The queen of coal country screws the retired minersFriday night was this Senate's last. When they adjourned-- actually it was around 6 Saturday morning-- it was for the last time. In January it will be a new Senate with 5 new Democrats-- Kamala Harris (CA), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Maggoe Hassan (NH) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and 2 new Republicans Todd Yoiung (IN) and John Kennedy (LA). There will be 2 more Democrats than there were this session and Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid will be replaced by the odious Wall Street-owned slimeball Chuck Schumer.The last roll call was to pass John Cornyn's bill "to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 1300 Victoria Street in Laredo, Texas, as the 'George P. Kazen Federal Building and United States Courthouse.'" Friday morning we explained how the importance of the bill is unrelated to a courthouse in Texas but was actually a vote to accept Paul Ryan's decision to do away with the "Buy American" provisions a crucial water infrastructure bill which the Senate had passed and President-elect had dishonestly claimed to have embraced. Progressives filibustered the bill but McConnell was able to shut down the filibuster 69-30, with many of the conservaDems joining the Republicans who could care less about the "Buy American" promises that were made to American workers. Sell-out Dems included all the usual suspects from Joe Donnelly (IN), Joe Manchin (WV), Tom Carper (DE), Jon Tester (MT), and DiFi (CA) to the two corporate whores from Virginia, Mark Warner and (awwww... were you fooled?) Tim Kaine. Progressives like Elizabeth Warren (MA), Bernie Sanders (VT), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Mazie Hirono (HI), Jeff Merkley (OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Barbara Boxer (CA), Ed Markey (MA), Sherrod Brown (OH) and Tom Udall (NM) kept fighting to the end.Friday night, McConnell shut down another filibuster, this one to temporarily fund the government. His cloture motion passed 61-38 and then the bill itself passed 63-36.The dispute was over another Republican attack against working families, this time, ironically, a dispute over healthcare benefits for retired miners. I say "ironically" because the people being victimized by the Republicans were the very ones who voted so overwhelmingly for Trump and other Republicans in last month;s elections. In the three top coal mining states, for example, Trump beat Clinton 489,371 (68.6%) to 188,794 (26.5%) in West Virginia, 1,202,971 (62.5%) to 628,854 (32.7% in Kentucky and 174,419 (68.2%) to 55,973 (21.9%) in Wyoming. It gets even worse when you look at just the biggest coal-producing counties:
• Campbell County, WY- 88% Trump, 7% Clinton• Marshall County, WV- 73% Trump, 22% Clinton• Boone County, WV- 75% Trump, 21% Clinton• Logan County, WV- 80% Trump, 17% Clinton• Pike County, KY- 80% Trump, 17% Clinton• Harlan County, KY- 85% Trump, 13% Clinton• Perry County, KY- Trump 77%, Clinton 20%
Each of these counties voted more for Trump-- some gigantically so-- than they did for Romney. Do you think any of them will realize it was Democrats who fought to save their health benefits? Joe Manchin (D-WV) led the battle and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) joined him, as did Rand Paul (R-KY) but the other big coal mining state senators know the coal miners will never find out how they voted and that it wouldn't matter even if they did. McConnell (R-KY), Barrasso (R-WY), Enzi (R-WY) and Toomey (R-PA) all get huge support from coal miners, but they laughed at their plight and voted, in effect, to cut cut their health benefits. Who stood up for the miners? Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Mazie Hirono, Ed Markey, Al Franken... a bunch of liberals whose states don't even produce coal but who are looking out for the miners themselves.After such a tough Friday night/Saturday morning, don't we all deserve a little hard-hitting analysis from Saturday Night Live? A fresh look at el Presidente-elect Señor Trumpanzee's Cabinet from Hell: