The Politics Week in Review: No collusion with Russia, Murphy raising taxes on poor, Democrat wins Trump district, and more – by Josh Margulies

Congress says Trump did not collude with Russia.

 

The House intelligence committee closed its investigation into Russian meddling (hatzlacha finding this story reported in the mainstream media). They found zero evidence of collusion, and went even further, saying the Russians were not trying to get Trump elected. They merely wanted to create chaos.

The Democrats insist President Trump colluded with Russia. Yet Congressman Adam Schiff, despite appearing on television over 230 times (no joke), has not produced one shred of evidence. There is, however, plenty of evidence that Schiff really enjoys getting media attention. (Perhaps he’ll show us evidence of collusion before his 500th cable news interview.)

Mueller does not appear to be ending his probe anytime soon, and may be investigating anyone who has ever jaywalked, hoping to eventually find someone who will testify against the President.

Democrat wins heated Congressional race in huge upset

On Tuesday, Democrat Conor Lamb won a special election for Congress by just 579 votes, in a Pennsylvania district that Trump won by 20 points.

Here are some possible reasons for this upset:

  1. Republican voters are frustrated by a dysfunctional Congress, and figure that if nothing is getting done anyway, Democrats may as well have control.
  2. Lamb strongly opposed Nancy Pelosi and wants her ousted as leader, and Republican voters figured this is their chance to finally get Pelosi removed.
  3. Lamb’s campaign picture showed him shooting an AR-15 rifle. (Seriously, it did.)
  4. Voters are annoyed at President Trump for creating over 2 million jobs, passing a massive tax cut, protecting thousands of Pennsylvania steel workers’ jobs, keeping his promise to move the embassy, appointing Judge Gorsuch, and reducing illegal border crossing by nearly 70%.

Tillerson fired by Tweet

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by President Trump, the first time ever a cabinet member has been removed via Tweet (although John Kelly claims he warned Tillerson this was coming).

Tillerson was perhaps the only person in the country surprised by this decision. Not only does President Trump discard staff members as often as dental floss, he and Tillerson have had major disagreements on the (bogus) Iran nuclear deal, a meeting with North Korea, the Paris climate accord, and the Qatar blockade. Which begs the question: why didn’t they discuss this stuff before Tillerson was appointed? Tillerson also allegedly used an insulting term to refer to President Trump.

CIA leader Mike Pompeo ahs been chosen to replace Tillerson, and Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo at the CIA. Pompeo is considered a strong supporter of Israel, opposes the Iran deal, and supports enhanced interrogation of terror suspects. GOP Senator Rand Paul says he will vote against Tillerson and Haspel because of their support of enhanced interrogation, among other reasons.

Historic meeting between Israel and Arabs

Senior Israeli officials met with representatives of 5 Arab states at the White House, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This is the first time Israel has had formal diplomatic relations with Arab countries. No member of the Palestinian Authority was invited, perhaps due to an oversight, or possibly because they constantly insult and ridicule President Trump and his staff.

Jared Kushner arranged the historic meeting, but the real credit for bringing Israel together with its enemies goes to Barack Obama, who threw them all under the bus when he signed the nuke deal with Iran, giving Iran the freedom to spread havoc in the middle east, develop long-range ballistic missiles, and support terror everywhere–with zero consequences.

Meanwhile, Paraguay and Honduras announced they would move their embassies to Yerushalayim, if PM Netanyahu is willing to visit their countries.

Bipartisan Senate bill passes, big win for Republicans and the country

The Senate passed a bill that will roll back Dodd-Frank restrictions. In a bipartisan 67-31 vote, 17 Democrats broke party ranks and voted “yes”.

What does it mean? 

Dodd-Frank placed over 28,000 restrictions on banks, making it extremely difficult to get mortgages, bank loans, business loans, free checking, and other basic financial services. Banks and mortgage brokers hate Dodd-Frank. Since its passage, an average of one local bank or credit union closes every day. Ironically, it gave more power to the large corporate “too-big-to-fail” banks it was trying to cripple.

This new bill exempts smaller banks and institutions from many Dodd-Frank restrictions. It will help people refinance at lower rates, start more businesses, and have more spending money. In other words, it’s a very good bill.

So good, in fact, that it was supported by many Democrats who are up for reelection, because they believe their constituents will reward them for passing it. The reason so many Democrats voted against it is because it takes power away from government and gives it back to private industry. It also helps America be more prosperous.

Democrats also claim it will lead to banks discriminating against minorities, and more taxpayer bailouts. By that logic, they could lock up every bank worker in jail, to prevent racism and taxpayer bailouts. The question is, is it fair to mess up millions of people, to prevent a few isolated incidents of bad banks engaging in racism?

The bill will now move to the House, where it won’t need Democrat support, since only a simple majority of Republicans is required to pass it.

Assassination attempt on Palestinian leader

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived a roadside bombing Tuesday, after his convoy was hit by an explosive device as it passed the border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
The PA initially blamed Hamas, but after a conversation between Hamdallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the two agreed to “blame Israel and its collaborators”. Haniyeh must be very persuasive.

NJ Governor plans to raise taxes

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced he wants to raise taxes, including restoring the sales tax (cut by former Governor Christie) from 6.2% to 7%. Murphy claims his tax hike will target the rich, and is seemingly not aware that middle class and poor people also buy things.

What’s more, the sales tax reduction was passed in exchange for a tax hike by NJ democrats on gasoline. Yet while Murphy plans to raise the sales tax to the old level, he made no mention of lowering the gasoline tax, which was the reason sales tax was lowered in the first place.

In other words, the government lowered one tax so it could raise another, and now it plans to raise the tax that it lowered, without lowering the one that it raised.

Josh Margulies hosts The Zone, a frum political podcast. Click here to listen to his daily news updates and analysis. You can also subscribe here.

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. 1. The House intelligence committee is run by Republicans.
    2. They did not interview 100+ witnesses, which means that the investigation was fudged.
    3. I forgot the name of the corporation, but it assisted the Trump campaign, and they communicated with Russia.

    If you want the Mueller investigation to end, you’re obviously afraid of what it will uncover.

  2. Five years ago, the sales tax was 7%. The people managed just fine, and the State was able to fund more programs. NY has 8.65%, and is managing just fine. Raising the sales tax is actually a good thing.

  3. @wolf so you think the dems should raise the sales tax even higher is 10% a good number ? So the poor and middle class paying more to buy stuff is a good thing ?
    The only collusion with the Russians was with Hillary the DNC and Steele in putting together the false dossier.

  4. People did not manage “just fine” when the sales tax was 7%. Many hardworking middle-class families are struggling big time. Life in the tri-state area is prohibitively expensive.

    And exactly which programs did the state stop funding when it lowered the sales tax?

Comments are closed.