Last updated on 2019-03-28
The expected bad news: the U.S. House failed to override Donald Trump’s veto of Congress’s declaration that his declaration of a national emergency at the border is bogus.
The less-expected good news: South Dakota’s lone Congressman, Dusty Johnson, stuck with his original, principled decision and voted with all of the House Democrats and 13 other House Republicans to override that veto.
Congressman Johnson also says Trump should stop insulting deceased American hero John McCain.
This man served our country. He was a POW for years, and he is not alive today. We can do a better job. This is not helpful to the President’s agenda. This is not moving our country forward [Rep. Dusty Johnson, audio, in “SD Congressman Dusty Johnson Says President Should Lay Off Senator John McCain,” WNAX Radio, 2019.03.25].
The country could use a little more Dusty Johnson.
If only Thune and Rounds showed a similar amount of intestinal fortitude. Their cowardliness baffles me.
Dusty is focused on reality. Imagine that. People in the Midwest are facing real emergencies, while Trump fiddles with his hallucinatory one. It’s odd that facing reality takes an act of courage, and surrendering, cult-like, to someone else’s delusions passes for correct thinking.
I hope this continues for Johnson and that with his help, trump will declare the flooded counties of Oglala Lakota, Jackson and Pennington federal disaster areas. Of course, these counties are either on the reservation or border the reservation, so it may be a heavy lift.
Imagine the teeth gnashing and wingnut head explosiions if Obama had constantly belittled McCain.
Johnson is starting out similar to your last SOS who turned out to be no better than she had to be.
How about Dusty for Johnnie Thune’s seat in 2020? Thune doesn’t seem to be using it, except for photo ops.
I fell out of my chair when I read this story and last sentence….
And no Dirty Johnson from anyone on comments. Wow
I don’t get why you’re so surprised, Steve. I’m not here offering you bait for typical partisan arguments. I’m looking at how our elected officials vote with respect to evidence, the Constitution and the rule of law. Voting to overturn a fake emergency declaration and the veto thereof are good votes.
Loren, Rounds is up for re-election in 2020 not Thune. Thune is not up until 2022.
The headline should read “commander bone spurs attacks a dead man to show his bravery.Expect thune and rounds to follow suit.”
Maybe Johnson can talk his Senate pals into opposing Frantic Flaccid Fool’s Fed nominee, Stephen Moore. Turns out he’s pals with SD’s infamous Paul Erickson.
https://goo.gl/Lz7WFh
Johnson’s Russian gal pal is still making the news.
” Most romances don’t end in indictment – but then again, the relationship between Maria Butina and Paul Erickson isn’t like most romances.
If anything, the love story between a gun-loving Russian covert agent and a conservative activist-cum-alleged fraudster, reads like a Coen brothers movie. There’s the intrigue of a legal thriller (Bridge of Spies), the self-defeating scheming of a crime drama (Fargo), the excess of a cult classic (The Big Lebowski), and even a bit of romance (just about everything, really, ever).
But Butina will be in no mood for plot twists when she appears in court on Thursday for what she hopes will be the last hearing in a saga that has had her sitting in solitary confinement since her arrest in Washington last summer, and on FBI watchlists for years.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/27/russia-trump-maria-butina-paul-erickson
Love was in the air…or was it?
Dusty is smart enough and enough of a patriot to recognize that this kind of presidential over-reach cannot stand for the good of our republic, even if it would be politically expedient for Republicans while Trump is in the White House. The potential for abuse of power by future presidents would only be limited by our imagination if Trump is allowed to set this precedent.
When Democrats take back the presidency, the list of issues that could trigger emergency powers by the president could include gun control efforts, healthcare initiatives, and climate change efforts to name just a few. Dusty recognizes that what is good for the Republican goose will be equally good for the Democratic gander. This tit for tat could be a terribly slippery slope that ends up taking us to a very bad place that erodes the foundations of our constitution.
It’s refreshing to see an elected representative of the people stand on principle instead of bending to the political winds. Make no mistake, there will be political consequences for Dusty. He will almost certainly face a primary challenger that will question Dusty’s failure to agree to turn over our country to Trump through unfettered emergency powers. He also risks Trump’s wrath and childish need to exact vengeance on anyone so bold as to oppose him on any issue for any reason.
I will shake Dusty’s hand and thank him the next time I see him.
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, politics should be based on facts and truth. So far Dusty has delivered that. Well done Dusty.
Also regardless of whether you are a Republican or a Democrat you (we) should give credit where credit is due. Well done Cory.
One right does not overturn all the wrongs. The spots will not change on a leopard. https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/48307/dustin-johnson#.XJw9FZhKjIV
Oops, thanks, John, for the correction. Dusty (so far) would still be a better stand-in for Thune or Smilin’ Mike.
Let’s see if Johnson has any scruples by demanding the release of the Mueller Report. My guess is nope. Call him and ask what he intends to do. Johnson stood up for the Constitution with the fake emergency bill (he knew that his vote didn’t matter, but still, important), so let’s see how he does with another Constitutional issue. This one regarding the Russian and criminal enterprise of one donald j. trump and his organization.
Don’t fall for the Dusty trap my friends. Where was this Dusty during the campaign trail last year? Dusty is merely trying to co-opt his potential Democratic friends.
Although, many of us may agree with Dusty’s vote against Trump’s emergency wall declaration and his attacks on McCain. It is much easier to do that as a sitting congressman than as a candidate.
As Democrats we need to ask Dusty, if he is for the wall or against it. It is not our job as Democrats to be co-opted, rather it is our job to divide and conquer the Republicans.
Let’s not forget that Dusty is a member of a caucus that wants to bring back pre-existing condition clauses, privatize Medicare and Social Security, and build a Space Force when what we really need is a work force that is adequately paid.
The day that Dusty is as worried as much about what Trump says about minorities as he is about what Trump says about McCain is the day that we can call Dusty more than a Republican, rather a Lincoln Republican.
#DontBeCoOptedMyFriends
JKC,
Please provide support for your statement that Republicans want to bring back pre-existing condition clauses.
I don’t believe I have heard a Republican say that.
Remember that you and your party would not work with the Republicans on a repeal and replace bill.
Troll- read it and weep, buddy. There are so many attempts to get rid of pre-existing clauses in wingnut health insurance plans, even a blind partisan like you is sure to stumble over a few of them.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/oct/17/pre-existing-conditions-does-any-gop-proposal-matc/
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/donald-trumps-health-care-lie-big-base-swallow/
Just for the Troll- wingnuts have had neatrly 10 years to pack the courts with ideologues and a new lawsuit to entirely repeal the ACA is, for the first time, likely to succeed. Wingnuts are worried their base will wake up in time for the election to discover they have no healthcare thanks to Drumpf and wingnuts.
Now what do you do? Drumpf just asked wingnuts to come up with a health insurance plan they want no part of. This plan was supposed to have been written nearly 10 years ago and still does not exist. Wingnuts are worried about losing the Senate and kremlin annex and even more congressional seats due to incompetence. What fools they be.
“Remember that you and your party would not work with the Republicans on a repeal and replace bill.” Why would they the Republicans have offered nothing the ACA could have been improved it’s criminal, unethical, kill some people off in the name of politics.
Trump is misdirecting so other things go unnoticed: “The president has a knack for keeping the attention of the media and the public focused somewhere else while we do all the work that needs to be done on behalf of the American people,” Balash told the trade group, which represents many companies that will likely vie for leases in the Atlantic.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/14/trump-uses-art-distraction-push-through-dangerous-policies-offshore-drilling
JKC, I will give Johnson credit for what he does right– defending McCain and opposing the vanity wall– but for me that does not bleed over to other issues where he’s so wrong. That’s exactly the issues you listed, among others.
For instance, Minnesota’s senator and presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has a big plan for good paying employment that will raise income across the board for the lower and middle classes while filling a dire need. It’s a $1 trillion infrastructure plan that would include work in every single state. It’s brilliant. It’s what an enormous chunk of the nation wanted President Obama to do to bring us out of the Great Recession, if you recall.
Would Johnson support such a plan?
Jason,
They keep saying they want to repeal the ACA. I believe Thune, Rounds, and Noem voted 57 times to try to repeal it.
The GOP has never offered a true alternative to the ACA, which is ironic, sense the ACA is actually their love child going back to 1994 with the help of the Heritage Foundation.
The GOP talks about “Repeal & Replace,” but I have never seen the the “Replace” part.
As far as the two sides working together, well, why did the GOP need the Democrats? They had a majority of both Houses for two years?
Wasn’t it McCain, who Trump often criticizes, that single handily saved the pre-existing condition clause, when he voted against the GOP attempt to repeal the ACA with no alternative in sight? The attempted – but failed – repeal of the ACA to me is voting to bring back the pre-existing condition clause, if you ask me…. and that’s all on the GOP
What is so difficult for the troll to understand?
If you repeal Obamacare, you repeal pre-existing conditions, which are a part of Obamacare.
republicans don’t have to say it out loud, they say it by their vote.
Trump has been saying the past few days that he wants to keep pre-existing conditions, but can offer nothing beyond that for his “beautiful healthcare plan”.
It doesn’t matter much what Trump says since he’s such a liar.
Drumpf told wingnuts to come up with a new healthcare plan. McCTurtle told Drumpf he wanted nothing to do with it.
I was sure Drumpf had a plan to repeal and replace the ACA on his very first day as bogus potus. That went down the drain.
From Think Progress- Trump promised to ask Congress for a bill repealing Obamacare and replacing it with “reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability.”
My first day in office, I am going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability. [Sanford, FL, 10/25/16]
Trump’s first executive order did address Obamacare, but it had nothing to do with repealing or replacing the legislation. It allows federal agencies to ignore or put off parts of the law that “impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications.” If Trump asked Congress to put a bill on his desk on day one, he did not do so publicly.
Capitalism Plus should be our target, like in all the rich countries…except this one. In Finland, they have universal healthcare and pay $60.00 to have a child, here in the good old USA..$12,000.00. In Finland, women actually survive childbirth, here in the USA, not so good. Check this out from Bill Maher. Funny, to the point and also sad, that this is as good as it gets here. We should be ashamed of ourselves…but we cannot afford even that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=323&v=Y3vsGlAvr04
JKC properly cautions us against getting too lovey-dovey with a Congressman who occasionally say the right things but then retreats to Trumpy positions like building the unnecessary wall faster.
Nonetheless, we don’t do wrong to send Johnson the signal that there is an audience for his sensible votes, that he doesn’t have to pander exclusively to the rabid GOP-primary-season fundamentalists and Trumpists.
Thinking about Darin’s observation: When Democrats retake the White House, Dusty Johnson is the kind of pragmatist who will work with that Democratic President and the Democratic majority in the House to make sure bills still take care of South Dakota priorities. A Democratic Congressperson would be better at that in that context, but Dusty won’t fall back as often on rank obstructionism and ideology as Thune and Rounds did under Obama.
Jason,
The vote was to bring down the ACA and not to modify it as far as the GOP was concerned.
The Democrats have always wanted to make the ACA work. It was the GOP which destroyed, or underfunded, the safety net for insurance companies.
I am not so sure that Roberts will allow the ACA to be struck down.
As far as your comment: “Will the Democrats work with Republicans on a replacement now?” Hopefully, not, it needs to be tweaked and not replaced, because a replacement could leave many hanging, especially with the re-emergence of the preexisting condition clause.
If the GOP really cared about people and life, then they would own the ACA, because its a product of one of their own beloved institutions: The Heritage Foundation. But unfortunately, they would rather play politics with lives…. How sad…..
Crappy healthcare from crappy republicans. Republicans need to fix what they screwed up with the ACA/Obamacare. They simply need to do their jobs, but work ethic is not a priority for these plantation owners.
“A federal judge has struck down a small-business health insurance plan widely touted by President Donald Trump, marking the second setback in a week for the administration’s health care initiatives.” PBS 03/26’2019
Why won’t Trump and the GOP put forth their healthcare plan?
We have gone to hearing they have no plan to Trump saying he has the most beautiful affordable plan there is.
Jason cites a plan as part of the American Health Care Act but doesn’t give a status of the legislation and the fact that republicans had two years to implement such a plan.
From day one of the Affordable Care Act being implemented President Obama said the law would likely need to tweaked and he was willing to listen to those concerns. republicans wanted no part of it and have done nothing but try to repeal Obamacare ever since.
Any suggestion that Democrats need to work with republicans on Trumpcare will and should be met with resistance.
If Mitch McConnell could say “no” to anything President Obama, Democrats can say “no” to anything republican.