Just like Nancy Pelosi said. Vote no but take the dough.

Lauren Boebert praises grant for community health center after voting against its funding

Sky Palma
April 27, 2023



Congresswoman Lauren Boebert speaks during CPAC Texas 2022 conference at Hilton Anatole. (Shutterstock.com)


Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert issued a press release expressing her approval of a $5.1 million grant for Pueblo Community Health Center, but she voted against the bill's funding along with most other congressional Republicans, the Pueblo Chieftain reported.

Speaking to the Chieftain, Boebert said the final bill was over a thousand pages and included “amendments that were not germane."

“There was a lot of things in those pieces of legislation that I couldn't bring myself to vote for,” Boebert said. “One of them had a $200 million earmark for the Presidio (park) in San Francisco, there was salmon recovery, there was a butterfly recovery — just all of this nonsense stuff, when we have to get our country back on track. It was just a lot of wasteful spending.”

From the Pueblo Chieftain: "While Boebert had supported allocations through the appropriations process during her first term in Congress, she opposed taking applications for congressionally directed spending, previously known as 'earmarks' Boebert announced the change in March, saying that her office would accept applications but did not guarantee any would be approved. She said she has submitted some projects for approval already, especially some that emphasize water and 'actual infrastructure.'"

Read the full report over at the Pueblo Chieftain.



https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boe...alth-center-after-voting-against-its-funding/

 

'Our Karen and our Karen’s Karen': Twitter spoofs Lauren Boebert’s 'blessings of America' rant

Brandon Gage, Alternet
April 27, 2023



Congresswoman Lauren Boebert speaking with attendees at the 2021 AmericaFest. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


United States Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) fell into a tangent on Thursday about how patriotic it is to not follow airline rules.

"That is the kind of boldness that we need right now. I will do what's right. I don't care if it costs me an election. I don't care if the school principal gets mad at me or the county commissioners get upset at me, or if the flight attendant kicks me off the plane," Boebert bellowed. "I will do what's right and answer the call because without righteous men and women without patriots taking a stand for this country, our children, and our children's children will not benefit the blessings of America."

The paltry applause that followed was mirrored by social media users wondering what on Earth Boebert's point really was.

PatriotTakes: "Patriots shouldn't care if a flight attendant kicks them off a plane? Sure thing, Lauren."

Michael E.: "'Our Karen and our Karen’s Karen will not benefit the blessing of America.'"

Pat Fuller: "WTF?"

Rollin' Trashcan: "So she's advocating for interfering with the flight crew? Yes do that and get banned for life from that airline and maybe go to jail."

Some Fausketeer: "The not so coded message is, break the law if you feel the law shouldn't pertain to you. And she knows the people hearing this message have lots of guns to back them up. Great….! @GOP wants laws for me but not for these…."

Robb Hunter: "Her commentary about 'blessing of America' makes her sound like she is in Gillead in The Handmaid's Tail."

JHN: "This is asanine commentary."

Ripley: "Do any of them know what they are supposed to be fighting for?"

anthonyk photos: "Give me liberty or give me Karen."

Not Daza Demon: "Is she planning to hijack a plane?"

Vicki Andresen: "What a truly trivial soundbite."

Gisele: "Oh look. It's our civil rights hero, Poser Parks."



https://www.rawstory.com/our-karen-...fs-lauren-boeberts-blessings-of-america-rant/

 

Hey @shootersa did any of the women who said Herschel Walker paid for and even forced then to get an abortion get proven liars? You are still backing Walker aren't you?

'Unparalleled in its audacity': Herschel Walker accused of scamming more than $500,000 from billionaire donor

Gideon Rubin
May 03, 2023



Herschel Walker speaks at a rally featuring former US President Donald Trump on September 25, 2021 in Perry, Georgia. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)


Failed Georgia Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker’s improper solicitation of a billionaire donor revealed in emails obtained by The Daily Beast have shocked campaign finance experts, the outlet reports.

Walker in communication with donor Dennis Washington sought hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own personal business, The Daily Beast reports.

Washington complied with Walker's request for the funds, thinking the contributions were political, the report said.

The emails, which have been verified as authentic by a person with knowledge of the exchange, specifically shows Walker requested $535,200 be wired directly to that undisclosed company, HR Talent, LLC, the report said.

Roger Sollenberger writes for The Daily Beast, “In the best possible circumstances, legal experts told The Daily Beast, the emails suggest exponential violations of federal fundraising rules; in the worst case, they coul


https://www.rawstory.com/herschel-walkerscam/

 

@stumbler
First, Shooter never "backed Walker". Walker ran for senator in Georgia. Shooter has never lived in Georgia and doesn't much care about political races in Georgia. He never claimed to back Walker. Your first lie fails.

Second, Shooter was making the point that one of Walker's accusers would likely turn out to be unprovable.
You know, like Kavanaugh's accusers, or Trump's accusers or any of the thousands of other accuser "me too" people who seem to come out of the woodwork when someone rich or important or famous is accused of sexual misconduct or dodging paternity. A solid clue is when a show boat like Avenatti or Alred or Jesse Jackson shows up to offer their input and support.

Know who hasn't had "me too" accusers?
Hunter Biden.

Wonder if that's because there just aren't any women willing to even suggest they'd jump into bed with him or because daddy gets them censored?

But tell us, forum tool, what Walker's alleged campaign funding has to do with your trolling from 6 months ago?
Pretty weak connection.
Try again.

 

What Kavanaugh ALLEGEDLY did while drunk in college, you gonna hold that against him? Shit. That was just fun stuff.​

Hunter? He must have done something. We just gotta find it...or make something up. Like Hillary's pizza shop.​

You can denegrate all you like. Shooter is thinking the Biden crime family is about to learn just how much worse a coverup is than the original crime.​

The Hunter Biden Scandal Is About to Explode (msn.com)

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., says the legal team for the president's son is engaging in witness intimidation. For that reason, he’s trying to secure immunity deals.

This follows an IRS senior official seeking whistleblower protection, who alleges the Hunter Biden investigation has been mishandled. The official is ready to provide information to contradict the sworn testimony of a senior political appointee.

If a somewhat thinly-sourced story by the New York Post is accurate, the political appointee is Attorney General Merrick Garland. Britain’s Daily Mail says it confirmed the Post’s reporting on Garland.

If all this turns out to be true, this is explosive, involves felonies and conflicts of interest. It could be the age-old example of a felonious coverup being worse than the actual crime of the Biden family’s alleged influence peddling.

The irony of it all. A career federal employee ratting out a Biden political appointee must have President Joe Biden bemoaning those darned deep-staters trying to take him down.

"In the coming days and weeks, a lot of information is going to come forward that's going to tell a very compelling story to the American people about the extent of this family's influence peddling," Comer said in a Fox News interview.

The just-you-wait line has become more suspect.

Let’s show caution that Comer isn’t pulling an Adam Schiff, the California House Democrat and intelligence committee chairman that spent two years on cable news promising the smoking gun on Trump and Russia that only he was privy to.

But Russia collusion always involved a mysterious aura of finding out the shocking depth of treason. In the Hunter Biden case, the allegations are simple, and thus are either provable or not.

The most recent charge is the witness intimidation.

“In communication with our witnesses and with people who are cooperating from a subpoena standpoint, we know that they have been contacted by the attorneys for Hunter Biden," Comer told Fox News. “We feel that this is really close to crossing the line. Obviously, their objective in my opinion, is witness intimidation. This will not stand.”

Comer went on to give a glimpse of the type of intimidation.

"If you get a call from the lawyers and they remind you of your potential liability in some of these business schemes then yes, I would consider that witness intimidation," he said. The “next step,” is seeking immunity for the witnesses.

“That is a big deal and hopefully, the DOJ and Merrick Garland will grant immunity to those people," Comer said.

But, if Garland is part of the cover-up, that’s an entire other matter. We are entering John Mitchell territory–if true. It’s plausible nothing happens to Hunter Biden, but the Biden administration would toss Garland to the wolves.

The IRS whistleblower that wants to talk to Congress provided information to the inspectors general offices of the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury.

“Despite serious risks of retaliation, my client is offering to provide you with information necessary to exercise your constitutional oversight function and wishes to make the disclosures in a nonpartisan manner to the leadership of the relevant committees on both sides of the political aisle,” Mark Lytle, the whistleblower’s attorney, wrote in a letter to chairs and ranking members of several House and Senate committees.

Hunter Biden is under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware for tax issues connected to his business deals in Ukraine and China. The House Oversight committee is exploring whether these business deals were a form of influence peddling.

Garland said several times under oath that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, had complete independence.

“There will not be interference of any political or improper kind,” Garland told a Senate committee in April 2022. He added, “You have me as the attorney general, who is committed to the independence of the Justice Department from any influence from the White House in criminal matters.”

To be clear, just because the whistleblower can contradict what Garland said under oath doesn’t mean Garland knowingly said anything untrue under oath.

Many have understandably snickered at the Hunter Biden scandal before.

But the witness tampering, political pressure on investigators and contradicting sworn testimony are finite and take the Hunter matter from a tragic tale of a drug-addicted son trying to cash in on daddy’s name, to a serious abuse of power scandal at the highest levels of the federal government.

 

Despicables love to take a rumor, or an outright lie and shout it as if it is gospel come down from the mount etched on stone tablets.

Well, literally every allegation against Kavanaugh has not only NOT been proven, most have been debunked.
Your cheap shot at Kavanaugh needed to be pointed out.

The endless attacks on trump are simply old, too old to deserve further response.
He's living in your collective and you're so obsessed with him that we expect that shit to be broadcast daily.
And we know nothing said or posted will ever change the collective's mind about it.
You are victims of your own propaganda.

But say, whaddya think about Hunter?
Looks like the son will be the downfall of the "big guy" eh?

 

Lauren Boebert hit with new campaign finance complaint for 'illegally spending $60,000'

Sarah K. Burris
May 04, 2023



WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert (R-CO) walks to the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)


Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has been accused of "illegally spending $60,000 on campaign calls and texts in the run-up to November's midterm election," according to a new report from Newsweek.

A complaint has been filed by End Citizens United against Boebert with the Federal Elections Commission, which is tasked with regulating spending on political campaigns.

The group alleges that Boebert spent tens of thousands of dollars on so-called "get out the vote" contact calls and texts.

The voter outreach efforts are considered in-kind independent expenditures, but that wasn't how she reported them, the group said.

IN OTHER NEWS: Proud Boys’ convictions exacerbate Donald Trump’s legal peril: legal expert

"Boebert may have made an illegal in-kind contribution to herself that exceeds the $5,000 limit set by federal law, or spent money to influence another campaign without reporting it, as required by federal law," the report says citing the complaint.

"Congresswoman Boebert used her leadership PAC as a personal bank but, unfortunately for her, this practice is illegal under federal law," End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller told Newsweek.

Boebert won by just 546 votes against Democrat Adam Frisch, who has already announced he'd run again in 2024.

Boebert previously claimed she traveled 8,712 miles while campaigning in 2020, which entitled her to a $22,259 reimbursement. While it isn't outside the norm for a candidate to spend a lot of time driving during his or her campaign, her mileage seemed excessive and raised suspicions.


https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-illegal-spending/

 

The "revolution" does not have any questions for Boebert.


Lauren Boebert is being accused of illegal campaign spending and using her own leadership PAC 'as a personal bank'

671
Aditi Bharade
Fri, May 5, 2023 at 12:16 AM MDT



Lauren Boebert.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

• 
  Rep. Lauren Boebert has been accused of illegally spending $60,000 from her PAC.
  
  
• The End Citizens United PAC has accused Boebert of failing to declare in-kind contributions properly.
  
  
• "Congresswoman Boebert used her leadership PAC as a personal bank," the ECU's president said.
  

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert has been accused of illegally spending $60,000 from her PAC on campaign calls and texts.

The End Citizens United PAC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Committee on Thursday, accusing the Republican lawmaker of spending her donors' money on "get out to vote" calls and texts while not reporting it correctly.

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"Congresswoman Boebert used her leadership PAC as a personal bank, but unfortunately for her, this practice is illegal under federal law," the ECU president, Tiffany Muller, said in a press release on Thursday.

The ECU argues that the "get out to vote" calls gave the Congresswoman an edge in the November midterms. She narrowly came ahead of the Democratic candidate, Adam Frisch, and was reelected by a margin of just 546 votes, per Newsweek.

FEC filings by the ECU accuse Boebert, her campaign Lauren Boebert For Colorado, We The People Leadership PAC, and Taylor Moose, her PAC and campaign treasurer, of not reporting the calls and texts as in-kind contributions.

In the FEC filing, the ECU accused Boebert of spending $4,623.22 on "text message advertising" on October 28, and her leadership PAC for spending $6,221.73 on "Voter Contact - GOTV Calls/Texts" on the same day.

The ECU wrote that these payments were made to Telephone Town Hall Meeting, a telecommunications service provider in Colorado.

The ECU also said in the filing that on November 18, Boebert's leadership PAC disbursed another $53,760 to TTHM.

These transactions, according to the ECU, violate federal guidelines on how much a candidate's leadership PAC can spend on in-kind contributions.

"The timing of the purchases, and the fact that they were made to the same vendor her campaign used, clearly illustrates that she was attempting to bypass federal law in order to either influence her own race or another campaign," Muller added in the release.

This is not the first time Boebert's campaign finances have been under scrutiny.

In June, Colorado officials investigated claims that Boebert deliberately inflated the amount she spent on her campaign travels in 2020, and claimed higher reimbursements from her donors to pay off tax liens on her restaurant.

Boebert's representatives did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside of regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lauren-boebert-being-accused-illegal-061619071.html

 

Longtime Dem Campaign Strategist Hit With Election Fraud Charges | The Daily Caller

 

Stupid and ignorant which in her case proves the distinction those are two different things.

If your are minimally educated or can even have the capacity to think. You are constantly sitting there going you can't even quote the bible you never read accurately. And the rest of the time so that is what passes for thinking in your brain.

All the while milking her donations like the milk cow she never saw either. But worth about $60 grand I hear. Not a bad days work if you can get it I guess.

But just your typical "Republican."

 

Hey @sh9otersa surely the revolution has some questions for Rep Boebert don't you. Here she is bragging about joining Nancy Pelosi at the feed lot of all pork spending and bringing home the bacon.


The Pueblo Chieftain
Opinion
Boebert: I helped fix earmarks. Now I’m fighting for new Colorado infrastructure projects

787
The Pueblo Chieftain
Sun, May 7, 2023 at 12:00 PM MDT




For decades, Congress used earmarks to buy votes for midnight, trillion-dollar spending bills and other wasteful spending. Taxpayer dollars were wasted on things like the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere and the $50 million indoor rainforest. Several Members of Congress and dozens of lobbyists were even indicted and went to prison for earmark corruption in the early 2000’s.

That’s why Republicans banned earmarks for a decade. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi brought them back to buy votes and waste taxpayer money. We recently learned that even though Congress stripped out her $200 million earmark for lavish hotels and a golf course in her San Francisco neighborhood, she convinced the Park Service to break their own rules and she got the $200 million anyway. Last Congress, I refused to participate in this corrupt process, and I spent a considerable amount of time arguing against earmarks. It doesn’t make sense to add fuel to out-of-control spending, further jack up our national debt, and send inflation skyrocketing.

These are some of the reasons a handful of my Republican colleagues and I took action this January to make historic changes to the House rules, including the earmark process.

As a result of our historic changes, I am now able to fight for important infrastructure projects for the 3rd District of Colorado. Specifically, I recently submitted Congressionally Directed Spending requests for constructing the I-70 Cottonwood Pass Blue Hill Project to help prevent lengthy and costly I-70 closures; building Glenwood Springs’ South Bridge Project to provide critical evacuation access; extending Pueblo’s Medal of Honor Boulevard to reduce commuter times and improve public safety; building important water distribution infrastructure for the City of Craig; building Gunnison’s water treatment plant to supply clean water; renovating Silt’s water plant to improve drinking water; increasing water storage in Huerfano County; improving US Highway 160 in Bayfield; building a new interchange on I-70 at 29 Road in Grand Junction to improve mobility and public safety; and increasing water storage and constructing a critical water supply in Moffat County.

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This is possible because I helped make important changes related to Congressionally Directed Spending (“earmarks”). These changes were made to strip out corrupt, vote-buying behavior. Moving forward, House earmarks are constrained by the following:

• Each project must have a federal nexus and be authorized by Congress.
  
  
• Submissions for museums, memorials, and commemoratives – and projects like the “Michelle Obama trail” – are prohibited from project funding.
  
  
• Accounts that were all significantly abused in the past, including the Financial Services and General Government, Defense, Health and Human Services, Education, and Labor accounts – are prohibited from project funding.
  
  
• Priority funding will be used for real infrastructure, water and sewer improvements, rural and economic development, and public safety projects.
  
  
• Earmarks will not exceed .5% of all discretionary spending.
  
  
• Members must certify that they and their immediate families have no financial interest in projects.
  
  
• For-profit entities are not eligible for project funding.
  
  
• Requests must be publicly posted online for transparency.
  

Other important rules changes made in January include: Representatives now have at least 72 hours to read bills, we are only considering single subject legislation, we are set to fund the government as intended by passing 12 individual appropriations bills through regular order, and we are debating and allowing amendments from Members on all sides of the political spectrum. These changes are working – I have already passed 2 bills and 8 amendments through the House on a bipartisan basis.

Of equal importance, we can also use the new process to prevent the executive branch from manipulating the federal grant process. The Biden administration weaponized this process to steer grants to blue districts, to the detriment of rural America. They also demanded diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria for applicants.

Instead of playing this con game, the new Congressionally Directed Spending process allows Members of Congress to exercise their power of the purse and ensure that funding is instead directed to important projects. This cuts the bureaucratic middlemen and their woke requirements out of the process and instead directs funding to where it is needed most.

These infrastructure projects I’m pursuing will benefit rural Colorado by increasing our transportation resiliency and combatting western drought. They will also ensure we are not dependent on an unfair, political federal grant process.

I did not go to Washington to join their club. I went there to fix it. Tackling earmarks was an important step. I will continue working every day to help improve communities across Colorado’s 3rd District and make it the best region of the country to live, work, and raise a family.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/boebert-helped-fix-earmarks-now-180029514.html

 

Stumblers reading comprehension causes him to post a foopaw!
Or maybe he triggered when Nancy Antoinettes little pork project got torpedoed. Wonder what her cut was, and if there was any for "the big guy"?

In any case, sounds like Boebert is taking care of our business, not hers, not the deplorables, and for damn sure not Nanacy Antoinettes.

 

@shootersa and Boeberts is just another trumptard election denier. Another in a long list of repuke traitors.

 

I believe we are going to be seeing more and more of this in other states. Even with extreme gerrymandering the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republican extremism has gotten so insane people are voting against it.



Colorado legislative session reinforces once-purple state's Democratic shift

257
JESSE BEDAYN
Wed, May 10, 2023 at 10:05 PM MDT




DENVER (AP) — As Colorado House lawmakers churned through final votes during the last night of this year's session, Republicans stood up and marched out of the chamber before the Democratic speaker could gavel it to a close — a defiant act meant to show how sidelined and silenced they felt.

The political theater this week was the culmination of a 120-day session that proved to be the latest illustration of the leftward shift in what was long a battleground state, leaving Republicans scrambling to adjust to their unfamiliarly weak position and surfacing internal rifts among Democrats over just how progressive Colorado should be.

The shift has been partly driven by migration to Colorado and the transformation of white, college-educated voters — a disproportionate share of the state's electorate — into Democratic supporters during the Trump era. The last Republican presidential candidate that Colorado voters backed was George W. Bush in 2004. The current governor, both U.S. Senators and five of the eight members of the U.S. House are Democratic.

With Democrats also in control of two-thirds of seats in the state House and Senate, the largest majority for the party in decades, Republicans have often resorted to delay tactics this session. One filibuster ran for 18 hours and spilled into the next morning. Sometimes Republicans asked that bills be read at length, and an electronic voice would drone through byzantine language for hours.

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Yet they were unable to stop Democrats from passing the state’s largest gun control package and codifying protections for abortion and transgender rights.

To help pass those bills, House Speaker Julie McCluskie invoked a rarely used rule curtailing filibusters, arguing that the debates had become unproductive and merely stall tactics. Republicans decried it as a gag measure.

“What we saw through this session is ... an overwhelming amount of power,” Minority Leader Rep. Mike Lynch said, calling Republicans' position a “superminority.”

“It makes it really hard to find out how we can still contribute to our districts,” he added, and said Monday's walkout was necessary to send a statement because “We were out of tools."

But even while Democrats swung their weight around — passing four gun control bills including one that raised the minimum purchasing age for all firearms from 18 to 21 — they drew the line on a number of progressive policies.

A sweeping ban on semi-automatic firearms was killed in committee by Democrats. Another that would have allowed “ safe injection sites,” where people can use illicit drugs under the supervision of trained staff who could reverse an overdose, also went nowhere.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno, who has been in the Legislature since 2013, said Colorado is on a blue trajectory but he still considers its political tint to be “a shade of purple, indigo maybe.”

While registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by over 120,000, unaffiliated voters exceed both, signaling the state’s independent streak.

Colorado is the only state in the union to cap government spending, a relic of its conservative past that maintains broad support among voters. It was also the first state to legalize marijuana, a measure supported by many of the state’s live-and-let-live Republicans. Many of those have since switched parties, and Gov. Jared Polis, who won with nearly 60% of the vote, is a libertarian-leaning Democrat.

Republican leadership hopes the party could get a boost in turnout next election if constituents believe Democrats went too far while in the majority: “The overreach is palpable,” said Sen. Paul Lundeen, the Senate minority leader, “the people will respond in a meaningful way.”

But Colorado doesn't figure to flip back to red anytime soon, said Seth Masket, director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, especially with the biggest population growth coming in the blue-leaning urban corridor along the east side of the Rocky Mountains including Denver and its sprawling suburbs.

Amid a national political environment tilting toward partisan extremes, Masket said, the leftward shift tends to snowball as many people choose when possible to live in places that reflect their values and beliefs.

“Is it easier or harder to get an abortion? Is it easier or harder to get a gun? All these things really affect people’s lives, and once a state has a reputation for being relatively blue, it will attract more people like that,” Masket said.

A signal of Democrats' growing power is that the state's defining political battles are bubbling up internally among the party rather than with the GOP, he said: “That’s where the locus of power is.”

That dynamic has been around longer in deep blue states such as California and New York but is relatively new to Colorado, which has less of a history of sharp partisan clashes, and more cross-aisle amity.

Assistant Minority Leader Sen. Bob Gardner, a Republican, reflected in a press conference Tuesday on his past sessions as a representative, saying "we were in a fairly deep minority but frankly our friends across the aisle and ourselves were a good deal closer politically than we are today.”

While remnants of that amiability remain, they can occasion frustration among progressive Democrats who see little need to compromise anymore.

That was on display in an exchange at the Democrats' last caucus meeting Monday, after progressive Rep. Elisabeth Epps admonished Speaker Julie McCluskie for giving GOP lawmakers too much leeway in both their rhetoric and delay tactics.

“I am committed to your success, and the success of every individual in this room, and truthfully the success of our Republican colleagues, that is what this job is,” McCluskie replied. “I truly believe in this institution and what it means to work through a Democratic process that is messy.”

Her comments drew applause from roughly two-thirds of the caucus, but there was also disagreement.

“There is a point at which we need to stop acting like trying to get along with our enemies is going to preserve our institution,” said Rep. Stephanie Vigil, another progressive.

___

Jesse Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/colorado-legislative-session-reinforces-once-040517803.html

 

President Biden you better cut your programs and agenda or we are going to make the country default on the debts Trump and us racked up and touch off a global economic crisis and cripple the country. This spending is completely out of control.

But in he meantime I am going to score $34.3 million in pork to take home to my state because I am in real trouble with the voters and might not get re elected. I voted no but I need the dough.


Lauren Boebert seeks $34.3 million in earmarks — after slamming earmarks as ‘corrupt’

Ashley Murray, Iowa Capital Dispatch
May 11, 2023



Congresswoman Lauren Boebert speaks during CPAC Texas 2022 conference. (Shutterstock.com)


WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans have requested more than $10 billion in earmarks to be included in next year’s appropriations bills, despite demanding massive spending cuts as a contingent for raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

All but a handful of House Republicans barely pushed through a bill that would temporarily raise the U.S. borrowing limit, but with stipulations for deep discretionary spending cuts and changes to federal programs, including wiping out new tax incentives meant to curb climate change and tightening access to food and medical assistance for low-income Americans.

But the lawmakers — many members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus that demanded concessions from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy such as cuts to federal spending before handing him the gavel — are still hoping to bring money back to their constituents for projects including road and bridge construction, coastal and ecosystem restoration, airport upgrades, first responder mental health services and replacement of local law enforcement vehicles.

Of the more than 5,000 direct spending requests from House members — now referred to as Community Project Funding — GOP members account for 1,864 requests, adding up to nearly $10.2 billion.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who demanded that his debt ceiling vote hinge on expediting new work rules for low-income Americans who receive food and health care benefits, submitted a single earmark request for $141.5 million for a helicopter training hangar at a Naval air base in Milton, Florida.

Colorado’s Rep. Lauren Boebert, a leader among the House Freedom Caucus members, submitted 10 requests totaling $34.3 million. The office of the lawmaker, who previously criticized earmarks as “corrupt,” did not respond for comment but referred States Newsroom to an op-ed she published explaining her reasoning for requesting road, water and sewer earmarks for her district.

House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger of Texas did lay out further ground rules for earmarks, including a “Federal Nexus Requirement,” meaning the committee will only approve projects tied to a federal authorization law, Boebert pointed out.

Projects such as memorials, museums, or any plans that commemorate an individual are not eligible for earmark dollars, and total granted requests should be capped at 0.5% of the GOP’s discretionary spending, according to Granger’s guidance.

“As a result of our historic changes, I am now able to fight for important infrastructure projects for the 3rd Congressional District of Colorado,” Boebert wrote.

New transparency rules for earmarks had already been established under the 117th Congress.

Pushing back against ‘bureaucrats’
Topping the list of GOP House members seeking funding is Rep. Randy Weber of Texas, who submitted more than half a billion dollars in requests. They include efforts to restore ports and waterways, study storm risk management and ecosystems along the Texas coast and dredge the Texas City channel.

Weber said in an emailed statement to States Newsroom that the requests are justified because his district is “the world’s energy capital.”

“(T)he investment in our infrastructure and flood mitigation is imperative to our national security. And energy security IS national security. I have seven ports deeply tied to shipping goods and energy products worldwide, and given the nature of my district, I’m advocating on behalf of the Gulf Coast of Texas and the entire nation,” Weber said.

“I was tired of faceless and nameless Washington bureaucrats making decisions we were elected to make. Our country cannot afford the woke and weaponized spending that has been foisted upon us. We must shrink Washington and grow America,” he continued.


House Majority Whip Tom Emmer — who advocated for federal spending cuts just hours before the House passed its debt ceiling bill on April 26 — submitted 12 requests totaling $47.6 million for highway and water treatment projects in Minnesota.

“Oh, the horror of a congressman requesting funds for projects that directly impact his constituents instead of leaving it to unelected Washington bureaucrats to wastefully spend billions of their taxpayer dollars,” Samantha Bullock, Emmer’s communications director, said in response to a request from States Newsroom for comment on earmark requests.

Jodey Arrington, House Budget Committee chair — who spoke at length about spending cuts during a six-hour hearing the night before the House GOP squeaked through its debt limit bill — submitted two requests at $14.7 million for a regional airport and interstate planning in his Texas district.

Arrington, Boebert, Emmer and Weber were among the 200 Republicans and six Democrats in 2021 who opposed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that approved funding for roadways, bridges, dams, coastal restoration and other transportation projects.

Spokespersons for several other members, including Reps. Mike Collins of Georgia, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Greg Murphy of North Carolina and Troy Nehls of Texas, said the earmarks will positively impact their communities and fill demands for critical infrastructure and military needs.

“There is nothing to ‘reconcile’ between member directed requests and comments about the need to reduce spending and votes to support limits and reductions to discretionary spending,” said Richard Vaughn, chief of staff for GOP Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee.

“For too long, Congress has ceded too much of its constitutional spending authority to the executive branch in directing taxpayer dollars. Congressman DesJarlais believes we need to reduce the overall levels of federal spending, and he also believes that Congress has the right and the authority to direct the spending within those accounts when those funding levels are established — whatever the totals may be,” Vaughn continued in an emailed response.

The offices of nearly 20 other GOP lawmakers did not respond to States Newsroom’s requests for comment.

McCarthy did not submit any earmarks requests.

Proposed federal spending cuts
House Republicans, by a slim margin, passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act to raise the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing cap by $1.5 trillion, or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first, while at the same time proposing to cut spending to fiscal 2022 levels and cap discretionary expenditures at 1% annually until 2033.

The move would reduce the federal deficit by $3.2 trillion over the next 10 years, according to analyses by Moody’s Analytics and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The bill also patches together savings by repealing energy tax credits that were passed in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act; preventing any student loan cancellation; expanding work requirements for certain recipients of Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; rescinding unspent COVID-19 relief funds; and enacting energy permitting changes.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects the return to FY2022 and spending caps, plus the cuts to other federal programs listed above, would reduce the federal deficit by $4.8 trillion over the next decade.

However, the bill as written would add to the deficit over that time period — by about $120 billion — by slashing money approved last year by the Democratic majority meant for the Internal Revenue Service to hire more staff and improve operations for collecting tax revenue.

McCarthy faced pressure from the far-right members of the GOP conference to attach spending cuts to any movement on the debt ceiling.

With the House GOP holding a slim margin, with wiggle room for only four votes, 20 of the party’s far-right contingent — Boebert and Gaetz among them — were able to block McCarthy’s path to becoming speaker for several days until he agreed to their concessions. The handshake deal included tying spending cuts to raising the debt ceiling, seating far-right members on key committees, and changing some House rules, including lowering the threshold of members needed to oust the speaker.

The debt ceiling is the legal amount of money the U.S. can use to pay the nation’s creditors. If Congress fails to raise the limit, the U.S. will default on its bills. Most economists say there are only weeks left before the country reaches that tipping point.

Four Republican members voted against the GOP debt ceiling bill, including Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Gaetz, who alleged the legislation would actually increase the deficit over the next 10 years.

House Freedom Caucus
The chair of the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and the Freedom Caucus policy chair, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, both hard-line advocates for cutting spending, have not submitted any earmark requests.

One of the remaining original co-founders of the caucus in 2015, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, also has not submitted earmark requests.

Perry and Roy were leaders among the architects of the handshake deal with McCarthy in January.

In March, Perry held a press conference where he and more than a dozen conservative members of the caucus laid out their spending demands, such as a cap on non-defense discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for the next decade, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.

“This current debt crisis has been created solely by reckless Democrat policies and out of control spending,” Perry said during the press conference.

A July 2022 Freedom Caucus document outlining “aggressive reforms” the group wanted by the new year contained on its wishlist a return to an outright ban on earmarks.

“Earmarks facilitate federal overreach by spending taxpayer-dollars on personal pet projects of lawmakers and lobbyists. Earmarks also extend Congress’s power of spending beyond items genuinely connected to the nation’s welfare,” according to the document. “In practice, they are often used to buy votes and coerce support for bills that might otherwise not pass muster. Essentially, earmarks amount to taxpayer-financed bribery.”

The caucus does not publicize its membership, and only about a dozen lawmakers list an affiliation on their member websites. Drawing from House Freedom Fund records and multiple news media accounts, the Pew Research Center identified 49 lawmakers either belonging to the House Freedom Caucus, or closely aligned with it. The subscription-based clearinghouse LegiStorm lists 51 lawmakers as part of the HFC.

Of the list of lawmakers identified by Pew, 44.8% submitted earmark requests.

States Newsroom’s attempts to contact Perry’s office and Tim Reitz, who is listed as the caucus’ executive director, went unanswered.

Matthew Green, a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said it’s important to remember that the House Freedom Caucus isn’t a monolith.

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Green, who specifically studies the group, said there’s no rule in the caucus that members can’t request money from the federal government, and the “other way to think about it is that you know, sometimes parochialism trumps ideology.”

“You can blame Freedom Caucus members for being hypocritical, but this is what lawmakers have done for forever, which is they’ll say one thing on principle, but then when it comes down to their actual districts, they want to help their district, they want to get reelected,” Green said.

Arrington and Emmer are not part of the Freedom Caucus, and are not considered aligned with the group, according to the Pew analysis.

Embattled earmarks
Earmarks historically have been requested by both Democrats and Republicans. After intense public criticism for “pork-barrel spending,” they were banned by the House GOP for roughly a decade before they were revived by Democrats during the 117th Congress under a new name and new requirements and restrictions.

Upon the return of earmarks in 2021, new rules established by the Democratic majority included a limit of 10 project requests per member, a requirement for members to post all requests online in a searchable format, a ban on requests relating to for-profit entities, and a certification that neither the member nor the member’s spouse or immediate family has a financial stake in the project.

Rules now established under the current GOP-led House include a 15-project request limit for members, capping total earmarks at a half percent of discretionary spending, only allowing earmarks tied to a federal authorization law, guidelines for “careful vetting” of projects and stewardship of funds.

The GOP rules keep requirements for transparency — that members must submit them in writing and post requests publicly — and keep in place financial conflict safeguards and a ban on any eligibility for for-profit entities.



Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence.


https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boe...-earmarks-after-slamming-earmarks-as-corrupt/

 

As noted elsewhere it sounds as if Boebert is doing what she was sent to congress to do; take care of her constituents business.

You know, unlike bidens open border budget and his clean energy pork.

 

But we simply have to acknowledge the impressive way Bidens "my way or the highway" negotiating style has been spun around to be the fault of deplorables.

Bravo. Well played.

 

Which is all the more reason to not allow amendments or "riders".