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Democratic Unionists: Two County Down councillors join party

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Two County Down unionist councillors have joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Alan Lewis has defected from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), while independent councillor, Henry Reilly, has also signed up.

DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, said it was a positive sign for the party in the Mournes.

Meanwhile, UUP leader Doug Beattie said that he was disappointed at losing a “much valued councillor and friend”.

Confirming the news, Sir Jeffrey said: “I am delighted to welcome Alan and Henry to the DUP.

“I have known Henry over many years and he has always been a dedicated representative, focused on delivering for the people of the Mournes, and dedicated to strengthening our place within the United Kingdom.”

Sir Jeffrey added: “Since his election in 2019 Alan has also been a fearless and hardworking representative, focused on uniting and strengthening unionism within South Down.”

On the leaving of the UUP councillor, Mr Beattie said: “I’m disappointed Alan Lewis has decided to leave the Ulster Unionist Party. He was a much valued councillor and friend, but that’s politics.

“We will look for a replacement to fight the Slieve Croob DEA in the forthcoming council elections, in the meantime we wish Alan well.”

South Down was once a problem for the DUP leadership and was often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

It was the constituency where the deep divisions within the party last year were played out with resignations and defections.

But following the election of Diane Forsythe to the assembly, the party appears to have united.

Now it is adding two new councillors – Alan Lewis from the Ulster Unionists and Henry Reilly, the independent councillor who has a track record for moving between parties having previously been a member of the Ulster Unionists, UK Independent Party (UKIP) and the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV).

The moves come just a week after Lisburn and Castlereagh councillor Simon Lee quit the Green party and joined the SDLP.

Both men are representatives on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

Mr Reilly, who has represented the Mournes area for more than two decades, said he has worked closely with DUP councillors in the last few years, particularly Glyn Hanna.

“I was pleased to offer Diane [Forsythe] my endorsement as a candidate for the assembly election in May and I have also welcomed the strong leadership offered by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and the DUP on the Northern Ireland Protocol,” he said.

“I look forward to being part of that strong DUP team, not just in South Down, but across Northern Ireland.”

In 2021, the councillor was convicted of assaulting a female police officer but the convictions were quashed later that year .

Mr Lewis said the people he represents on the council “want to see a greater unionist society”.

“The election of Diane Forsythe as MLA for South Down has reinvigorated unionism within this part of Northern Ireland, and she has already established herself as an energetic and positive representative within the constituency,” he said.

“There were more than 12,500 unionist votes cast at the last assembly election in South Down and I believe this can be further built upon through a strong DUP team which I am looking forward to being part of”.

Mr Lewis was elected to the local council in 2019.

Brian Kemp proposes giving $2 billion to Georgia taxpayers amid election contest with Democrat Stacey Abrams

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Trump says he’ll be ‘looking’ at whether to back Brian Kemp in Georgia

Former President Donald Trump doesn’t rule out backing political foe Brian Kemp in the Georgia gubernatorial race when asked by Fox News Digital.

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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is set to give nearly $2 billion back to taxpayers in the state amid his re-election contest with Democrat Stacey Abrams.

Kemp announced Thursday afternoon that Georgia has a budget surplus of $5 billion and said a bulk of the funds would be returned to taxpayers through various initiatives.

“I believe that isn’t the government’s money,” Kemp said at a news conference in the state Capitol, FOX 5 of Atlanta reported. “It’s yours and our job isn’t to spend it all just because we can.”

“We want to give you, the citizens, your money back, because it’s going to be more than we just need to spend on wasteful projects,” he added, noting the government would not benefit if it were to allocate the funds to state programs as it would not necessarily be in next year’s budget.

GEORGIA DEMOCRAT STACEY ABRAMS TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

  • Gov. Brian Kemp speaks to a crowd in Atlanta

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    Governor Brian Kemp, R-GA, speaks during an election night party on May 24th, 2022 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

  • Gov. Brian Kemp

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    Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Atlanta, USA, on June 6, 2022. (LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is one-time money,” Kemp continued. “If you build new government programs with one-time money, it’s not going to be there the next year and she’s not going to be able to pay for all the plans that she is putting out there without raising your taxes and that is a fact.”

STACEY ABRAMS DONOR, FOUNDATION PRESIDENT WANTS TO ‘ABOLISH THE POLICE’ AND PRISONS

In his proposal, about $1 billion of the surplus will be given back in income tax rebates, including $250 for single filers, $375 for heads of household with dependents, and $500 for joint filers, FOX 5 reported.

  • Stacey Abrams in Reynolds, Georgia

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    Stacey Abrams speaks during a campaign event in Reynolds, Georgia, on June 4, 2022. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

  • Stacey Abrams in Clayton, Georgia

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    Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in Clayton, Georgia on July 28, 2022. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Kemp said the other $1 billion would be given to property owners through a “Georgia Homeowner Rebate,” which would provide around $500 on average for those who regularly receive a homestead exemption.

“As home prices skyrocket across the country, local property tax bills here in Georgia are hitting homeowners especially hard,” Kemp said. “For families struggling to make ends meet, I know that higher bills in the mail can force cutting back on other household necessities. For young Georgians just getting settled into their first home or parents who are sending their kids off to college, unforeseen jumps in property values and local tax bills over the last year only add to the uncertain times that we are in.”

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Abrams, Kemps’ Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial election, called the budget surplus a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity and suggested a similar proposal last month. However, her proposal did not extend to all Georgians.

“I will use our once-in-a-generation surplus to solve foundational challenges, not buy election year goodwill,” Abrams said, via FOX 5.  “It’s why I have already proposed that we deliver stimulus checks to Georgians making $250,000 or less instead of paying off the property taxes of mansion owners and millionaires.”

The state legislature will have to approve any spending proposal before the money is given to taxpayers.

Support for Manchin-Schumer spending bill could be final blow for five most vulnerable House Democrats

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Fox News Flash top headlines for August 11

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The five House Democrats running for re-election in districts won by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election face a giant hurdle this week that raises doubts about whether they could survive facing off against their Republican challengers in the November midterm elections.

The House is set for a high-stakes vote Friday on a massive social spending and taxation bill, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, that many economists have said would have no actual impact on inflation, and instead add to the already sky-high national debt.

No Republicans are expected to vote for the bill, while Democrats need near complete unity, including members of the “Squad,” to pass the legislation.

Fox News Digital reached out to the five Democrats in the tightest re-election races, including Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and asked if they planned to support the legislation, or if they would be pushing for any changes to it. None of them responded .

DEMOCRATS PUSH AHEAD WITH MANCHIN-SCHUMER SPENDING BILL DESPITE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022.

The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Cartwright, however, announced his support for the legislation this week in a press release celebrating its passage in the Senate, and claiming it would reduce both inflation and the budget deficit.

“I applaud the Senate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and energy costs while fighting inflation, reducing the deficit, and making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share,” he wrote.

“This is the action the American people have been waiting for. Now that the Senate has taken action, the House will return to pass this landmark legislation – delivering for families and communities across Northeast Pennsylvania and the nation,” he later added.

VULNERABLE HOUSE DEMOCRAT SAYS HE WILL SUPPORT MANCHIN-SCHUMER SPENDING BILL, POINTING TO ITS LIKELY PASSAGE

Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., is seen in the U.S. Capitol before a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus on Monday, August 23, 2021.

Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., is seen in the U.S. Capitol before a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus on Monday, August 23, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Golden, the only House Democrat to vote against the more expansive Build Back Better bill last year, applauded aspects of the new bill, but told a local newspaper that he wasn’t yet sure how he would vote.

O’Halleran, Axne and Kaptur have yet to give any indication as to whether they will support the bill. Democrats can only afford to lose a handful of votes before the bill would fail.

Each of the five narrowly won their races in 2020, and with Congressional Democrats and President Biden hemorrhaging popularity with the American people, many are wondering if this vote on the bill could be the final nail in the coffin for any hopes these five have in keeping their seats.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is seen during a House Armed Services Committee hearing titled "Outside Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence Policy and Posture," in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, March 6, 2019.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is seen during a House Armed Services Committee hearing titled “Outside Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence Policy and Posture,” in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Republicans are poised to campaign on any Democratic politician who votes for the legislation, claiming the bill will add middle class tax hikes and blasting the funding to allow the IRS to hire 87,000 new employees in the next decade. Any vote for the bill will likely be used in campaign attack ads in the months leading up to the midterms.

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“Every Democrat who votes for this bill is kicking the middle class in the teeth with massive tax hikes and increased IRS harassment. It will cost them re-election,” said Torunn Sinclair, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Republicans only need to flip a handful of seats to regain control of the House.

Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.

Biden, Democrats try to redefine ‘recession,’ ‘women,’ and more

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Ronna McDaniel: Even Bernie said this won’t help inflation

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel slams the Biden administration’s massive spending bill and their failure to address inflation

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This week, the Consumer Price Index soared by 8.5 percent compared to last year as Americans continue to struggle to afford everyday items. Instead of acknowledging the inflation crisis and the impact it’s having on families nationwide, Joe Biden tried to claim that the numbers showed “zero” inflation. As Biden settles into a week-long beach vacation, he doesn’t care about what voters think: he cares about avoiding blame for the crises he created. In other words, he is lying, and it’s not the first time.

Remember how he and his administration described inflation as “temporary” and “transitory” even as skyrocketing prices kneecapped families and made essential goods almost unattainable? Obama-Biden administration economists warned that pumping needless trillions into the economy would have negative consequences, but for Joe Biden all that matters is trying to change the narrative for political gain.

Biden tried the same cheap sleight of hand with the gas crisis his policies created. Gas prices are close to $2 more per gallon than when Biden took office, and yet he had the audacity to claim Americans are “saving” money on gas. In fact, the average family has lost $1,500 due to higher energy prices since Biden took office.

Two weeks ago, new economic data clearly illustrated that America is experiencing a recession. Joe Biden seems to be the only person who disagrees. When asked that same day if we were experiencing a recession, Biden replied that “doesn’t sound like a recession to me” before walking away from the press.

BIDEN CHIEF OF STAFF GIVES ‘KUDOS’ TO NY TIMES REPORT CLAIMING BIDEN IS ‘RIGHT’ ON RECESSION

Let’s get something straight: a recession happens when we see two consecutive quarters of negative growth in our economy. Don’t believe me? Ask Biden’s own advisors, CNN, The Washington Post, PolitiFact, and USA Today – they’ll all tell you the same thing. Biden tried to re-write the definition of the word to cover for his own administration’s failure. The American people know that we’re in a recession. 72 percent of voters think the economy is “weak” and 64 percent say their financial situation is “getting worse.” Senate Democrats’ response? Passing a bill that will make inflation worse and raise your taxes.

Go back further to when Biden oversaw a deadly and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The American embassy was hurriedly evacuated, images of desperate  Afghans clinging to planes went viral, and hundreds of Americans were left behind. Thirteen brave U.S. service members died in a bombing that didn’t have to happen. Now, the brutal, repressive Taliban is running Afghanistan into the ground as a result of the Biden administration’s failure.

Any reasonable person would look at the facts and deem such a foreign policy debacle a failure. Biden called it an “extraordinary success.”

The Biden administration has also described mothers as “birthing people” and failed to label the ongoing disaster at our southern border as a crisis. News flash for Joe Biden and his administration: women are women, and four million illegal immigrants crossing the border since he took office is, in fact, a crisis.

That’s not even to mention the fact that since October, Border Patrol agents have apprehended 56 immigrants on the FBI’s terrorist watch list. Fentanyl – one of the deadliest drugs in the world – is also pouring across the open border and has become the leading cause of death for Americans age 18-45. Again, the facts are clear: this is a crisis. And once again, Joe Biden would rather play absurd word games than own up to the problems his policies have created.

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The American people deserve better than Biden’s failed leadership. We also deserve a mainstream media that holds Biden and his advisors accountable for blatantly going back on their previous statements. People like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese have already gone on the record agreeing to the definition of recession that Democrats are now frantically trying to rewrite. Most of the mainstream media refused to call out out that clear discrepancy — instead, the RNC did, and we will continue to do so as many in the media run cover for Biden’s policy failures.

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Above all, Americans deserve better than an arrogant president who thinks that he can explain away real-life problems by simply hoping that Americans fall for his cheap political spin. The classic novel 1984 by George Orwell warned of a totalitarian political movement that would tell voters to “reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.” As Biden and his cronies take a hatchet to the dictionary for their own political gain, we’re watching that disturbing scenario play out in real time. It’s more important than ever that we elect Republicans in November.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RONNA MCDANIEL

Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) is Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

House to vote on Inflation Reduction Act, preparing bill for Biden

by www.chron.com Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON – House Democrats on Friday are expected to approve a sweeping package to lower health-care costs, combat climate change, raise taxes on some large companies and reduce the deficit, sending the once-imperiled proposal to President Joe Biden’s desk.

With debate set to begin in the morning, and a vote on passage likely later in the afternoon, the chamber is on track to deliver for Democrats a major legislative victory – one that party lawmakers already have touted on the campaign trail in a bid to protect and expand their majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

“This is a fabulous bill we’re going to pass,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told The Washington Post in an interview Thursday before the vote. “It’s not anything that anybody, three months ago, would have said is a possibility. But it is, and we’ll have a good strong vote, send it to the president . . . and the clock will start ticking.”

The bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, includes the largest-ever single investment in combating climate change. Democrats say the roughly $370 billion burst in spending will allow the United States to lower emissions 40% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. The proposal also includes new programs to cap and lower seniors’ drug costs while sparing about 13 million low- and middle-income Americans from increases in their insurance premiums that otherwise would take effect next year.

“We’ve been fighting for decades – for decades – for the ability for the [government] to negotiate for lower prices,” Pelosi said, referring to the efforts to make seniors’ medicines more affordable.

“We cannot undervalue what this legislation does [over] what it does not do, and families will be very affected. The kitchen table issues are about the cost of health care.”

Democrats hope to fund the package through changes to tax laws, including a new minimum tax on some billion-dollar corporations that currently pay nothing to the federal government. They also seek taxes on companies that buy back their own stock, and money to help the Internal Revenue Service pursue tax cheats. Party lawmakers say the measures are enough to cover the costs of their bill and reduce the deficit by about $300 billion, though they have yet to furnish a final fiscal analysis.

Democrats need only band together in the House to overcome fierce and likely unanimous Republican opposition, having prevailed in a successful, party-line Senate vote on Sunday. The bill itself was forged in that chamber, after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered a long-elusive deal with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., last month.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the leader of the House Appropriations Committee, described the economic package ahead of the House vote as “historic legislation that really deals with issues that haven’t been dealt with for years.”

But House Republicans have sought to mount a stiff, united front against it anyway. They have attacked it as a tax increase on families, even though the bill does not raise individuals’ rates. And they have said it will worsen inflation while resulting in intrusive IRS audits, even though some of the money is focused on improving the agency’s well-known deficiencies.

Some Republicans have suggested they could weaponize the House’s procedural rules to slow the debate on Friday. GOP lawmakers did that in November, when Democrats considered their larger package known as the Build Back Better Act. While the House ultimately adopted the bill, the vote came after Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., seized on the speaking privileges afforded to party leaders – and held up the chamber floor for more than eight hours.

“Right now, we’re trying to defeat the bill,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House minority whip, in an interview before debate began. “If they vote for it, they know good and well it’s going to hurt low- and middle-income families.”

Reacting to the GOP opposition, Pelosi said the looming vote would offer Democrats a “big contrast” with their political foes entering this year’s midterm elections. She later added: “This is the path we’re on. The Republicans want to take us off this path.”

The House vote Friday marks the culmination of a long and winding debate that began last spring with the release of Biden’s blueprint, dubbed the “American Families Plan,” which marked the start of a broader Democratic effort to rewire the economy in the wake of the pandemic. The party’s proposal eventually would become known as the Build Back Better Act, borrowing from the president’s 2020 campaign slogan.

House Democrats adopted the roughly $2 trillion measure in November, despite months of warfare between the party’s own members. Liberals had sought a vast piece of spending legislation that greatly grew the role of government in Americans’ lives, while moderates urged more fiscal restraint. The tension at one point prompted Biden himself to intervene in October with a rare appearance on Capitol Hill, during which he urged unity around his economic agenda.

Yet their bill would never even see a vote in the Senate, where Manchin said last winter that he could not support spending so much given economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The moderate West Virginian’s opposition infuriated liberal lawmakers, who felt the party’s agenda – and in many ways its political prospects – had been hijacked by a single member who did not reflect the party’s broader views.

Even in its more scaled-back, renamed form, Democrats this week have hailed the Inflation Reduction Act as urgently needed and immediately beneficial to families in financial need. Pelosi said in the interview Thursday that she had emphasized to members that they should “respect the bill for what it does” rather than “make judgments about it for what it does not.”

The House speaker said the bill belonged to a longer line of recent legislative accomplishments, including the passage of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package last year, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law approved months later, and action to deliver new restrictions on guns approved after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May.

“There’s been a stranglehold of the gun industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the fossil fuel industry on Congress,” Pelosi said. “And right now, we have changed that dynamic. The leverage is now with the people’s interest, not the special interest.”