Tag: Presidential Veto

Another Veto Issued

Oh goody our Dear Beloved Supreme Leader has issued is next veto……he has chosen to play favorites on the world stage and to let the Saudis and their minions, UAE, continue their assault on humanity.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday vetoed a bill passed by Congress to end US military assistance in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, the AP reports. In a break with the president, Congress voted for the first time earlier this month to invoke the War Powers Resolution to try to stop US involvement in a foreign conflict. The veto—the second in Trump’s presidency—was expected. Congress lacks the votes to override him. “This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future,” Trump wrote in explaining his veto. Congress has grown uneasy with Trump’s close relationship with Saudi Arabia as he tries to further isolate Iran, a regional rival.

Many lawmakers also criticized the president for not condemning Saudi Arabia for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi who lived in the United States and had written critically about the kingdom. Khashoggi went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October and never came out. Intelligence agencies said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the killing. The US provides billions of dollars of arms to the Saudi-led coalition fighting against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. Members of Congress have expressed concern about the thousands of civilians killed in coalition airstrikes since the conflict began in 2014. The fighting in the Arab world’s poorest country also has left millions suffering from food and medical care shortages and has pushed the country to the brink of famine.

I just cannot understand the lack of sympathy for children being killed, maimed and starved by out “good friend” the Saudis.

My question is how much does Trumpy owe the Saudis that he can turn his back on starving people?

What a disrespectful toad we elected…well you did for I did not vote for the ego-centric d/bag……are you proud?

Closing Thought–05Apr19

Trump’s “Mighty” Pen……

The stage is set for Trump to use his muscle and issue his second veto…..

The story so far……

After voting down a Republican motion to recommit, the House of Representatives voted on Thursday to pass S.J. Res 7, the Senate version of the War Powers Act challenge to US involvement in the war in Yemen. The vote was 247-175-1.

This Senate passed this resolution in March, and sends the resolution to President Trump, who has threatened to veto it. So far it appears unlikely that Congress will be able to override such a veto.

Both House votes on Yemen ran heavily along party lines. The War Powers Act requires any US war to be approved by Congress, and the resolution notes that Congress never authorized any such war in Yemen.

The administration has argued that the four years of war in Yemen technically don’t count under the War Powers Act, sometimes overtly lying about the extent of US involvement in Yemen, and other times arguing that support for the Saudi-led war is obligated because of arms sales to them.

Congress for the first time invoked the decades-old War Powers Resolution to try and stop a foreign conflict. “The president will have to face the reality that Congress is no longer going to ignore its constitutional obligations when it comes to foreign policy,” said Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said the humanitarian crisis in Yemen triggered by the war “demands moral leadership.”

The war is in its fifth year. Thousands of people have been killed and millions are on the brink of starvation. The United Nations has called the situation in Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, acknowledged the dire situation in Yemen for civilians, but he spoke out in opposition to the bill, saying it was an abuse of the War Powers Resolution. “This radical interpretation has implications far beyond Saudi Arabia,” McCaul said. He warned that the measure could “disrupt US security cooperation agreements with more than 100 counties.” Opposition to the Saudi-led war in Yemen gathered support last year in the aftermath of the death of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of agents of the kingdom.

If true….can the Congress override a veto?

Do they, Congress, have the guts to do so?

Veto Would Protect Loopholes

President Bush, though, has pledged to veto a bill passed by the House, HR 6275, that would pay for new middle-class tax relief by closing a loophole that allows buyout managers to pay a 15 percent tax rate on much of their income — lower than that paid by many nurses, firefighters and middle managers.

As our elected officials and regulatory agencies navigate their way through one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression, most analysts have focused on reforming the subprime mortgage market. But private equity is another massive, secret and largely unregulated force operating beneath the radar screen of disclosure and regulation — and with the potential to derail our economy.

While the favorable treatment of carried interest — the percentage of profits that buyout executives keep for themselves as a performance fee — has received most of the attention, it’s just one of the strategies that buyout firms employ to game the tax system and fatten their paychecks. Buyout firms rake in big dollars by loading up the companies they buy with debt, then deducting the interest payments. All businesses deduct their interest payments as a business expense, but leveraged buyouts typically have two or three times as much debt as equity. When the interest payments on that debt are subtracted from a company’s earnings, there’s often little or no taxable income left. That means fewer tax dollars for already-strapped state and federal treasuries.

Bring this up to the buyout industry, and they’ll claim that if lawmakers do anything to change the way they make their money, they’ll just go overseas. It’s a good line, but it’s not clear where they’d go. Denmark, Germany, England, Australia and the European Union are all considering legislation to cap interest deductions for debt used to finance leveraged buyouts.

When buyout firms depend on unfair tax advantages to prosper, it’s bad news for the economy as a whole. That’s why this coming Thursday, July 17, we are calling attention to the bad behavior of the private equity industry — and to the lax laws and regulations that have rewarded that behavior — with demonstrations in 100 cities worldwide. It’s a call from Main Street that change is needed, and the buyout industry and its tax dodges are a good place to start.