144 Comments

Joe, I love this newsletter and enjoy

it a lot. But, there's one glaring item

so many in blogs, newsletters and

mainstream news continue to get

100% wrong. Social Security and

Medicare are NOT "entitlements".

I started working when I was 15

and my employer began deducting

money from every paycheck for

both of these programs. I now

benefit from my working investment

in these programs because I'm

retired. They're actually investments.

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The GOP making AOC look good! As they have for 4 years and counting.

Not that she needs the help, imo, but they make the contrast particularly stark.

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The problem with congressional housing ideas is that “ NIMBY” would probably prevent it. One congress person would be ok, but a shelter of them would bring unwanted noise, crime , and corruption. Also think of all the streams of unsavory characters that it would attract.

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Damn, that made me spit diet coke. Hat's off sir!

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Drug dealers and pimps. Lots of them.

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Great reporting Joe, I am enjoying your column very much. There is going to be so much comedic material being produced by the house majority, I imagine you are having a good time. I watched some clips from this congressional hearing on the Meidas Touch on YouTube - the contrast between the silly unserious repubs and the smart dems was extreme.

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Let me guess 🎪🤡

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My comment addresses the cuts to social security , the contempt of mike Lee as he says " there'll be growing pains" . Seriously ?

I am 80, I've watched a lot of political coverage ; Rs have never been about helping people but the casual cruelty of this gang is breathtaking .

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Thanks for sitting through that hearing so the rest of us didn’t have to!

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You are good, Joe! Thank you!

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Such odious women in the Republican party, and they have been on full display this week - between their peurile white trash behavior at the SOTU address and its response.

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Excellent reporting

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Best addition to the Bulwark! Love this newsletter!

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Tonya Harding in a fur coat...

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Yeah I heard that today - a perfect trip down Memory Lane, and so apt.

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I would also like to say, seeing how Marge conducts herself on committees, that maybe it was a mistake to kick her off them a couple years ago.

Just think how much content we've been deprived of.

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Excellent campaign fodder? I’d love for someone to do a massive IQ testing of her constituents. Who are these people? I hear banjos.

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Ha ha.

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Among some really great and funny comments here - I think yours is the funniest!

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Yes! James Dickey is definitely enjoying a post-humous chuckle.

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This was yesterday? Weird, it wasn't mentioned at all today over at National Review, huh.

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Do you actually pay for a National Review subscription? I would like to troll them as well but cannot bring myself to pay for the privilege.

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I do.

I pay for the privilege of being told I'm a groomer pedophile that wants to force kids to watch pornography while I cut their gendery bits with Ibram X Kendi sitting on my shoulder telling me to hate on white people.

But other than that, it's not too bad.

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Good on you and keep up the good work setting them straight. Thank you for your service!

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Weird kink, but it is still a free country. And I'll bet no more than half of that is actually true about you.

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It's not just that the gop has gone semi-fascist: it's the complete lack of interest in honesty that is the truly sickening component of modern gop behavior.

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Actually, they've gone into the entertainment business. To be Vulcan: The Bulwark's business is part of the politico-entertainment complex, too -- of which I, just being here, am a consumer and so is everyone else here.

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I don't think so. I think it's just power tripping by the totally unworthy who know they are the totally unworthy and are stunned at the power they have managed to usurp.

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I suppose whatever produces a dopamine rush, we can classify as "entertainment."

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Regarding MTG's comment that she's in Congress - If you're explaining, you're losing.

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And she's complaining about the pay!

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Yep. Public service does not pay well. Congress should look into that.

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I happen to agree that public service doesn't pay well. For decades, the President got less pay than most managers of even small businesses, never mind managers in the Fortune 500 companies. Check out how much attorneys in DOJ get compared to hires in any decent law firm. That said, Greene, Boebart, Gaetz, etc. are grossly overpaid. I remember seeing articles on several R congressmen not even having offices in the districts they're supposed to represent. They're all too business grandstanding.

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In one of my state's (WI) counties, the county DA quit, because, after some retirements, he would have been the last state attorney in that county. They have not gotten candidates for the open positions, because the pay is too low. I'm curious to see if our GOP-dominated Assembly and Senate will include any kind of pay raise in the budget to attract more candidates. MTG has got nothing to complain about. She's got her sweet ride.

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Don't know who has/had the money in her marriage. Maybe ex-hubby got a hefty settlement since she was apparently the one screwing around. And didn't her business tank? Generally speaking, raising congressional (or presidential) salaries is not a good look among constituents who want it both ways - honest, hard working folks, but they also have to be rich as Croesus to survive in the job.

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Yeah, if there was time left in that segment, I'd ask for clarification. Perhaps even a gesture around the room and a question, "aren't we all in congress today?"

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