With the full support of President Trump working the members, House Speaker Mike Johnson won the speakership again on the first round of voting with only Republican Thomas Massie voting against Johnson.  This was the first test of Republican resistance to President Trump and the DeSantis House coalition, aka the Freedom Caucus, conceded their first defeat.

President Trump called Texas opposition member Chip Roy personally, to put pressure on him to stop opposing the MAGA movement.  It appears the pressure campaign was successful.

(Washington DC) – In a surprising move, Mike Johnson managed to tamp down a conservative rebellion and secured the support to remain speaker on the first ballot Friday, after two Republicans who initially opposed him flipped their votes.

After a long break, Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) switched their votes to Johnson after initially backing others for the top House job. (more)

There’s a good background article on some of the discussions HERE.  This is also a significant loss for the House Democrats and the left-wing of the UniParty apparatus.  A prolonged speaker battle would have been good for their interests; however, President Trump intercepted the issue quickly and pulled Mike Johnson over the line in order to keep momentum moving forward.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson appears with Larry Kudlow to discuss his contest for the House Speaker vote on Friday, as well as his perspective on the terrorist attack in his home state of Louisiana.

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This is nothing more than purposeful antagonism and a stick in the eye on his way out the door.  Team Joe Biden awarded former House Rep Liz Cheney with the Presidential Award for Outstanding Citizenship.

In the announcement, Biden highlighted Cheney’s role as chair and vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee, which concluded that Trump poses a danger to democracy. Biden also named Rep. Bernie Thompson (D-Miss.), who was chair of the House Jan. 6 committee, as a Presidential Citizens Award recipient. {LINK}

This is setting the stage for a level of vitriolic resistance to the 2024 election loss that even exceeds the level asserted in 2016.

Whoever is the architect behind this is digging deep into a very dark place for our nation.  The one thing I am certain of, is that as a country we need to be prepared for some very unAmerican activity in the next year or more.  The Marxist and Communist movements within our nation are going to counter the 2024 election result with every tool in their playbook.  This celebration of Liz Cheney is just a small sample.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced the U.S. debt ceiling is likely to be reached mid-January, while Joe Biden is still in office.  President Trump tells congress to deal with the issue now.

First, here’s Secretary Yellen:

WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department may need to take “extraordinary measures” by as early as Jan. 14 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers in a letter on Friday.

Yellen urged lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to act “to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

U.S. debt is expected to decrease by about $54 billion on Jan. 2 “due to a scheduled redemption of nonmarketable securities held by a federal trust fund associated with Medicare payments,” she added.

She said: “Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and January 23, at which time it will be necessary for Treasury to start taking extraordinary measures.”

Under a 2023 budget deal, Congress suspended the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury will be able to pay its bills for several more months, but Congress will have to address the issue at some point next year. (more)

The Biden spending is already baked into the proverbial cake. Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling limit and President Trump is urging them to do it now, before he takes office.

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The Silicon Valley immigration priority was not the topic I thought would explode and fracture the tenuous MAGA alignment with the New Big Tech group represented by Elon Musk and his billionaire network. However, we learn more every day.

This is a jaw-dropping moment to watch unfold as a very influential sector of the political discourse begins a full-frontal attack against those who are pointing out how the tech community abuse H1B visas to replace American workers. In the background, of course, is the context of widespread immigration policy fraud being one of the priorities for the average Trump supporter.

The Silicon Valley team do not seem to review discussion of the H1B manipulation/fraud within the larger American economy as a problem, as long as the discussion of the visa fraud does not impact their business models. However, as soon as the H1B abuse started to be framed around Silicon Valley’s participation therein, the New Big Tech group take a nuclear war approach to defending their interests.

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Having followed the immigration issue for a long time, yet specifically only having a big picture review of the H1B visa issues, it has been astounding to watch how Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, David Sacks and the Silicon Valley supporters and influencers are responding to having the H1B visa fraud confronted.  The self-interest in their defense is just astronomical to watch unfold.

Empowered by what can only be reasonably defined as their perceived influence over President Trump, the new-era Tech team are quite forcefully telling the MAGA base of Trump-supporting American workers that their concerns, views and perspectives are irrelevant.

It appears that most of the explosive sentiments revolve around H1B visas in the tech sector issued to Indian workers specifically.  Apparently, the friendships, networks and teams attached to the sector of computer engineering carry with them an emotional component.  I guess that should not be a surprise considering this is essentially a peer-to-peer wagon circling, in defense of the H1B visa problems in the tech sector.

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Rand Paul is the newly appointed Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In this interview with Maria Bartiromo, Senator Rand Paul gives his perspective on the looming issue of the debt ceiling needing to be raised.

As Senator Paul outlines, extending and making the Trump tax cuts permanent is a priority. If the congressional spending bill, which will include the need to extend the debt ceiling, is attached to true structural reform on government (the mission of DOGE), then it makes the issue of the debt ceiling much easier to support. This is the legislative position of President Trump.

Additionally, Rand Paul expresses full support for each of the cabinet nominations put forth by President-elect Trump. Chairman Paul will control the nomination process for Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and OMB Director Russell Vaught, and promises quick committee work on those nominations. WATCH:

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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich discusses the House spending bill last week and the eventual outcome.  Much of Gingrich’s advice on the issues are very pragmatic and pertinent to the current status of the Republicans in the House.

Gingrich notes that President Trump’s legislative agenda is dependent on all of the Republicans getting on the same page and putting their differences aside when it comes time to vote.  WATCH:

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has faced the wrath of the professionally republican.  The Bush clan together with Democrats in the Lone Star state tried to take Paxton out of Texas politics with a ridiculous impeachment effort; supported by many Texas politicians including Chip Roy.  However, Paxton defeated the impeachment effort and is stronger than ever with the support of the base of the new republican party.

During a Q&A segment, Paxton was asked if he would present a primary challenge to Texas Senator John Cornyn. From his response in the segment below, it would appear that AG Paxton is favorable to doing it.  WATCH:

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Whoever President Trump endorses in that 2026 GOP primary, will be the next Senator from Texas.  That reality is a strong point of leverage over Cornyn carried by President Trump for the next 18 months.

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In a post on her Twitter account, Lara Trump has announced she is removing her name from consideration for the open Florida Senate seat, potentially created by a confirmation of Senator Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State.

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Due to his acceptable republican status, Marco Rubio is expected to be swiftly confirmed to his new post by his Senate colleagues. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis previously said Floridians are likely to know the name of their next senator by the beginning of January 2025.

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For those who walk the deep weeds of internecine politics, we notice there is an influential component of the Sea Island group still at work within the GOP.

The same Republican “conservatives” who voted to suspend the debt ceiling issue for Joe Biden (Chip Roy, Thomas Massie, Nancy Mace et al), refused to stop the issue of the debt ceiling from surfacing during the Donald Trump administration.

At a certain point we must accept there are elements within the republican apparatus who intend to disrupt President Trump even though they present a false face.

The short-term spending bill has punted the issues of government funding into March 2025. The package passed 366-34, with the support of 196 Democrats and 170 Republicans.

The good news is that most of the hidden non-spending aspects were removed in the much shorter CR extension. The provisions which shielded the administrative state, approximately 1,000 pages of self-interested regulation, were removed. However, the debt ceiling conflict will rise again and could potentially present a problem because they will be attached to future legislative negotiations on Trump policy.

The House “Freedom Caucus” is essentially the voice and mechanism for the Sea Island group to disrupt MAGA plans and President Trump’s economic priorities. The Debt Ceiling is their legislative weapon, a false front technical issue to hide the Freedom Caucus intent. They justify standing against Trump by saying “fiscal conservatism”; but in reality, their history shows their vitriol only extends outwardly when Trump is in office.

The Sea Island multinational and banking group (traditional GOP control elements) are the financial backers of these anti-Trump schemes. The origin of their corporate opposition comes from the way they make money, which is not in alignment with the policy of President Trump.

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