#BackToSchool With all the investigations & talk about Congressional Committees, it’s important to review some history & understand the impact CC’s have had in the past? Why is it so much harder to get accountability today? (Hint: Think elephant) open.lib.umn.edu/americangovern… 1/13
During the Progressive Era of the 1890s through 1920s, members could gain the attention of muckraking journalists by holding investigative
hearings to expose corruption in business and government. 3/13 #Corruption#accountability#Congress#TheBigLie
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Congress conducted an investigation of the stock market, targeting Wall Street once again. Newspapers were willing to devote much front-page ink to these hearings, as reports on the hearings increased newspaper readership. 4/13 #Congress
In 1950, Senator Kefauver held hearings investigating organized crime that drew 30 million television viewers at a time when the medium was new to American homes. 5/13 #accountability#Congress#Committees
The burglars had been directed by President Richard Nixon’s reelection committee to break into and wiretap the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building complex. 7/13 #accountability#investigation#TheBigLie
The Watergate hearings became a national television event as 319 hours of the hearings were broadcast and watched by 85 percent of American households. Gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings was broadcast on National Public Radio. 8/13 #accountability#Transparency#TheBigLie
The senators who conducted the investigation, esp Chairman Sam Ervin (D-NC) & Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), became household names. The hearings resulted in the conviction of several of Pres. Nixon’s aides for obstruction of justice & ultimately led to Nixon’s resignation. 9/13
In 2002, the House Financial Services Committee held thirteen hearings to uncover how Enron Corporation was able to swindle investors and drive up electricity rates in California while its executives lived the high life. 10/13 #accountability#Congress#Hearings
Prior to the hearings, which made “Enron” a household word, there was little press coverage of Enron’s questionable operating procedures.11/13 #accountability#Transparency#CORRUPTION
Much of the important work in Congress is accomplished through committees. The fate of legislation—which bills will make it to the floor of the House and Senate—is determined in committees. 12/13 #ForThePeopleAct#Senate#House#Congress
Members seek committee assignments considering their desire to influence policy, exert influence & get reelected. Most committee work receives little, if any, media coverage. Investigative committees are the exception when they are covering hearings on high-profile matters. 13/13
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There are many of @HC_Richardson “Letters from An American” that should be highlighted. This one is of vital importance because it summarizes where we find ourselves today as we #resist those who mean to strip our rights, protections & freedom. open.substack.com/pub/heathercox…
1/23
According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, legislatures in at least ten states have set out to weaken federal child labor laws. 2/23 #PayAttentionAmerica#ChildLabor
In the first three months of 2023, legislators in IA,MN,MS,NE,OH & SD introduced bills to weaken the regulations that protect children in the workplace & in March, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law repealing restrictions for workers younger than 16. 3/23
STATEMENT from #WhiteHouse PLEASE read!>>Congressional Republicans have laid out their mega MAGA trickle-down economic plan clearly. Their economic plan will raise costs and make inflation worse. Their five part plan includes:
1/24 #BlueIn22#RepublicansAreHarmfulToAmericans
“GOP wants to push to extend Trump tax cuts… Republican lawmakers gear up to push 2017 tax law after midterm elections, despite potential impact on inflation.” Washington Post 10/17/22 #RepublicansAreTheProblem#VoteBlueIn2022
#Thread Below is a statement from Sarah Jaynes, a key advisor to the Winning Jobs Narrative project and the Executive Director of the Rural Democracy Initiative: 1/11 #RuralDemocracyInitiative
Voters in small cities and rural communities are working people, through and through. They believe in their communities and in this country, even when the country fails to prioritize them and rural economies struggle. 2/11 #RuralVoters#DemPriorities#WorkingAmerica
Some right wing leaders have tried to exploit the economic anxiety that many rural Americans justifiably feel.But the Biden Administration & current Congressional majority have taken action with the greatest investments in rural America in the last 50 years. 3/11 #DemPriorities
New York Times reported on how oil and gas lobbyists are plotting with Republicans in Congress to keep costs high by repealing billions of dollars in consumer energy electrification incentives that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act. 2/7
In 2019,Time Magazine ran this story by Olivia B. Waxman on the origins,meaning & implications of fascism. If millions of Americans support the 21st century version of this movement, they should definitely understand it. #Fascists#TrumpCult 1/38
When Benito Mussolini debuted the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, the precursor to his fascist party, on Mar. 23, 1919, in Milan, he wasn’t inventing the idea of violent authoritarianism. But he put a name on a new and terrible breed of it. #Fascism#TrumpCult 2/38
Under his leadership, squads of militants attacked,beat &killed fellow Italians;later, once he had become the authoritarian ruler of Italy,he oversaw brutality in Ethiopia,an alliance with Hitler & the persecution of Italy’s Jewish population and others, among other crimes. 3/38
Oops they’re doing it again. Republican members of Congress want to be seen as voting in lockstep with their party but they also want credit when the legislation crafted & passed by #Democrats pay huge dividends for their constituents. #WeSeeYou👀 1/20 #DemocratsDeliver
This article, from Jan. 20, 2022 By Steve Benen tells the story of the double-dealing, mealy-mouthed, two-faced, weaselly, yellow-bellied, two-timing, lying Republican swine. The article doesn’t use those words but draw your own conclusions. 2/20 msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/ncna…
“Around this time 12 years ago, as investments from Barack Obama's Recovery Act started reaching communities nationwide, Republicans who opposed the economic package started showing up at ribbon-cutting ceremonies.”3/20 #RepublicanHypocrisy