BONUS: New Gary Chambers ad
Late yesterday the House passed two important bills. The continuing resolution-- to keep the government running-- passed 272 to 162. Aside from the whole gang of Hate America First extremists-- Marjorie Traitor Greene (GA), Paul Gosar (TX), Matt Gaetz (FL), Madison Cawthorn (NC), Ronny Jackson (TX), Lauren Boebert (CO), Louie Gohmert (TX), Scott Perry (PA), Beth Van Duyne (TX), Mary Miller (IL), Matt Rosendale (MT), Claudia Tenney (NY), Pete Sessions (TX), Clay Higgins (LA), Andy Biggs (AZ), Jody Hice (GA), Bob Good (VA), Gym Jordan (OH), etc-- one particularly odious Blue Dog from Bergen County, New Jersey joined them, Josh Gottheimer. He was the only Democrat to vote to shut down the government. 51 Republicans joined the other 221 Democrats to keep the government open.
The other bill, the Postal Service Reform Act (H.R. 3076), passed 342 to 92, every Democrat and most Republicans 120) voting yes, while 92 extremist Republicans voted against it. It was mostly the usual suspects, sociopaths like Marjorie Traitor Greene (GA), Gym Jordan (OH), Louie Gohmert (TX), Jody Hice (GA), Paul Gosar (AZ), Darrell Issa (CA), Mary Miller (IL), Clay Higgins (LA), Lauren Boebert (CO), Mo Brooks (AL), Matt Gaetz (FL), Andy Biggs (AZ), Bob Good (VA), Ronny Jackson (TX) and so on.
The controversial House Oversight and Reform Committee postal reform bill was ironed out by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Jim Comer (R-KY). Had they not, theist office would have run out of operational funds entirely by 2024. the biggest accomplishment in the legislation is to eliminate the absurd current requirement to pre-fund retiree health benefits, estimated to save the post office $27 billion in the next decade. The companion bill in the Senate can't be blocked by Sinema or Manchin because there are already 14 Republican co-sponsors who will override Ted Cruz's, Mike Lee's, Rand Paul's or Josh Hawley's filibuster. The bill doesn't fire Biden's universally hated criminal Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. Biden seems determined to wear DeJoy around his neck going into the midterms, which will guarantee immense Democratic losses.
Last night the NY Times noted that "The service has teetered on the brink of insolvency for years, as repeated efforts to revamp its structure and finances have stalled in Congress. In 2020, a slowdown of mail delivery and a series of operational changes ahead of the election, in which a record number of votes were cast by mail because of the pandemic, prompted intense scrutiny and helped set off a renewed effort to address the agency’s troubles."
To address the financial strain on the agency, the bill requires retired employees to enroll in Medicare when they are eligible and removes a mandate, first imposed by a 2006 law, that the agency cover its future health care costs decades in advance. The Postal Service estimates that those two changes will save the agency about $50 billion over a decade, according to a fact sheet provided by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, whose leaders led efforts to draft the legislation. The committee said it would be the most significant overhaul of the agency in nearly two decades.
Gary Chambers' first campaign ad-- burning a blunt-- was awesome. This one, just out this morning-- burning a rebel flag-- is even better. Watch it and consider contributing to his campaign to become a senator from Louisiana: