The various media pundits and news stories are calling H.R. 1180 a “new overtime bill”.  However, in reality the ‘take pay or take time off’ concept is more than 50 years old; we used to call it “compensatory time” or “comp time”.

WASHINGTON – […] Voting along party lines, the House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would allow private-sector employers to compensate their overtime-working employees with paid time off instead of paying them time-and-a-half as currently required.

The bill, H.R. 1180, would tweak the Fair Labor Standards Act, which mandates employers that require hourly-paid employees to work more than 40 hours a week to pay time-and-a-half, or 1.5 times their usual hourly rate. The bill also prohibits employers from coercing or intimidating employees to choose time off instead of overtime pay.

House Republicans passed the bill, sponsored by Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.), with no Democrats voting in favor. The bill will now go to the Senate, where it will require 60 votes to avoid a filibuster by Democrats. (read more)

The professionally Democrat hate the concept, but most Democrat politicians have zero experience in understanding how incredibly beneficial compensatory time can be.

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Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice has reversed her position and is now refusing to testify to a Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee investigating Russia’s interference with the 2016 election.   The key risk to Susan Rice is public discussion and discovery of her requests to unmask names within NSA intelligence and surveillance reports on political opponents.

Against revelations that pointed to Susan Rice as the epicenter of the political surveillance programs, her testimony was a risk to herself, the Obama administration and the entire democrat apparatus.  Her appearance at a Senate Committee where questions would sure to be raised was a significant risk.

The cover for Rice’s retreat from sunlight is brutally obvious.  Kathryn Ruemmler, Rice’s attorney delivers a letter to CNN so the media outlet can push a narrative that Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse -ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee- has told Rice her attendance would not be needed.

“Senator Whitehouse has informed us by letter that he did not agree to Chairman Graham’s invitation to Ambassador Rice, a significant departure from the bipartisan invitations extended to other witnesses,” Ruemmler wrote. “Under these circumstances, Ambassador Rice respectfully declines Senator Graham’s invitation to testify.”

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“Every child has the right to fulfill their potential, and, if we do our jobs, then we will never have to tell young, striving Americans to defer their dreams for another day or for another decade. “ ~ President Donald Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked Congress to work with him on extending school choice programs nationwide to benefit millions of students, including low-income African-American and Hispanic children.  Full Event Video:

[Transcript] 10:42 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT:  This is very exciting.  So yesterday I said that our spending bill was a win for the American people, which is exactly what it was — an amazing day.  And this is what winning for young children and kids from all over the country looks like.

The opportunity scholarship program that we’re funding allows families in the inner city of our nation’s capital to leave failing public schools and attend a private school, making an extraordinary difference in these incredible young lives.  You’re so lucky.  (Laughter.)  Great.  You’re happy about it?  Huh?  (Applause.)  That’s great.

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If you didn’t read the Part-V explainer of how we got to this point in congressional history stop and go read it.  This stuff is all connected and cannot be absorbed without a thorough understanding of motives behind the advancing agenda-writers.

Make Sure You Watch The Embed Video (below) from Wilbur Ross.

The interim Continuing Resolution (CR) is fraught with demands of the “Big Club”.  That is: Wall Street, their lobbyists, and those who have created the UniParty for over three decades.   The “Big Club” is fighting back against the insurgent presidency of Donald Trump and is using the Republican wing of the UniParty to do it.

It is Republicans, not just Democrats, in congress who are putting the most toxic spending priorities within the $1+ trillion spending bill and forcing a spending bill onto President Trump’s desk which factilitates the needs of the lobbying class and undermines parts of the structural agenda of President Trump.

The outrage should be rightly focused on the UniParty in congress, and more specifically the Republicans therein, not President Trump.

What would the ankle-biters and antagonists (gnats) have President Trump do?  Veto a bill constructed by bipartisan legislation in congress?   Shut down government?  That’s exactly the dynamic the “Big Club” has set up through their paid opposition represented by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.

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Congressional negotiators have reached an agreement on a gap budget to operate the federal government through September 30th, the end of fiscal year 2017.

According to some summary information the bridge spending bill is $1.070 trillion for the remaining five months of fiscal year 2017.

The budget allows for $1.5 billion for border security, but does not direct funds specifically for the U.S. Mexico border wall.  Additionally the budget provides $15 billion for military spending.  The National Institutes of Health will gain $2 billion toward medical research and community development grants, and extends health insurance benefits for coal miners.

The catchall spending bill was required because there is no annual budget in place and congress has not operated with a federal budget since fiscal year 2008.  President Trump has proposed a fiscal year 2018 budget and congress will be debating that spending proposal over the summer.  Fiscal Year 2018 begins October 1st.

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Sir Spitsalot was not having a good day today when asked to join a panel discussion of how Democrats have responded to the first 100 days of President Trump’s administration.

The gist of the discussion centered around the Democrat party’s decision to focus on social and environmental justice issues.  Spittles was asked if dancing naked around a campfire chanting anti-Russian rainbow memes while selling sustainable algae cakes was an effective strategy to reach most American voters.  The video is below:

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There are many new commentators at CTH, and even more new people taking notice of politics for perhaps the first time in their lives.   There is also some confusion noticed between two distinct groups who appear to be talking above and around each other.  Two groups trying to communicate from two entirely divergent sets of understanding.

Perhaps it is valuable to reset the larger frames of reference and provide clarity.

Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.

There is not a single congress person who writes legislation or laws.

In 2017 not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct.  This simply doesn’t happen.

Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body.  Here’s how it works.

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Earlier today President Trump and first lady Melania welcomed the President of Argentina Mauricio Macri and his wife Juliana Awada to the White House.

One of the key topics on the agenda for President Macri is trade with the U.S., specifically the Argentinian export of lemons into the U.S.  Understandably California, and to a lesser extent Florida, citrus growers are opposed to large scale imports of competing crops.

Additionally, during the customary Oval Office photo-op President Trump remarks about the ongoing NAFTA trade issues, and the phone calls yesterday between Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and Mexico’s President Peña Nieto:

“If I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States–meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA.”

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The U.S. media are considerably invested in framing NAFTA trade issues around their ever-present need to oppose the White House (Trump Derangement Syndrome); and many of the recent media narratives around NAFTA are entirely false.

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How do you get congress to accept the NAFTA notification of intent letter? Why, you backstop the Canadian decision to undermine U.S. dairy farm exports by applying equity import tariffs and offsetting losses to U.S. manufacturers.

First stop, lumber mills. ie U.S. regional impacts, not coincidentally, represented by key Democrat constituents.

The congressional delegations from Washington State and Oregon happen to be mostly elected Democrats; and they happen to applaud the efforts; which means they are not able to criticize the approach. Hmm, it’s almost as if Wilburine and POTUS had a strategy or something.   Nah, couldn’t be.

(Via CNN) These are the first tariffs imposed by President Trump, who during his election campaign threatened to use them on imports from both China and Mexico. The decision on Monday is bound to lead to a standoff and could stoke fears of a trade war between the US and Canada, two of the world’s largest trade powers.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs, or taxes, announced Monday evening were being imposed after trade talks on dairy products fell through.

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