The LuLac Edition #4, 896, January 19th, 2023

 

  THE WRONG-HEADED REPUBLICAN TRUMPANZEES AND THE DEBT CEILING

CNN reports that the US has been in debt and arguing about it for its entire existence.

The only two years in US history when there was no debt came as then-President Andrew Jackson was blowing up the banking system and immediately preceded the Panic of 1837 and a major depression.

In recent decades, disagreements over raising the debt ceiling (the maximum amount of money the Treasury is authorized to borrow to pay its bills) have grown along with the size of the national debt. The country reached its debt limit, which currently stands at $31.4 trillion, on Thursday.

The national debt under President Trump increased from $20,244,900,016,053 to $27,751,896,236,415 (20th January 2021). That's $5.138 billion a day. In less than one term, the debt under Trump’s presidency increased more than $7.5 trillion.

Woodrow Wilson, who was President during World War 1, oversaw an increase of 722.21% (averaging 35% increase per year in office) Franklin D. Roosevelt, in office between 1933 - 1945, increased National Debt by 1047.73% (24% increase per year on average) Of the 45 Presidents, only 14 of them have overseen a decrease in debt.

When Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, the national debt stood at about $19.9 trillion. As he left office, the national debt has grown to about $27.7 trillion. That's an increase of 39.2 percent. All that debt came from the tax cuts as well as the CO VID crisis.

It is rich that when tax cuts were doled out to the wealthy there was nary a word from the GOP. But now that they are in power and the Democrats have spent money on services for the middle class, gave an increase to social security recipients, and instituted life changing and saving policies for every day folk, the GOP cries. Kevin (15^th time the charm) McCarthy said that the debt rose under Democrats because of wasteful spending. Spending on infrastructure, on job training programs and social security was wasteful? People who embrace their argument, especially those getting Social Security had better remember where their bread was buttered and who gave them the knife.

Plus, the new rock heads whose asses McCarthy kissed CAN’T cut spending by holding up the debt ceiling. The increase in the debt ceiling will allow the government to PAY ITS BILLS.  It is money already spent.  The McCarthy analogy about a credit card is specious at best. If you don’t pay on that card, you CAN’T SPEND ANYMORE.

The debt ceiling is our agreement to do the right thing. Maybe that’s why the wrong headed Trumpanzees don’t get it. It’s all about doing THE RIGHT THING! And as we well know, the Republican party, save for The Civil War has been on the wrong side of every issue in the history of this country.  

 

TRUMP CRITICIZES EVANGELICAL LEADERS FOR NOT BACKING HIS 2024 PRESIDENTIAL BID

Just days before Donald Trump hosts his first 2024 event in South Carolina, a state whose evangelical population has long played a critical role in its presidential primary, the former president is lashing out at religious conservatives who have declined to endorse his third presidential campaign.

Trump’s comments to conservative journalist David Brody in a podcast interview Monday, in which he decried the “disloyalty” of evangelical leaders who have withheld public support for his campaign, were the latest in a series of bewildering remarks he’s made about one of the most critical voting blocs in a Republican primary.

“Nobody has ever done more for Right to Life than Donald Trump. I put three Supreme Court justices, who all voted, and they got something that they’ve been fighting for 64 years, for many, many years,’” Trump told Brody, referring to the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision last summer.

“There’s great disloyalty in the world of politics and that’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump continued, bemoaning evangelical leaders who have declined to support his latest campaign.

Earlier this month, Trump also criticized abortion opponents for losing “large numbers of voters” in the 2022 midterm elections, “especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother.” The comments on his Truth Social platform drew sharp retorts from several prominent religious leaders. That might spell doom for another Trump run. Even "Christians" have one soul to sell and once might have been enough for some in 2024. (aol  news, LuLac)

 

 CARTWRIGHT, MEUSER 

TALK 118TH CONGRESS FROM OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE AISLE

Congressman Matt Cartwright and Congressman Dan Meuser. (Photos: LuLac archives)

The Times Leader reports that after taking several days and numerous votes, the U.S. House of Representatives finally elected a Speaker — U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California.

Now the House can get down to business, right?

U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, and U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, recently took time to offer their thoughts on what’s ahead for the 118th Congress.

“The end of the 117th Congress wrapped up an incredible two years of bipartisan successes,” Cartwright said. “Major legislative highlights include the historic Inflation Reduction Act to lower prescription drug prices, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to reduce gun violence, the CHIPs and Science Act, to boost American manufacturing, and the PACT Act, which included my Camp Lejeune Justice Act, to allow veterans exposed to toxins to get the care they need.”

Cartwright said other Cartwright-sponsored bipartisan bills passed in 2022, including:

• The Military Spouse Job Continuity Act, to provide reimbursement to military spouses who are forced to pay fees to transfer a professional license or certification due to a Permanent Change of Station.

• The STREAM Act, to clean up Acid Mine Drainage in regional waterways.

• H.R.6364, to extend the use of U.S. Route 209 within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to light commercial vehicles while allowing emergency vehicles and school buses to use that section of highway toll-free.

• The Native Plant Species Pilot Program Act, to protect flora and fauna in National Parks and Recreation Areas like the Delaware Water Gap.

“Again, it’s been an incredible two years of bipartisan successes for our country and for our district,” Cartwright said. “After wasting an entire first week on just electing a speaker, I’m discouraged that this Congress won’t be nearly as productive. The American people deserve a Congress that works for them. We need to be united and ready to work together on lowering costs, creating better paying jobs and making our communities safer.”

But despite such a rocky start, Cartwright said he still remains optimistic.

“For one thing, I do remain a senior member of the House Appropriations, and I’m greatly heartened that House Republicans voted 3-to-1 to keep Community Project Funding intact. This presents a phenomenal opportunity for our area, and means I’ll continue to bring every penny of our fair share of tax dollars home to Northeast Pennsylvania.”ngressmen Matt Cartwright and Dan Mueser

“I’m more committed than ever to bringing this funding home to drive regional economic growth, create jobs, fight crime, and provide much-needed public works projects,” Cartwright said. Right now, both chambers of Congress are held by extremely thin margins. Without a doubt, both parties will have to find some common ground to enact our respective agendas for the next two years.”

 

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1954

Our 1954 logo.

British troops capture Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote in Kenya. Itote a  nom de guerre General China, was one of the key leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–1960) in British Kenya alongside Dedan Kimathi, Stanley Mathenge, Kurito ole Kisio, Musa Mwariama and Muthoni Kirima………General China was the first senior Mau Mau leader to be captured by the government, when he fell into a trap in 1954. He was jailed alongside future Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta….Milovan Djilas is removed from his position as President of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia after 22 days. Đilas was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democratic socialist, Djilas became one of the best-known and most prominent dissidents in Yugoslavia and all of Eastern Europe. During an era of several decades, he critiqued communism from the viewpoint of trying to improve it from within; after the revolutions of 1989 and the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, he critiqued it from an anti-communist viewpoint of someone whose youthful dreams had been disillusioned……

Sydney Hughes Greenstreet died on January 18, and was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting through the 1940s. 

He is best remembered for his Warner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), and Passage to Marseille (1944). He portrayed Nero Wolfe on radio during 1950 and 1951. He became a United States citizen in 1925. He had dramatic roles, such as William Makepeace Thackeray in Devotion (1946), and witty performances in screwball comedies, such as Alexander Yardley in Christmas in Connecticut (1944). Near the end of his film career, he played opposite Joan Crawford in Flamingo Road (1949). After little more than eight years, Greenstreet's film career ended with Malaya (also 1949), in which he was billed third, after Spencer Tracy and James Stewart. In those years, he worked with stars ranging from Clark Gable to Ava Gardner to Joan Crawford. Author Tennessee Williams wrote his one-act play The Last of My Solid Gold Watches with Greenstreet in mind, and dedicated it to him. During 1950–1951, Greenstreet played Nero Wolfe on the radio program The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, based loosely on the rotund detective genius created by Rex Stout and this week in 1954 the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Secret Love” by Doris Day which was not to be confused with the 1966 version by Billy Stewart.