by Toddy Perryman, Hamilton
House speaker Mike Johnson announced he would cancel another week’s session. Johnson first sent the members home on September 19. Staying out of session means not working on the budget that is overdue or hammering out the necessary appropriations bills. It means not working on figuring out a way to extend the healthcare premium tax credits. Over 80% of the people support continuation of these tax credits that help middle and low income people afford basic health care.
Why are the Congresspeople still getting paid? They are not paying the TSA agents or the air traffic controllers that they demand work with no paycheck. (That used to be called slavery.) Congress doesn’t work for us. They work for Corporate America, you know, the ones price gouging you at the grocery store, the ones raising your energy costs, the ones denying you health care you need just because they can. This is not the American Dream. It is the American Nightmare. Maybe waking up is not such a bad thing.
Keeping the House out of session also means not swearing in Representative Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who won election on September 23 and who will provide the 218th vote on a discharge petition to trigger a vote on a measure requiring the release of the files the government has on the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Is Epstein’s good buddy Donald Trump listed there? If not, why is this such a big deal? Is the House still out of session because of this? This is no excuse for giving Representatives a six week vacation while demanding others work without pay. Get back to work to pass funding bills so we can all get back to business.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has posted a video at airport Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines featuring Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem saying that operations are impacted because “Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government.” Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick commented: “Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?”