Still Teflon: The Trump Comeback No One’s Talking About

Former President Donald Trump now enjoys the highest favorability rating among the seven U.S. political leaders tracked in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average, marking a striking political transformation from where he was 15 months ago while leaving office.

Trump has a favorability rating of 45.8%, more than three points higher than President Joe Biden’s rating of 42.6%, according to the RCP average.

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Pelosi’s Husband Buys $2 Million in Tesla Shares as Democrats Push Green Energy Handouts

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband purchased 2,500 shares of Tesla stock amid Democrats’ push for increased green energy spending.

Paul Pelosi, the Democratic House leader’s millionaire husband, purchased the tranche of Tesla stock on Thursday, when the company’s share price reached about $872 per share by the end of day, according to congressional filings published Monday. Pelosi bought the shares, worth roughly $2.18 million at the time, at a strike price of $500 per share.

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Gov. Whitmer Vetoes $2.5 Billion in Tax Relief

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a GOP bill that aimed to provide $2.5 billion in tax breaks by dropping the personal income tax rate from 4.25% to 3.9%, saying it would blow a “hole” in her $74 billion budget.

“It would force tax hikes on families or deep and painful cuts to services, hurt our children’s ability to catch up in school, force layoffs of cops and firefighters, and kneecap our ability to keep fixing crumbling roads,” Whitmer wrote in her veto letter.

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Pelosi Evasive on Extending Individual Stock Trading Ban to Spouses of Lawmakers

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Democrats are weighing whether to extend an individual stock trading ban to spouses of lawmakers.

The Ban Conflicted Trading Act “prohibits a Member of Congress or certain congressional officers or employees from (1) purchasing or selling specified investments, (2) entering into a transaction that creates a net short position in a security, or (3) serving as an officer or member of any board of any for-profit entity.”

The legislation in its current form would not apply to the spouses of lawmakers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul has made headlines over the years with his millions of dollars in stock purchases, particularly with technology companies.

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Inspector General Opens Investigation into Allegations That U.S. Capitol Police Have Been Illegally Spying on GOP Lawmakers

The inspector general for the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) has opened a formal investigation into allegations that the law enforcement agency has been improperly spying on Republican members of Congress, their staff, and visitors to their offices, the Federalist reported on Tuesday.

Concerns that the USCP have overstepped their bounds have been simmering for months, with some Republican lawmakers alleging that the Capitol Police have been transformed into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “personal Praetorian Guard.”

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Republicans Staunchly Opposed to House Democrats’ China Bill, Potentially Delaying Its Passage

US Capitol Infrastructure

House Republicans are staunchly opposed to Democrats’ proposed bill to bolster American competitiveness against China, potentially complicating their goal of passing legislation by the beginning of March.

White House officials have said that passing the bill before President Joe Biden’s March 1 State of the Union is a top priority, but the House bill is a stark departure from the Senate’s legislation that sailed through on a bipartisan vote in June 2021. And while House Democrats can pass their version without Republican support if nearly all of them vote in favor, there is no guarantee that their bill would reach the 60 votes necessary to pass the Senate.

Further, any House-passed bill would likely head to a conference, where House and Senate leaders would privately meet in an attempt to work out their differences and compromise on a bill that can pass both chambers. Not only would that process require additional time, but Senate Republicans would have great leverage given the chamber’s 60-vote threshold.

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Commentary: Replacing the Irreplaceable Nancy Pelosi

President Joe Biden walks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as he departs the U.S. Capitol after addressing the House Democratic Caucus, Thursday, October 28, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Last week there was quite a lot of news media chatter about swapping Hillary Clinton for Joe Biden on the 2024 Democrat presidential ticket, a fascinating concept that pundits couldn’t stop talking about. It didn’t receive nearly the headlines, but whispers involving the impending retirement of Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and her eventual replacement — have also begun in earnest.

Of course, there’s been no formal announcement that she’s leaving — either from the Speaker herself or the poohbahs at Democrat National Committee headquarters. But like all worst kept secrets, everyone with a brain and some knowledge of American politics understands that Pelosi shares characteristics with a ticking time bomb set to go off later this year.

With the prospects for Democrats holding the majority after this year’s federal midterm elections growing dimmer by the day, folks have initiated a political death watch for the soon-to-be 82-year-old gavel bearer. A large number of veteran party incumbents have officially indicated they’re heading for the exits after this session concludes. Combined with redistricting changes (after the 2020 census) and a basketful of “moderate” (they’re really not balanced, but that’s how the media refers to them) Democrats facing fierce headwinds in their swing districts, and the numbers bloodbath could/should be scary.

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Antifa-Linked Organizers Hosted a ‘Candlelight Vigil’ for January 6 Anniversary

Woman holding a candle in the dark

Democrats commemorated the January 6 riots with the help of far-left, antifa-linked agitators who planned to disrupt former President Trump’s inauguration in 2021 had he won the election, counterterrorism expert Kyle Shideler reported on Twitter.

A group called Movement Catalyst, led by longtime direct action community organizer Liz Butler, is organizing the Democrats’ “Candle Light Vigil for Democracy” Thursday afternoon, according to WUSA.com.

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Tea Party Patriots Action Calls on McCarthy to Strip Cheney, Kinzinger of Conference Memberships

Tea Party Patriots Action — the political action arm of the populist conservative movement that sprang up in 2009 — is calling upon House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to strip GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of their conference memberships.

“As members of the January 6 committee, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have become willing agents of Speaker Pelosi’s war on President Trump, Trump administration officials and Trump supporters,” says Jenny Beth Martin, an honorary chairperson for the group and an early member of the grassroots Tea Party movement.

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Pelosi Plans to Run Again, Stay on as Democratic Leader, Despite Earlier Promise, Report

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly will continue on in her capacity as the chamber’s top Democrat after she turns 82 this year.

Pelosi will file and run for reelection in her northern California district next year (her 18th term) and is considering whether to stay in leadership, despite an initial promise to give up her role as top House Democrat, CNN reported over the weekend.

Pelosi will primarily spend the next year raising money for Democrats as they attempt to hold onto their narrow majority in the lower chamber.

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Mark Meadows Will Sue Pelosi and January 6 Committee

Mark Meadows, former chief of staff for President Donald Trump, is suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

After choosing not to cooperate with the Jan. 6 investigatory panel, the former North Carolina congressman will likely face contempt charges.

Court records show Meadows will file a civil complaint against the legislators, the Hill reported on Wednesday.

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Law Professor John Eastman on Steve Bannon’s War Room Explains Why Pelosi’s January 6 Select Committee is Not Legitimate

  Stephen K. Bannon welcomed Conservative attorney, legal scholar, and professor of law John Eastman on Monday’s War Room: Pandemic to explain his attorney’s letter to Congress citing the illegitimacy of his subpoena regarding the January 6 committee hearings. Bannon: I’m going to start with John Eastman. God do I love this guy. John Eastman, Raheem Kassam, and the great team over at the National pulse have a story. Because I never talk about this stuff because I’m focused on destroying brick by brick this radical regime that is the Biden administration and proud of it. So suck on that Democrats. Embrace the suck. But there is a huge story up here about your lawyer and something destroying the January 6 subpoenas. Can you walk us through here what’s gone on here sir? I’m going to put it up on the screen in Denver and all of our platforms so people can see it in our live chat. John Eastman, the floor is all yours. Eastman: I love that headline. John Eastman’s Lawyers Just Destroyed the January 6 Committee and its Subpoenas. Look, what we discovered looking into this, and I should say that I like you were subpoenaed to…

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House Democrats Censure Arizona Rep. Gosar over Tweeting Cartoon Parody, Remove Him from Committee Posts

The House of Representatives narrowly voted 223-207 to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-04-AZ) and remove him from his committee posts for tweeting an animated video showing his head on the body of an anime character stabbing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14-NY) and lunging with a knife at President Joe Biden. Twitter did not take the video down, merely labeling it “hateful content” and stating that it was in the public’s interest for it to remain.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-23-CA) denounced the action before the vote. “It’s an old definition of abuse of power: rules for thee, but not for me. That’s exactly what’s happening here today,” he said. “House Democrats are preparing once again to break another precedent of the United States House of Representatives.”

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U.S. Rep. Cammack: Biden Administration Won’t Give Flight Info on Illegal Immigrants Being Flown into Florida

Kat Cammack

The Biden administration won’t give members of Congress access to flight manifests of illegal immigrants flown into states from the southern border, Florida Rep. Kat Cammack says.

Those entering the U.S. illegally, violating federal law, are instead being flown into the interior by the U.S. government paid for by taxpayers, a “slap in the face” to all Americans, she says.

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Commentary: ‘Unprecedented’ Capitol Protest Sets New Precedents

Capitol protest

Unprecedented: It is the word most often applied to the events at the Capitol on January 6.

In his remarks that afternoon, as the chaos was still ongoing, Joe Biden warned that “our democracy is under unprecedented attack.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Attorney General Merrick Garland, and leaders of both political parties also describe the four-hour mostly nonviolent disturbance at the Capitol complex as something without precedent. 

“On January 6, 2021, the world witnessed a violent and unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Vice President, Members of Congress, and the democratic process,” wrote Republican and Democratic senators in a joint committee report released earlier this year.

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Commentary: Virginia Conservatives – Don’t Let the Establishment Steal Your Election Victory!

Glenn Youngkin smiling next to a woman

While all the media and talking heads were atwitter over the statewide contests in Virginia last week, the real story and the real threat was on the local level.  When the dust settled, the GOP had gained 7 net seats in the Virginia Assembly, enough in theory to give them control of the House.  With control of the Virginia House of Delegates and through that the Committee Chairmen — coupled with the Governor and a very closely divided Senate and the tiebreaker being newly elected Republican Lt Governor Sears – the hope of repealing the radical agenda of the Democrats from the last two years would appear very possible.

But conservatives should not count their chickens before they are hatched.  You see, the vote in the Congress on Friday is a warning that all of us who want to see liberty installed in the Commonwealth need to heed.  While the Democrats were unable to push through their wasteful “infrastructure bill,” 13 RINOs came to their rescue.  Yes, 13 so-called Republicans voted with Nancy Pelosi and saved the Biden agenda item.

And, unless there is a mobilization now, this week, in Virginia, that same rotten, despicable tactic will be used to steal our majority in Virginia.

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Commentary: Americans Don’t Buy the Insurrection Narrative

Capitol Riot

Americans never bought House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “insurrection” narrative about the January 6 violence at the Capitol, and the majority believe the incident was not as serious as portrayed, according to a new pair of polls.

More Americans identify the mayhem as a “riot” or as “protests” rather than an “insurrection,” armed or otherwise, according to polls published in June and October.

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Commentary: America Gone Mad

After three weeks in Europe and extensive discussions with dozens of well-informed and highly placed individuals from most of the principal Western European countries, including leading members of the British government, I have the unpleasant duty of reporting complete incomprehension and incredulity at what Joe Biden and his collaborators encapsulate in the peppy but misleading phrase, “We’re back.”

As one eminent elected British government official put it, “They are not back in any conventional sense of that word. We have worked closely with the Americans for many decades and we have never seen such a shambles of incompetent administration, diplomatic incoherence, and complete military ineptitude as we have seen in these nine months. We were startled by Trump, but he clearly knew what he was doing, whatever we or anyone else thought about it. This is just a disintegration of the authority of a great nation for no apparent reason.”

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Texas Democrats: Biden’s Energy Policies Will Cost Jobs, Create Dependence on Foreign Oil

Henry Cuellar

Seven Democratic U.S. representatives have asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, to not target the oil and gas industry in the budget reconciliation bill before Congress.

Despite the concerns they and those in the industry have raised, Democrats in the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee pushed through a section of the bill, which includes billions of dollars in taxes, fines and fees on the oil and gas industry in the name of climate change.

Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., said the section of the bill that passed “invested in millions of American jobs” and put the U.S. “on a more stable long-term economic and environmental path.”

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Pelosi: ‘Yes,’ IRS ‘Tracking’ of Bank Accounts over $600 Still on Table as Opposition Grows

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., doubled down on the inclusion in a spending bill of a Democratic provision that would require banks to report to the IRS transactions for accounts holding over $600.

When asked Tuesday if the IRS monitoring would remain in Democrats’ proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation legislation, Pelosi emphatically said “yes.”

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House Approves Debt Ceiling Increase, Temporarily Delaying Nationwide Default

The House on Tuesday voted to lift the debt ceiling by $480 billion, temporarily averting widespread economic calamity after weeks of partisan gridlock and sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The House briefly interrupted its weeklong recess to pass a rule governing debate for three separate bills to which the ceiling raise was attached. It passed on a party-line vote given Republicans continuing opposition to lifting the ceiling.

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Says Washington Dysfunction Hurting Florida Transportation Projects

In a press release on Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis called attention to the impacts congressional inaction and dysfunction are beginning to have on transportation projects in Florida.

“Yet again, the delays in Washington are impacting the lives of Floridians,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “It is unacceptable that Congress or the Biden Administration would use highway construction as a bargaining chip and leave Florida taxpayers to foot the bill. This is even more proof that the Democrats in leadership don’t want to help people, they don’t want to get anything done, they just want to follow a political agenda.”

And DeSantis is not alone in his criticism.

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Commentary: Democrats Repeat the Mistakes of 2016

Donald Trump waving

As we get to the midpoint between the last presidential election and next year’s midterms, all political sides are expending extraordinary effort to ignore the 900-pound gorilla in the formerly smoke-filled room of American politics. This, of course, is Donald Trump.

The Democrats are still outwardly pretending Trump has gone and that his support has evaporated. They also pretend they can hobble him with vexatious litigation and, if necessary, destroy him again by raising the Trump-hate media smear campaign back to ear-splitting levels.

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Commentary: Biden’s Desperate Race to the Lying Bottom

On Monday, Joe Biden uncorked the largest lie of a 50-year political career overstuffed with them.

“My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars,” he tweeted. “Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes, and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America. And it adds zero dollars to the national debt.”

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Tennessee Representative Mark Green Sends Letter with over 100 Republicans to Speaker Nancy Pelosi Regarding IRS Data Collection Proposal

In an official press release Tuesday, Tennessee Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced that he and 100 Republican colleagues sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, expressing their frustration over a recent IRS data collection proposal to increase tax information reporting requirements on financial institutions.

The proposed measure would require financial institutions to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service on any bank account with a balance of more than $600. The Treasury Department says the proposal for extra data is being sought to target high earners who underreport their tax liabilities.

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Archbishop Slams Catholics Biden, Pelosi for Condemning Texas Abortion Law

Joe Biden, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and Nancy Pelosi

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone emphasized Sunday that Catholics have a duty to challenge pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny abortion providers’ requests to block Texas’ new law banning abortion after 6 weeks. Both Biden and Pelosi issued statements condemning the Supreme Court ruling and the Texas law and promising to take action to reverse the pro-life legislation.

“This summer, we provoked an uproar by discussing whether public officials who support abortion should receive the sacrament of the Eucharist,” Cordileone wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. “We were accused of inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of butting in where we didn’t belong.”

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Arizona School Officials Pushing Mask Mandate Caught Not Wearing Masks

Some Arizona school officials are in a feud with Governor Doug Ducey and the Arizona Legislature over implementing mandatory mask policies, but some of those officials have been caught not wearing masks themselves. Arizona Superintendent of Schools Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat, was spotted not wearing one along with others at a baby shower. Not a single person present had a mask on or was social distancing. Amphitheater Public Schools, which mandated masks on August 16, posted a photo of their Communications Director Michelle Valenzuela, posing without a mask on, clearly standing within a couple of feet of the photographer. They deleted the tweet.

Ducey is confident the school mask mandates will not hold up in court. He said earlier in August, “COVID has been with us for well over a year and a half now, and Arizonans are educated about it. If they want to wear masks, they should absolutely do so. It’s an individual choice. No one and no law anywhere in Arizona is stopping anyone from wearing masks. Ultimately, these mandates are toothless, unenforceable and will not hold up in court.”

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Democrats Advance $3.5 Trillion Budget Blueprint, Breaking Hours-Long Stalemate Between Pelosi, Moderates

The House Tuesday voted on a deal to adopt the framework for President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget and advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill after Democratic leadership and moderates broke an hours-long stalemate over how the two would be prioritized in the coming weeks.

The deal, which passed 220-212 on a party-line vote, allows for the House to begin crafting its reconciliation bill and sets the infrastructure package up to pass the chamber on Sept. 27. It followed multiple Rules Committee hearings and hours of intraparty deliberations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team and a group of moderate Democrats who insisted on taking up the infrastructure bill first, directly opposed to both dozens of progressives and the speaker herself.

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Commentary: Afghanistan Reveals U.S. Choices Have Dangerously Narrowed

In the “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle has a lot to say about the activity of choice and its place in securing “eudaimonia,” that “good-spiritedness” that is synonymous with human fulfillment.

Choice is critical in the metabolism of virtue. But, Aristotle points out, it is possible for someone, through bad choices, to put himself in a situation from which choice cannot rescue him.

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Commentary: Reject Federal Takeover of Elections – Again

Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

That is exactly how Americans must feel as they learn that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is trying to ram through another bill orchestrating a federal takeover of elections, despite the previous failed attempt in the Senate.

The bill, H.R. 4, is expected to come up in the House of Representatives this week, and it is stunning in its breadth. In short, Pelosi would give broad, sweeping powers to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to rewrite every state and local election law in the country.

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Rep. Bob Good and Freedom Caucus Blast Infrastructure Bills and Democrats, Republicans, who Pass the Bills

Congressman Bob Good (R-Virginia-05) and other members of the House Freedom Caucus blasted infrastructure legislation in a press conference Monday afternoon. The representatives said the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in the Senate has only $100-$200 billion in real infrastructure, warning that other provisions in that bill and a larger $3.5 trillion package are ‘woke’, part of the Green New Deal, and would weaken the U.S.’ position against China.

“No matter how good some parts of the $1.2 trillion might be, a little sliver of it, we don’t have the money. The latest combined $5 trillion in spending will put us on a path to increase our national debt from the current $28 trillion to $45 trillion in ten years, all to fund, as others have said, amnesty for some 10-20 million illegal aliens in our country, to greatly expand and further bankrupt Medicare more quickly, to pass extreme environmental energy climate policies, a Green New Deal, all to transform us into a Marxist, socialist country,” Good said.

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Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Package in Jeopardy, with Pelosi Appearing Short on Votes

Nancy Pelosi

Washington Democrats’ efforts to pass their signature, $3.5 trillion spending package is in jeopardy of falling apart, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democrat-controlled chamber, does not appear to have the votes this week to advance the measure awaiting in the Senate.

The votes are set to be cast Monday and Tuesday, with House members returning for two days during their August recess to try to move forward the pending package.

Pelosi can afford to lose only three votes in the narrowly divided chamber. However, nine moderate Democrats have vowed to oppose the two voting measures until the House passes a roughly $1 trillion, bipartisan infrastructure spend package passed in the Senate before the recess.

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House Lawmakers Set to Square off with White House, Treasury Department over ‘Stifling’ Crypto Tax Plan

House lawmakers are set to return from recess Monday and will likely take up the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill the Senate passed last week — and with it, a controversial and last-minute cryptocurrency tax provision.

The bill contains a tax reporting mandate forcing cryptocurrency “brokers” to disclose gains and transactions to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as part of a scheme designed to help cover part of the infrastructure bill’s cost. However, the bill’s definition of “broker” has been criticized by the cryptocurrency community and pro-crypto lawmakers as vague, expansive and potentially unworkable, with many fearing it could stifle the industry and force crypto companies to collect personal information on their customers.

The provision defines a broker as “any person who is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person,” and forces brokers to report transactions to the IRS in a form similar to a 1099. This means brokers have to collect and report customer information such as names, addresses, and taxpayer identification numbers.

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Steve Bannon: GOP House Should Pick Donald Trump as Speaker for 100 Days After Sweep of 2022 Midterms

Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed political strategist Steve Bannon, who was the White House’s chief strategist during President Donald Trump’s administration, to the newsmaker line to discuss his new idea, announced on The War Room yesterday, regarding Trump being voted in as Speaker of the House.

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Michigan Congressional Delegation Mum on Van Drew’s Call for Biden, Harris, and Pelosi to Resign

Members of neither party in Michigan’s congressional delegation are yet weighing in on Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s (R-NJ) call for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) to resign in response to the Taliban’s retaking of Afghanistan.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday night, Van Drew castigated the White House in stark terms.

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Carey Set for Second Sprint of 2021 Special Election Even as 2022 Elections, Redistricting Loom

Mike Carey

GOP congressional candidate Mike Carey has jumped right back into campaign mode after besting 10 other candidates on August 3 in a three-month sprint to become the Republican nominee to keep Ohio’s 15th District red with nearly 37 percent of the vote.

The second sprint began the next day, as the November 2 special election to replace five-term Congressman Steve Stivers – and the possibility of May 2022 primary – loom, even as the boundaries of the conservative district covering all or parts of 12 counties could change the political landscape.

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Pelosi’s Office Silent Regarding Potential Vote on COVID Origin Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office would not say whether the House planned to take up a bipartisan bill that would declassify any information regarding the origin of COVID-19.

The bill, titled the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2021, passed the Senate through unanimous consent in May. It would require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify within 90 days “any and all information relating to the potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the coronavirus disease.”

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