<![CDATA[John Kennedy]]>

Congressional Republicans aim at Biden’s pistol brace rule

March 16, 2023 by Cam Edwards Leave a Comment

More than 40 GOP senators and House members are backing a Congressional Review Act resolution condemning the Biden administration’s new rules on pistol stabilizing braces, which are set to take effect at the end of May and risk turning millions of legal gun owners into criminals, at least on paper, if they don’t register their brace-equipped pistols as “short barreled rifles” under the National Firearms Act.

The CRA resolution and accompanying legislation to prevent federal funds from being used to enforce the rule is spearheaded by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS). Support for the resolution hasn’t crossed party lines, at least not yet, but it is bringing together the disparate wings of the Senate GOP, from Mitt Romney to Rand Paul.

“Millions of law-abiding Americans use pistol braces, and many of those Americans rely on braces because they are disabled. If Congress doesn’t correct the ATF’s misguided rule, countless law-abiding gunowners in Louisiana and other states will become criminals in the blink of an eye. The Biden administration’s assault on the Second Amendment isn’t going to stop unless we defend this fundamental liberty,” said Kennedy.
“The Biden administration’s war on every American’s fundamental right to bear arms is relentless and an offense to our founders. Congress must use every tool at its disposal to stop the Biden ATF from enacting this unconstitutional gun grab and creating its newly proposed anti-2nd Amendment gun registry. The Congressional Review Act is one of those important tools and I’m pleased to co-lead this effort with Senator Kennedy,” said Marshall.
“The Biden Administration’s recent stabilizing brace rule is blatant overreach of ATF’s rulemaking authority—adding burdensome regulations on law-abiding gun owners without actually doing anything to make our communities safer. The Administration should focus on cracking down on violent crime, not punishing law-abiding Americans,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dan Sullivan (R-Ohio), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also cosponsored the legislation.

The other senators who have signed on as co-sponsors are Sens. John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Rick Scott (R-FL), Jim Risch (R-ID), James Lankford (R-OK), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Steve Daines (R-MT), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Jerry Moran (R-KS).

Over on the House side, Rep. Andrew Clyde and Rep. Richard Hudson are leading the effort to undo the rule through congressional oversight and authority, and with Republicans in control they’re probably going to be more successful than their Senate counterparts. In order to get a bare majority in the Senate the GOP would have to not only be completely unified, but would need to bring at least three Democrats on board as well. Maybe Joe Manchin would join his Republican colleagues in opposing the stabilizing brace rule, and the nominally independent Angus King of Maine is another slim possibility, but beyond those two I can’t see any Democrat who would even want to buck Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden in order to protect the Second Amendment rights of responsible gun owners.

Still, as I said on today’s Bearing Arms Cam & Co, I’m very glad to see that the brace rule and ATF overreach is ongoing litigationgetting the attention of Republicans in Congress, and I hope that many of these same senators and representatives will support the against the rule that was filed earlier this year, including the suit brought by a coalition of 25 Republican attorneys general. With a divided Congress, the chance of a CRA being approved is pretty slim, but thankfully that’s not the only option available to remove the rule and the threat that it poses to legal gun owners before the rule takes effect at the end of May.

John Kennedy Has an Excellent Idea for What to Do With Joe Biden’s Gut-Busting Budget

March 12, 2023 by Bonchie Leave a Comment

Joe Biden released a new budget recently, and it’s absolutely gut-busting. With the topline total hitting an eye-watering $6.9 trillion, it would be the most expensive budget in American history, and it’s not even close. It’s so bad that it makes Barack Obama look conservative.

Luckily, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who is famous for his dry sense of humor, has the perfect solution for what to do with it.

Sen. John Kennedy: “The only way I know how to improve the President’s budget is with a shredder.”
pic.twitter.com/YnBKa6OqtJ
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 12, 2023

Hammer, meet nail. Biden’s budget would be an abject disaster, both from the standpoint of fiscal sanity and from a policy perspective as well. As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently pointed out, the president’s proposed budget mentions equity 63 times while mentioning climate 148 times. In other words, it’s a radical progressive extravaganza meant to restructure the entire nation around left-wing ideals. Given all the issues the nation is dealing with, does this seem like a good time to be reshaping it in the image of race hustlers and socialists?

Of course, there is the out-sized monetary aspect to consider as well. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the blowing out of spending under the guise of providing emergency relief, the United States spent around $5 trillion a year. Even at that lower number, deficits were at or near $1 trillion per year. Under Biden’s proposal, any future gains in tax revenue would be completely eaten up, and baseline deficits would hover around $1.5 trillion per year for the next ten years.

This can’t continue forever, and you’d think elected officials would at least hit the brakes, even if they aren’t willing to cut spending. But nope, Biden is content to just keep raising spending levels until we all end up eating nothing but beans and using leaves as toilet paper. Besides, the short-term effects are terrible as well. All this spending will undoubtedly push inflation, which has already sky-rocketed under the current administration, even higher. How does paying $10 for a dozen eggs sound?

I’ll end with this final thought. There’s something especially insidious about having a geriatric president who knows he’s not going to make it ten more years spending the rest of us and future generations into oblivion. So much for all that empathy the press claims Biden has. That’s one reason we should strive to have as few people over 75 in government as possible. There’s very little incentive to do the right thing when you know you won’t be around to suffer the consequences.