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Defund MAGA Congressional Districts

July 12, 2023
by Peter Feinman
The Battle of Lightweights for the future of the Republican Party (Image CNN)

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose. Republicans in general and MAGAs specifically are always in the attack mode. They are constantly advancing on all fronts legally and politically while Democrats are always in a defensive and reactive crouch clinging to the hope that some court will bail them out.

True, not all MAGA attacks prevail. They do not always win. But nothing deters them from trying again.

In this blog, I wish to address examples of how to bring a political gun to a political gun fight such that MAGAs will begin to think twice (or perhaps for the first time) before deploying some outrageous assault on the American public.

SUNSET LAWS

Sunset laws represent an effort by Senator Rick Scott (FL) to put a damper on federal spending. His hope was that once a cutoff date was established for federal legislation, the renewal process would fail for at least some legislation especially social legislation with a Republican majority. The result would be a reduction in government spending as well as a alleviating of the burden of federal rule on the American people. His Sunset Law proposition never saw the legislative light of day even within the Republic Party. Nonetheless it provided an opportunity for Democrats that they did not take.

Response: Agree to sunset law legislation only as it applies to the divorce states as designated by defrocked Marjorie Taylor Greene. These states then would become an example for the remaining states. The point is not whether such a proposal would come to pass or not but to respond to the Republican initiative on its own terms and put those states on the defensive.

SPENDING CUTS

At this point there are multiple spending bills which need to be passed separately to avoid a government shutdown. There are a number of Congressional representatives in the “Just say no, Always” camp. I do not know the exact number but there seem to be dozens if not over 40 members of Congress who always vote “No.” The issue then becomes the ability of this disciplined group to hold the Speaker hostage in a closely divided Congress. If the net result is a government shutdown do much the better from their perspective. This leaves the Speaker of the House desperate to find Democrats to help him pass the legislation.

Response: Call for the reduction in spending in the spending bills the Freedom Caucus always opposes but only for their Congressional districts. Without knowing the exact figures, this would mean cutback in spending of over 10% in the spending bills the Freedom Caucus routinely opposes. I leave it to others more knowledgeable than I am to calculate the exact amounts.

Such a reduction in spending creates a win-win situation. It’s not as precise as a scalpel but still it minimizes the collateral damage by focusing on the precise people who through their elected officials have signified their desire for reducing government spending. What would be the basis for objecting to the elimination of government spending that they are opposed to in the first place? In any event, it would provide Democrats with a great talking points and sound bites for the budget negotiations.

COLONIZATION    

Republicans have engaged in colonization efforts to strip Democrats of power. These efforts include:

1. removal of power from Governors by the state legislatures when the former is a Democrat and the latter has a Republican super majority
2. removal of state legislators from their position
3. gerrymandering electoral districts at both the state and federal level so the winners are disproportionately Republican
4. removal of judicial/police authority in Democratic majority cities and transferring power to Republican-controlled legislatures.

The big one here would be the removal of the Fulton County District Attorney and shutting down the indictment of the criminal loser who is their Lord and Savior, the Holy One, Blessed Be his Name.

Response: The best way to circumvent the power of the Republican colonization efforts is for the affected area(s) to declare its (their) independence. West Virginia originated when people declared their independence from the Commonwealth of Virginia over slavery during the last civil war. Imagine a national press conference of all the colonized areas in the Confederate states vowing to declare their independence in time for the 2024 elections. Wouldn’t that be a sight to behold?

TAKING CREDIT FOR BILLS YOU OPPOSED

Bringing home the bacon is a time honored tradition for elected officials. Generally it is assumed that the elected official actually acted to help bring home the bacon. For MAGAS, they are under no such restriction. They are quite capable of broadcasting their bringing home the bacon even under legislation which they opposed.

Response: Create a list of “bacon,” especially for infrastructure projects in the districts where MAGA representatives opposed the legislation. Then publicly ask each of those representatives if they want the federal government to provide such funding even though it is “socialism.”

MENTAL NECESSITIES

Suppose a candidate spoke incoherently. Suppose the messages of the same person also showed signs of stupidity. Now add ignorance and then some more ignorance. How many clips of that candidate as a stupid, ignorant, moron would you see on Foxhub? Actually quite a few. Such utterances seem to play well with the MAGA audience.

Commentators on other networks may poke holes in those comments but that is somewhat like preaching to the choir.

Response: How about a series of commercials on Foxhub asking if this person has the mental necessities to be president? Or a related question if the smartest person in the room is actually the dumbest person in the room? Or if the person who vowed to hire nothing but the best people, then why did he always choose crooks, liars, and traitors or people he would later denounce?

WITCH HUNT

How do MAGAs feel about a President who weaponized the Department of Justice? How do MAGAs feel about a President who weaponized the IRS? How come the witnesses against the LOSER in the multitude of trials against him are all or almost all Republicans? How come in all the trials the defendant never takes the stand in his own defense?

These are questions the MAGA audience should be forced to answer. These are questions the MAGA audience should know that whenever they are watching their favorite cable show or listening to their favorite radio show, they never know when these questions will be presented to them. Podcasts are a little more difficult to reach but other social media platforms may be more accessible. Think of what Russia did in 2016 and do the same in 2024 only against Trump instead of on his behalf. Just complaining about how a foreign government interfered in our election is not enough.

I offer these examples as just some of the ways Democrats could get into the arena with Bone Spur Boy rather than simply bringing a plastic spoon to a political gun fight and expecting to win.

Reduce Federal Spending in MAGA Congressional Districts

February 1, 2023
by Peter Feinman

 

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

Tea Party/Freedom Caucus/MAGAs want to reduce Federal government spending. Getting them to specify exactly where is a challenge.

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

The Biden challenge to them to “show me the budget” is a step in the right direction. Right now all they have are jargon, buzz words, and talking points that test well in MAGA focus groups and on Foxhub. They should be constantly pressed to identify specifically where the reductions would occur. Find the “waste; find the “fraud;” find the “fat” to cut.

The words of Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council and Shalanda Young, director White House Budget Office ring true: call on McCarthy to release the MAGA budget so it can be compared to a real world budget.  Show me the money!

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

It is possible to calculate how much each state sends to Washington compared to what it receives in return. In general, the Union states subsidize the Confederate states and urban states subsidize rural ones. The same analysis should be brought down to a congressional district level. Incumbents, even MAGA, love to brag about bringing home the bacon even if they opposed the legislation.

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.         

Once the numbers are known for how much MAGAs want to reduce the budget and how much the federal spending is in their individual district, then challenge the MAGAs to show what spending they want to cut in their own districts. Their decisions may vary from district to district but that’s fine. The people who shout the loudest about cutting spending and getting the Federal Government off the backs on the voters, will have the opportunity to how exactly where they would reduce spending in their own district.

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

Assuming the MAGAs refrain from specifying what they would cut in their own district, then hold town halls in the MAGA districts so the people who shout the loudest about cutting spending would show the country just how it is done. A related possibilities is to have the networks both mainstream and right wing conduct televised town halls so the nation could watch how the sausage is unmade. The example of Americans reducing spending in their own Congressional districts would be inspirational to other districts. See! It can be done! Look at how the districts of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and the other MAGA representatives showed how the budget could be balanced.

THE CONCORD COALITION

The Concord Coalition may be instructive in this exercise. According to its website:

The Concord Coalition is a nationwide, non-partisan, grassroots organization advocating generationally responsible fiscal policy. The Concord Coalition was founded in 1992 by the late former Senator Paul Tsongas (D-Mass.), former Senator Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Peter Peterson.

The Concord Coalition is dedicated to educating the public about the causes and consequences of large-and-growing federal budget deficits and national debt, the long-term challenges facing the economy and how to build a sound fiscal future for all generations. The Concord Coalition’s national field staff and volunteer Fiscal Lookouts cover the country, hosting lectures, facilitating interactive exercises, conducting classes, giving media interviews and briefing elected officials and their staffs.

The mission of this organization dovetails nicely with what the MAGAs claim they are trying to achieve. The Concord Coalition goes beyond the efforts of the MAGAs. The Coalition not only talks the talk, it walks the walk.

Budget Exercises

One of the most important sets of tools The Concord Coalition uses to highlight the importance of fiscal responsibility and the choices involved in being fiscally responsible is our interactive budget exercises. These exercises allow citizens at the grassroots level, whether as part of town hall meetings with their members of Congress or as students in the classroom, to learn in a group setting that takes advantage of the interactions with people of different generations or different ideological or political backgrounds.

We also have an experienced network of field staff around the country who lead these exercises in person and help volunteers and teachers learn how to facilitate the exercises themselves.

So it already is prepared to conduct workshops and town hall meetings on how to reduce spending and balance the budget. It has a proven tool or game that can be applied in each MAGA congressional district. The MAGA participants would be able to demonstrate to the country exactly how the reduced spending sausage is made.

Principles and Priorities

Principles & Priorities is an interactive exercise in which participants learn how difficult it is to balance the federal budget. Constituents working in groups of five to ten, review current tax and spending policies, suggest priorities for the future, and apply their personal principles throughout the exercise. 

What you’ll learn

The most popular exercise from this collection is “Principles and Priorities” which is designed to help groups learn about the competing pressures facing members of Congress in budgeting over the next 10 years. The participants gain exposure to current policy options that Congress often debates, while getting a sense of the political and time pressures that arise legislative sessions. Our “Debt Busters” exercise is a condensed version of “Principles and Priorities” designed for use in limited time sessions. And, we offer our “Penny Game” which can be used for elementary and high school students who want to learn the basics about where we get and spend our tax dollars.

What is Principles & Priorities?

Budget exercise

1-2 hour immersive course
Appropriate for business, community and college groups
Exercise for multiple groups of 4-10 people
Suitable for as few as 8 or as many as 200 people

Imagine if such workshops were held in the MAGA congressional districts throughout the land. The ratings would easily trump those of the January 6 House Select Committee exposing the insurrection attempt led by Donald Trump.

Every day between now and the June apocalypse, Joe Biden and the Democrats should be calling on the MAGAs to show the American people the money. That won’t happen because:

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

Perhaps they can learn from the example of Hunter Biden.