Any body is better than trump. Funny how the mud slinging starts now that everybody knows Biden will be the democratic nominee. The misdeeds of trump mean nothing to his followers-- I find it bizzarre. This country is going down the tubes under trump.--People can sing praises about his economy all they want but minimum wage part time jobs are not going to build the middle class. We had diplomacy on our side once but it's all over now. Other nations do not trust us. Russia and China have taken our role as a big brother nation and now have inroads and outposts all over the planet and it is a direct result of the asinine policys of a crazy man. That is the truth but you might deny it. We are going back to the dark ages here. Go ahead and pollute the sky and the waters-- drill and mine and tromp on treaty rights and individual property rights like only the wealthy and corporations matter and the people should be mere subjects who should be grateful for a scrap or a roll of paper towels thrown to them.

Assuming that an elected president WON'T adhere because he is a businessman instead of a politician in no way supports our constitution. Complaining that divesting oneself of businesses instead of putting them in blind trusts in disingenuous. Blind trusts are for monetary accounts where they can be held untouched. A business cannot remain untouched. It must be active or it will fail. Divesting is an even even more stringent adherence to the emoluments clause than are blind trusts. The businesses in which his children were part owners were divested over to them and are no longer owned partly by Trump. Most of the rest of his remaining businesses in which Trump was the owner he divested himself of. What is left he turned control of over to his sons but is still owner or part owner of. This was not something which he could accomplish overnight. https://www.divestopedia.com/definition/919/divesting

But in any case, the request that I prove there was talk of impeachment before Trump was inaugurated has been so proven!

Trump's misdeeds do not mean nothing. But the bottom line is his performance as president.

You are correct that minimum wage part time jobs (especially when "created" by the government through tax payer's money), do not build the middle class. Manufacturing and mining jobs are NOT minimum wage nor part time and are private industry so not funded by taxpayers. Thank you Trump!

And aren't you glad we are no longer catering to Russia and China? Thank you Trump!

The EPA under Trump has done more for our environment with less money than Obama did. Getting rid of unnecessary personnel, streamlining the agency, and returning to using the funds for doing the job instead of enriching the pockets of swamp creatures has resulted in a far more effective agency. Thank you Trump!

Yes he has put miners back to work!!!! Thank you Trump!


Yes he has renegotiated treaties to give the US a fair deal instead of benefiting other nations at American's expense. Thank you Trump!

You are so right about him building the wall where it does the most good and STOPPING the execrable Obama practice of taking property away from Americans to build a wall where it is impractical and ineffective. Thank you Trump!

Yes he has encouraged wealthy corporations to manufacture WITHIN the borders of the US through lower taxes, less punitive and unnecessary regulations, and paying tariffs on goods manufactured elsewhere to sell within the US. This discourages outsourcing. It also benefits small business, encourages start ups, and helps employees by providing more jobs than job seekers so employers have had to start competing for employees. This is great for the working class and has done more to help minorities than all the social programs which have kept them at substandard income! Thank you Trump!

You have made good points in sowing how much better Trump policies are then Obama's have been! Thanks Coos Bay!

Kurt Bardella worked for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee back when the GOP cared about keeping the president in check.

Apr 29, 2019, by Kurt Bardella...Senior adviser for the House Oversight and Reform Committee from 2009 to 2013

President Donald Trump last Tuesday lamented on Twitter that “in the ‘old days’ if you were President and you had a good economy, you were basically immune from criticism.” The next day, he complained that Congress members “only want to continue the Witch Hunt, which I have already won.” In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said, “There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan—obviously very partisan … I don’t want people testifying to a party, because that is what they’re doing if they do this.” Meanwhile, Trump has filed a lawsuit to avoid handing over his tax returns to the House.

Trump’s defiance of Congress is outrageous and dangerous. It also exposes Republicans’ hypocrisy. There is a world of difference between how Republicans viewed oversight when Barack Obama was president and their support of Trump’s obstruction. I know, because for five years I worked for Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

In a 1957 Supreme Court ruling, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “The power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad … It comprehends probes into departments of the federal government to expose corruption, inefficiency, or waste.”

During my time on Oversight, the chief justice’s words were often cited as justification for our vigorous supervision of the Obama administration. Led by Representative Darrell Issa, my former boss, Republicans issued more than 100 subpoenas, held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, created a select committee to investigate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi crisis, and filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging President Obama’s use of executive privilege.

In 2011, we sent a letter to Secretary Clinton that stated: “The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and may at ‘any time’ investigate ‘any matter’ as set forth in House Rule X.”

Also in 2011, when we suspected an effort to intimidate a witness called to testify at a hearing, Issa sent a letter warning the Obama administration that the “inappropriate effort to intimidate” and “discourage” someone from testifying before Congress was “an unlawful attempt to interfere with a Congressional inquiry.”

Yet when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week ignored a deadline to produce Trump’s tax returns, House Republicans refused to speak out against this blatant disregard for legislative authority.
And Republicans did nothing when the White House last week instructed an administration official to ignore a subpoena and not testify at a hearing regarding White House security-clearance procedures.

Contrast that with the time an IRS official refused to answer questions from Oversight Republicans—they held that official in contempt of Congress. During the contempt proceeding, Representative Jim Jordan, now the ranking Republican on the Oversight Committee, justified his vote in favor of contempt by saying, “The only remedy we have to get to the truth is to use every tool at our disposal” to get that official to “testify and answer the questions. That is the only remedy we have. The only route to the truth is through the House of Representatives.”

President Trump and Republicans complain about the pace of oversight; Trump declared on Twitter on Wednesday that “there has NEVER been a President who has been more transparent.” But the simple truth is that this White House is more obstructionist than the Obama White House, or any other White House, and Republicans are enabling this behavior.

During the two years that Trump’s presidency overlapped with the Republican majority in the House, Republicans issued a total of zero subpoenas to the Trump administration. To date, Trump has refused to cooperate with subpoenas issued by congressional Democrats.

Trump’s desire to shield his tax returns may provoke a constitutional standoff with Congress. He wants to slow the pace of oversight as much as possible, which means a long and tedious legal battle that will likely be decided by the Supreme Court. Trump is betting that the American people simply do not care whether or not he cooperates with congressional investigations. He’s betting that they do not have the attention span to follow a long court battle about constitutional authority. Trump believes that his stranglehold on the GOP is so tight that his flagrant disregard for checks and balances won’t matter to the Republican base or Republican elected officials. He might be right.

The entire point of having separate but equal branches of government was to create protections against the kind of tyranny and absolute rule that was common in Europe. If Trump can simply ignore Congress and act unilaterally without consequence, then he is America’s first dictator.

This fight is bigger than one hearing or one investigation or one subpoena. It is a struggle to preserve the foundation of our republic. Republicans won’t rise to the challenge. Which means it’s up to Democrats to keep Trump in check, and to support the Constitution. They have to learn to confront Trump as aggressively as we confronted Obama.

Kurt Bardella worked for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee back when the GOP cared about keeping the president in check.

Apr 29, 2019, by Kurt Bardella...Senior adviser for the House Oversight and Reform Committee from 2009 to 2013

President Donald Trump last Tuesday lamented on Twitter that “in the ‘old days’ if you were President and you had a good economy, you were basically immune from criticism.” The next day, he complained that Congress members “only want to continue the Witch Hunt, which I have already won.” In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said, “There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan—obviously very partisan … I don’t want people testifying to a party, because that is what they’re doing if they do this.” Meanwhile, Trump has filed a lawsuit to avoid handing over his tax returns to the House.

Trump’s defiance of Congress is outrageous and dangerous. It also exposes Republicans’ hypocrisy. There is a world of difference between how Republicans viewed oversight when Barack Obama was president and their support of Trump’s obstruction. I know, because for five years I worked for Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

In a 1957 Supreme Court ruling, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “The power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad … It comprehends probes into departments of the federal government to expose corruption, inefficiency, or waste.”

During my time on Oversight, the chief justice’s words were often cited as justification for our vigorous supervision of the Obama administration. Led by Representative Darrell Issa, my former boss, Republicans issued more than 100 subpoenas, held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, created a select committee to investigate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi crisis, and filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging President Obama’s use of executive privilege.

In 2011, we sent a letter to Secretary Clinton that stated: “The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and may at ‘any time’ investigate ‘any matter’ as set forth in House Rule X.”

Also in 2011, when we suspected an effort to intimidate a witness called to testify at a hearing, Issa sent a letter warning the Obama administration that the “inappropriate effort to intimidate” and “discourage” someone from testifying before Congress was “an unlawful attempt to interfere with a Congressional inquiry.”

Yet when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week ignored a deadline to produce Trump’s tax returns, House Republicans refused to speak out against this blatant disregard for legislative authority.
And Republicans did nothing when the White House last week instructed an administration official to ignore a subpoena and not testify at a hearing regarding White House security-clearance procedures.

Contrast that with the time an IRS official refused to answer questions from Oversight Republicans—they held that official in contempt of Congress. During the contempt proceeding, Representative Jim Jordan, now the ranking Republican on the Oversight Committee, justified his vote in favor of contempt by saying, “The only remedy we have to get to the truth is to use every tool at our disposal” to get that official to “testify and answer the questions. That is the only remedy we have. The only route to the truth is through the House of Representatives.”

President Trump and Republicans complain about the pace of oversight; Trump declared on Twitter on Wednesday that “there has NEVER been a President who has been more transparent.” But the simple truth is that this White House is more obstructionist than the Obama White House, or any other White House, and Republicans are enabling this behavior.

During the two years that Trump’s presidency overlapped with the Republican majority in the House, Republicans issued a total of zero subpoenas to the Trump administration. To date, Trump has refused to cooperate with subpoenas issued by congressional Democrats.

Trump’s desire to shield his tax returns may provoke a constitutional standoff with Congress. He wants to slow the pace of oversight as much as possible, which means a long and tedious legal battle that will likely be decided by the Supreme Court. Trump is betting that the American people simply do not care whether or not he cooperates with congressional investigations. He’s betting that they do not have the attention span to follow a long court battle about constitutional authority. Trump believes that his stranglehold on the GOP is so tight that his flagrant disregard for checks and balances won’t matter to the Republican base or Republican elected officials. He might be right.

The entire point of having separate but equal branches of government was to create protections against the kind of tyranny and absolute rule that was common in Europe. If Trump can simply ignore Congress and act unilaterally without consequence, then he is America’s first dictator.

This fight is bigger than one hearing or one investigation or one subpoena. It is a struggle to preserve the foundation of our republic. Republicans won’t rise to the challenge. Which means it’s up to Democrats to keep Trump in check, and to support the Constitution. They have to learn to confront Trump as aggressively as we confronted Obama.