Political Things That Make You Go "Hmmmm"
And is it infrastructure week?
Tariffs, Exercise, Nudity, and Whiskey
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) opines on Trump and tariffs:
There's an old saying. Exercise makes you look better naked. But so does alcohol. And I say that because tariffs are a little bit like whiskey, it depends on the circumstances. Well, whiskey sometimes can make the world look better. Now, too much will make you sick and it'll hurt you. I have never seen President Trump as this wild eyed protectionist. I think he's for the most part, always using tariffs selectively. It depends on the circumstances. I expect him to use them selectively.
Unorthodox Lawmaking, Part 13,479
The late political scientist Barbara Sinclair injected the term “unorthodox lawmaking” into our nomenclature in the 1980s. It grew from her study of how Congress was getting bills done, and she saw a lot of things that were not School House Rock.
These days, unorthodox lawmaking has become near orthodoxy. Consider this recent example, flagged by reporter Jamie Dupree.
The massive 1,813 page [National Defense Authorization Act] bill - which features more than just defense matters - should get a full House vote this week…. In order to speed consideration of the NDAA deal, the House will consider the plan as a House amendment to a Senate amendment to a House-passed bill which has nothing to do with the military - the “Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver Reauthorization Act.”
Is It Infrastructure Week?
Speaking of the NDAA, Congress specifies a lot of military projects in the bill, like a “HUMAN PERFORMANCE CENTER LABORATORY” at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Ohio. The list runs 15 pages.
Dupree also informs us that:
Also on the House schedule this week is that 623-page House-Senate deal on water projects, known as the Water Resources Development Act. Add the 1,813 pages of the defense bill to that, and lawmakers have nearly 2,500 pages of material to digest.
So is it infrastructure week?
If you want to eyeball the various military projects they are here.
Thanks to Jamie for all this info, and please subscribe to his Substack!
And Here Many of Us Thought It Was Inflation
Prof. Seth Masket surveyed hundreds of Democratic county party chairpersons about the 2024 election results. Here are their explanations for why Vice President Kamala Harris lost.
You can read more of Prof. Masket’s research here.
Words Versus Deeds
While the GOP-held House is hustling out yuge bills that promise to spend lots and lots of money, incoming President Donald J. Trump and various conservatives are talking about reducing the deficit and shrinking the scope of the government.
Anyone who knows me understands that I think the federal government is trying to do far too much and that I am sympathetic to sensible ways to prune its scope. I also believe we as a nation are playing with fire by running such huge peacetime deficits.
That said, I worry that the talk about cutting budgets is becoming untethered from reality. So I tried to explain some things about government spending and to help the right understand that deleting the Department of Education (or any agency for that matter) is a complex undertaking.
“Trump-picked federal budget-cutters Musk and Ramaswamy face challenge of challenge of convincing lawmakers,” Washington Examiner.
“Abolishing the Department of Education Will Not Be Easy,” The Hill (and this Substack.)
I hope these pieces are read—especially by policymakers and conservative influencers. It is no good for people with large megaphones to pump up the public’s hopes with big promises and then to fail to deliver.
As I Have Said Previously, “We Wuz Robbed” Is A Verity of Our Elections
Pew Research released a new study. There’s a lot in it. This figure really struck me.
The GOP wins the presidency in 2024 and voila, a lot more of them feel the election was legitimate. Democrats lost, and their belief in the result slid a little. And isn’t it remarkable how close these results track the movement of voters’ feelings about absentee/mail-in voting?