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Paul Ryan

Freedom Caucus Demands DOJ Cooperation, Better GOP Leaders

May 22, 2018 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/5-22-GOSAR-BLOG.mp3

The House Freedom Caucus is increasingly frustrated with the Justice Department refusing to hand over documents critical to the investigation into the 2016 campaign and with its own Republican leadership on issues ranging from immigration to spending and more.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., is a member of the House Freedom Caucus and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  He says the Justice Department is dragging its feet on turning over documents related to many different aspects of the 2016 campaign and the ongoing Mueller probe.

“(It’s) everything to be quite honest with you because the investigations into Hillary Clinton as well as the presidential campaign have shown there is egregious overreach here.  but one of the key points is what the scope of this (Mueller) investigation actually is.

“We see Mr. Mueller on a fishing expedition, trying to get anybody and everybody tagged into a crime that they create,” said Gosar.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C, is leading the charge for a second special counsel to be named so that person could impanel a grand jury and bring possible criminal charges on a range of issues.

However, Gosar says that is unlikely to happen since he believes the Justice Department is trying to “wait out the clock.”  When asked whether that meant letting the Mueller investigation play out or see if Democrats win a majority in one or both chambers of Congress, Gosar suggested it was both.

“A Pelosi-borne House cancels all these processes,” said Gosar, noting that his goal is to make sure “the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C, aren’t being held to a different standard than people out in the real world.”

Gosar and other House Freedom Caucus members are also furious with how Republican leaders are handling the immigration issue as proponents of a DACA amnesty near the 218 signatures needed to force the issue on the House floor.

The congressman blasts leadership for repeatedly promising to put the far more conservative Goodlatte bill on the floor for a vote but never making good on the vow.  That plan would only grant legal status to DACA enrollees, rather than a path to citizenship.  It would also limit chain migration to the immediate family, cancel the visa lottery, mandate E-Verify for all hires in the U.S. and beef up border security.

He also says leaders have reneged on promises to bring a bill to the floor focused solely on scrapping the visa lottery.

“Trust is a series of promises kept.  Leadership has drug its feet repeatedly on this aspect,” said Gosar.

GOP leaders are pleading with members not to sign the discharge petition, but Gosar says the alternative offered by leadership is equally unacceptable.

“We were presented with an idea.  They would go forward with the Goodlatte bill but we had to agree to a rule vote that not only brought up the Goodlatte bill but brought up an immigration bill to be named later as well.  No one in their right mind actually does that,” said Gosar.

Freedom Caucus members held up the latest farm bill in protest of the leadership’s performance on immigration but also to protest what they expect to be significant watering down of the farm bill in the Senate.

Gosar says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no intention of fighting to keep welfare work requirements in the legislation but does plan to push hard for legalizing industrial hemp.

Gosar says it’s another example of leaders unilaterally deciding what legislation will look like, just as House and Senate leaders hammered out an agreement for the $1.3 trillion omnibus earlier this year.

The congressman says new GOP leadership is desperately needed but there will be no leadership elections anytime soon because current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy cannot get 218 Republicans to support him.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: farm bill, freedom caucus, immigration, Justice Department, Kevin McCarthy, leadership elections, news, Paul Ryan, President Trump, Robert Mueller

Cuccinelli: I’m Happy to See Ryan Go

April 11, 2018 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/4-11-cuccinelli-blog.mp3

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election this year, a decision welcomed by conservatives who see Ryan as a great disappointment during his years running the House of Representatives.

“I’m happy to see him go,” said former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who now leads the Senate Conservatives Fund, which recruits conservative candidates to run against Senate Democrats and liberal Republicans.

“As establishmentarians go, he’s a very nice guy, but he has stabbed conservatives in the back.  He has made public promises that he hasn’t kept on very basic things like how he was going to run the House.  He has gone back on those promises,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli says in almost three years as House Speaker, Ryan has only managed to turn one major campaign promise into law when the tax reform bill was enacted late in 2017.

“They literally have one thing to show for his tenure in the House and that’s that tax reform bill.  There’s nothing else positive to point to except – look I’m really anti-regulation and I really appreciate them peeling out one regulation at a time – but in the big picture, that’s small potatoes,” said Cuccinelli.

The most recent example of Cuccinelli’s frustration is Ryan agreeing to the $1.3 trillion omnibus that jacks up domestic spending along with defense spending.  Ryan defenders say the House did pass individual spending bills at more responsible levels but the omnibus became necessary because the Senate could not find the votes to tackle the appropriations bills one at a time.

Cuccinelli says Ryan should have rejected any idea of an omnibus bill and insisted that the Senate approach the bills one at a time, negotiating only when the Senate passed something.

“That’s all he should have done.  This whole complaining schtick about the Senate doesn’t go anywhere when they can actually stick the Senate with the work they’ve done and they refuse to do it,” said Cuccinelli, who also blames President Trump for the massive spending increases.

“This is weak-kneed stuff and the president shouldn’t have signed the bill.  ‘Oh gosh, this is a terrible bill and I’m going to sign it but I’m never going to sign one again.’  How outrageous is that?  That’s a real failure on the part of the president,” said Cuccinelli.

Ryan also managed to get a health care bill through the House, although the idea fizzled in the Senate.  Cuccinelli says the House bill was no triumph of conservatism.

“It’s the biggest promise in yours and my political lifetime.  Not only did Mitch McConnell betray us on that but if you look at what Paul Ryan put through, you will see that it would basically leave us with the outer structure of Obamacare.  They liked to call it ‘skinny repeal.’  What that means is this is not repeal,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli also blasts Ryan for reneging on a vow to the House Freedom Caucus to restore then-Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, to the House Agriculture Committee as a way to win caucus support for his candidacy for Speaker of the House.  But after pressure from the Chamber of Commerce and others, Ryan refused to return Huelskamp from the panel.

So who should be the House GOP leader now?  The names most commonly mentioned are House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.

McCarthy is next in line in leadership but Scalise is likely to be a sentimental favorite after his comeback from last year’s congressional baseball shooting.

Cuccinelli says Scalise is the perfect example of who conservatives should not want in leadership.

“Scalise used to be a conservative.  What he would tell you is you can’t do that and be in leadership.  Let’s reinterpret that.  So you can’t keep your principles if you take this particular job, and when you had to choose between the two you had to abandon your principles for this title.  OK, and now you want us to make you speaker?” asked Cuccinelli.

However, Cuccinelli says McCarthy is worse.

“McCarthy is going to claim a closer relationship with Trump, but McCarthy really is unacceptable to a broad swath of the caucus,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli wants to see Re. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus ascend to lead House Republicans.

“Jordan is the kind of person who can gather up that kind of support because he has been such a professional.  You can’t cast him as a firebrand, but he has stood for principles and sought to use the power of the House to advance the principles they all campaigned on.  What a concept,” said Cuccinelli.

If someone like McCarthy or Scalise emerges as leader, Cuccinelli suspects the intense GOP friction will continue.

“As long as [Ryan] and the rest of that leadership make war on the conservative base that elects them, we will not have peace in the Republican Party,” said Cuccinelli.

He also believes the Republicans are headed to a bloodbath in the midterm elections unless they get a lot done on spending, immigration, and more in the next few months.

“If all you have to show to your entire base is one bill, you’re going to get wiped out.  They’ve got to get work done in the next six months, or they’re going to be arguing about (who becomes) minority leader, not speaker,” said Cuccinelli.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: Ken Cuccinelli, news, Paul Ryan, retirement, Speaker

Zuckerberg Gets Grilled, Ryan to Retire, London’s Anti-Knife Nonsense

April 11, 2018 by GregC


Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are happy to Republicans senators like Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, and John Kennedy pin down Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on critical issues like censorship, free speech, and user policies that actually benefit Facebook members.  They also react to House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing his retirement, looking both at his record and the increased likelihood that Democrats will take back the House this year.  And they have fun with London’s ridiculous new knife control push after 50 stabbing deaths in the city this year, including police confiscating scissors and pliers as deadly weapons.

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Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: 2018 midterms, Ben Sasse, censorship, Free Speech, hate speech, john Kennedy, knife control, London, Mark Zuckerberg, National Review, Paul Ryan, privacy, Sadiq Khan, Ted Cruz, Three Martini Lunch

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