Uh oh…
8 more days…
Ten days from now, on January 20th at noon, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next President of the United States and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as the next Vice-President. With Harris as Vice-President, the balance of power in the Senate will swing to the Democrats (albeit only slightly) and the obstructionist Mitch McConnell will be relegated to minority leader.
With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency, there is an opportunity to get things moving again and accomplish a lot, and there is certainly a lot to do. Over the next several days I’m going to try to describe what I think needs to get done. I’m going to try to organize my thoughts into five categories:
Please feel free to comment with your suggestions. I’m sure there are things I could have said better and maybe some things I’ve left out.
-Tom
I understand there are a lot of people who are furious with the President and afraid of what he might do. I’m furious with the man too, but for more than just his actions this past Wednesday. However, I don’t think impeachment is the way to go. Let’s look at the calendar to better understand why.
The House is not likely to have a vote on any impeachment articles until sometime later this coming week. In any case, the Senate is not in session (except for pro forma sessions) until January 19 – one day before Inauguration Day. Majority Leader McConnell is unlikely to take up any impeachment articles that day (Chuck Schumer will not be majority leader until Kamala Harris is confirmed on the 20th).
So, if the House does vote for impeachment articles, the Senate will have to take them up after Biden is confirmed and Trump is out of office. This will have the unfortunate effect of delaying confirmation of Biden’s cabinet nominees and any further COVID relief legislation. It would be very unfortunate if that were the case. Given the delay in transition, it’s very important that Biden’s nominees get confirmed and in place as soon as possible.
Further, the effect of impeachment may only be to make Trump ineligible for running again in 2024 and even that will require two thirds of the Senate to agree which I think is very unlikely.
There’s lots to do folks and I’ll be talking about some of it soon, so let’s have our Congress get on with implementing Biden’s agenda and stop wasting time.
I’m not surprised to see a lot of resignations in the Trump administration although, at this point, I think they’ve just decided to use up their vacation days before the 20th. Let’s take a look at who resigned.
Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation, who stood beside President Trump while he praised the white supremacists who brought mayhem to Charlottesville as ‘Very fine people’. Chao, who of course is married to Mitch McConnell accomplished virtually nothing to improve or maintain the country’s infrastructure during her tenure and instead focused on weakening greenhouse gas rules and supporting her father’s shipping business with many public appearances and trying to cut funding and loan guarantees from competing, American, shipping companies. Her father made a gift to Chao and her husband valued, according to Federal disclosures, at between $5 million and $25 million. She was being investigated by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General over whether she gave preferential treatment to projects in Kentucky – her husband’s home state. Trump ended that investigation by firing the Inspector General. Good riddance to that rat.
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education who redirected millions of dollars of Coronavirus funds intended for public schools to private and religious schools. She also cancelled regulations intended to protect students from predatory practices. She cut the size of the team investigating abuses and fraud by for-profit colleges and then, to put the icing on the cake, appointed Julian Schmoke as the team’s new supervisor. Schmoke is former dean of DeVry Education Group, one of the organizations being investigated. in 2019, Devos unsuccessfully attempted to cut funds for the Special Olympics. This was her third attempt. DeVos took many other actions to reduce funding for public schools and public education and redirect it to private and religious schools. Her family is among the 100 richest in the country. Her brother, Erik Prince, is the founder of Blackwater USA. Good bye to this rat.
Who else has resigned…Mick Mulvaney, former chief of staff to Trump, Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor, John Costello, Deputy Assistant Secretary at Commerce, Tyler Goodspeed, Council of Economic Advisors, Stephanie Grisham, Melania’s Chief of Staff, Rickie Niceta, Social Secretary at the White House, Sarah Matthews, Deputy White House Press Secretary. I’m sure there will be more soon. It’s the nature of rats.
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