RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/cotton-backs-arkansas-legislatures-override-of-hutchinsons-veto/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=first

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas backs the Arkansas legislature’s action to stop doctors in the state from performing gender-transition surgeries on minors or prescribing puberty-blocking hormones to minors who identify as transgender. 

“I support our legislature’s action to protect children from dangerous, life-altering, irreversible harms,” Cotton tells National Review in a statement.

In order to enact the law, the state legislature on Tuesday overrode the veto of Republican governor Asa Hutchinson.

On Tuesday night, Hutchinson was grilled by Fox News host Tucker Carlson about the veto.

“Let’s let parents and doctors make decisions,” Hutchinson said. 

“Then why don’t we allow 18-year-olds to drink beer in Arkansas? Why don’t we allow them to get tattoos? Why don’t we allow 15-year-olds to get married?” Carlson replied. “You vetoed a bill that would’ve protected children — not adults, children, to whom a different standard applies — from a life-altering, permanent procedure.”

https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/06/if-democrats-will-cry-racist-no-matter-what-republicans-should-pass-much-stronger-laws/

In March, Georgia Republicans amended their state’s election laws in a weak attempt to assuage voters disgusted with their enabling of the 2020 election circus. To punish their political opponents for requiring voter ID and creating an election season of a month long or more Democrats called up their character assassination squads.

Democrats have been throwing every bit of pressure they can at Georgia elected officials to get their way without winning power legitimately through elections. This has included pressure from Democrats’ current and last U.S. presidents, Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Biden called on companies to push his political goals outside of the legitimate political system by boycotting Georgia. He is the first president to openly push private companies to boycott a U.S. state over fully legal political outcomes he dislikes.

Biden also explicitly voiced support for Major League Baseball economically punishing Americans represented by members of his political opposition by withdrawing MLB’s All-Star game from Atlanta. MLB quickly complied.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/04/06/man-behind-alleged-gaetz-extortion-scheme-admits-wanting-25-million-n1437915

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has claimed that the sexual misconduct allegations made against him were part of an extortion scheme, and Bob Kent, one of the men allegedly involved in the scheme, all but confirmed in an interview on “The Michael Smerconish Program” on SiriusXM radio on Monday that he had asked Gaetz’s father for $25 million—but insists it was not extortion.

Kent says he needed the money to help find FBI agent Robert Levinson, who went missing in March 2007 and is presumed to be dead by his family, but Kent claims he’s seen video evidence that Levinson is alive in Iran.

“Matt Gaetz is in need of good publicity, and I’m in need of $25 million to rescue Robert Levinson,” Kent said on the show, and acknowledged that he asked Gaetz’s father for the money.

“At first he started laughing and he said, ‘You know we get these extortion attempts all the time,’ And I said whoa, stop. This is not an extortion attempt. I’m not trying to extort him, I’m not, you know, that’s not what we’re doing here.”

But according to a report from the Washington Examiner, Gaetz, “possesses text message screenshots, an email, and a typed document that purportedly support his claims that a federal investigation into his relationship with a 17-year-old is related to an extortion scheme against him.” According to screenshots provided to the Washington Examiner, Rep. Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz, a former Florida state Senate president, received a text message from Kent on March 16 proposing “a plan that can make [Matt Gaetz’s] future legal and political problems go away.”

Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/sinema-calls-on-senators-to-change-their-behavior-instead-of-eliminating-filibuster/

Senator Kyrsten Sinema called on colleagues to “change their behavior” and work for compromises instead of attempting to eliminate the Senate filibuster, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

“When you have a place that’s broken and not working, and many would say that’s the Senate today, I don’t think the solution is to erode the rules,” Sinema told the Journal. “I think the solution is for senators to change their behavior and begin to work together, which is what the country wants us to do.”

Sinema’s comments come amid pressure from progressive Democrats to eliminate the filibuster entirely, and allow legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority in place of the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) has floated changing filibuster rules to make the procedure more difficult to use, without eliminating the filibuster entirely, however Sinema refused to discuss that possibility.

The purpose of the Senate is “to craft bipartisan solutions to solve the challenges we face in our country,” Sinema said.

The Senate is currently divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.

Amid Republican opposition, Democrats used budget reconciliation rules to pass their $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill by a simple majority. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) announced on Monday evening that the Senate parliamentarian approved using budget reconciliation for two additional bills, which could allow Democrats to pass the Biden administration’s infrastructure package.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/reaganmccarthy/2021/04/05/manchin-n2587410

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) delivered a blow to President Biden’s “infrastructure” plan, which is already facing a steep challenge in the Senate. Manchin said publicly that he opposes an increase in the corporate tax rate, to 28 percent, that is included in the plan proposed by the administration. 

The “swing vote” Democrat lawmaker said that the increase was a non-starter for him.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is considering using budget reconciliation to pass the hefty infrastructure plan, in order to sidestep the 60-vote threshold, as Democrats did to pass the American Rescue Plan earlier this year. If Schumer took this route, only 51 votes would be necessary to pass the plan. Manchin warned the administration that he is not alone in opposing such a steep increase to the corporate tax rate.

“There’s six or seven other Democrats who feel very strongly about this. We have to be competitive, and we’re not going to throw caution to the wind,” he continued in the interview.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that the administration’s infrastructure plan mandates that corporations pay their “fair share” of taxes.

Like other plans put forth by the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats, the infrastructure plan is receiving blowback from Republican lawmakers for inclusion of line-items that are completely unrelated to infrastructure.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/bryan-preston/2021/04/03/freshman-republicans-fight-democrats-big-tech-and-the-media-to-restore-conservative-principles-in-congress-n1437194

Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t at the top of his West Point class. He wasn’t a very successful businessman. When the nation was in peril, no one saw him as the leader who would save the day. But history records that Grant won key victories and when other failed generals, the media, and Copperhead Democrats questioned him, President Lincoln waved the naysayers away. “I cannot spare this man,” Lincoln said. “He fights!”

I can’t help but think of this when looking at what’s likely to play out over the next few, crucial years. 

Much has been written about the future of the Republican Party in recent months, but one authoritative source believes its future is bright. 

In a recent interview, former President Donald Trump shared his thoughts on the next generation of up-and-coming leaders within the party, noting that “we have a lot of young, good people” and that “the Republican party is stacked.” While he singled out notable conservatives such as Ron DeSantis and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a group of up-and-coming freshmen in the House of Representatives is worth watching as they promise to stand strong in the capitol. They will face enormous criticism and pressure, and they know it. 

Members of Congress such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, and Lauren Boebert will continue the work of draining the swamp that President Trump started four years ago. Unlike establishment Republicans who tend to look out for special interests and still think corporate America is their friend, these new leaders reflect the true spirit of the American people and represent the next generation of conservative leadership.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/26/joe-biden-nominates-swing-vote-sen-joe-manchins-wi/

President Biden intends to appoint the wife of the Senate’s top swing vote, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin III, to a plum federal position that pays upwards of $160,000 annually.

The White House announced on Friday it would nominate Gayle Connelly Manchin, a former president of the West Virginia state board of education, to serve as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

The organization is responsible for spurring economic development and investment in the 13 states that make up the region of Appalachia — which spans from northern Mississippi to Pennsylvania.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mrs. Manchin is slated to replace Tim Thomas, a former staffer for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The role comes with a salary of approximately $163,000 annually, according to a federal pay database.

Mrs. Manchin’s nomination comes as her husband has become a vital political player in Washington, D.C.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/party-of-groupthink/ar-BB1evm67

When President Biden finally signed into law a $1.9 trillion spending package, passed without a single Republican vote in either house of Congress, the White House celebrated it as “the most progressive piece of legislation in history.”

“So, I would say we feel pretty good about that,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a daily briefing. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist Biden beat to win the Democratic presidential nomination, sang from the same songbook on CNN. Asked about the spending cut from the package to win the votes of a dwindling band of Democratic centrists, Sanders replied, “In my view, this is the most significant legislation for working people that has been passed in decades.” The network’s website later published a piece titled “The US is about to start a massive experiment in progressive government.”

The messaging illustrates the contradiction at the core of Biden’s successful campaign for the White House: He simultaneously pledged to fulfill Sanders’s wishes for the “most progressive president since FDR” and be a nonthreatening, bipartisan deal-maker who would deserve the votes of college-educated, white suburbanites who typically cast their ballots for Republicans.