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Republicans promise chaos and lawlessness if they get Congress back in November [1]
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Date: 2022-08-16
They can do that with control of the federal purse; they can starve the department. What has Democrats particularly concerned, however, is the obscure and ancient Homan Rule, which allows congress to punish specific federal employees or programs by slashing salaries and funding. It was first enacted in 1876, then rescinded in 1983, but Republicans revived it in 2017. Democrats then reversed that in 2019 and eliminated it again.
Republicans want it back, as Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) explained at CPAC earlier this month. He’s talking about the Holman Rule, defunding the FBI and Justice, and impeaching judges.
x Biggs talks about defunding agencies like the FBI and DOJ. pic.twitter.com/l3qOjnwWH2 — Acyn (@Acyn) August 5, 2022
They can’t do it with Biden as president because of his veto power, but they can try, and they can stop anything from happening in Congress while they’re trying. But there are also powerful hostages they can take in the process. “I have no doubt whatsoever that they would use the threat of government shutdowns and debt ceiling breaches,” Beyer told Sargent, predicting “some of the worst attacks on the rule of law this country has ever seen.”
Beyer isn’t alone in that. Rep. Gerry Connolly, also from Virginia, where many of his constituents are federal employees, said that Republicans are “all too willing to do Trump’s bidding” and will use the Holman Rule to do it. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD) told Sargent they will “use the levers of government to target, harass, and defund.”
All of this means that keeping the House in Democratic hands is at least as critical as keeping the Senate. Larger majorities in both chambers could make the next few years under Biden just as productive as the last month has been.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/16/2116972/-Republicans-promised-backlash-against-law-and-order-makes-2022-a-watershed-election
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