By Denny Gulino
THE WHITE HOUSE (MaceNews) – Thursday and stocks a record again, the USMCA passes the House on the way to the Senate next year, initial claims still elevated, members of Congress head for the airport and President Trump – preparing for a Mar a Lago vacation – is still impeached.
“I don’t feel like I’m being impeached,” Trump said in the afternoon, repeating his line from the Battle Creek rally last night, “because it’s a hoax, it’s a setup, it’s a horrible thing they did.”
Final vote on the USMCA was better than nine to one in favor, as the expected surge of bipartisanship bloomed, 384-41, close on the heels of Wednesday night’s bitter polarization. Voting “nay” were 38 Democrats, two Republicans and one independent. Both Trump and the Democratic leadership that pushed changes claim victory.
The U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade pact will be easily ratified in the Senate after the impeachment trial, whenever that happens. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi surprised her colleagues of both parties by holding up the transmission to the upper body of the two articles of impeachment and she has remained vague on when that will happen.
At about the very same time the USMCA was getting its bipartisan OK the Dow industrials close reached 28,376.96, a half point or 137.68 points higher, still another record and almost 22% higher for the year. The S&P has done better, up 28%. The Nasdaq has been leading the pack, gaining 36%. Sounds great – until you hear Greece’s Athex Composite is up 46%.
The next votes in the House and Senate will wait until January 7. The Senate finished 2019 by cleaning up the last of the appropriations bills necessary to get Trump’s signature on the budget that keeps the government from shutting down Friday at midnight.
What about initial jobless benefit claims? After last week’s 252,000 was dismissed as a seasonal adjustment fluke, this week’s came in at 234,000, still pretty high compared to the half-century lows enjoyed repeatedly since April. No one’s panicking yet, though flaky holiday seasonals will likely persist.
The House gained a new Republican Thursday, New Jersey’s Jeff Van Drew, welcomed into the party in an afternoon Oval Office visit. Now he’s facing three other Republicans in next year’s primary.
And the House is losing a Republican, conservative Freedom Caucus stalwart Mark Meadows who hinted he’s in for a Trump job, in the administration or campaign, as he becomes the 21st to bolt the GOP side this year. He was once touted to be White House chief of staff where there’s presently no vacancy.
Finally, seven Democratic presidential candidates “debate” Thursday night, without new entry Mike Bloomberg who gets to sidestep any friendly fire. He didn’t have enough contributions to qualify and with $54 billion, doesn’t need any.
With billionaires all over the place, a year like Washington’s 2019 seemed somehow, to an impartial observer, to have a gaping hole in it where humility used to live. So perhaps it’s fitting to close the legislative year by again quoting Abraham Lincoln, whose humble origins tempted Senate aristocrats to embarrass him when he showed up for his Inaugural Address.
“My father was the best shoemaker in the whole country,” Lincoln answered the jibe according to one version. “And I know I can never be as good a president as he was a shoemaker. He is still ahead of me.”
—
Contact this reporter: denny@macenews.com