In a way, that may not be such a bad thing when you give it some thought although that’s difficult to do when you look at all the damage Biden and the Democrats have done in just the past two years. Had Trump remained in office, there would be no border crisis, there would have been no supply chain issues, there would have been no clusterfuck in Afghanistan, there would have been no vaccine mandate, there would have been no mask mandate. Thousands of people who lost their jobs due to the mandates would still be working. Schools would have reopened much sooner without requiring masks, The US would continue to be energy independent. The border wall and most likely the Keystone pipeline would have been completed by now. And that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Compared to what this Country has turned into— it’s night and day.
I know what you’re thinking. Basket! What does all this have to do with Congressional Bills? Well? Take a look at the last few bills passed by Congress and what do they all have in common? (1) All basically party-line passed. (2) As with previous bills, only a fraction of the bill was actually used for the main talking points and passage of the bill itself. (3) In regard to the Inflation Reduction Act, liberal news outlets (including Democrats) had the audacity to rename the bill after it’s passage with blatant disregard. And (4) this Inflation Reduction is pure Establishment. Everyone already knows this bill does absolutely nothing to reduce inflation or affect so-called climate change and any remotely positive parts of this bill don’t take effect for at least two years. Other parts even further down the road. You know who jumped up and down with joy when this Inflation Bill passed? Permanent Washington and China.
So, why did I say Trump not being President right now (stolen election notwithstanding) wouldn’t be such a bad thing? For the same reason I gave about the one redeeming value of Covid-19. Because of Covid-19, we became aware of how our children were being taught in most schools and we didn’t like it. So much so that many school boards were flipped conservative to make obvious changes which were needed and Youngkin became the Governor of Virginia. With Biden’s installation, many are finally coming to their senses about what the hell is really going on in this country from the Establishment and permanent Washington. Everyone knew both were doing absolutely everything possible to keep Trump from running for President in 2024 and we became absolutely sure of it when Mar-a-Lago was raided. Not just that it was raided, but how it was raided. Even with all the leaks and lies, like all other attempts, it’s going to backfire as well. Short of another JFK, they’re running out of time because once republicans take back the House and possibly the Senate, that is when Trump announces he’s running for President. Washington and the media are desperately goading him to announce before the midterms so he will be (in effect) placed on the ballot but I highly doubt that will happen.
Terrified
You have to ask, why is the Establishment and permanent Washington absolutely terrified at the notion of Trump running for President in 2024? Here’s your answer. But in order to understand the answer, you must first understand why under no circumstances was he allowed a 2nd consecutive term back in 2020. They would make certain of it no matter what price was paid in order to accomplish this. Interesting enough, very little (if any) price was ultimately paid. To the establishment and permanent Washington, their power was waning during Trumps presidency. People were beginning to see the light. Had Trump remained in office for another four years, it would have set them back decades because Trump had momentum with the American public and there is nothing more threatening and dangerous than a President with a final term in office with no concern over being re-elected. Sure, even with constant investigations, he put a few dents in them the first four years but another four with momentum, he could have made some major changes. They had to stop the momentum and to a slight degree, they have— right up until they raided his home. Huge mistake.
The other huge mistake was installing Joe Biden and what has transpired since his installation. One disaster after another. Permanent Washington along with the Establishment know Democrats will lose the House and quite possibly the Senate this year and they can deal with that. The investigations that will immediately begin are of no real concern because as we’ve seen in the past, nothing happens. Nothing changes. They’ll just break out their mountains of lawyers and tie everything they can up in the courts for the rest of Biden’s term (if he doesn’t step down beforehand). They’re totally fine with a lame duck in the White House so republicans can’t do much until 2024 which leads to the answer of why they’re so terrified of Trump.
They know that if Trump runs for President in 2024, he will win. Why do I know this? It’s the same reason why Obama won his two terms. There was no candidate from the Republican side who had a chance in hell against him. McCain? Romney? Seriously? Those two were jokes and had no business running for President. Everyone knew this— including Republicans. Trump on the other hand will win for not only his policies but for at the very least, Democrats have absolutely no candidate who could remotely come close to beating him and there’s no way they can get away with what they got away with in 2020 again. That was a one shot deal. And here’s the kicker. Not only will Trump win in 2024 but Ron DeSantis will be President for the following eight years for a total of twelve consecutive years because of yet another miscalculation the Establishment made. By installing Biden, it gave and is still giving the American Public a taste what it’s like having Democrats run the show. Even more interesting is how they do the math. How can seven out of ten people believe the US is heading in the wrong direction while at the same time, four out of ten believe Biden is doing a good job?
Again, how does all this tie into Congressional Bills? Because right now— from all previous bills we’ve seen— voted primarily on party-line proves the Establishment is alive and well having gone back to business as usual now that Trump is out. All I can say is, don’t get too used to it because that’s all about to change beginning in just a few short months.
Just as long as Republicans don’t flip the Stupid Switch after they win. Stay tuned for that article.
