Let’s face it, the stated goal of the Trump Administration is to “deconstruct” our way of life and to accomplish this goal the Administration put in a Cabinet filled with swamp monsters, goons and incompetents. It is up to Congress now to decide, are they going to play along with this “covfefe”? Are they going to be a rubber stamp to the dismantling of the American dream? Or are they actually going to put Country first? Whoa, America First, that sounds like an interesting slogan. Haven’t we heard that before?
Wouldn’t it be great if the goal of this Administration was about being constructive rather than “deconstruction”? Because really deconstruction sounds like it is going to hurt a lot of people and harm our Democracy. And not only are they trying to deconstruct our way of life, the Trump Administration seems hell bent on destroying our planet, losing global position as a leader and damaging our standing in the world with our allies. All while sucking up to dictators and despots.
It is almost as if Trump thinks being a celebrity gives him special entitlements that put him above the law. You know, like he can grab a woman by the genitals or shoot someone on 5th Ave without losing a supporter. For rational humans, those of us who believe in things like science, math and actual, not alternative, facts, this seems like a really bad idea. And it is part of the reason I am horrified when I see my member of Congress voting in support of this Administration 92% of the time.
Party loyalty is one thing, but destroying the planet and deconstructing our entire government because of demagoguery and incompetence is a totally different story. Add in suspected Russian collusion, misinformation, misbehavior, and covfefe, what you come up with an Administration with the most conflicts of any in our history, and do we really want our members of Congress supporting that?
Let’s look at the votes cast so far by my member of Congress Ryan Costello, as of July 2017 only three were not in agreement with Trump’s position. And one of those no votes was on the American Health Care Act (AHCA). But, it must be noted, Costello voted numerous times during the Obama Administration to repeal the ACA. Evidently, as is now startlingly evident, he voted to repeal without any viable plan to replace. And he voted to move the AHCA out of Committee only weeks before voting no on the actual bill. What does his no vote mean? Did he, or anyone else, actually think the AHCA had a chance of getting through the Senate? Was this the brave protest vote of someone who wants to protect healthcare for millions? Or was it the vote of someone who knew the vote was going to fail and just wanted to say he voted no?
From gutting worker overtime protections to repealing FCC privacy rules, the big farce of changes to “rulemaking requirements for federal agencies”, Republicans in Congress are treating legislative efforts as if they are Blue Light Specials they have to rush through before time is up and they get voted off the island. And word is the West Wing is more brutal than any Survivor plot right now.
In fact, one rule change allowed this Congress to repeal and reverse rules made during the last Administration. Because when they can’t win, they change the rules. From gerrymandering, to misinformation campaigns, this is how the Republican Party now operates. And my member of Congress Ryan Costello to date has rubber stamped it 92% of the time. What about yours? What is their voting record? Are they blindly supporting this Administration and its efforts to deconstruct our way of life? Check yours here.
Let’s not forget Ryan and Congressional Republicans also voted to repeal a rule that required state and local governments to distribute federal funds to qualified health centers, even if they performed abortions. This rule was to protect women’s health clinics from efforts to defund based on ideological nonsense. Do you think Republicans realize that where affordable contraceptives and health centers are available there are actually fewer abortions?
So, members of Congress, including my representative Ryan Costello, not only voted to repeal the ACA during the Obama Administration, now they actually gave this, what some are calling the most corrupt Administration in our history, the ability to undo the work done over the last 8 years. And not only that, that also decided to deny funds to women’s health centers. And remember, for the last 8 years, everything we passed was an uphill battle against the obstruction of folks like Paul Ryan, Ryan Costello and their Republican members in Congress. Every. Single. Thing. But now suddenly, legislation is just sailing through committee, and right onto the floor for a vote. Isn’t it remarkable how fast Congress is acting now? And not only on legislation, but on Judicial appointments too. It is almost as if all that obstruction of the last 8 years was ideologically motivated and that government actually does work. Interesting.
Now we are about to see battles on what I call the 3e’s: environment, education and equality. Are we going to allow Paul Ryan, Ryan Costello and the Republican Party to deconstruct our way of life? Will we allow them to defund and privatize our public schools? Are we going to allow their free marketeer, profiteering dark money donors to take our local taxes, buy mansions and yachts and hide our money in their offshore tax havens? Will we allow them to take away our right to choice and control of our own bodies in an insane version of The Handmaid’s Tale come true?
No. We are going to fight them every step of the way. And I challenge Ryan Costello and all members of Congress to take a stand for constituents and stop voting in lock step with this Administration, which many have called the most corrupt in our history. But hey, kudos to Trump for that distinction. That really is quite an accomplishment.
Right now the Trump Admin is planning to cut billions from programs, including $9 billion from education. And remember, every time the Federal government cuts funding to our schools, that forces local governments to increase property taxes to balance the budget. School districts must balance their budgets and provide mandated services, even when those in Congress gut programs with massive tax cut schemes. This seems to be part of a concerted effort to demonize public schools. Just cut and cut and cut and force local taxes increases while Republicans are quietly shoveling money to private defense contractors and forcing privatization, turning our children into profit centers for dark money donors like the DeVos family. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house. That would be like putting Mike Pence in charge of funding women’s healthcare……oh wait.
What we are seeing is a coordinated attack on our way of life, the actual deconstruction of the American Dream. And are we going to allow this? Are we going to insist our representatives REPRESENT us and not the corrupt views of swamp monsters and dark money cowards too afraid to show how they spend their money on political campaigns?
We need to stand together. To pay attention to EVERY vote. Not give a member of Congress a pass when he takes a stand on a vote that we all knew was doomed to fail. We want leaders representing us. We want people of conviction and courage, not cowardly cons who seem to think this is a game of deconstruct the nation and destroy the planet where they cash out and leave the rest of us to pay the bill.
We aren’t going to allow our children to be indentured, our futures to be mortgaged and our planet destroyed because of ego, hubris and Russian misinformation campaigns. We aren’t going to accept silliness that a woman’s emails were damaging but a deranged man’s tweets “speak for themselves” (#covfefe). We aren’t going to accept the pandering of pundits rather than the rational reason of our own minds. And we aren’t going to ignore members of Congress rubber stamping horrible policies. 2018 isn’t that far away. Call on your member of Congress, take a stand. And vow to help us clean the House in 2018.
We don’t need rubber stamps in Congress.