Trump Won't Sign Housing Bill Because Houses Don't Ban Married Women From Voting
Also Trump: 'No one gives a shit about housing.'
In a vanishingly rare moment of bipartisan agreement, both houses of Congress overwhelmingly passed a darn good housing bill this week, after months of negotiations. The “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” takes some significant steps to making housing more affordable, with provisions liked by both progressives and conservatives. It makes housing easier to finance, rewards cities for building more housing, and blocks Wall Street investors from buying up huge blocks of homes (thereby raising prices), a provision written and championed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and touted by Donald Trump as if it were his idea in his State of the Union address in January.
It even clears away some nasty red tape hated by both Republicans and hippie lib housing advocates, eliminating a dumb outdated rule that manufactured housing units be built on a steel frame and axles. People noticed long ago that “mobile homes” seldom go mobile again once they’re in place.
Warren worked with Republican Sen. Tim Scott (South Carolina) and House members from both parties to get the bill passed. Republicans, facing anger over high food and gas prices, were very excited to have something they could wave around and say they do so care about affordability.
Oh, you were wondering what “ROAD” means. It is short for “Return of the American Dream,” not to overstate its likely impact, which is in the “good first step” realm, but not quite a truly democratic remake of housing policy.
The White House even treated the passage of the bill as a big feather in Donald Trump’s cap, because he’d called for the curbs on institutional investors in the State of the Union address earlier this year. White House Propaganda Minister Karoline Leavitt touted plans for Trump to sign it Wednesday, calling it “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history.” Fox News trumpeted, “Trump scores major win as Congress passes housing crackdown on Wall Street investors.”
Just before noon in Washington, House Republican leaders, including Head Dipshit Mike Johnson, began holding a press conference in the Capitol to brag up what a great job they’d done, complete with a table with the presidential seal where Trump would sign the bill into law, if he could be corralled into sitting there. (He does have a tendency to wander away from signing ceremonies.)
But OOPSIES, Trump instead went on his cheap knockoff social media site to Hereby Declare that the signing ceremony would be “hereby cancelled until such a time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.” He also grumbled that it was “of minor importance,” and called it “The Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren centric housing bill,” because he is disgusting.
Oh, sure, in a really shitty midterm season for Republicans, a few incumbents could have pointed to the bill and said “Message: I care.” But why bother campaigning on some sort of “achievements” when Trump would far prefer limiting the electorate by making sure fewer people can vote? Especially those troublesome married women, who only vote for Republicans and Trump by a slim margin instead of a proper one?
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Asked by reporters whether he’d actually veto the bill instead of simply not signing it, Trump sidestepped the question entirely and explained he knows everything there is to know about housing anyway, and also he has no fucking idea what’s in the bill at all. Just lower interest rates and everything will be great! We don’t need Congress, apparently as long as Trump can order low interest forever. (And higher inflation, not that he understands the connection.)
TRUMP: I said I’m not signing the housing bill, I said I want to see what happens with SAVE. Look, the housing bill is, housing, I made billions of dollars with housing. I know housing better than anybody. It’s all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates, you’re gonna have all the housing you want. I don’t want to hurt people that own houses either. These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They become rich. I don’t want to hurt them either. You wanna do what’s good for everyone, get the interest rates down.
We will pause to note that despite the historically low interest rates of the past couple of decades, we do not in fact have all the housing we want.
Trump also fumed about that “stupid person” he appointed to head the Federal Reserve, whose name he seems to have forgotten. “Low interest rates will solve everything! Despite that, we’re doing very well on housing.”
Very well indeed. Earlier in the week, Trump reportedly told Johnson, “No one gives a shit about housing.” Obviously, it’s far less important than allowing Trump to rig elections so Republicans keep control of Congress and he won’t be impeached.
Regardless of whether Trump vetoes the bill or just sits on it, Congress will actually decide what happens next. The House passed the ROAD to Housing Act by a huge “veto-proof” bipartisan majority of 358-32, and the Senate passed it 85 to 5, so if Trump vetoes it, an override would be “easy,” as long as all those Republicans are willing to make Trump mad. Oh, we are funny today!
If Trump does nothing, the Constitution provides that the bill would still become law without Trump’s signature 10 days (not including Sundays) after its passage, as long as Congress remains in session. That would be Saturday, July 4. Republicans in the House could either stay in session, letting the bill become law, or they could help Trump sabotage the bill by voting to adjourn before the holiday.
Mike Johnson claimed Wednesday that there’s nothing to worry about, because “The president, when we go through the details of the bill, he’s going to understand that it’s a good product.” And if there’s one thing we all know about Trump, it’s that he’s always persuade by sweet reason, and he’d never sabotage a small win by overreaching and demanding passage of his voter-suppression bill that simply doesn’t have the votes to pass.
Golly, what will Republicans decide to do?
[Bipartisan Policy Center / WaPo (gift link) / NBC News / AP / WaPo (gift link)]
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I really can't emphasize how much I hate this asshole.
The 37-page ruling marks a major win for voters before the midterms. It halts the U.S. Postal Service from refusing to deliver mail ballots unless states hand over their voter lists to the Trump administration.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/judge-blocks-trump-mail-voting-executive-order/