Based on actual (policy stances), how we defined left, right, and center never stays the same.

Plus as a nation of consensus builders, we have to be careful not to dive to the lowest common denominator.

Plus as a nation of consensus builders, we have to be careful not to dive to the lowest common denominator.

It sounds like a scene from a dystopian movie, but it was a real day in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, throngs of President Donald Trump’s supporters violently stormed the Capitol, incited by the president himself, with plans to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Mike Pence and others to stop them from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win. They smashed and stole federal property. They attacked police and journalists. They sent hundreds of lawmakers into hiding. Five people died. And the death toll could have been so, so much worse.

And yet, hours later, dozens of the same lawmakers who hid during the attempted coup returned to the House and Senate floors and voted just as Trump wanted them to: to overturn the election results in his favor, based on lies about widespread voter fraud.

There will be countless investigations into what happened that day and why it was so easy for white supremacist insurrectionists to break into the Capitol and potentially carry out a massacre. Why it took so long for federal law enforcement to respond. Who these domestic terrorists are and how their plan came together.

But one of the most egregious attacks on democracy happened in plain sight and requires no investigation: It was when these 147 Republican lawmakers cast their votes.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) introduced a resolution on Monday to expel those who had tried to overturn the election on the grounds that they violated the 14th Amendment.

Here are the names of every Republican senator and member of Congress who voted to sustain objections to certifying the electoral results in two states where Trump lost, Arizona and Pennsylvania, despite no evidence of fraud.


In the Senate:

Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)

Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.)

John Kennedy (R-La.)

Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.)

Roger Marshall (R-Kan.)

Rick Scott (R-Fla.)

Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)



In the House:

Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.)

Rick Allen (R-Ga.)

Jodey Arrington (R-Texas)

Brian Babin (R-Texas)

Jim Baird (R-Ind.)

Jim Banks (R-Ind.)

Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.)

Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)

Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.)

Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)

Dan Bishop (R-N.C.)

Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)

Mike Bost (R-Ill.)

Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)

Ted Budd (R-N.C.)

Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)

Michael Burgess (R-Texas)

Ken Calvert (R-Calif.)

Kat Cammack (R-Fla.)

Jerry Carl (R-Ala.)

Buddy Carter (R-Ga.)

John Carter (R-Texas)

Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.)

Steve Chabot (R-Ohio)

Ben Cline (R-Va.)

Michael Cloud (R-Texas)

Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.)

Tom Cole (R-Okla.)

Rick Crawford (R-Ark.)

Warren Davidson (R-Ohio)

Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.)

Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.)

Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)

Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.)

Neal Dunn (R-Fla.)

Ron Estes (R-Kan.)

Pat Fallon (R-Texas)

Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.)

Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.)

Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.)

Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.)

Scott Franklin (R-Fla.)

Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho)

Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

Mike Garcia (R-Calif.)

Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio)

Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.)

Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)

Bob Good (R-Va.)

Lance Gooden (R-Texas)

Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)

Garret Graves (R-La.)

Sam Graves (R-Mo.)

Mark Green (R-Tenn.)

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

Morgan Griffith (R-Va.)

Michael Guest (R-Miss.)

Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.)

Andy Harris (R-Md.)

Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.)

Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)

Kevin Hern (R-Okla.)

Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.)

Jody Hice (R-Ga.)

Clay Higgins (R-La.)

Richard Hudson (R-N.C.)

Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)

Ronny Jackson (R-Texas)

Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.)

Bill Johnson (R-Ohio)

Mike Johnson (R-La.)

Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)

John Joyce (R-Pa.)

Fred Keller (R-Pa.)

Mike Kelly (R-Pa.)

Trent Kelly (R-Miss.)

David Kustoff (R-Tenn.)

Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.)

Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.)

Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.)

Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.)

Billy Long (R-Mo.)

Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.)

Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)

Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.)

Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.)

Tracey Mann (R-Kan.)

Brian Mast (R-Fla.)

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

Lisa McClain (R-Mich.)

Daniel Meuser (R-Pa.)

Carol Miller (R-W.Va.)

Mary Miller (R-Ill.)

Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.)

Barry Moore (R-Ala.)

Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)

Greg Murphy (R-N.C.)

Troy Nehls (R-Texas)

Ralph Norman (R-S.C.)

Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)

Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.)

Burgess Owens (R-Utah)

Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.)

Gary Palmer (R-Ala.)

Greg Pence (R-Ind.)

Scott Perry (R-Pa.)

August Pfluger (R-Texas)

Bill Posey (R-Fla.)

Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.)

Tom Rice (R-S.C.)

Harold Rogers (R-Ky.)

Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)

John Rose (R-Tenn.)

Matthew Rosendale (R-Mont.)

David Rouzer (R-N.C.)

John Rutherford (R-Fla.)

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.)

David Schweikert (R-Ariz.)

Pete Sessions (R-Texas)

Adrian Smith (R-Neb.)

Jason Smith (R-Mo.)

Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.)

Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)

Gregory Steube (R-Fla.)

Chris Stewart (R-Utah)

Thomas Tiffany (R-Wis.)

Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.)

William Timmons (R-S.C.)

Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.)

Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas)

Tim Walberg (R-Mich.)

Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.)

Randy Weber (R-Texas)

Daniel Webster (R-Fla.)

Roger Williams (R-Texas)

Joe Wilson (R-S.C.)

Robert Wittman (R-Va.)

Ron Wright (R-Texas)

Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.)

After instituting a $1.5 trillion tax cut and signing off on a $675 billion budget for the Department of Defense, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the only way to lower the record-high federal deficit would be to cut entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

"It’s disappointing but it’s not a Republican problem," McConnell said of the deficit, which grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018. McConnell explained to Bloomberg that "it’s a bipartisan problem: Unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future." The deficit has increased 77 percent since McConnell became majority leader in 2015.

New Treasury Department analysis on Monday revealed that corporate tax cuts had a significant impact on the deficit this year. Federal revenue rose by 0.04 percent in 2018, a nearly 100 percent decrease last year’s 1.5 percent. In fiscal year 2018, tax receipts on corporate income fell to $205 billion from $297 billion in 2017.

Still, McConnell insisted that the change had nothing to do with a lack of revenue or increased spending and instead was due to entitlement and welfare programs. The debt, he said, was very “disturbing” and driven by “the three big entitlement programs that are very popular, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid...There’s been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs. Hopefully, at some point here, we’ll get serious about this.”

President Donald Trump promised to leave Medicare untouched on the campaign trail, but Republican leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Florida Senator Marco Rubio have long indicated their desire to cut entitlement programs to pay for their tax cuts.

"You have got to generate economic growth because growth generates revenue,” Rubio said at a Politico conference late last year. "But you also have to bring spending under control. And not discretionary spending. That isn’t the driver of our debt. The driver of our debt is the structure of Social Security and Medicare for future beneficiaries."

“We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” Speaker Ryan said on a conservative radio program around the same time.

Democrats, meanwhile, jumped on McConnell’s admission as proof that Republicans had long planned to cut entitlement spending to fund the tax cuts that largely benefit corporations and wealthy Americans. “The truth comes out! This was their deceptive plan all along,” said Representative Lois Frankel of Florida.

“When Republicans in Congress said their tax cuts to wealthy multinational corporations would pay for themselves, they lied,” wrote Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan on Twitter. “Now, they're going to try to come for hardworking people to foot the bill by slashing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. We can't let them.”

A recent Pew poll found that the majority of both Democrats and Republicans thought the rising federal deficit and cost of healthcare were major problems facing the U.S.-- something that Democrats are taking note of and will try to package into their midterm campaign platforms over the next three weeks.

“Every Republican Senate candidate is on the hook for Mitch McConnell’s plan to cut Medicare and Social Security. First it was jeopardizing pre-existing conditions coverage, then it was pursuing an age tax that would charge older Americans more for care, and now it’s targeting the benefits Americans have paid into,” wrote Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein in a statement. “This platform is disqualifying, and just like taking away coverage for pre-existing conditions, it's exactly what GOP candidates don't want to be talking about weeks before the election.”

I despise the language of calling these entitlement programs. People paid into these programs; they aren't something for nothing. Seniors and disabled folks use this $$ to pay rent and buy food and medicines (overpriced in the US), not go on junkets to Bali.