Archive for the ‘Jason Lewis’ Category
According to Katie Pavlich’s article, this is what prevented the Democrats from reaching agreement on the emergency stimulus bill:
According to a source close to the process on Capitol Hill, in order to move forward with any kind of relief package, Pelosi and her far-left Democrat caucus will demand the following be included:
- Publication of corporate pay statistics by race and race statistics for all corporate boards
- A bail out on all current debt at the Postal Service
- Required early voting
- Required same day voter registration
- Provisions on official time for union collective bargaining
- Full offset of airline emissions by 2025
- Publication and reporting of greenhouse gas statistics for individual flights
- Retirement plans for community newspaper employees
- Federal $15 minimum wage
- Permanent paid leave
- Study on climate change mitigation efforts
People are getting laid off and this is Nancy Pelosi’s priorities list? Seriously? That isn’t a priorities list. It’s a special interest’s wish list. The thought that Senate Democrats would put a hold emergency financial assistance hostage for these things is beyond unethical. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi should be thrown out of DC for that type of bad-faith negotiating. You know you’ve gone too far when Susan Collins gets this irate:
Roger Simon nailed it in this column:
But the Dems don’t seem to be listening, at least as of this writing, and remain determined to squeeze every molecule of advantage while the nation and its healthcare professionals suffer. They also risk fully tanking the U.S. economy and affecting the welfare of its citizens for years.
The economy is tanking? What do Democrats care? They want $15/hr. minimum wage nationwide. That isn’t all Democrats want. Democrats want “retirement plans for community newspaper employees”, too. Democrats want “paid permanent leave”, too. Democrats aren’t the party of the little guy anymore. They’re the party of the special interests. Blue collar workers can go to hell as far as the Democrats can go. Paul Wellstone and Hubert Humphrey are turning over in their graves this moment.
The American people shouldn’t give Democrats any levers of power for the next 30 years after pulling a stunt like that. Jason Lewis criticized Tina Smith’s votes this way:
Senator Tina Smith is gambling with thousands of Americans’ lives. It’s disgusting and it needs to stop today. At the direction of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Tina Smith has been voting to block the coronavirus relief package. Until families and small businesses across Minnesota are put back to work (which must happen as soon as possible), they continue to struggle to get by. But shockingly, obstructionist Senate Democrats are holding up relief based on carbon footprints? It’s egregious and every American should be outraged.
Minority Whip James Clyburn made the Democrats’ intentions perfectly clear when he called the relief package ‘a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.’ Senator Cory Booker said the bill should be used to ‘reform corporate culture.’ To Senate Democrats, this relief bill isn’t about helping Americans who suddenly find themselves struggling financially in the face of this virus. Instead, they see it as a political tool to push their radical agenda, including the Green New Deal.
Unlike these partisans in Congress, Minnesotans and Americans are united against one common enemy. Doctors and nurses on the front lines are risking their lives and manufacturers are retooling. They badly need our support. Tina Smith must immediately put aside the partisan politics and put the needs of the American people first.
Tina Smith, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats don’t give a damn about America. With the nation facing this crisis, the Democrats’ priority has been the Green New Deal. Are you seriously kidding me? Chuckie Schumer finds a microphone every 2 hours, then repeats the line ‘We’re getting close to a deal.’
The people whose lives are getting ruined by the Democrats’ obstruction don’t give a damn, Chuckie. We need a deal done yesterday. If you gave a damn about the people who make this nation great, you would’ve finished this deal. You don’t give a tinker’s damn. This November, you’ll give a damn when We The People throw Democrats out of office en masse from the House and Senate.
Years ago, I coined a phrase about Democrats. In that phrase, I said that “Democrats always do the right thing — when it’s the only option left.” That cliché rang true to me when I saw Jason Lewis’s statement calling on Tina Smith “to do right thing for a change and acquit President Trump.” There’s a better chance of the Devil handing out figure skates in Hell this weekend than there is of Tina Smith doing the right thing.
Don’t mistake what I’m saying. It’s important (and right) for Jason to call Tina Smith out on this. Several times this past week, she’s stood right behind Sen. Schumer at his press conferences. How appropriate for Sen. Schumer’s shill. Sen. Smith is Sen. Schumer’s shill. She’s never voted against Sen. Schumer on anything. Why think that she’ll suddenly do the right thing? That’s as foolish as thinking that you’ll be ok taunting a cobra with quick movements.
It’s just the nature of the beast that Democrats won’t do the right thing. Tina Smith is a creature of the Resistance. She doesn’t dare cross Resistance activists. The Resist Movement activists are absolutists and anarchists. Here’s Jason Lewis’s statement in full:
The question facing Minnesota’s voters is whether they way to waste their vote on a do-nothing placeholder Democrat or whether they’d prefer a get-big-things-done senator with a history of tackling problems while protecting our constitutional rights. I’ve watched Jason Lewis in action. From a policy standpoint, he’s a man of stature while Tina Smith is a lightweight who does as she’s told by Sen. Schumer.
Electing Jason Lewis would mean having a senator who is part of the majority getting important things done. Re-electing Tina Smith means having a senator who will be in the minority for the next term while getting nothing done. Jason Lewis already voted for the Trump-GOP tax cuts that’ve lifted the economy, made the US energy independent while rebuilding the military.
In her time in office, Tina Smith voted against highly qualified judges and justices, voted against energy independence and wasn’t impartial as she claimed:
“Even in the Clinton impeachment, which was a pretty partisan time, the Democrats and the Republicans came together to agree on rules that were bipartisan, nonpartisan, and that is not happening here, which I think is a detriment to the overall fairness of the trial,” Smith said.
It’s obvious that Tina Smith wasn’t impartial before the trial started. She voted for each one of Sen. Schumer’s amendments the first Tuesday night of the impeachment trial. Each of those amendments was designed to force vulnerable Republicans to cast difficult votes.
After that night of voting, there’s no question whether Tina Smith is a partisan hack. That night of voting was about tipping control of the Senate to a Democrat majority and nothing more. That isn’t the definition of “overall fairness.”
On a totally different front, Tina Smith apparently won’t stand with the hard-working people of the Iron Range. Apparently, she’d rather team with Betty McCollum in preventing prosperity on the Iron Range:
Friday night, I got TakeAction Minnesota’s weekly newsletter. The top item in TAM’s newsletter, predictably, was President Trump’s Thursday night rally. TAM wrote “Well, it’s Friday, and it’s been quite the week. Last night, President Trump visited Minneapolis. And, as expected, he used his platform to spread hate and division. Much of it was directed it toward our Somali friends and neighbors.”
Of course, that was only part of this DFL front group’s dishonest update. It continued, saying “But that’s not the entire story. Last night, tens of thousands of Minnesotans, including many of you, came together in the cold rain to affirm what we know: every person has inherent worth and dignity. No matter where they came from or what faith they practice. And no matter what President Trump says. Right now, we’re faced with a choice: Either we stand together with unbreakable solidarity across race, class, gender and geography, and rise up to meet the challenges we face. Or we allow hatred and cruelty to rule the day.”
Speaking of hatred and cruelty, here’s what the rioters did while the rally was just ending:
Then there’s this:
Breaking: outside Minneapolis Trump rally. Protestors lighting Maga hats on fire. Rushing police. Calling them pigs, etc. Escalating scene. pic.twitter.com/HxUFzs8OWF— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) October 11, 2019
It’s a safe bet that the rioters weren’t Trump supporters. I’d estimate the chances of the rioters being Democrats and Antifa to be north of 90%. If TakeAction Minnesota wants to talk about hatred and cruelty, they’d better look in the mirror first. TakeAction Minnesota is famous for pushing the envelope when it comes to on-the-ground activism. I wrote about TAM’s threats and intimidation in this post. TakeAction Minnesota went to Jason Lewis’s home:
But my neighbors saw 20, 25 people, nobody knows the real count, outside. Their daughters were home alone, got scared, called their dad. He called the police, which, by the way, in the suburb I live in, it’s a violation of a city ordinance to what, not to mention trespassing.
Rule #1 — Whatever the DFL accuses Republicans of doing is exactly what the DFL is doing. Rule #2 — Never forget Rule #1.
Check out this wrap-up of Thursday night’s violence. Spread these videos far and wide. Without visual proof, people won’t believe that the DFL has gotten this violent.
This article asks an important question for the Democrat presidential nominee and the DFL Senator. It’s an article about the Line 3 Pipeline project.
It starts by saying “MINNEAPOLIS — A divisive fight over the future of a crude-oil pipeline across Minnesota is pinning presidential candidates between environmentalists and trade unions in a 2020 battleground state, testing their campaign promises to ease away from fossil fuels.” Then it states something controversial, saying “Progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have condemned a Canadian company’s plan to replace its old and deteriorating Line 3 pipeline, which carries Canadian crude across the forests and wetlands of northern Minnesota and into northern Wisconsin. They’ve sided with environmental and tribal groups that have been trying to stop the project for years, arguing that the oil should stay in the ground. Other candidates, including home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchar and front-runner Joe Biden, have remained largely silent, mindful that such projects are viewed as job creators for some of the working-class voters they may need to win the state next year.”
I must take issue with this statement:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar and front-runner Joe Biden, have remained largely silent, mindful that such projects are viewed as job creators for some of the working-class voters they may need to win the state next year.
Oh really, Joe? Then what did you mean at this campaign event?
Ending fossil fuels necessarily requires being opposed to the Line 3 Pipeline project because the Line 3 Pipeline project carries fossil fuels. Democrats don’t want to admit that because Democrats want to appease both construction workers and environmental activists simultaneously. That’s impossible because those organizations fit together like oil and water. (Pardon the metaphor but I couldn’t resist.)
I’d also reject the notion that Sen. Klobuchar has stayed neutral, as this suggests:
Klobuchar has also avoided taking a position. She has said she wants to ensure a thorough environmental and scientific review to determine if the Line 3 project should move forward. Minnesota regulators signed off on the main environmental review last year, although an appeals court has ordered additional study on the potential impacts to the Lake Superior watershed. But she recently returned $5,600 in donations from an Enbridge project manager after a liberal watchdog group, the Public Accountability Initiative, revealed them.
Sen. Klobuchar knows that that’s BS. The Line 3 has already gone through the entire permitting process, including getting the approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The only step left is for the lawsuits to get settled. Enbridge played by the rules laid out by the legislature and signed by the governor.
Jason Lewis put things beautifully when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate:
When Republican Jason Lewis launched his U.S. Senate campaign at the Minnesota State Fair, the former congressman said he would focus on greater Minnesota — the mostly rural part outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul area — to make up for Democratic strength in the cities. He highlighted the 8th Congressional District, which covers northeastern Minnesota and has swung from blue to red. Lewis said Trump’s campaign is “dead serious about Minnesota,” and that he expects it to follow the same strategy.
“Greater Minnesota is turning red, deep red. I don’t know how a Democrat’s going to win the 8th District promising to give pink slips to every trade union member on the Iron Range, promising to stop Enbridge, to stop copper mining, to stop logging, to stop people from having jobs on the Iron Range,” Lewis said.
The DFL is almost ceding rural Minnesota legislative districts while becoming more and more metrocentric. If the DFL continues siding with environmental activists and against the construction unions, they won’t win many elections in rural Minnesota. The truth is that the DFL isn’t interested in farmers or laborers, aka the F-L in DFL.
If President Trump highlights the differences between the DFL’s broken promises to farmers and laborers vs. President Trump’s promises made and promises kept on the issue of slapping tariffs on China to prevent steel dumping, he’ll make Minnesota competitive again.
Tina Smith couldn’t be clearer about her position on taxes. If Tina Smith was queen for a day on taxes, Minnesota and the entire nation’s economy would screech to a standstill in a New York minute.
In an interview, Smith said “Jason Lewis supported the Republican tax bill that gave giant tax cuts to big corporations and the richest among us, and I wouldn’t have supported that.” Those “giant tax cuts to big corporations” have led to companies moving back from overseas. Had Democrats been in charge, they would’ve kept the corporate tax rates at 35%, which was making the United States uncompetitive with other countries.
This isn’t a fairness issue. It’s a competitiveness issue. President Obama’s policy focused on fairness. As a direct result of that, the Obama economy grew at a sluggish pace. If Tina Smith wants to defend anemic economic growth while the US economy is booming, that’s her option. It isn’t a particularly attractive option but it’s the Democrat’s option. Further, Minnesota Republicans defeated Gov. Walz on the tax issue because money was pouring at a stronger-than-expected clip.
Lewis didn’t waste time before going after Smith’s record on the environment, highlighting Smith’s opposition to the Line 3 Pipeline project. Lewis pointed out that over 80% of the jet fuel for Minneapolis International Airport airplanes. While Smith insists that she’s fighting against special interests, she’s in bed with Twin Cities-based special interests opposed to mining on the Range.
“Senator Smith has a record of working hard for the people of Minnesota, taking on powerful special interests and working across the aisle to get things done, whether it’s fighting to protect health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, standing up to the big drug companies to lower prescription drug prices or making sure young people have the skills they need to fill high-demand jobs,” Furlong said.
Right now, there are more job openings than there are people to fill those jobs. That means 3 things. The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act that Jason Lewis voted for is working. The deregulation that happened through the use of the Congressional Review Act has revived entire communities, especially in the Rust Belt states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Lewis voted for most, if not all, of the deregulation. Third, it means that Democrats were wrong to unanimously vote against the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act.
No Democrats in the House or Senate voted for the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. That means that Democrats were terribly wrong on economic policy. The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act took a barely-growing economy and kicked it into a higher gear virtually immediately. When Smith says that she wouldn’t have voted for the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, she’s telling Minnesotans that she would’ve voted against the policies that jump-started the economy.
Do we really want to vote for a senator that wouldn’t vote for prosperity-inducing policies? Do we really want to vote for a senator who is totally controlled by special interests that’ve stopped Iron Range prosperity, that have killed blue collar jobs and that would’ve stopped the US from becoming energy independent?
If killing jobs, undermining national security and preventing Iron Range prosperity are your highest priorities, then Tina Smith is your candidate. If you want prosperity, then voting for Jason Lewis is imperative.
It’s incredibly clear why Jason Lewis is running for Paul Wellstone’s former seat. According to his announcement address, we are at an inflection point in US history.
In his announcement, Lewis stated quite correctly that “Today we are at a crossroads in Minnesota and across this country not seen since the chaos and turmoil of the 1960s. Private property, religious liberty, due process, the pride of citizenship, the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, even Betsy Ross’s flag, are now seen as dispensable relics to a radical political movement that appears to be gaining steam in the corridors of power.”
In his announcement statement, Jason Lewis essentially said that he’s running do-nothing Senate Democrats, the Squad and against the entire Resist Movement. People who’ve assumed that today’s Democrats are just wrong on the issues but have debated the issues in good faith are kidding themselves. This isn’t to say that people who believe that are evil or something. It’s that that’s what Democrats like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, John Breaux and Hubert Humphrey did.
Today’s Democrats are centuries different than those Democrats. Al Franken wrote a book titled “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.” It’s categorized as satire. There isn’t anything in the book that proves that. Barack Obama had a phone and a pen. He didn’t give a rip about making deals with Republicans. Harry Reid was President Obama’s chief henchman. Reid prevented any bill that was passed by the Republican House from even getting a committee hearing.
Tina Smith is cut from the same cloth as Al Franken. I’ll stipulate that she doesn’t have Franken’s gruff mannerisms. Still, she’s just as close-minded and hyper-partisan as Franken. She voted against Justice Kavanaugh. She even announced that she wouldn’t vote for whoever President Trump picked before the pick was made.
Congressman Lewis isn’t afraid to debate issues. He thrives on those debates. Jason Lewis has an independent streak, too. He’s willing to break from Republicans on issues. Every newspaper in the state has pined for politicians who break from their parties on the pages of their newspapers. Now that Jason Lewis has announced his candidacy for the Senate, what are the odds that these two-faced newspapers will endorse Jason Lewis? I’d put it at almost zero percent.
Earlier, I spoke about the Resist Movement. More than AOC + 3, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the Resist Movement is the biggest impediment to getting things done in Washington, DC. Jason Lewis and President Trump are the perfect tag-team to trounce the Swamp, aka the Resist Movement. If we want to end gridlock in DC, a vote for Tina Smith is a wasted voted. She’s proven that she’ll do whatever Chuck Schumer tells her to do.
Tina Smith a typical Democrat. Tina’s got an independent streak that’s a quarter of an inch wide and a millimeter deep. Smith is the political equivalent of a Rambler. That isn’t what Minnesotans need. Minnesotans, especially blue collar Minnesotans and entrepreneurs, need a fighter who will fight smart fights. That describes Jason Lewis perfectly. He’s the political equivalent of a championship debater. That’s what Minnesotans need.
Finally, check out this announcement video:
The first thing that’s apparent is that Jason Lewis isn’t a cookie cutter politician. He’s a policymaker who isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo or expose the flimsiness of a politician’s argument.
That’s what Minnesota needs in the US Senate. God knows we’ve sent too many buffoons to DC since 2000. The list of Democrat buffoons include Al Franken, Mark Dayton and Tina Smith.
I had to pinch myself to be certain I’d read this article right. I wasn’t imagining things. Sure enough, it really opened by saying “Two of the largest trade unions in Minnesota are backing the reelection campaign of Republican representative Jason Lewis against a Democratic business executive. The carpenters’ union and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, both of which endorsed Hillary Clinton, will support the first-term congressman in the midterm elections in his rematch against former health care executive Angie Craig. Labor leaders praised Lewis’s record in Congress, highlighting his support for domestic energy development as well as his willingness to buck his political party. Lewis has supported Davis-Bacon, which favors union wage levels in federal projects despite the push in the conservative movement to abolish wage mandates.”
Here’s their explanation:
“In Jason’s time in Congress he has cast repeated votes in support of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and has led on the issue of changing school curriculum to encourage more people to look at careers in the construction industry,” carpenters’ spokesman Adam Duininck said in a release.
First, if the name Adam Duininck sounds familiar, it’s because he was Mark Dayton’s chair of the Met Council. Then there’s this:
“Jason Lewis has made an effort to get to know our Union, understand our issues, and has taken politically tough stances in support of good paying Union jobs,” George said in a statement. “We don’t always agree on every issue, but we know that when it comes to supporting our jobs, he has stood with us, and that is why we are standing with him.”
Lewis offered this reply:
“I’m working hard to make certain we get Enbridge so we get the Pine Bend refinery in the second district … the oil it needs to grow the economy,” Lewis said in the Oct. 21 debate. “My opponent says, ‘well Sierra Club won’t let me endorse that.'” Lewis pledged to continue advocating for local laborers in Congress. He said he will continue to focus on workforce training and revamping the apprenticeship system, one of the Trump administration’s priorities, “so labor groups are able to thrive with adequately trained laborers.”
“This nation was built on the backs of hardworking Minnesotans like those belonging to these two groups and it is important we support them with our policies in Washington,” he said in a statement. “I am proud to have supported them in my first-term in Congress and look forward to continuing to work on their behalf.”
This is a major victory for Lewis. This can’t help Angie Craig.
One of the things that Angie Craig criticizes Jason Lewis about is cutting the corporate tax rate. Like a good DFLer, John Croman wrote this article, saying “She said the historic tax overhaul signed into law by President Trump missed the mark. ‘I’m all for tax reform if it’s for middle class families and small businesses but Jason Lewis voted for a tax bill that put $2 trillion in additional debt on the backs of my children and was a tax giveaway to large corporations and the top one percent.'”
Let’s explain something to the mathematically- and economics-challenged, aka the DFL, especially Angie Craig. President Obama’s corporate tax hike triggered a mass exodus of US-based multinational corporations. Simply put, these multinational corporations left. While leftists like Angie Craig and President Obama flapped their gums about Warren Buffett’s secretary paying a higher tax rate than Buffett himself, companies left, causing economic growth to stagnate.
President Obama famously said that manufacturing jobs had left “and are never coming back”:
Jason Lewis helped pass the Republicans’ Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, which President Trump hastily signed right before Christmas, 2017. Suddenly, manufacturing jobs returned. The economy grew faster. Wages started rising.
Angie Craig sees what’s happening. Despite that, she wants to tear down the policies that’ve built the strongest economy in 50 years or more. People should ask Angie Craig why she’d want to wreck this high octane economy. I’d love hearing that answer.
Craig’s pat answer is to say that the best way to grow the economy is from the middle class outward. Obama said the same thing. The economy grew at a 1.9% rate per year during his administration. In 2 years under President Trump, the economy is growing at a 3+ percent clip. Consumer confidence and small business confidence are soaring like they never did under Obama.
If you want to return to the stagnant Obama economy, vote for Angie Craig. If you want to keep this high-octane Trump economy going, voting for Jason Lewis is imperative.
During their debate on KSTP, Angie Craig totally stepped in it. She brought up the fact that Jason Lewis voted with Republican leadership 96% of the time. During the KSTP debate, Jason turned that around on Angie Craig, saying “I was a lonely voice on breaking the budget caps. I’ve been willing to take on my party. I don’t know of one single issue where she can said ‘I disagree with Nancy Pelosi’, which she’s taking $30,000-$40,000 from, and whom she’ll vote for speaker for. I don’t know where you disagree there. I don’t know where you disagree with Democrats. Enlighten us.”
Angie Craig’s non-responsive response went like this:
Well, I’ll tell ya, one of the things that I’ve been disappointed in with Congressional Republicans has been on infrastructure investment. As I’ve travelled around the district, things like a new interchange at Elko-New Market, an additional lane on 35 near Lakeville. These are real issues that mayors and local officials talk to me about. I thought that this was the one area that we could agree on when President Trump ran that we could come to some agreement on, that we could push forward a $1,000,000,000,000 infrastructure bill but instead, congressional Republicans gave that $1,000,000,000,000 to large corporations that gave that money away to the top 5%.
I’m still waiting for a responsive response to Congressman Lewis’ question. I doubt that I’ll get it, though. DFL candidates don’t seem to be responsive to people. (More on that in another post.) Here’s the full video of the Lewis-Craig debate:
Why won’t Angie Craig enlighten us on where, or if, she disagrees with Nancy Pelosi or Democrats? Frankly, I’m betting that her unresponsive response says everything we need to know about her. I’m betting that she’s a lock-step, aka rubberstamp, Democrat. In the end, I’m betting that that’s Angie Craig’s Waterloo.
Saying that it was predictable that Rep. Jason Lewis was going to thrash Democrat Angie Craig in their Friday night debate on Almanac is understatement. Cathy Wurzer opened by asking Jason Lewis about Congress acting as a check “on the imperial presidency and I’m thinking that you might’ve been thinking that Hillary Clinton might be president. How’s Congress doing in its role as a check on President Trump?”
Jason replied “Well, you know, I think we did 16 CRAs taking back Article I power from the executive branch” before Eric Eskola asked “What are CRAs?” Jason then resumed, saying that CRAs are “the Congressional Review Act.” Jason then noted that those CRAs eliminated over $4,000,000,000 worth of regulations. Wurzer then said “It doesn’t really sound to some people like they’re a true check on President Trump as no one is standing up to him on things he might say.”
Jason jumped in and replied “Well, Cathy, I think we get confused between what gets said and substance. Now, if you’re talking about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which gives families in the Second District $3,000 back, I’m not going to stand up against that. I led the way in getting that done. If you’re talking about style, would I do the things that the President does? Probably not.”
That’s Jason Lewis’ opening shot against Angie Craig. It was crisp, filled with information and in a friendly, conversational tone. It was apparent that Jason felt relaxed and confident in that setting.
Whenever Angie Craig went on the offensive, Jason Lewis had a well-informed reply. When she tried attacking him on health care, Jason nailed her by highlighting the fact that she pushed for an exemption from the medical device tax for her company. While there’s no doubt that Democrats will be pleased with her performance, there’s equally little doubt as to who was the more informed, most adult candidate on stage.
While I don’t doubt that this will be a tight race, I still expect Jason Lewis to defeat Angie Craig. That’s because he constantly looked composed while she frequently looked flustered when he had substantive replies to her talking points.
