“Incoming!” That’s what we hear on TV and in movies when the military unit is about to get shelled. This article serves to warn Granite Staters of an impending NEW TAX if the House and the Corner Office fail to stop it. Mr Sylvia told a Florida radio show host that the Senate is a place where good House bills go to die. Last year, we learned that the Senate is also a place where bad House bills, like HB 1002, get rubber-stamped. But what about Senate bills?
When the election results were accepted, it was great to see the Senate improve from 14-10 to 16-8, making it a 2/3 Senate for victims of Common Core math. The House, not so much! JJ Valera calls the Senate “the country club,” and many pundits use the words “upper chamber” to pay homage to that body. However, our new senate is about to be just like the previous senate and it’s up to the House to put the kibosh on a new tax and the expansion of Big Government.
HB 1002, essentially a new tax known as the RTK tax, was put on the Senate Consent Calendar by Queen Sharon, the former Judiciary chair. What I didn’t completely understand at the time was what that meant, but I certainly know now, hence my sounding of the alarm. Senate HHS has a NEW TAX (presented as a “telecommunications surcharge”), known as SB 255 (establishing and developing crisis stabilization services), set to sneak through the upper chamber next Thursday, March 6th, circumventing a floor discussion as it’s cloaked in Consent status. I do NOT consent to this!
We’ve learned that no Senator will stick their neck out without peers committed to having their back. Any senator can remove an item from Consent status. Just ask former Rep Melissa Blasek if you want to learn more, but what about the 13 votes needed to kill the item? With SB 255, they’re just not there. All 8 Dems are certainly going to support it, and the three Rs in HHS are supporting it. There are plenty of Uniparty establishment RINOs in that body to easily cover two more votes needed if there’s a roll call, but the point is moot, as Judge Temple likes to rule, because there will be no removal from the Consent Calendar. Plan B is needed, which is killing it on “the other side of the wall.”
The best strategy for getting “the lower chamber” to be a good firewall against bad senate bills is to get the committee (in this case, HHS) to assign ITL status. That committee is 10-8 and has lots of good solid Rs, like the vice chair, the clerk, and several ordinary members with decent reputations. Still, all it takes is one rogue vote to tie the recommendation, which means no recommendation at all. Even worse would be more than one rogue vote joining the Dems to force the WRONG recommendation.
Critics (of me) might say that it’s a bit premature to send out this message, but I’m big into planning ahead. Keep in mind that many people are not, and such people might include people in the readers’ sphere of influence and lots of reps. Also, planting the seed early allows for more opportunities to follow up.
