And They Are Off

Our new government, all three branches are in name controlled by the same political party. Let's start with the presumption that Congress will make all sorts of tough rules, restricting the powers of the Presidency, which of course are too late to be useful. Then, they will work hard to keep local constituency pork flowing. Little good will happen, and the Democrats will endlessly bitch about how the majority is having their feelings hurt.

Congress.org presents MEGAVOTE for January 9, 2017 and Georgia's 13th Congressional District.
Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution-Motion to Proceed
• House: Objecting to the United Nations Security Council Resolution Vote 2334 Concerning Israeli-Palestinian Peace
• House: Executive Regulations
• House: Midnight Rules 

Upcoming Congressional Bills

• Senate: Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution 
• House: Regulatory Accountability
• House: Private Market Investors
• House: Commodity Futures Trading Commission Reauthorization
• House: Securities and Exchange Commission Cost-Benefit Analyses
• House: Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution

Recent Senate Votes:
Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution-Motion to Proceed Vote Agreed to (51-48, 1 Not Voting)
The Senate agreed to the motion to proceed to the measure allowing for Senate debate on the concurrent resolution itself. The legislation would trigger the budget reconciliation process and enable the subsequent consideration of reconciliation legislation to repeal major portions of the 2010 health law. The measure would provide instructions to two Senate and two House committees to cut a minimum of $1 billion each during the next 10 years as part of budget reconciliation.
Sen. Johnny Isakson voted YES
Sen. David Perdue voted YES

When politicians talk about cutting one billion per year for ten years, that smells like political deception. The cut will be back loaded in the plan and you can bet there will be no cuts in the next two years. That said, I would be happy to see any plan that simply stopped budget growth, if levels were maintained the effects of inflation caused by competitive borrowing and the government printing money would over time  erase the red spending. Attacking the established institutional debt is a whole nuther matter.

Recent House Votes:
Objecting to the United Nations Security Council Resolution Vote 2334 Concerning Israeli-Palestinian Peace Vote Passed (342-80, 4 Present, 7 Not Voting)
The House agreed to this resolution which would express the sense of the House that the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which criticized Israel for its continued expansion of settlements in occupied territories, and which the United States abstained from vetoing in the Security Council, undermined the long-standing position of the United States to oppose and veto U.N. Security Council resolutions that seek to impose solutions to Israeli-Palestinian final status issues, or that are one-sided and anti-Israel.
Rep. David Scott voted YES

Am pleasantly surprised by my Congressman's vote on this issue. This was, in my opinion, a ceremonial vote. The President was wrong to undercut Israel in the UN. Israel is the United States' most stable ally in the middle east and as long as Israel acts in a proactive matter to alleviating the troubles, deserves our complete support. What the President did was a sneaky, chickenshit way act. There can little doubt that the Islamic countries of the middle east sees with an earned superiority, the indecisive nature of the current executive branch. 

Follow this link to read the government's remarks on the vote applied by the United States to the United Nations resolution 2334. What is unsaid in the remarks is the President convinced other Security Council members to vote for the resolution. The vote to abstain was akin to a matador waving red cape at a charging bull.

Executive Regulations Vote Passed (237-187, 9 Not Voting)
The House passed a bill that would modify the federal rule-making process by preventing "major rules", those generally having an annual economic impact greater than $100 million, from being implemented unless Congress enacts legislation approving them.
Rep. David Scott voted NO

Congress always had the power and did not need to pass a bill saying that they control the money. The leadership, McConnell, Boehner and Ryan all fucked up in openly promising not to shut down government. The Congress is a fault for letting the President act like a king.

Midnight Rules Vote Passed (238-184, 11 Not Voting)
The House passed legislation that would permit a new Congress to use the Congressional Review Act to disapprove, en bloc, multiple regulations issued by a president in his final year in office, rather than just a single regulation at a time for rules issued during the final 60 session days of the previous Congress.
Rep. David Scott voted Not Voting

David Scott omission of vote suggests to me that he either does not give a darn, or reflects an acceptance that the President has been out of control. 

Upcoming Votes:
Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution - SConRes3 
The concurrent resolution would trigger the budget reconciliation process and enable the subsequent consideration of reconciliation legislation to repeal major portions of the 2010 health law. The measure would provide instructions to two Senate and two House committees to cut a minimum of $1 billion each during the next 10 years as part of budget reconciliation.

Works to dovetail the Senate vote on Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution. Cutting deceptions, part II.

Regulatory Accountability - HR5
The bill would modify the federal rule-making process with a focus on reducing the possible economic costs of federal regulations, allow more legal challenges to rules and increase transparency. Among its provisions, it would require agencies to estimate the cost of proposed regulations and consider lower-cost alternatives, creating additional steps that agencies must follow when proposing "major" or "high impact" rules, including an opportunity for the public to challenge agency justifications and findings. It also automatically postpones the implementation of new federal rules costing $1 billion or more until all legal challenges are resolved.

Theoretically a decent suggestion, problem being that major spending budgets are awfully constructed, and those are in terms of real cost. For a government to project the business impact of regulation would be akin to an indian using a divining stick.

Private Market Investors - HR79
The bill would expand the circumstances under which events where businesses offer unregistered securities in the private market would not be considered "general solicitations" that otherwise require the issuer to verify that the individuals attending the events are accredited investors.

Changing the rules for somebody special.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Reauthorization - HR238 
The bill would reauthorize Commodity Futures Trading Commission operations through Fiscal 2021 and amends the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to modify and clarify how the agency is to regulate derivatives and swaps. Among its provisions, it would ease certain regulatory requirements to ensure that some "end users" of derivatives (such as farmers and utilities that use derivatives to hedge market risk) are not regulated as swaps dealers and would require the agency to conduct cost-benefit analyses of its proposed rules.

Dodd-Frank needs to be blown up, but replaced with what, politicians suck at creating banking rules, they are always 5-10 years behind the action. Whats more, why have rules when the one of the government's underlying objectives is to get banks to loan money to folks that cannot afford to pay it back.

Securities and Exchange Commission Cost-Benefit Analyses - HR78 
The bill would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct cost-benefit analyses of new regulatory proposals and existing rules and to modify or rescind those found to have a negative impact.

More of the same.

Fiscal 2017 Budget Resolution - SConRes3 
The chamber may take up a measure after expected Senate adoption that would trigger the budget reconciliation process and enable the subsequent consideration of reconciliation legislation to repeal major portions of the 2010 health law. The legislation would provide instructions to two Senate and two House committees to cut a minimum of $1 billion each during the next 10 years as part of budget reconciliation.

Let's talk about budgets. In the way that the government has evolved today, I think it would be better to change the model to to the way many businesses are, in the short term, run, a cash flow model. Have periodic review of flow in and flow out and hard rules about what the parameters for each are. As it is now, politicians from both sides play kick the can down the road, I have to buy what I want now.

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