I realize that technically it is closer to 9 weeks until election day and also I have not yet published my 10 weeks until 2026 midterm Elections (Part Two).
The reason is that I have severe writer’s block completing part two because it involves my nightmare scenarios about all the steps the Trumpsters will take to overturn the results of the midterms and to prevent the installation into office of the new Democratic majority. I don’t know exactly how that will end but it terrifies me. To put it mildly let’s imagine that Trumps efforts to prevent the realization of the midterm election results will look like January 6 (2021) on steroids.
This piece, however, is intended to discuss what should happen if the Democrats manage to take control of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. A little background:
The House of Representatives has primary responsibility for initiating a budget bill. Article I, Section 7, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other bills.
The House of Representatives has sole responsibility for impeachment proceedings. Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution gives the House the “sole Power of Impeachment”. As we as a nation learned during Trump’s two impeachments during his first term of office the House passes (what is essentially an indictment) an article(s) of impeachment laying out the formal charges by a majority vote and then the matter goes to the US Senate for a trial where a 2/3 majority is required to convict. This power to impeach applies to the president, vice president, and all civil officers of the United States (including federal judges and cabinet members).
The House of Representatives has joint authority (along with the Senate) to conduct investigations including the power to subpoena witnesses as long as the subject of the investigation relates to a valid subject for potential legislation.
The United States Senate has sole responsibility by a majority vote for confirmation of presidential nominations for the Federal Judiciary and presidential nominations for cabinet positions.
The United States Senate has joint responsibility for approving a budget bill once one has been initiated in the House of Representatives. Like any other bill this bill (if approved by a majority of both branches of Congress) must then be signed by the President to become law or must get a vote of 2/3 of both bodies to override the veto or the President if he refuses to sign the bill.
The United States Senate has joint authority (along with the House) to conduct investigations including the power to subpoena witnesses as long as the subject of the investigation relates to a valid subject for potential legislation.
With that background in mind, it will be obvious that if the Democrats win a majority of the US Senate, the President will lose his ability to win confirmation of any new Supreme Court Justices. This will provoke the first post-election critical issue. Justice Samuel Alito (76 years old born April 1, 1950) and Justice Clarence Thomas (78 years old born June 23, 1948) will have to decide very quickly whether to retire immediately and let the lame duck congress try to confirm a replacement before January 3, 2027 or risk being ultimately replaced by a Democratic President elected in November 2028. It will have to be a very quick retirement/appointment/confirmation process since there are only two months between election day and transition of the new congress on January 3. Spicing up that question will be the likelihood (my hope) that one of the first investigations initiated by either the House or the Senate will relate to the corruption of Justices Alito and Thomas. Both justices and their respective spouses (Martha-Ann Bomgardner aka Martha-Ann Alito and Virginia Thomas) as well as their known benefactors (too numerous to list here) are legitimate witnesses to be compelled to testify under oath (and subject to perjury risk) in public hearings.
My Hoped for Legislative Agenda for the 120th United States Congress:
- BUDGET: This will be a long process because it is something that eventually has to be decided by compromise with the President who has veto power, but also will involve the progressive wing of the Democrats in Congress whose votes will be needed to pass anything that the Republicans oppose. A starting point obviously will be restoration of most of the budgetary cuts imposed by Trumps initial big beautiful bill [sic] and strict limits on the use of any ICE funding and increased taxes on the wealthy in order to start to pay down the 40 trillion dollar national debt. For those of you wondering/interested, the term (sic) refers to an abbreviation of the Latin phrase sic erat scriptum, which means “thus it was written” and is used to show that the typo, spelling error, or bad grammar came from the person you are quoting, not from you.
- I expect there will also be debates inside the Democratic caucus about the defense authorization bill
- IMPEACHMENT: Everybody knows that Trump is set to be impeached for a third time by the next Democratic controlled Congress. The only real question will be the nature and number of counts. Sadly, I think that there will be new impeachable crimes committed by the President in the runup to the elections and his subsequent attempts to subvert the will of the voters in the two months before January 3. The House Judiciary Committee will be very busy indeed investigating the corruption and crimes of President Trump along with investigating the corruption and possible impeachment of Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Alito.
- INVESTIGATIONS: I am hoping that the US Senate creates a special investigation committee (similar to what was known in 1973 as the “Senate Watergate Committee”), to investigate the potential illegal and corrupt money acquisitions by the Trump family in the first two years of the second administration. All Trump family members specifically including Donald, Donald Jr, Eric, and Jared Kushner should be investigated in public hearings and ultimately subpoenaed to testify under penalty of perjury.
- LEGISLATION: Beyone the above and acknowledging that nothing that passes the House is likely to survive filibuster by the Republicans in the Senate or Presidential veto, I would hope that the House takes up important issues that will become the foundation for the Democrats 2028 campaign. examples include but obviously are not limited to A) Universal Health Care; B) Voting Rights Reform; C) Housing Initiatives (to rebuild the countries housing stock for low and middle income families) D) Strengthening and improving Social Security E) immigration reform and F) what is generically now known as the affordability crisis.
The less than two years (from January 3, 2027 until November 7, 2028) will fly through and quickly get consumed by the 2028 Presidential campaign. The new Democratic majority in Congress will have the opportunity (if it acts quickly) to help set the agenda for that campaign.
Thinking about that mythical Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”. We will certainly be living in interesting times.
Please feel free to write me with any comments and/or questions. Alan. adrchildlaw@hotmail.com