The farm bill gives money to mostly Trump supporters. Don't ever pass one!
1
Congratulations to the Democratic party!
With Pelosi still in place, the Democrats will be sitting ducks for conservatives for the next two years before Democrats lose the house and executive branch again.
There will be absolutely no pushback from "leaders" in the Democratic party other than some lame "it's not fair" or "the people will see the truth" garbage.
Democrats need to start punching back, and doing so very hard and very frequently. 25 years of standing still and letting conservatives land every hit has done nothing except make conservatives stronger and Democrats exhausted and weaker.
Bitter pill time...
Millions of Americans aren't going to "wake up and see it" as so many Democrats believe. The people they think are deluded dreamers often know they are being lied to. They just accept it and hope that they get a bite of the cookie they chased so hard in life in the end.
1
I wish a govt. "shut-down" meant that it was the president who would be "shut down"
Then maybe we could start rebuilding a battered democracy. It is on life support.
2
“Could there be a shutdown? There certainly could,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his Florida estate on Thursday. “And it will be about border security, of which the wall is a part.”
Perhaps Trump thinks we forgot that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. No reason at all for the US budget to contain any provision for this.
1
Congress has been in a lame duck session since 1994.
"Contract On America"
Hmmm...let's see: the GOP just lost control of the House of Representatives for 2019-21. Now the president wants the House "lame duck session" to pass an appropriations bill to "fund the Wall" before the newly-elected majority assumes control in January. How does the president expect that to work out? He sounds like the frustrated bully who's going to "huff and puff and blow the House down"!
Mr. President, it's time to put your infamous "negotiating skills" to work... or is that just "hot air" like all of the other threats you make?
1
How about this: Instead of shutting down the whole government, just shut down the president. That should take care of most problems.
2
Just a note to Rep. Goodlatte on the subpoenas issued to James Comey and Loretta Lynch.
We the People do not want any closed door questioning. If there are questions for these two individuals it should happen in a public hearing, televised live to ensure accuracy, transparency and no political grandstanding.
Rep. Goodlatte, your chairmanship of the committee is granted by the public you serve and WE THE PEOPLE will settle for nothing less than a public hearing.
2
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the incoming New York congresswoman who has become a darling of progressives, said last week on Twitter. “I agree that our party should, and must, evolve our leadership. But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle + working class electorate that put us here.”"
Sounds like Alexandria is already well on her way to a "pragmatic" decision to make sure she can buy a nice house in Alexandria, and settle in for the long haul.
GRIDLOCK - Is this the best the greatest democracy on Planet Earth can muster? Facing massive dislocation and death due to Climate Change, with China seizing global leadership at the expense of the US, our roads and bridges in despicable disrepair, medical costs soaring, is GRIDLOCK a tolerable situation for the next two years? If your cancer doctor said "We're going to do nothing for two years", would you silently acquiesce?
Why are we so complacent and accept GRIDLOCK as the lesser of two evils? Why do we tolerate a president whose obviously unqualified?
I submit that waiting two years for an election to solve the most difficult problems we've ever confronted is two years too many.
Our federalist system has failed us. 50 different voting systems, 50 different forms of Gerrymandering & voter restrictions, McConnell's dictatorship on the legislation that's heard (not even voted upon), an Electoral College, gross injustices in Senate representation, etc., etc., says we've exhausted the 18th century model that created 50 fiefdoms and fails to provide consensus.
It is simple. The Dems need to call Trump's bluff. For a government shutdown will be a black eye for Trump and the GOP.
1
The Senate rules that give Mr. McConnell such arbitrary power to prevent debate on critical issues must end. The 60 vote requirement for judges was a very good thing. Our current autocratic Senate Majority Leader is a nightmare. No protection for Mueller. No immigration reform. Even when there could be bipartisan consensus on solutions. “It’s a disgrace.”
2
It is time for major rules changes in Congress, designed to improve responsibility and expedite passage of legislation.
Change one; once a bill is introduced it is sent to all relevant committees at the same time. The committees have a reasonable but limited time to consider the bill, thirty days seems about right to me. They then return the bill to the floor as recommended, not recommended, or no opinion.
Change two; once a bill is out of committee, it must be voted on within another 30 days. The only person who can kill a bill is the person or people won sponsored it. No one else has the power to kill a bill or prevent it from being voted on.
Lastly, we need a government that functions by an annual budget. If a budget is not passed on time, the entire budget from the previous year is adopted for the upcoming year, exactly as it was.
If Congress goes into recess, all bills are frozen wherever they may be in the process. As soon as Congress resumes, the clocks start ticking at whatever point they stopped.
Further, all these provisions would apply to nominations as well.
We need a Congress where a minority, or worse, a single individual can hold up legislation that the majority want passed.
Not everything pending in Congress is do it or die. The oldest legislative legerdermain is creating a crisis where there is none. For example, why would any Democrat ever support more restrictions on food stamps? It's the one program that works, benefitting not only the poorest including struggling seniors but it creates a bonanza for local economies. These bills are loaded with even more Republican foolishness. Get ready for crisis talk, warnings of a government Armageddon. It won't happen and Democrats should hold feet to the fire of Team Trump and its Congressional lapdogs.
91
I find it curious that this and other recent stories (eg, about the contest for the House Speakership) have referred openly to the involvement of "major donors" in the process of governing.
I used to work for Common Cause, so the influence of money on governance is not a surprise to me. What does surprise me is the off-hand way that press reports now refer to this influence.
So much for the argument that "money doesn't buy (or even rent) votes." If that were the case, there would be no point in major donors contacting Democratic or Republican members of Congress about specific bills or other legislative action.
For years, the problem has been called "money in politics." But politics is the act of competing for elected office. Governance is the act of determining public policy that affects the life of every American. We're accustomed to vague complaints about "the influence of the 1%" over public policy; these news reports shine a light on exactly how that influence works.
26
Left leaning voters didn't go to the polls in November to get the Democrats back in control of the House only to give Trump his ridiculous and expensive Border Wall at the last minute. There should be no bill approved by the House that includes Border wall and if Trump wants to veto a bill and force a government shutdown then so be it. The Repubs are still in charge and will take the blame for any shutdown.
34
It should be clear to any sober-minded, clear thinking person that the outgoing Republican Congress has been an unmitigated failure in terms of addressing the issues and needs of most Americans. And by 'most', I mean the poor, working and middle classes among us - as was evidenced by the passage of that egregious tax bill last year and the GOP congressional leadership's persistent attempts to repeal the Affordability Care Act (ACA).
This Republican Congress could do us all a favor by passing a budget without demur (thru September 30th, 2019 - the end of the present fiscal year, FY2019) and cajole the present occupant of the Oval Office into signing off on the deal. That would be a wonderful Christmas and New Year's present for everybody. Then we could all breathe a collective sigh of relief and treat our ears to a playing of Louis Armstrong's song, "What a Wonderful World."
24
Let The Con Don shut it down.
Just one more nail in his coffin.
7
Any bill that passes now will not serve 99.9% of us. Wait until after OUR newly hired/elected lawmakers take over in January.
7
There is another article in today's NY Times about a new book by Corey Lewandowski and another Con Don boy about the conspiracy against him.
Yes, the vast majority of Americans across America and around the world want to see you gone, Con Don.
Count me in.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/us/politics/trump-book-lewandowski.html
5
The Republican Party has devolved into a "one-trick pony," and they've already tricked us with their tax cut for the rich. If they really want to spread some Christmas cheer, please don't give the Grinch his wall, but get 67 (aka veto-proof) votes in the Senate and two-thirds in the House for something sensible like: increasing funding for food stamps without a work requirement while cutting farm subsidies, the Tiny Tims and Bob Cratchits deserve a decent Christmas meal not just wealthy farmers; require the E.P.A. to do its job by adhering to the climate recommendations in the government report released last Friday; end the trade war with China by having the House assume its Constitutional role to set tariffs; and allow DACA recipients a pathway to citizenship as well as those who've been here over ten years, paid taxes, and have no major criminal records. It's time to put the "Merry" back into Christmas and not allow the Grinch to steal it again.
10
"Critical Bills, Looming Deadlines, Little Unity"
Nothing new here. Same Congress, arguing , generating little legislation, and no compromise on anything.
We do have the House Republicans wanting to investigate Comey and Clinton about the emails. God almighty, I can't wait until January when the Democrats take over the House.
16
@cherrylog754 True, but then the roles will reverse, the Democrats will investigate anything and everything, and still nothing will get done.
Right now in Washington, Big Pharma lobbyists
are working with the politicians they own to
repeal the discount for Medicare beneficiaries
that are in the Part D "donut hole". If they
are successful, it will be part of the spending
bill that must be done by December 7th in
order to avoid a partial shutdown. Instead of
continuing the required discount to seniors
which is set to go from 50% to 70% in 2019,
Big Pharma wants to provide zero discounts which
will force seniors to pay 100% out of pocket for
expensive drugs once they reach the donut hole.
Please call your member of Congress.
When will the greed end?
5
Can't help wondering about the potential impact on survivors of the catastrophic California fires and the earlier devastating hurricanes if the so-called president carries out his threat of a government shutdown in order to get the billions of dollars he wants to waste on his border wall fiasco.
9
I feel as if Democratic leaders have the better idea of how to handle situations at the border due to their more genuine and open hearts. The thing that I believe throws off Trump is very much so his response to the very issue of the border wall. The border wall is an entirely irresponsible idea that would only lead to there being more tensions between the United States and Mexico. If there is more enforced border policy, then that would solve things much more than building a complete divide between the United States and Mexico. The whole idea of the enforced border policy is supplying an easier path to citizenship, which is something that the Republican Party has yet to realise in a sense. The Democratic Party believes in a stricter border policy, but they also do not believe in completely restricting those from the United States who are wonderful candidiates for the nation, but do not have the time to undergo the strenuous citizenship process. It is not an easy road to get here, and if someone is escaping a terrible and miserable life somewhere else, then they should be given a chance at the American Dream here, other than forcing them back to their lands to get murdered possibly.
6
There won't be any wall. Republicans don't have the Senate votes. Trump can stamp his feet all he wants but he owns any shutdown over border security.
Democrats are wise to float the idea of killing the appropriations bill with protections for Mueller. They don't have the votes either. However, the threat is not idle. The mere suggestion of shutting down the government over Mueller is in fact protecting Mueller.
If Trump/Whitaker move against Mueller before the bill is passed, Democrats have the leverage they need to either force a shut down or gain support from Republicans to pass a spending bill with protections. Win-win.
The question of course is what happens between the bill's passing and January's Congress. Trump is not a wise man. He is not even an intelligent man. He is a boor. However, he does act swiftly when given an opportunity for vengeance. Mueller is safe for now but for how long?
8
Trump is all talk - no action! While Trump spends each day feeding his endless thirst for media attention and self-congratulations our economy is slowing deteriorating.
Wake up - Trump is not making America great, he’s ruining it.
11
Provide a Budget for the wall which just so happens to be the exact cost of Trump's deployment of those army personnel to the southern border prior to the mid terms until the deployment ends/ended.
That's fair! And hard to argue against given the desire to increase overall funding to the Military versus increasing military expenditure by adding in new costs such as that!
1
How long have deficit hawk republicans told us if elected, they would end budget busting spending? Then when elected, they put in economic policies they promised would all “trickle down”. So what exactly is a “fiscally responsible conservative”? And if there truly are any, did they go the way of the dinosaur? Or was that just a think tank, bumper sticker slogan to get people to sign on? A trillion dollar tax cut for corporations and Trump donors, (oligarchs) and now.....funding for a border wall or we shut it all down? At least with the “tax and spend” democrats, the middle class would actually get to see the benefits of a government that is suppose to work for them. Perhaps a shutdown of this (one party rule) circus is exactly what is needed to open people’s eyes.
40
"...to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold" I am really sick and tired of this nonsense - NOTHING in the constitution calls for anything other than a simple majority on virtually any bill before the Senate with a few very rare exceptions (override of a presidential veto, approval of a treaty, removal of the president). This parliamentary rule is a vestige of the 1970's - somehow our nation managed to get along just fine without it for almost two hundred years - now it is about partisan power and political games. It's time for this to end.
8
@George SIt is also time for the profoundly anti-democratic electoral college and senate to end. I am not a fortieth of a person
9
@George S The Constitution also calls for both the House and the Senate to set their own rules.
3
@Doug K
The Senate is NOT anti-democratic, for if one understands civics and history, it reveals that the House is representative of population, and the Senate is representative of equally sovereign states - no state is more important than an other.
1
I'm trying to understand why we need the three mentioned agencies, and why a veto would hurt Democrats. Homeland Security is supporting abhorrent actions taken against refugees seeking asylum, and is now apparently the prime supporter of private prisons, where people are held indefinitely with no access to due process. Agriculture and the Farm bill are there to pay farmers not to plant crops. Sorry, under this administration I have a hard time thinking Commerce does anything to help individuals. So bargain hard on these issues Democrats, and attach issues you espouse - DACA, TPS, a road to citizenship, reinstate all requirements of the ACA, end of the new tariffs, no money for border walls (seen the picture of refugees climbing the one in Texas?) and let Trump veto them. Then maybe the Midwest and South will understand what they've done. And by the way, if the Republicans come to their senses and support these issues, then they can overcome a veto, assuming Trump has the guts to actually veto anything. Fight like Trump does, no holds barred.
18
@Eero
The farm bill actually covers a ridiculous amount of policy, including food stamp related measures. Any piece of policy or legislation that involves farms or the USDA is guaranteed to affect a ludicrous array of programs valuable to both parties.
It's actually pretty important that the farm bill gets passed, which is funny because, if memory serves, it was the freedom caucus that sunk it earlier in the year over their draconian work requirements for food stamp recipients.
2
Among the hanging disasters is NFIP : the National Flood Insurance Program.
It is days away from expiring. Congress has let it lapse before, looks almost certain to let it lapse for at least a short while now. When it lapses existing policies remain in force, but no new policies can be written. The odds are high now that this will be "kicked down the road" into the next session.
Property values along much of the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts will be hurt badly if the government ceases to subsidize flood insurance -- almost all mortgages require flood insurance if the property is in a moderate flood risk area or worse. This includes a lot of waterfront and near-waterfront property in NYC.
The problem however is that NFIP has been hemorrhaging cash at an extraordinary and accelerating rate. There is no easy solution here.
Many coastal real-estate interests think that having Maxine Waters take over the House Financial Services Committee from Jeb Hensarling will help their cause. I am not so sure that this is true, for their interests.
I expect that Rep. Waters will work to keep insurance costs down for those at the bottom of the economic ladder, but doubt she'll have much sympathy for the well-off second-home owner ... and the latter is where all the money is.
4
@Lee Harrison
I would appreciate an explanation of why inlanders should subsidize the house insurance of coasters.
Thanks.
1
Please start accurately referring to the wall as a government seizure of privately held land.
22
In the last two years, under a government totally controlled by the Republican Party, we have already had two government shutdowns, does anyone really think this time will be any different? This is how Republicans govern, they create an unnecessary problem and then struggle to fix their unnecessary crisis as if they are doing something. They are the the proverbial, arsonist/fireman except they don’t know how to use a hose and they have the only hose in town.
25
"Republicans [have] what is seen as one of the most bitter and divisive Congresses in history."
Odd, considering that for the first time in years, the Republicans control both houses of Congress, the presidency, and now the courts. GOP=unfit to govern.
17
It's not difficult to recall the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the black squadron of escort pilots who never lost a bomber in runs over the European war zone. It took Eleanor Roosevelt's intervention for the Armed Forces to include black airmen in the US WW II effort. Black US patriots also had to go to the Front with French troops in WW I because of racist US policies. Every aspect of US life from Army to Zoo was racist. The adverse effects of lousy environments, ineffectjve healthcare, intentional miseducation, false imprisonment and wrongful State execution have been documented generations ago. The existence of these life affecting pathologies has been common knowledge to the senate, congress, presidents and their appointees, including SCOTUS.
Climate Change is a 21st Century fact which seems as though it will have to be repeatedly proven before any effective national effort is instituted. In the meantime, 21st. C robber baron profiteers will profit along with their elected Botoxed quislings. In the meantime we will become accustomed to viewing ordinary fellow beings being washed away, treading water in flooded graveyards and fleeing 200 sq mile fires after a few minutes of warning. American Greatness....again.
3
It is certainly possible that President Trump will fail to keep government open. So far he has been a failure at almost anything he tried or was supposed to do - not being able to keep government going would just be another of his countless failures.
9
@Ivan: Drowning the government in a bathtub has been the openly stated intention of Republicans for decades.
7
Democrats should vote for criminal justice reform and tie everything else to DACA, safeguarding the Mueller probe, repairing and reinforcing the ACA -- until a cheaper and more universal health care plan can be proposed next year -- and comprehensive immigration reform. That means forcing Trump to adhere to current immigration law, which states that asylum seekers must be allowed to enter the country to apply. It also means giving Trump a resounding and decisive NO on his stupid border wall, which was nothing but a campaign stunt anyway. Someone should remind the stable genius that even the Berlin Wall couldn't stop East Germans fleeing communism, and a wall on our southern border would be a hugely expensive and totally ineffective waste of tax dollars.
11
How about a restoration of the SALT deduction? That would be a worthy bipartisan effort. Oh wait, that affects mostly Democrat-controlled states and they sure don’t care about taxpayers, given that they are the ones who raised state and local taxes to obscene levels in the first place. Republicans care about us even less; no votes for them here. So much for government helping the people. I’m sick of them all.
Congressional Republicans don't want a shut down, so Dems, whose Senate votes are essential, have a significant advantage in negotiations. Trump is a flittering blowhard and won't drive the discussions. Nothing he says means much, not even two hours later.
Look for the Dems to do better than break even by the final bills. Their power only increases in the House if the Freedom caucus gets petulant. And after the flogging taken by Republicans in the midterms, Trump is already a virtual lame duck.
4
Every time Democrats mix border security and a path to citizenship, we lose.
Anything like a path to citizenship is seen as an inducement for more people to come here illegally.
We need to separate them.
7
@Talbot: Effective immigration control requires a national ID database. When such a system is instituted, an amnesty will be necessary.
2
There is too much power in the hands of both the Senate majority leader and Speaker of the House in determining which bills are brought before those bodies. The criminal justice reforms that McConnell is blocking are a good example. If any member of either body wants to propose a bill, he/she should be allowed to have it brought up before the entire body. We have sacrificed democratic process for efficiency. What I am proposing would be more chaotic but would allow more good bills to become law.
21
I felt the same way when Obamacare was being debated by only Democrats. Republican measures were sidelined.
@Robert Winchester - The ACA was built on an idea from a Republican think tank.
1
Article I, Sec. 8 of the Constitution lists 18 specific powers, i.e., mandates, for the Congress; the first six of them all deal with the economy. The first two of them deal with funding the U.S. Government. IMHO, that implies that these mandates rank Nos. 1 through 6 in the PRIORITIES for the Congress. It's disgraceful that the Congress rarely enacts and funds a budget by the end of the fiscal year.
16
They will cop a plea deal. Bargain away the right to investigate. As flawed as our judicial system is, the congressional system is rife with corruption and plagued by systemic greed and questionable ethics. Probably go something like : you don’t investigate and we will agree to X Y and Z.
2
There's really no point in compromising with Republicans about anything except maybe the prison reform bill.
It's important for Democrats to define themselves before the Republicans do it in advance of the 2020 election.
Why be Republican-lite? That's a sure-fire prescription for keeping blue voters at home.
48
@Dave T.the prison reform bill will save the american people millions. What I find interesting is that no one mentioned that there are 5 federal prisons in Tenn. McConnell is dong this to protect his home state. That is not the role of the a senator, and certainly the majority leader. HE NEEDS TO GO.
4
Shut it down and leave it down. The republicans picked this fight, let's make sure that they lose it in as painful and costly a beating as can be inflicted on them. They deserve it.
22
@Thomas Payne -- put simply, I see nothing where Trump has leverage over the Democrats, in this lame duck session. The shoe is on the other foot -- the Republicans need some Democratic votes in the Senate to pass anything that cannot be done via reconciliation, and they probably need some more than one might think due to right-wing Republican hold-outs on most issues.
Trump is trying to run yet another witless bluff. Everybody can see the cards; he hasn't got any.
8
They've done nothing but help the rich for the past two years, do you think anything will be different over the next month?
Then it will be another two years of nothingness while the Democrats chase Trump's tax returns and try to find out how much he is beholding to Putin.
All the while Trump will do his best to turn our country into his Autocracy.
34
Past 30 years you mean.
11
At least Obamacare repeal is off the table.
30
@AlNewman Obama care did nothing but to make manitory to have insurance for health care even if person was health didnt need it . Made rich richer ,Great Deception. worked
2
If anyone who doesn't need" health care is involved in a serious auto accident, they will need health care, possibly for life. If they haven't the means, then tax payers will subsidize their Medicaid.
What about compulsory auto insurance? Yes, it's a state-by-state requirement but so many never have a need for it yet are required to purchase it as long as they have a car.
10
@jerry lee -- your logic is "my house hasn't burned down so I don't need fire insurance."
9
The rats (republicans both who won and lost) are jumping the HMS Titanic Trump.
In two yrs. they have not done anything but give trillion dollar corporate welfare checks to big biz., on the credit card of all Americans, almost throw 20 million Americans off health care by killing ACA and electing two super conservative Supreme Court judges to take us back to the 1930s.
If the dems were smart, they would get a least a short term renewal of a budget so the gov't won't shut down.
They get allow a billion of so to upkeep existing border security, maintain existing barriers and other needed stuff and the republicans can brag they started the wall when in reality they did not.
In return, the dems should get an iron clad guarantee the republicans will not interfere with the Mueller Probe.
41
What is wrong with our leadership and the many conservative men and women who support it? Do we really need to waste between 1.6 and 5 BILLION DOLLARS on boarder security? Do we not have many more pressing matters within our own boarder that need to be addressed. We have millions of people who can’t afford rent, food, medications, paying off student loans, children who are refused hot lunches at school, poisoned water, air and land, and countless other much more serious and important issues than more security at our boarder to hold back unarmed immigrants who only want a better life. Why doesn’t trump just fund his ridiculous boarder wall with the money he, along with the rest of his family, is stealing from us everytime he charges us for the secret service to rent rooms and golf carts at his own properties while he is off on another golf trip or vacation?
148
A decent bipartisan criminal justice bill and a relatively benign farm bill should pass soon. A budget bill makes sense as well, so long as it doesn’t waste money on Trump’s unnecessary wall (which is solely a political stunt to rile up deplorables), and has safeguards for Mueller. Anything other than that can wait for the new Congress in January.
If Don the Con and his GOP sycophants want to shut down the government over all this, let them.
84
"... But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle working class electorate that put us here.”
Yes, a changed mission is needed. But effective change begins with specific intent, systematic development of goals, and disciplined execution. Those calling for changes in leadership, without having even outlined reasons, objectives, or candidates, are inviting disunity and chaos.
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese Proverb
“Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance.” Alan Dean Foster
19
Remember how Trump, this great businessman, was going to be a deal maker in Washington? Yeah. Well, in two years he has exactly one legislative achievement: a tax cut that any other Republican President would have gotten as well. And two stolen Supreme Court seats.
The guy is a joke. If Republicans want to shut down the government, I say go for it. And leave it shut down for the next two years. No government is better than Trump.
125
Shut it down. Blame the democrats. Veto any bill that does not fund the wall. It is time to eliminate the filibuster. The democrats are spending our country into oblivion.
1
@Steve
The democrats are not spending the country into oblivion. Have you forgotten the huge effect of the republican tax cut? That money could have gone to healthcare, education, infrastructure, you name it.
Sadly it is lost to the corporations that need it least.
50
@Steve
The Republicans added over a trillion to the deficit with their tax giveaway to the wealthy and now want to spend billions more on a wall that no one wants and you think the Democrats are spending our country into oblivion? Could you share whatever it is you're smoking with the rest of us?
49
Steve, you do know that the Republicans have held all the power in Washington for the last two years? So the Democrats haven’t spent anything much less on a useless overpriced boondoggle like Trumps wall of shame & stupidity. Sorry to burst your bubble but they ain’t building that wall or locking up Trumps enemies. You’d like it better in Russia with the real thing instead of here with Putin’s sock puppet. Sad
31
It will be interesting. This sort of crisis deal making usually works, until it doesn't work at all.
9
Nancy Pelosi is a fighter and it is undeniable that she has had a positive impact on middle class Americans. The real challenge for democrats is Mitch McConnell. Every dollar and every piece of legislation put forward by the House should be directed at inflicting pain on the Senate leader and the good people of Kentucky.( who continue to vote against their best interest time after time.) To quote our newest Supreme Court Justice, "what goes around comes around."
106
@Chris
we read that McTurtle is supported by some Kentucky coal miners to whom he gave a pile of medical and pension benefits---while depriving everyone else in the country.
4
In 2016 the House but not the Senate passed a bill on reforming the National Flood Insurance Program, which would have allowed more commercial borrowers to more easily obtain flood insurance, specifically coverage their mortgage lenders would feel free to approve, in the private marketplace rather than the NFIP. It’s a well reasoned change that the banks need in order to avoid less-well reasoned criticism from the banking regulators. It prevents commercial borrowers from having to purchase NFIP coverage when their needs may be more appropriately met in the commercial marketplace. Congress should act on these bills in this session, the sooner the better.
For now, reauthorization of the NFIP is critical to the ability of business and consumer borrowers to be able to close loans. Every time this gets delayed, and there have been several such episodes in recent years, borrowers suffer major headaches and anxiety. And the same is true of those already insured who may be unable to have their policies renewed.
This week is essential.
@Barbara Munch -- NFIP has lapsed before, and it sure looks like NFIP will lapse now, to become a battle in the next Congress.
I think the bill you are talking about was the 2017 21st Century Flood Reform Act, HR 2874 ? It died in the Senate, no impetus for action there.
The specific terms you describe about commercial properties were in title 2 of this bill; it relieved commercial properties of federal flood insurance requirements.
The major public-interest concern is residences.
With the yuuuge increase in program liabilities due to the recent hurricanes I think that the problems of reauthorizing NFIP are now far more severe, and it is now unlikely that a bill as favorable to coastal real-estate interests as HR 2874 can pass. In particular the bill limited the annual premiums for a single residence to $10,000, and there are large areas along the coasts where that premium on 250 k$ is now obviously far below the actuarial risk.
There's no easy way out. A lot of coastal property is no longer insurable at a price people want to pay. This is indeed unfortunate, but there's no reason the rest of America, particularly those of limited means, should be subsidizing waterfront property for others.
6
No, we don’t need to make loans easier to obtain in flood zones.
2
@M Davis
The entire Mississippi Valley is a flood zone, not just the coasts.